Opening and First Hour

The first one to two hours are the most important part to get right, and they’re the scope of the first prototype.

Goals Decided

Never make the player watch a progress bar. Always have three or more things going on.
Never let the player sink themselves. Start generous enough that early mistakes (like building 15 drones) can’t stop them from setting up a base.
Don’t let the opening feel like an hour-long tutorial. Teach through discoveries, with dialogue over the action.
Fighting isn’t optional in the first hour, but killing is (shutting down works too). The first encounter is inevitable; its outcome depends on preparation.
Get the player into factory building quickly. They’ll be bored of pure scouting within a few minutes.
Players should feel the core optimization puzzle (“why is my Ferrite production unstable?”) before the first big tech unlock.

Minute 0: the crash Decided

A short story beat: the crash, and despair.
No aliens shown or mentioned. The spawn protection zone guarantees none within about 150 tiles.
The ship deploys one Scout Drone, one Harvester, one Engineering Crew.
The ship carries no Basalite, so the Crew has nothing to build until the first Depot is affordable (about 3:20). Until then only the Scout and Harvester are busy, which falls short of the “three or more things” goal above Open.
The Scout flies out-and-back missions (round trip, reaching 75 tiles out, can’t be shot down). Setting up a scout mission is how players learn to give instructions to buildings.
The Scout might wander far enough to see a hive. That triggers a fearful dialogue, but nothing can hurt the drone and nothing is noisy enough to provoke an attack yet.

Minutes 0–12: Tier 0 [Decided outline, Tentative timings]

First basic resource found → survival checklist. Usually Basalite, guaranteed within 15–20 tiles. The Harvester is sent to gather it.
First Depot (100 Basalite) at about 3:50. Its 3 slots make Harvesters (30 s each). This is the first big economic jump.
Fill in the checklist (Colite, Ferrite, Cuprite) with a story moment for each. Raw ores pile up, giving anticipation for refining.
Build silos and foundations, spread Harvesters across more patches, saturate nearby 2×2 footprints, push outward.
First alien sighting → Barracks, Sword Bots, stone walls.
Evolite found → sample brought to the ship → study starts (about 3 minutes).
Target at 12 minutes: about 5 meaningful buildings on a first playthrough, 10+ for an experienced player (not counting wall or foundation tiles).
Distant deposits make Harvesters painfully slow. That’s the pressure that makes players want logistics.

Around 12–15 minutes: Tier 1 opens Decided

The Evolite study completes. Story moment. The Tier 1 tree appears with Primitive Refining granted free.
The ship’s first repair (electrical systems) is shown with its requirements: the long-term goal is now in view.
The player builds a Basalite refinery that burns Colite and starts turning ores into iron and copper.

Tier 1 flow (roughly 15–60+ minutes) [Decided order, Tentative timings]

Refining: iron and copper; first fabricator; first ratio puzzles.
Logistics: trucks, outposts, remote Harvester depots. Solve distance.
Stationary Mining (expensive): drills multiply throughput, swamp the existing logistics, and make noise.
Defense (parallel at any point): gun turrets, reinforced walls, Gun Bots.
First real alien pressure. More industry means more noise, which draws a small group of creatures to the running machines (not the shelter). The player can shut down, defend, or fight. Kills reveal that the creatures carry Evolite; collecting drops opens a second Evolite source. Optionally attack a small hive and harvest its Live Evolite.
Restore ship electrical systems → Tier 2. End of the prototype.

Pacing reference (assistant’s first-hour sketch, earlier in the conversation; illustrative)

Time	Experience
0–5 min	Scout, choose where to build, start the crew
5–15 min	Gather and build depots; first Evolite study
15–25 min	Expand, discover aliens, simple defenses
25–40 min	First small attack, or a deliberate hive attack
40–60 min	Work toward the electrical repair; Tier 2

Teaching shutdown early Decided

Turning things off to calm aggro has to be learned early, not when the big drill arrives. Ordinary drills teach it in Tier 1, with the Doctor suggesting it at the right moment. Players are free to ignore the advice.