[squad:plan] Cindermark

## Concept

**Cindermark** is a small-scope 2D pixel-art puzzle-platformer. You play a firefly courier in a rain-soaked lantern city where all artificial light has failed. Your only tool is a **cinder brand** — a temporary mark of light you burn onto surfaces to create bridges, ignite switches, or reveal hidden paths. Every brand fades after a few seconds, so puzzles are about sequencing, timing, and route-planning rather than reflex combat.

**Core gameplay loop:** explore a dark room → identify hazards/gaps → place cinder brands strategically → cross/solve before they fade → reach the next lantern checkpoint, which permanently relights a small piece of the world.

**Target platform:** PC (Steam), with controller support from day one; scope sized for an itch.io/Steam Next Fest-style demo rather than a AAA release.

**Art/style direction:** moody, high-contrast pixel art — near-total darkness punctuated by warm ember oranges and cool rain-blues. Minimalist UI, no HUD clutter; light itself is the interface.

**Minimum viable feature set:**
- Firefly movement (walk, glide, wall-cling)
- Cinder brand placement + fade timer
- 3 hazard types (water, drop, roaming shadow-creature)
- 8–10 hand-built puzzle rooms across 2 biomes
- One lantern-relighting "checkpoint" mechanic tying rooms together
- Basic ambient audio + rain/ember particle FX

## Milestone Plan & Ownership

| Milestone | Owner | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| **Prototype** (#55066) | Keaton (Lead/Architect) | Core loop playable: movement, cinder brand placement/fade, one test room proving the puzzle premise is fun. |
| **Vertical Slice** (#55069) | Fenster (Compiler & Engine Engineer) | One full biome (4–5 rooms) with all 3 hazard types, checkpoint/relight mechanic, polished input/physics feel. |
| **Art & Content Pass** (#55067) | Verbal (DevRel/Docs) | Final pixel-art style guide applied across biome 1, ambient audio pass, narrative/environmental storytelling notes. |
| **Playable Demo** (#55068) | Hockney (Test Engineer) | Bug bash, save/checkpoint integrity, controller support QA, packaged public demo build. |
| **Security & Data Privacy** (#55070) | Kujan (Security Engineer) | Save-data integrity/anti-tamper review, telemetry/analytics privacy pass, feedback-form data handling review. |

Each sub-issue is linked below as a workstream tracked against this parent.

This issue names no files, tests, or entry points. Start with the milestone sub-issues (#55066–#55070) to identify an actionable workstream; completion is defined by the relevant milestone summary, but no implementation target is specified here.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.