# Shadow Tag — Multiplayer Roblox Design

## High Concept
**Shadow Tag** is a round-based Roblox arena game where players collect light orbs while their recent movement paths become dangerous shadow clones. The twist: players are not only dodging enemies — they are creating future hazards for everyone in the match.

**One-line pitch:** Collect light, outrun rivals, and survive the deadly ghost trails created by every player’s past movement.

## Target Session
- **Players:** 6–12 per server
- **Round length:** 90–150 seconds
- **Match format:** Fast survival rounds with short intermissions
- **Camera:** Third-person, slightly zoomed-out arena view
- **Core audience:** Roblox players who like tag, obbies, survival rounds, and chaotic party games

## Core Loop
Spawn → collect light orbs → avoid active shadow clones → use movement tools to bait shadows/rivals → survive longer and score higher → round ends → earn coins/xp/cosmetics → queue next round.

## Multiplayer Rule Set

### Objective
Score as many points as possible before being tagged by a shadow.

Players score from:
- **Survival time:** steady points per second while alive
- **Light orbs:** instant score and coin rewards
- **Near misses:** bonus points for passing close to shadows without getting hit
- **Last survivor bonus:** extra reward if you outlast everyone

### Lives / Elimination
Recommended MVP mode: **single-life survival per round**.
- If a player touches an active shadow, they are eliminated for the round.
- Eliminated players become spectators until the next round.
- Rounds are short enough that waiting is acceptable.

Alternative later mode: **3 lives**, with a short respawn shield. This is more forgiving for younger players but less tense.

## Shadow System

### Path Recording
Each living player records their position every ~0.1 seconds.
Every 6–8 seconds, the server converts the player’s recent route into a shadow clone.

### Shadow Behavior
- A shadow clone replays the recorded route at the same speed, or slightly faster as the round escalates.
- Shadows loop their route until the round ends.
- Shadows are translucent, glowing, and color-coded to the player who created them.
- Shadows have a **1.25 second harmless telegraph window** when spawned:
  - First: thin glowing path preview appears on the floor.
  - Then: shadow body materializes.
  - Finally: shadow becomes dangerous.

### Collision Rules
A shadow can tag:
- The player who created it
- Other players
- Everyone, including the current leader

This is important: if shadows only hurt their owner, multiplayer becomes too isolated. If they hurt everyone, players can deliberately “draw” dangerous patterns to trap rivals.

### Shadow Limits
To prevent chaos/performance problems:
- Each player can have up to **3 active shadows** in MVP.
- When a player creates a 4th shadow, their oldest shadow fades out.
- Global cap: ~30 shadows per server.
- If player count is high, reduce per-player cap to 2.

## Arena Design

### MVP Arena: Neon Courtyard
A flat square arena with:
- Outer walls
- 4–6 pillars / blockers
- Raised platform or ring in the center
- Orb spawn points distributed across open and risky areas
- Clear floor grid so players can read movement and shadow paths

### Design Goals
- The arena must create routing decisions, not just open-circle running.
- Obstacles should break line-of-sight and force path commitment.
- No dead-end corners unless they contain high-value rewards.
- Players should be able to see most threats quickly — deaths should feel fair.

### Orb Placement
Use weighted spawn zones:
- **Safe zones:** low-value small orbs around the perimeter
- **Risk zones:** higher-value orbs near center, pillars, or common shadow crossings
- **Comeback orbs:** occasional gold orb spawns far from the current leader

## Movement Design

### Base Movement
Roblox MVP should use familiar third-person movement with a slightly boosted walk speed.
Suggested values:
- WalkSpeed: **20–24**
- JumpPower: keep default or disable jumping depending on arena style
- Collision: player-player collision off to avoid grief/body-block bugs

### Ability: Dash
Add one simple ability for skill expression.

**Dash**
- Key/button: Shift or mobile button
- Cooldown: 4–6 seconds
- Distance: short burst, about 12–16 studs
- Invulnerability: none, or only 0.1 seconds for collision forgiveness
- Leaves a brighter recorded trail, so careless dashes create dangerous future shadows

Why dash works:
- Lets players escape a trap
- Lets players bait rivals
- Creates readable skill moments
- Has a tradeoff because the dash path becomes part of future shadow recordings

## Game Modes

### MVP Mode: Classic Shadow Tag
- 6–12 players
- Single-life survival
- Orbs + survival scoring
- Last player standing ends the round early

### Mode 2: Team Glow
- Two teams compete for total score.
- Shadows only damage the opposing team after a short delay, or damage everyone except teammates.
- Good for social play, but not MVP because rules are harder to explain.

### Mode 3: Infection Shadow
- Tagged players become “shadow runners” who can create extra hazards for the living.
- Strong party-game potential, but needs careful balance to avoid dogpiling.

## Round Flow

### Intermission: 10–15 seconds
- Players vote on arena or modifier.
- UI shows top score and last round winner.

### Countdown: 3 seconds
- Players spawn evenly around arena.
- Shadows are cleared.
- Orbs spawn.

### Active Round: 90–150 seconds
- Every player records paths.
- Shadows spawn every 6–8 seconds.
- Spawn interval slowly decreases to ~4.5 seconds by late round.
- Orb values increase slightly as danger rises.

