New-Orleans-in-the-Shadows/Notes/MVP Outline.md

Development steps to MVP (rough outline)

Phase 0 — Pre-production (1–3 days)

• Define the 3 MVP classes: what skills matter, what gear matters
• Define initial city districts/landmarks (pure flavor in MVP, but helps UI):
  • French Quarter, CBD, Garden District, Bywater, Ninth Ward, “The Sprawl”
• Decide the pacing levers:
  • energy regen rate, job cooldown, training duration, job generation cadence

Phase 1 — Foundations (auth, layout, DB)

• Bootstrap project (Laravel + Postgres + Tailwind v4 build)
• Auth + basic account pages
• Global layout + navigation + dark cyberpunk base styling
• Seed tables: races, classes, skills

Deliverable: register/login, create character, view character sheet.

Phase 2 — Core progression scaffolding

• Energy system (regen, caps, spend/restore rules)
• Skill system (levels/xp, modifiers via class/race)
• Add initial items + vendors (even a tiny catalog)

Deliverable: character can gain skills and buy items (even if items are “flat bonuses” initially.

Phase 3 — Mr. Johnson job system (the heart)

• Job templates + job generator (daily refresh + per-player list)
• Job acceptance + resolution (success chance formula)
• Job outcomes: payout + xp + small chance of injury/penalty (optional MVP spice)

Deliverable: playable loop: jobs → rewards → progression.

Phase 4 — Training

• Training actions per class
• Timed sessions (start now, finish later)
• Resolution on completion (xp gain, maybe small failure chance)

Deliverable: long-form progression path besides jobs.

Phase 5 — Hirelings (gap-filler)

• Hireling catalog + purchase
• Add hirelings to job run (affects success chance / unlocks tag requirements)
• Profit cut applied on success

Deliverable: jobs can require tags that the player can satisfy via hirelings.

Phase 6 — Banking + economy sanity

• Deposit/withdraw UI + endpoints
• Basic economic balance pass:
  • job payouts vs vendor pricing
  • early-game progression speed

Deliverable: cash loop + safe storage.

Phase 7 — MVP hardening

• Anti-cheat basics (server-side validation everywhere)
• Rate limiting for actions
• Logging + audit trail for money changes and job results
• Basic admin screens for job templates/items/vendors

Deliverable: MVP that won’t fall over the moment someone gets curious.