Steve Hinan presents

Hexapuss Portal Tap: Game Design Document

Title: Hexapuss Portal Tap

Spelling: Hexapuss (two s)

Owner: Steve Hinan

Doc date: 2026-09-18

Build: HTML5 static web (no npm / no build step)

Package: COMBINED v11 (10 circles + white win + cosmic horror synth + fastest-clear LB)

1. Concept / fantasy

The player feeds a living Hexapuss portal by tapping occult magic circles. The reward video (cat eye shifting Orange → Green → Purple, then a black pupil, hexagonal tunnel, and white bloom) advances on successful taps. Lore colors: orange, green, purple for circles 1-9; circle 10 is WHITE (win). Clear all ten taps and the portal bloom completes.

Tone: dark occult / cosmic, mobile portrait, touch-first. Player-facing copy avoids em dashes.

Player-facing win subline: Ten sigils complete (not “circles”). Never show end tagline “The rift opens.”

2. Platform and aspect

3. Title flow

1. Full-screen dark welcome.
2. Official Hexapuss logo (assets/hexapuss-logo-official.png) acts as the play control, with a clear PLAY affordance under it.
3. Subtitle: PORTAL TAP. Short tagline under that.
4. On Play (user gesture):

- Switch to game screen.

- Start cosmic horror ambient synth.

- Hold full black.

- Start video/reward.mp4 (gesture unlocks media playback).

- Fade black out so the video reveals.

Play Again starts a new run immediately (same as title Play). Title is first-load only; after a clear, stay on the Play Again end screen until Play Again.

4. Video structure and time markers

Asset: video/reward.mp4 (portrait ~404×720, H.264, ~16s).

Even splits (locked)

• Circle 1 owns the start hold (0 → INTRO_END). Intro plays free; tap unlocks progress.
• Circles 2-9 get even splits of [INTRO_END, BLOOM_START) (8 equal slices). Each successful tap seeks to that slice and plays to its end, then pauses.
• Circle 10 owns the end hold: seeks near end / BLOOM_START, plays completion through bloom, then win UI.

5. Circle rules (10 total)

HUD: Circle X / 10 + phase name (incl. White).

6. Cosmic horror synth

File: cosmicHorrorSynth.js → global CosmicHorrorSynth.

Game wires onCircle on every successful tap, starts ambient on PLAY, gates synth to video play/pause, and hard-stops on win. Magic SFX fire on every circle spawn and every death (TTL miss included).

7. Win / outro / end screen

After circle 10 (white):

1. Stop spawning; clear live targets.
2. Full-screen pure white bloom (covers letterboxing) → then full black end UI.
3. Synth hard-stops on win / game over (no leftover drone).
4. End / Play Again screen (title-like polish):

- Hexapuss logo (blacks match center blacks; no purple wash under the mark)

- Same purple edge glow as title/start (.edge-glow: outer screen edges only)

- Title line: PORTAL CLEARED

- Subline (player-facing): Ten sigils complete (say sigils, not circles)

- Do not show the old end tagline “The rift opens.” (removed entirely)

- Clear time (kept)

- FASTEST CLEARS leaderboard + PLAY AGAIN

- Player name is edited inline in the green is-you row (name field + OK in that cell only). No separate NAME UI above/beside the board.

1. End-screen text color = orange family. Green ONLY for the current player’s leaderboard row highlight (is-you). Everything else on the end screen stays orange.
2. Play Again starts a new run immediately (same as title Play). No bounce back to the title screen.
3. Title / start screen = first load only. After a clear, stay on the Play Again end screen until Play Again.

No lose state (no timer fail).

Fastest-clear leaderboard

8. Asset list and paths

9. Open tuning knobs

Edit constants at the top of game.js:

10. Screen map

[Title] --Play--> [Black] --> [Video intro 0..4.0s] + ambient synth
                                    |
                                    v
                         [Circle 1..9 O/G/P + even video 2-9]
                                    |
                              (circle 10 WHITE)
                                    v
                         [Outro bloom .. VIDEO_END]
                                    |
                                    v
                              [Win + clear time + LB]
                                    |
                              Play Again --> [new run immediately]

Title appears on first load only. After a clear, the Play Again end screen stays until Play Again.

11. Success criteria (acceptance)

1. Dark title with Hexapuss logo + PLAY.
2. Play → ambient synth + black → video reveals.
3. After ~4.0s, one short-TTL circle at a time (hard-cut on miss).
4. Circles 1-9 cycle orange/green/purple; circle 10 is white.
5. Video even-splits for taps 2-9; tap 10 seeks ~end and completes.
6. Synth escalates 1-9; white climax on 10.
7. Clear timer = gameplay start → 10th tap; LB ASC with name + highlight.
8. End screen: Hexapuss logo + same purple edge glow as title; no “The rift opens.”; subline Ten sigils complete; clear time kept; orange text; green only on current LB row; Play Again starts a new run immediately.
9. Synth louder with mid/high content; gated to video motion; hard-stop on win.
10. INTRO_END at pure black (~4.0s); full-screen white bloom before black win UI.
11. No CSS ring on magic circles (sigil art only); purple edge glow on title + Play Again only (not under logo).
12. Magic SFX on spawn and death.

12. Publish / next

• Live play URL: https://stevehinanpresents.com/portal-tap/
• Desktop playtest: C:\Users\Steve\Desktop\Hexapuss Portal Tap\ + Play Hexapuss Portal Tap.bat
• Box source: /workspace/hexapuss-portal-tap/
• Public GDD (Phil): experimental site page under experimental/gdd/portal-tap/ (linked from Experimental). One GDD per game.
• Shared board: leaderboard/scores.ashx on IIS; never overwrite live scores.json on later uploads; grant Write on leaderboard/.
• Parked for NEXT build (not in this doc as shipped): early-circle visibility dig on live; higher-pitched success ding on tap.

13. Changelog