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20-minute experience flow

This page describes the intended vertical-slice pacing. Treat timings as design targets, not production commitments.

Flow summary

Beat Target time Purpose
Opening rune / memory palace ruin 1-2 min Establish mystery, memory loss, and rune significance.
First pickup 1 min Teach carrying and collecting a rune.
First slot puzzle 2 min Teach placing runes and seeing environmental response.
Portable memory palace 1-2 min Introduce rune review without heavy UI.
First meaning puzzle 2 min Teach noun/verb meaning through comparison.
Square-slot puzzle 3 min Test ordering and spatial arrangement.
Transform sentence 2-3 min Introduce NOUN + VERB + NOUN.
Chained puzzle 3-4 min Require combined sentence structures.
Fire/environment reaction 2 min Show object-to-object reactions, not just direct player action.
Second memory palace ruin / title transition 1-2 min Close the slice with narrative escalation.

Intent

The slice should escalate from basic manipulation to language comprehension:

  1. The player learns they can move runes.
  2. The player learns runes change the world.
  3. The player learns runes have meanings.
  4. The player learns grammar changes relationships.
  5. The player sees the world react beyond a single direct target.

Production use

  • Use this as a pacing check for demo builds.
  • Do not treat every beat as required for every milestone.
  • If a beat is cut, preserve its learning function elsewhere.

Change history

  • 2026-05-08 — Gabriel Li — Added baseline change history section for weekly wiki maintenance.