AgrarianGameArchive/Docs/SixMonthMvpDefinition.md

Six-Month MVP Definition

Purpose

The six-month MVP is the smallest playable proof that Agrarian is more than an Unreal template and more than a terrain experiment. It must show the beginning of the long-term game: a player enters a real place, struggles to survive, improves their odds through gathering/crafting/fire/shelter, and can return to some preserved progress.

The MVP is not a public launch, not the full economy, and not the full Earth-scale world. It is an investor/internal/closed-test build that proves the foundation is worth expanding.

MVP Statement

The six-month MVP qualifies when a small test group can launch a Windows build, enter the Ground Zero map, select a basic realistic character, survive a compressed day/night cycle, interact with a real 1 km x 1 km terrain tile, gather resources, drink water, craft primitive tools, make or use fire, build or use primitive shelter, experience meaningful survival failure, and return after a restart with core world progress preserved.

Target Test Audience

Primary audience:

• internal development testing;
• investor/demo review;
• a small closed-test group once the build is stable.

Target player count:

• minimum proof: 2 players connected to the same server;
• target closed-test smoke group: 4 players on one server;
• stretch test: 8 players if the dedicated/listen server path is stable.

The MVP should not be judged by MMO population, open-world scale, or long-term economy concurrency.

Required MVP Pillars

Startup And Entry

Required:

• Agrarian Studio splash/startup identity appears;
• required Unreal/Epic attribution and copyright/demo notice are present;
• the motto What survives after you are gone? appears in the startup flow;
• the player reaches a simple character-selection landing page;
• the player can choose a realistic young adult male or female character option with average proportions, even if final character art is still placeholder;
• the player enters the Ground Zero map.

Excluded:

• full character creator;
• polished cinematic intro;
• account creation flow;
• Steam/Epic entitlement flow.

Ground Zero Map

Required:

• the default playable map is the Ground Zero 1 km x 1 km real terrain tile;
• terrain scale is verified as 1 km x 1 km;
• the tile has source/generation metadata;
• Ground Zero tile package lookup/download/cache proof exists through the tile server;
• water, slope, shoreline/coastal handling, and immediate resources are good enough to support the survival loop;
• map boundaries or soft limits prevent players from treating missing neighboring tiles as broken content.

Acceptable first-pass biome/resource accuracy:

• biome and resource placement must be believable for the Ground Zero region;
• wood, stone, fiber, water, rabbit/meat/hide, and basic forage/medicine placeholders may be approximate;
• exact vegetation species, exact abundance, and final ecological simulation are not required;
• resource density can be tuned for playability as long as the result still feels regionally plausible;
• all approximation should be documented when it matters to future terrain or biome passes.

Excluded:

• full Earth-scale streaming;
• multiple production-ready regions;
• perfect hydrography, roads, land-cover, or vegetation classification;
• final ocean/bathymetry simulation;
• final World Partition streaming budget.

Survival Loop

Required:

• hunger, thirst, stamina, health, body temperature, and injury are represented;
• hunger, thirst, cold/exposure, and injury/damage can threaten survival;
• the player can gather primitive resources by hand;
• the player can drink or collect water;
• the player can craft at least one useful primitive tool;
• the player can craft or use fire;
• the player can build or use primitive shelter;
• weather and time affect survival pressure;
• death or another meaningful failure path works;
• early play is difficult but learnable.

Excluded:

• full disease system;
• full medicine system;
• complete cooking and food preservation;
• full corpse/backpack/inheritance loop;
• advanced combat.

Time And Weather

Required:

• default gameplay calendar remains 4 real hours = 1 in-game day;
• server owns time and replicates it;
• day/night presentation should mimic the Ground Zero region as the system matures;
• weather states affect survival pressure;
• deterministic fallback weather exists if live weather is not ready.

Excluded:

• complete sunrise/sunset astronomy accuracy;
• full live weather provider integration if not stable;
• crop/livestock/aging timelines beyond documented design direction.

Multiplayer

Required:

• at least two players can join the same session for a smoke test;
• player stats, inventory, time, weather, resources, build pieces, fire/shelter, and relevant world state replicate well enough to test together;
• server authority is maintained for critical gameplay actions;
• missing tile behavior is defined.

Excluded:

• open matchmaking;
• polished dedicated-server deployment portal;
• MMO-scale population;
• full reconnect UX beyond the persistence smoke target.

Persistence

Required:

• core placed shelter/fire/build progress can survive restart where implemented;
• player/world save data uses versioned records where practical;
• active Ground Zero tile ID/package version are part of persistence design;
• manual/admin save path exists;
• persistence limitations are documented.

Target for MVP acceptance:

• a test can gather/craft/place, save, restart, and confirm the important player/world state still exists.

Excluded:

• complete account identity system;
• complete database-backed persistence service;
• long-term migration tooling for every future save shape;
• full economy ledger implementation.

UI And UX

Required:

• basic survival HUD or debug/HUD equivalent shows critical stats clearly enough to test;
• interaction prompts exist or the test flow otherwise makes interactions clear;
• inventory and crafting can be tested without hidden developer-only knowledge;
• death/failure state is understandable enough for testers;
• UI scales acceptably on common desktop resolutions.

Excluded:

• final HUD art;
• final accessibility pass;
• polished menu suite;
• public onboarding/tutorial.

Build And Operations

Required:

• Windows packaged development build can be created from the repo;
• packaged build launches on a clean Windows test machine or Windows-Builder;
• known startup/rendering fallback path is documented;
• tile endpoint used by the build is documented;
• backup and restore expectations are documented;
• critical known issues are tracked before investor/closed-test sharing.

Excluded:

• store-ready Steam/Epic deployment;
• installer polish;
• crash telemetry service if not yet selected;
• automated patcher.

Explicit MVP Exclusions

These are not required for the six-month MVP:

• full Earth-scale world;
• large multi-region terrain streaming;
• complete farming;
• complete livestock/domestication;
• family/generation/inheritance systems;
• complete settlement governance;
• land-claim economy;
• full trade UI or market;
• AGR token utility;
• wallet linking;
• real-money marketplace;
• Steam/Epic public release;
• polished production characters;
• MetaHuman final integration;
• final art/audio pass;
• advanced AI ecosystems;
• vehicles, boats, tractors, or horses;
• long-term legal/compliance launch package;
• public anti-cheat and moderation suite.

Acceptance Checklist

The MVP can be called ready for the six-month target when:

• packaged Windows build launches;
• startup flow reaches character selection;
• player enters Ground Zero;
• two-player smoke test connects;
• one player can gather, drink, craft, make/use fire, and use shelter;
• one meaningful survival failure path works;
• one full compressed day/night survival test passes or has documented known gaps;
• weather/time survival pressure works at a basic level;
• core world progress can survive restart for the implemented persistence scope;
• Ground Zero tile delivery proof remains valid;
• no critical crash blocks the first 30 minutes of testing;
• known missing features are listed as exclusions or future roadmap items.

What Success Looks Like

The MVP succeeds if a tester can say:

• this is clearly Agrarian, not a template;
• the real terrain direction is visible;
• survival feels grounded and a little difficult;
• tools, fire, shelter, and knowledge make survival easier;
• the world remembers enough to see the persistence direction;
• the next roadmap phases are credible.

The MVP fails if it relies on explanation instead of play, if basic survival cannot be completed, if the build cannot launch, or if the project tries to include long-term systems before the survival foundation is stable.