Hollow Crown GDD
Design Overview
Pillars, the two-layer structure, and the role of permadeath.
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Hollow Crown asks the player to win a war they cannot afford. The design pairs deliberate, readable tactical combat with a strategic layer where resources, morale, and named lives are all scarce.
Design Pillars
- Every soldier is a name, not a number — loss must hurt.
- Information is power: the player should never lose to hidden math.
- The strategic and tactical layers must each pressure the other.
- Defeat is a story beat, not a failure screen.
Two Layers
The tactical layer is a deterministic grid battle. The strategic layer is a campaign map where the player allocates scarce soldiers and supplies between fronts. Decisions in one layer ripple into the other.
