6741 — Production

Weapons & Combat

Weapons are defensive, scarce, clumsy, and loud. They buy seconds — they do not solve encounters. There is one weapon — the bat — with a three-tier upgrade path, bound to a single horror rule: every upgrade makes you deadlier AND louder, brighter, and more hunted. Power always costs safety.

The Bat — three tiers

TIER 1 · SILVER

Silver

battered aluminium · the base

A dented metal bat, grip tape unwinding. Found, not given. Staggers — can’t reliably kill.

DMG

NOISE

LIGHT

RISK

Phase 1.5

TIER 2 · NAILED

Nailed

spikes & bent nails · it bites

Rusty nails hammered through the barrel. Causes bleed; heavier stagger — but snags and can stick mid-swing.

DMG

NOISE

LIGHT

RISK

Phase 2

TIER 3 · FIRE

Fire

oil-rag & flame · the last resort

Wrapped in burning rag. Adds burn-over-time — and throws light: it reveals you to the zombie & 6741, draws everything, burns out fast.

DMG

NOISE

LIGHT

RISK

Phase 2

The upgrade rule — power costs safety

Every tier up trades safety for force. Silver is quiet-ish and weak; Nailed hurts more but snags and makes you bleed the zombie (a blood trail it can follow); Fire is the most lethal and the most suicidal — a torch strapped to your hand that paints you for every threat in the house. The strongest weapon should be the scariest to hold.

Crafting the upgrades

Where: At the safe-room workbench only — committing to an upgrade means a trip back into the dark for parts.
Tier 2: Bat + a handful of nails scavenged from Storage. Permanent for the run.
Tier 3: Nailed bat + rag & fuel (kitchen) + a flame source. Light it on demand; fuel is finite.
Trade-off: You can’t un-light or un-nail mid-run. Choosing power is a one-way door.

Bat handling — all tiers

FP / TP view: FP: held heavy, low, two-handed, tip drifting with breath. TP: dragged at the side; teammates read “armed but scared.”
Swing: One slow heavy wind-up + commit. No combo. A full second of recovery you can’t cancel.
Hit / miss: Hit = stagger (kill only with the upgraded tiers, slowly). Miss = over-balance, longer recovery, loud whiff.

Stamina / cd: Each swing drains stamina; low stamina = louder breathing + shakier aim. ~1.2s cooldown.
Fear effect: Should not make players feel safe. Holding it lowers fear only slightly; the fire tier raises it.
MVP rec.: Keep all of it out of the first technical MVP. Add Silver after the core loop & reset work (Phase 1.5); upgrades in Phase 2 — before skinwalker.

Phase 2 — Throwing “Stars” (found scrap, not ninja fantasy)

Rusted star-shaped metal scrap — a broken fan blade, a ritual-looking object found in Storage. Framed as strange and wrong, never cool. Very limited quantity.

Use: A distraction / interrupt, not a weapon. Thrown to make noise elsewhere and briefly break a chase.
Damage: Negligible. Its value is the sound event it triggers, pulling the zombie off a teammate.
Balance: Must never become a main attack. Scarce, single-use, more panic-button than arsenal.

Combat Audio Rules

Loud attacks can attract the zombie or trigger director events.
Missing a swing makes noise; hitting a wall is a dangerous cue.
Repeated weapon use ramps director pressure.
Low stamina → louder breathing; fear → shakier handling.
Bob recovers from swings slightly faster; Joe avoids combat better than he fights; Billy is steadiest under fear.

Weapon Balance Rules

Weapons buy time; they do not win fights.
Throwables/ammo are strictly limited.
Swinging costs stamina; misses are punished.
Durability may come later; safe rooms are not weapon-farming zones.
The zombie remains a threat with a bat in hand.

Weapon SFX checklist

Bat pickup
Bat ready
Bat swing
Bat miss / whiff

Bat wall hit
Bat zombie hit
Bat dropped
Exertion grunt

Zombie stagger
Star: aim / throw / whoosh
Star: clink / bounce / hit
Inventory empty click

Asset Production List

Tagged by phase. MVP = required for first playable · P2 = phase two · NTH = nice-to-have.

