The Other Side of the Block
Mission design docLevel & systems design1990s Eastern EuropeA property assessor surveys a panel block before demolition. The paperwork lists 91 flats. The building has 90. In mailbox 91 he finds a child's drawing of a cat, and the cat is waiting on the stairs.
One night, one building, one goal and five ways to reach it. A cat that walks between the block as it is and the block as it remembers itself.
Key design ideas
Two worlds, one building. The face: people, locked doors, noise. The other side: nobody, every door open, but the geometry is what the block remembers. Flat 91 only exists there.
The cat is the hint system. Feed it and it walks to the nearest hidden path. Where it sits and stares, something happened. It is also unreliable. It is a cat.
The "one thing" rule. From the other side you can bring back exactly one item. Everything else crumbles on the threshold. So the easy world has a price.
The crossing is negotiated, not pressed. You switch worlds by walking through a doorway behind the cat. No button, no cooldown. A relationship.
Shadows are read by sound. No detection meter. You hear where the shadow is, and you hide. Fear comes from listening, not from UI.
Endings are found, not chosen. Five traces hidden in the block. The ending is built from what you actually found, with no dialogue wheel at the end.