jankenbots/memory.md

memory — JANKENSTEIN

Durable memory for this project. Read at session start, update before session end. Date format: YYYY-MM-DD. Deep design detail lives in DESIGN.md (the full record carried over from the idea's plan.md); this file is the distilled decisions + live work.

Decisions & rationale

• Concept (locked). ~25-player friendslop build-brawl: teams build a janky physics robot from themed scrap; each teammate pilots one functional part (pillar #6 — "you build your control scheme, not a robot"); death → free-roaming ragdoll gremlin. 8 design pillars in DESIGN.md.
• Engine: Unity (2026-07-10). Decided after a 3-angle netcode/prior-art study. The physics-party genre is overwhelmingly Unity (Fall Guys, Gang Beasts, Human Fall Flat, PEAK, Lethal Company, Party Animals, Stumble Guys, Trailmakers, Besiege, Robocraft); the two UE physics-heavy titles both swapped UE physics for Bullet. An earlier Unreal-MCP-tooling edge was correctly overridden. The defining risk is networked physics at ~25-player scale — no shipped game occupies that quadrant.
• Control feel v0.1 — driving = symmetric (2026-07-10). Each locomotion part = one pilot applying literal force ("you are the left tread") — the only model that generalises to arbitrary scrap contraptions and the one that keeps pillar #6. Tread pilot verbs: snap-to-cruise throttle (both slam forward = easy straight; coordination lives in the in-between), lock-pivot (called-play turns), passive lean (nobody idle). Asymmetric (throttle/steer split) held as the fallback if the prototype groans.
• Weapons = three-body call-and-response (2026-07-10). A weapon pilot perturbs the drivers' world → turn simultaneous chaos into rhythm: wind-up telegraphs a brace, a braced bonus makes drive+strike a combo, weapon doubles as engine/counterweight. Generalises to 5 archetypes — Punch / Grinder / Grip (later tier) / Guard / Passive. The weapon mix is a build-time chaos dial (over-building self-punishes = pillar #6 made mechanical).
• Team size & lobby math (2026-07-10). Team 3–5 (3 = smallest full driver+driver+weapon triangle; 5 = coordination/budget ceiling); lobby ≥2 teams; sweet spot 5 teams of 5. Unequal sizes balanced by a flat build budget (small team = concentrated & nimble; big team = distributed & tippy → equal power, different character), reinforced by physics (bigness = top-heavy, self-limiting) + coordination tax; matchmaking buckets pre-made friend groups & prefers equal sizes, NPC-fills the rest. No living "roamer" — everyone is in the bot; off-bot = gremlins (dead) only. Style vote needs ≥3 teams (2-team lobbies use fight-result + spectator vote).
• Prototype netcode = Unity NGO + Relay, host-authoritative (2026-07-10). Chosen for the throwaway first prototype (free, first-party, friends join by code, no port-forwarding). This does NOT commit the final architecture — server-authoritative state sync vs Photon Quantum deterministic lockstep is still deferred until the game is proven fun.

Open questions / TODOs

• Build Milestone 1 — networked shared bot, each player one tread (see docs/prototype-plan.md). The immediate work.
• Create the Unity project on the Windows host + decide its version control (git-on-F:\ vs symlink into this repo).
• Stand up a Unity MCP server (CoplayDev/unity-mcp or IvanMurzak) host-side, WSL-bridged, so Claude can help drive the editor.
• Netcode architecture (deferred, the real risk) — dedicated server-authoritative state sync (Robocraft 2 blueprint) vs Photon Quantum lockstep (Stumble Guys precedent). Decide after the fun is proven + the 25-player physics spike. Netcode target ≈ 25–30 primary rigid bodies + gremlins/debris.
• The 25-player physics/netcode spike — two ~30-joint bots colliding at arena scale, ≥100 ms latency, min-spec. The make-or-break gate before scaling up.
• Remaining design questions (detail in DESIGN.md): build-coupling tightness, hidden per-player agenda, at-scale voting, part taxonomy, scavenge-contest rules, art style, progression (cosmetic-only), final name (working title JANKENSTEIN; alts BODGEBOTS / SCRAPYARD SCRUM / CLANKERS / RUSTBUCKETS / JALOPY WARS).

Session log

2026-07-10

• Promoted from ideas/jankenstein to a real project. Scaffolded the WSL-side project home (this repo): filled CLAUDE.md, seeded this memory.md from the idea's plan.md, carried the full design record over as DESIGN.md, added docs/prototype-plan.md. Idea folder archived to archive/ideas/jankenstein.
• Decided to build a basic networked prototype first (user wants to test the coordination feel with real friends — local split-screen won't capture the social/voice-chat core). Stack: Unity NGO + Relay, host-authoritative, throwaway netcode. Milestone 1 = one shared bot, each player one tread.

External references

• Full design record: DESIGN.md (this repo) — control feel v0.1, weapon archetypes, lobby math, tech direction, netcode prior art.
• Prototype build-plan: docs/prototype-plan.md.
• Wiki (orientation): http://192.168.1.249:6876/projects/jankenstein
• Idea-phase history: ~/claude/archive/ideas/jankenstein/ (original brainstorm plan.md + session logs).
• Netcode prior art (Rocket League GDC talk, Fall Guys/Robocraft/Stumble Guys case studies, Gaffer On Games) — cited in DESIGN.md → References.