Category	Asset	Phase
Characters	One readable placeholder survivor (Mixamo/Kenney base) + zombie mesh	MVP
	Joe / Billy / Bob distinct low-poly models + PhilBillyBob kitbash	P2
Animations	Idle · walk · run · interact · downed · revive · zombie walk · zombie attack	MVP
	Bat swing · barricade · sprint-burst · per-character fear flinches	P2
Environment	Modular room kit (wall/floor/ceiling/door/trim) + one grime atlas per theme	MVP
	Exterior: moon, treeline billboards, fog wall, yard	MVP
Props	Key A · Key B · medkit · exit door · flashlight · safe-room lantern · CRT TV	MVP
	Bat · throwing-star scrap · fuse box / phone / valve (minigame props)	P2
Textures	Wall · floor · ceiling · tile · wood · rust · mold · blood · dust decals (128–256px)	MVP
Audio	Footsteps (per surface) · breath · heartbeat · door creaks · zombie set · key/door/revive · 6741 presence · menu & chase beds	MVP
	Whisper library · false-cue set · weapon SFX · secret-ending music box	P2
UI	HUD (health/fear/keys/prompts/minimap) · CRT menu/lobby/select · chat · reset banner	MVP
Materials	Atlas/trim shared materials · vertex-lit material · emissive flicker material	MVP
Shaders / FX	PS1 post stack: dither · colour-quantize · affine wobble · depth fog · grain · vignette · low-res buffer	MVP
	Fear distortion · chromatic bleed · skinwalker de-resolve flicker	P2
	Wet surface specular · subtle screen-space scares · CRT curvature option	NTH

Placeholder Asset Guidance

Build the whole loop on free placeholders first. Custom art only after it’s fun. No license is assumed valid until verified and logged.

Characters / Anim

Kenney prototype figures, Mixamo base mesh + idle/walk/run/zombie anims. Recolour & rescale for readability.

Environment

Quaternius & Kenney modular kits, Poly Pizza props. Re-texture to the grime atlas.

Audio

Freesound & OpenGameArt for footsteps, creaks, drones, breath. Process heavily to unify.

License rule

Do not claim any license is safe until checked. Track every asset (source · creator · license · commercial · attribution) in docs/ASSET_LICENSES.md.

Style Summary

The whole bible compressed to rules you can pin above a desk.

10 Art Rules

Darkness first — light almost nothing.
Low-poly, low-res, point-filtered, always dirty.
Human but slightly wrong — never obvious monsters.
The frame is unreliable: dither, grain, wobble.
One memorable prop + one light colour per room.
Readability by silhouette and flashlight tint.
Bake light & AO into textures; one material per asset.
Red is only 6741, blood, and the copy.
Restraint, then rupture — spend scares rarely.
It should look dubbed off a worn-out tape.

10 Sound Rules

Silence is the loudest tool — use it.
Off-screen sound beats on-screen every time.
Footsteps, breath, heartbeat ARE the score.
Music is rare, tonal, and never melodic (until the secret ending).
Everything is positional; never collapse to mono.
Fear bends the mix: muffled, fast heart, false cues.
Chase cuts to dead silence the moment you’re safe.
The zombie’s sound IS its alarm — no extra sting.
6741 arrives under the mix before it’s seen.
Audio only starts after the first user click.

10 Things to Avoid

Photoreal or high-poly characters.
Clean, glossy, modern AAA UI.
Bright, readable-in-daylight scenes.
Saturated rainbow lighting & heavy bloom.
God-rays and true volumetric fog.
Jump-scare spam and constant stingers.
Orchestral “epic” horror score.
Weapons that make players feel powerful.
Decorating with the entity-red.
Anything that reads “polished” over “found.”

North Star

6741 is a house remembered wrong — dark, dirty, and almost human. Two people with one flashlight should be terrified by a creak in the next room. We win with darkness, silence, and sound, not gore or spectacle. Every surface is grimy, every model is low, every frame looks dubbed off a tape watched too many times. Keep it small, keep it scary, and never let it look polished. If the empty house isn’t frightening, nothing we add will be.