### End Round: 6–8 seconds
- Show leaderboard:
  - Winner
  - Survival time
  - Orbs collected
  - Near miss bonus
  - Coins earned

## Scoring and Rewards

### Score Formula
- Survival: +10 score/sec
- Small orb: +50 score
- Big orb: +150 score
- Near miss: +25 score, cooldown per shadow so it cannot be farmed infinitely
- Last survivor: +500 score

### Coins / Progression
Keep rewards mostly cosmetic.
- Coins from score conversion
- Daily bonus for first win / first 5 rounds
- XP for player level

### Cosmetics
Good monetization without pay-to-win:
- Shadow colors
- Shadow trail effects
- Orb collect bursts
- Dash effects
- Victory poses
- Elimination animations
- Arena music packs

Avoid selling gameplay advantages. The concept is competitive and readable; paid power would make losses feel unfair.

## Roblox Implementation Notes

### Server Authority
Server should own:
- Round state
- Player alive/dead status
- Orb spawning and collection validation
- Shadow path creation
- Shadow collision checks
- Score/reward calculation

Clients can own:
- Local visual path previews
- Trail rendering
- UI effects
- Camera polish
- Non-authoritative particles

### Path Data Strategy
Do not replicate every player position every frame.

Recommended approach:
1. Server samples each alive player position at 10 Hz.
2. Store last 6 seconds of points per player.
3. When spawning a shadow, server creates a compact path array.
4. Server sends path to clients once.
5. Clients animate the visual clone locally from the same path.
6. Server runs simplified collision using the same path timer.

This keeps networking manageable.

### Collision Strategy
For each active shadow:
- Track current segment/time on server.
- Approximate shadow position from path interpolation.
- Check distance against living players at ~10–15 Hz.
- Use a slightly generous visual body but a slightly smaller hitbox.

Suggested values:
- Visual radius: 3.0 studs
- Hit radius: 2.2–2.5 studs
- Spawn safe time: 1.25 seconds

Players should feel like they barely escaped, not like they were tagged by invisible geometry.

### Performance Limits
MVP caps:
- 12 players
- 3 shadows/player
- 6-second paths at 10 Hz = 60 points/path
- Maximum 36 active paths
- Roughly 2,160 path points in memory — very manageable

If server performance dips:
- Reduce points to 8 Hz
- Cap shadows at 2/player
- Fade old shadows faster
- Disable collision checks for shadows far from all players

## UI / UX

### In-Round HUD
- Score
- Timer
- Orbs collected
- Dash cooldown
- Shadow spawn countdown: “Your shadow forms in 3…2…1…”
- Warning when standing near your own upcoming trail

### Readability Rules
- Every player has a color.
- Their shadows use the same hue but darker/translucent.
- Dangerous shadows glow brighter than harmless spawning shadows.
- Floor previews always appear before a shadow becomes lethal.
- Death recap says: “Tagged by Ava’s Shadow” or “Tagged by Your Shadow.”

### Mobile Controls
- Left thumbstick movement
- Right-side dash button
- Keep camera mostly automatic so mobile players are not disadvantaged

## Why Multiplayer Makes It Better
The prototype is fun because you create your own danger. Multiplayer adds two stronger dynamics:

1. **Territory drawing:** players intentionally route around the arena to create dangerous loops and walls.
2. **Social blame/comedy:** getting tagged by your own shadow is funny; getting tagged by a friend’s shadow creates rivalry.

The best moments should sound like:
- “I trapped myself!”
- “You drew that shadow right into me!”
- “I dashed out and my old dash killed you!”

## MVP Build Plan

### Week 1: Core Roblox Prototype
- One arena
- Round loop
- Server path recording
- Shadow replay visuals
- Shadow collision / elimination
- Basic orb spawning
- Basic score UI

### Week 2: Game Feel + Multiplayer Polish
- Dash ability
- Spawn telegraphs
- Better arena obstacles
- Leaderboard/end screen
- Spectator mode
- Mobile controls
- Performance caps

### Week 3: Retention Layer
- Coins/xp
- Cosmetic trail unlocks
- Daily rewards
- 2–3 arena variants
- Analytics: average survival time, death source, orb collection rate

## Key Risks

### Risk: Arena becomes unreadable
Fix: cap active shadows, use floor previews, fade older shadows, and keep hitboxes smaller than visuals.

### Risk: Players just run around the perimeter
Fix: put high-value orbs near center and use arena shapes that interrupt perimeter loops.

### Risk: Early elimination feels bad
Fix: short rounds, spectator camera, maybe “ghost cheer” interactions while eliminated.

### Risk: Server/network load
Fix: sample at 10 Hz, replicate compact paths once, animate visuals client-side, collision server-side at reduced tick rate.

## Recommended Roblox MVP
Build **Classic Shadow Tag** first:
- 8-player rounds
- Single arena
- Single-life survival
- Orbs + survival scoring
- 3 shadows per player max
- Dash ability
- Cosmetic-only progression

This is the smallest version that proves the multiplayer hook: players weaponizing their own movement history against themselves and each other.