DRAFT of the CATBLASTER Player's Guide — the curated, player-facing cut of the canon, structured on the 12-section blueprint (catblaster-players-guide-design-reference). This is a navigational scaffold: solid canon is linked and its summaries quoted for orientation; everything still to be authored is marked in an AWAITING block so the gaps are visible, not hidden. The exhaustive database is the wiki (cb-wiki-portal); this is the guided tour through it.
New structural artifact, assembled 2026-07-07 for Irvine's end-of-week review. Placement (02-areas/catblaster/), scope, and the "player's-guide-as-curated-cut" framing await Alex's sign-off. Parked in ratification-queue. Remove pending-ratification on ratify.
Per the Articles of Engagement, Claude assembled structure only — section framing, navigation, and blank scaffolds. Every piece of world content below is either quoted from Alex-authored canon (with a link to the source note) or flagged AWAITING for a human to author. No lore, characters, or in-universe voice were generated here. The in-universe "dossier narrator" register the blueprint calls for is a human voice pass, staged as a placeholder in §1.
How to use this guide
- Legend: ✅ canon is solid and quoted below · ⚠️ canon is thin/stub · ❌ blank,
AWAITINGa human author. - Two surfaces, one source. The wiki carries the exhaustive catalog; this guide curates the highlights and teaches the game. Both are meant to render from the one Level Forge database (cb-level-forge-design) once missions are authored.
- What's Forge-generated vs. hand-authored. Sections marked Forge-emitted (mission walkthroughs, the bestiary, ship blueprints, synergies) fill in automatically as Irvine authors missions — they are intentionally staged, not missing. Sections marked human worklist are the narrative blanks in the Campaign Bible worklist.
1. Cover & register
Cover art + the guide's in-universe framing. Blueprint: hero render on a cosmic field; the Transient map can double as cover art.
- Cover render ❌ — hero vessel / hero-and-mascot art. Hero identity is itself a blank (see §4). Track: cb-hero-and-mascot ⚠️.
- In-universe narrator voice ❌ — the blueprint's target register is "Star Fox 64's diegetic military dossier, rendered in Tears of the Kingdom's clean modern grid" — an in-world Transient operations handbook, optionally narrated by a warm companion (SCPR?). Writing that voice is a human authoring pass (Articles-bound), not Claude's to draft. Voice reference: cb-character-voice-and-philosophy ✅, sonny-scpr ⚠️.
2. Universe premise ✅
The logline and the thematic frame — why any of this matters.
The animating creative goal behind CATBLASTER: make something that lasts thousands of years. Not in spite of being a transmedia sci-fi IP — because of the depth of what it's rooted in.
Master seed note for the CATBLASTER transmedia universe. (Universe premise, the Nine Houses, key characters & locations, Operation PH Balance.)
Read next: cb-creative-north-star (the logline, the thesis, what the universe is about) · catblaster-lore-bible-seed (the master overview).
3. Story setup ✅
The "Rumblings of War"-style narrative intro — the founding event and the shape of the conflict.
Historical reference guide: how each of the Nine Houses frames the Cataclysm (Earth's destruction ~100 years from 2025, remembered 2000 years later). The founding mythology of Upper Transient — and the ideological bedrock of every inter-house conflict.
Read next: cb-cataclysm-nine-perspectives (the Cataclysm from nine points of view; the Simulation secret) · the central conflict is §4 below.
4. Character roster ⚠️
Protagonists, the Nine Houses, and antagonists — with the relationship diagram and codex stat-blocks the blueprint calls for.
Current-generation family trees for all Nine Houses of Upper Transient, including key dynamics, succession structures, and the defector roster that powers House Vahana. This is the character bible for the political layer of the CATBLASTER universe.
The political layer is solid: cb-oligarch-families (family trees) · cb-nine-oligarch-rank-compendium (10 ranks per house — doubles as NPC encounter tiers) · cb-nine-houses-npc-field-guide (relationship matrix).
- The protagonist's name & identity ❌ (worklist #1 — critical) — the guide centers on an unnamed lead. Track: cb-hero-and-mascot.
- Named casts for House Hodel, House Zikaron, House Xingwu ❌ (worklist #2 — critical) — 3 of 9 houses have no people yet (Kirkland · Stal · Pearson · Roxdun · Vahana are populated).
