The Beggars Sect

Transitioned from design to implementation! Week 1 of the Core Engine plan focused on building the foundational infrastructure: TypeScript interfaces, state management, character creation, and basic CLI shell.

Created comprehensive type definitions covering all game systems: characters with stats and chi aspects, techniques with combo roles and mastery, combat state with ATB turn queue, items and inventory, and complete game state with story progress tracking.

Built a singleton GameStore for centralized state management with save/load functionality including checksum validation. The CharacterFactory creates Li Wei (player) and all 11 enemies from detailed templates—each enemy has full AI patterns, loot tables, dialogue, and phase triggers for bosses.

The CLI shell now shows a proper title screen with Chinese characters (丐帮：李伟的崛起), a functional menu system, new game initialization, and character stats display. TypeScript compiles cleanly and the game launches correctly.

Massive story overhaul that transformed a linear chapter structure into a fully non-linear narrative with meaningful player choice. Created STORY_STRUCTURE.md establishing the three-path alignment system: Blade (刃) for direct confrontation, Stream (流) for diplomacy and flexibility, Shadow (影) for stealth and investigation.

Built a complete tutorial Prologue (7 scenes, ~20-25 min) establishing Li Wei's amnesia and the mystery of his origins. Then overhauled all three chapters with 2 major choice points each, path-dependent routes, and unique content per path.

The finale now features three distinct endings—Destroyer, Reformer, and Wanderer—each with different Book 2 sequel hooks. The Hollow One boss fight varies based on your path: full combat (Blade), dialogue + reduced HP (Stream), or puzzle + stealth (Shadow).

Massive lore session that transformed The Beggars Sect from a simple RPG into a deep, interconnected world. Created an original chi cultivation system with eight aspects (Force, Flow, Precision, Burst, Armor, Sense, Will, and Inverse), inspired by Nen from Hunter x Hunter but with unique mechanics.

The core innovation is Inverse Chi (逆气)—chi that flows backward through 'garbage meridians' that standard testing can't detect. This creates the central conflict: Li Wei appears worthless to the Aptitude Array, but his inverse chi makes him potentially the most powerful cultivator in the Haven.

Built complete documentation for 12 martial arts sects (each inspired by real martial arts like Karate, Muay Thai, Boxing, BJJ, Tai Chi), a full timeline from the Ancient Era to Year 147, detailed character profiles with secrets, and deep artifact lore including the legendary Dog Beating Staff and its 36 techniques.

After analyzing the initial design documents, we realized the scope was too ambitious for a 12-week timeline. Today's session focused on ruthlessly cutting features to create an achievable MVP while maintaining the core vision.

Key decision: Reduce from 5 chapters to 3, cut environmental combat and the 4th stance to v1.5, and remove n8n in-game integration entirely. Instead, n8n will power a separate feedback collection system—a web form that stores player feedback and analytics in a database. This keeps the game focused while still showcasing automation capabilities.

Created a comprehensive 3,800-line MVP plan covering the scoped features, documentation split strategy (breaking massive docs into 4 focused files), feedback system architecture, and a realistic 12-week roadmap with weekly deliverables and decision points.

Added The Beggars Sect to genkaw.com's Lab section as an active project. The game now has visibility on the main site, and this dedicated dev log page provides detailed progress tracking.

Tonight marked the launch of The Beggars Sect project. Instead of jumping straight into coding, we took a design-first approach—spending the entire session creating comprehensive documentation before writing a single line of game code.

Created over 2,000 lines of design documentation covering the complete game vision, story arc, combat system, and technical approach. The game design document establishes Li Wei's journey, the Martial Arts Haven universe, and the philosophical approach: 'Discover, Don't Level' progression inspired by Age of Wushu and King of Kings 3.

The combat system design is particularly detailed—a 1,350-line specification for turn-based strategic combat with an ATB system (inspired by Final Fantasy X), stance mechanics, combo chains, and chi resource management. What makes this special is the integration with AI: procedural enemy variations, adaptive boss behavior, and dynamic difficulty all powered by Claude API.