TehRiehlIncremental/ProjectPlan.md

Project Plan: TehRiehlIncremental

This document outlines the architecture, tech stack, game design, and development lifecycle for a new incremental game, TehRiehlIncremental. Built upon the core philosophy of The Modding Tree framework, the game is designed to scale securely while providing long-term engagement.

1. Game Design & Core Features

To maximize player retention right out of the gate, the game will launch with a massive initial content drop, taking inspiration from the deep, multi-layered progression systems found in titles like Idleon. The core loop revolves around unlocking nodes on a highly interconnected tree structure.

• Extensive Day-1 Content: Multiple resource layers, prestige mechanics, and overlapping progression paths available at launch so players have diverse short-term and long-term goals.
• Expansion-Ready Architecture: The underlying data structure for the tree will be strictly modular. "Expansions" will function as drop-in content packs that bolt new sub-trees onto existing late-game nodes without requiring a hard reset of base calculations.
• Integrated Patch Notes System: A dedicated, stylish UI modal parsing markdown/JSON files directly from the repository. This keeps players informed of balancing tweaks and new branches seamlessly between versions.

2. Technical Architecture & Tech Stack

The application will be structured as a monorepo managed by pnpm, optimizing dependency installation and workspace management across both the client and server.

Component	Technology	Implementation Strategy
Frontend Client	React, TypeScript, Vite	Highly performant UI rendering utilizing strict TypeScript types to prevent runtime errors during deep tree calculations.
Styling & UI Components	TailwindCSS, ShadCN	Rapid, consistent design system. ShadCN will provide the accessible primitives (modals for patch notes, tooltips for tree nodes).
State Management	Redux	Centralized store for the complex game state, handling offline progress calculations, resource ticks, and node unlocks.
Backend API	NestJS	Enterprise-grade architecture for handling authentication, secure cloud saves, and potential future multiplayer features.
Database	PostgreSQL	Robust relational storage for user profiles, JSON save blobs, and game economy analytics.

3. Development Methodology: Test-Driven

Given the mathematically intensive nature of incremental games, strict adherence to Test-Driven Development (TDD) ensures formulas remain stable as numbers scale exponentially.

• TDD Workflow: Tests for resource generation formulas, cost scaling, and unlock requirements will be written before the implementation logic.
• Coverage Goal: Strict enforcement of 90%+ unit test coverage using Vitest/Jest, particularly focusing on the Redux reducers and the core math utility functions.

4. CI/CD Pipeline (GitHub Actions)

A robust pipeline will automatically secure, format, and validate every pull request before deployment, ensuring high code quality across the monorepo.

# Example workflow structure
name: Monorepo CI Pipeline
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  validate-and-test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Code
      - name: Setup Node & pnpm

      # 1. Security Checks
      - name: Secrets Scan (e.g., GitLeaks)
      - name: Container/Dependency Security (Trivy)

      # 2. Linting & Formatting
      - name: ESLint Check (Frontend & Backend)
      - name: Prettier Format Check

      # 3. Testing
      - name: Run Unit Tests with Coverage
      - name: Enforce 90% Coverage Threshold

5. Next Steps

• Initialize the pnpm monorepo workspace.
• Scaffold the Vite/React frontend and NestJS backend.
• Draft the initial JSON/TypeScript structure for the base "Modding Tree" data format.
• Establish the GitHub Actions workflow file.