- Codex stat-block layout — the Pokédex/Ammonomicon-style card (portrait + vitals + bio) is a template in cb-wiki-entry-templates; per-character cards are Forge-emitted once characters exist.
5. Operations Manual ❌
Flight mechanics + control vocabulary (Asteroids verbs: rotate / thrust / momentum / hyperspace / shield) and the weapons interface.
Control-feel and the flight model live in the Unity prototype (Anthony Jordan) and the game-design canon, not yet written up as a manual. The core control loop is proven (twin-stick Newtonian flight prototype is playable). Source canon: cb-game-design-campaign-structure ✅. Weapons interface: cb-weapons-and-fx ✅. This section is authored once the control vocabulary is locked.
6. Technical Specifications ⚠️
Blueprint spec pages for ships — the Star Fox 64 white-line-on-blue schematic + stat readout + in-world "Comments." The single highest-value visual template.
The live ship database already exists as the Book of Ships fleet wiki (per-house dossier cards with muzzle-flash GIFs and stat blocks) — served by _scripts/book_server.py. The guide's Technical Specs section should curate a highlighted subset and link the full fleet. The hero vessel is The Black Huron (cb-1-1-catblaster-ship).
- Hero / player-vessel blueprint ❌ — spec page emitted by the Forge once the hero ship is finalized. Track: cb-hero-and-mascot, hero-ship art in progress.
- Curated ship spread — pick the highlight ships; the exhaustive set lives in the Book of Ships. Ship canon: sprites-ships ✅, cb-sprite-manifest-and-guide-display.
7. Items & Ordnance ❌
Color-coded power-up / weapon taxonomy as an icon grid, plus the enemy bestiary — framed as an Ammonomicon-style diegetic codex (per the Gungeon addendum), organized by belt region / house.
Weapons system canon exists (cb-weapons-and-fx ✅), but the item taxonomy, quality tiers, and the region-bucketed bestiary are rendered from the Forge database once enemies/items are authored. Bestiary sources: sprites-npc-named · sprites-npc-generic · sprites-asteroid-locations. Template: the codex/stat-block in cb-wiki-entry-templates.
8. Progression & Meta-progression ✅
The merit / upgrade ladder (Galaga) plus the roguelite meta layer — what unlocks across runs and how.
Core game design structure for the CATBLASTER mobile game — campaign system, content cadence, and MVP scope. Campaign = an artist's album; 12 missions per campaign; roguelite + Maintenance Mode. Economy: Credits / Ore / Organics / Attention; Heat + Integrity.
Read next: cb-game-design-campaign-structure (the economy, Maintenance Mode, the core loop) · the streaming Library (cb-in-game-streaming-platform ✅) — songs unlock by starting their mission.
The explicit unlock table (run currency → Maintenance investment → what unlocks) is ⚠️ thin; buildable from the campaign-structure canon once the numbers are set.
8.5 Runs, Builds & Synergies ❌
The roguelite run layer — what carries replay. Run anatomy, the synergy catalog (ship × weapon × item combos), and archetypal builds. (Gungeon / Ammonomicon model.)
Synergies and boss data are ❌ blank by design — they render from the Forge database. Frame is set by the blueprint's Gungeon addendum (catblaster-players-guide-design-reference › Addendum — the Gungeon roguelite layer (2026-06-25)). Synergy template: cb-wiki-entry-templates.
9. The Map ⚠️
Full-bleed Transient overworld spread with a grid Area Key. Present Upper vs. Lower Transient as a Light/Dark-World pairing.
The consolidated colony/location reference for the CATBLASTER Universe — everything is a belt asteroid or built station; no surviving Earth remnants (canon ruled 2026-06-24). Covers colonies, the 100:1 Shot resistance station, House orbital stations, the resource economy, and the transit corridors.
The atlas is solid: cbu-colony-gazetteer (the gazetteer) · cb-asteroid-mission-locations ✅ (the 52-location mission atlas; each House owns a signature location archetype).
- Landscape narrative detail ⚠️ — concept art exists (cbu-landscapes-lower-transient, cbu-landscapes-upper-transient, cbu-landscapes-winterfallen); narrative "what's here" is thin.
- Interior maps / who's-here per location ❌ (worklist #7) — the annotated-waypoint layer the walkthroughs depend on.
- Rendered overworld map spread ❌ — the cartography deliverable itself.
10. Campaign / mission walkthroughs ❌
The heart of a Star Fox 64 guide: per-mission spreads with a location banner, the Pokémon Things to Do / Places to Go / Things to Get / Who's Here sidebar, a tactical waypoint map, and boss-encounter callout blocks. Album = 12 missions.
This section fills in automatically as Irvine authors missions through the Level Forge — one authoring event emits the game level, the wiki page, and this walkthrough. No missions exist yet, so this is the largest staged gap. It unblocks the moment session #1 runs.
Per-mission spread template (to be populated per mission):
- Location banner + region/house
- Things to Do · Places to Go · Things to Get · Who's Here (Pokémon location sidebar)
- Tactical map with numbered waypoints (Star Fox 64 route planner)
- Boss-encounter callout: anatomy / weak-point / phases (Star Fox 64 + TotK) — boss roster is ❌ blank
Pipeline: cb-campaign-engine (session → mission → canon) · cb-level-forge-design · structure: cb-game-design-campaign-structure.
11. Mastery section ❌
A "Nine Steps"-style meta-strategy chapter: how to read enemies, the psychology of a run, the core skill loop. (How to Master Home Video Games + Space Invaders lineage.)
Written last — it distills strategy out of the actual combat and run systems, which need to exist first. Frame set by the blueprint (§11).
12. Completion checklist ⚠️ (partially buildable now)
The "catch 'em all" equivalent — the artist roster, the Nine Houses, and the ship / location collection.
The Nine Houses collection checklist (scaffold — canon-confirmed roster):
- ☐ House Kirkland — Prosperity Gospel Dynasty
- ☐ House Stal — Mining Empire
- ☐ House Pearson — CRISPR Monopoly
- ☐ House Roxdun — Optimistic Investors
- ☐ House Hodel — Trend-Addicted Options Kings
- ☐ House Zikaron — Doomsday Bankers
- ☐ House Xingwu — Taoist Arms Dealers
- ☐ House Bukhara — Silk Road Information Empire
- ☐ House Vahana — Revenge Coalition
(House descriptors quoted from cb-oligarch-families.)
- Artist roster as a canon checklist ⚠️ (worklist #6) — GMSD (grand-master-shrimp-daddy) is the pattern; full roster TBD. CATBLASTER Records as canon is ❌ blank.
- Ship & location collection counts — Forge-emitted (52-location atlas is the location backbone: cb-asteroid-mission-locations).
Draft blanks — the human worklist
This guide cannot be finished until these are authored. They are Alex's and Irvine's, not Claude's (Articles-bound). Full detail + priority: cb-campaign-bible › Blanks to Author.
| # | Blank | Blocks | Guide section |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Protagonist's name & identity | Centering the guide on a named lead | §1 cover, §4 |
| 2 | Hodel / Zikaron / Xingwu named casts | 3/9 houses have no people | §4, §12 |
| 3 | The 100:1 Shot — operational detail | Arc-3 home base for missions | §9 |
| 5 | Glossary | Shared terms for readers | (front-matter / appendix) |
| 6 | CATBLASTER Records / artist roster as canon | Completion checklist, §9 wiki | §12 |
| 7 | Per-location "who's here" + interiors | The walkthrough waypoint layer | §9, §10 |
| 8 | Synergies & Bosses | Roguelite depth + boss callouts | §7, §8.5, §10 |
| 9 | Timeline | Anchors mission chronology | §3 |
(Worklist numbering follows the Campaign Bible. #4 — Arc 2 Winterfallen detail — is narrative, tracked there.)
Related
- catblaster-players-guide-design-reference — the blueprint this guide is built on (12-section TOC, universal devices, Gungeon addendum)
- cb-wiki-portal — the exhaustive wiki (this guide is its curated cut)
- cb-campaign-bible — Irvine's DM reading edition + the blanks worklist
- cb-irvine-handoff — onboarding + first moves
- cb-level-forge-design — the authoring tool that will emit the mission-driven sections
- Book of Ships (
_scripts/book_server.py) — the live ship-dossier fleet wiki (feeds §6)