Idea Scope Brief — Omega War

Summary

Omega War is a browser-based 3D real-time strategy game built on Three.js, using Kenney CC0 assets as stand-in art. Setting: alternate history, Operation Unthinkable (~July 1945) — UK/Commonwealth, US, France, and re-armed German formations versus the Soviet Union and its satellite forces, Europe only.

The game has two layers:

• Tactical layer (Company of Heroes × Broken Arrow): company-scale real-time battles with cover, suppression, and capture points. Full base building is in scope and is integrated with the deck system: the deck defines the roster a player brings to battle, while in-battle buildings, resource gathering, and unlocks gate which deck units/upgrades can actually be deployed — deliberately recreating Steel Division-style phase escalation (recon/infantry first, armor and heavy support later) through the build order.
• Strategic layer (Tom Clancy's EndWar × Wargame: Red Dragon): a persistent European theater war map where tactical outcomes move front lines, with narrative-driven unit deployments constraining which forces are available in which battles.

Meta-systems: deck-building founded on historically-flavored divisions (Warno), persistent unit upgrades/veterancy between battles (EndWar barracks), and per-unit weapon/variant loadouts (Broken Arrow).

Problem Hypothesis

• No browser-accessible game combines deck-building wargame depth (Wargame, Warno, Broken Arrow) with CoH-style tactical combat and a persistent operational campaign. The genre lives exclusively in heavyweight desktop clients.
• The Operation Unthinkable scenario is nearly untouched by major RTS titles — the genre clusters on WW2 proper and the 1980s Cold War.
• For the creator: a passion project — the problem is "the game I want to play doesn't exist."

Beneficiary Hypothesis

• Primary: the developer — passion project, no commercial pressure assumed.
• Secondary: RTS/wargame fans (Wargame/Warno/Broken Arrow/CoH communities) who want this blend in a zero-install browser game; alternate-history enthusiasts.

Product Category Guess

Single-player real-time strategy/tactics hybrid (RTS + deck-builder + operational campaign layer), browser-delivered (Three.js/WebGL).

Value Wedge

1. Setting: Operation Unthinkable 1945–46 is an unmined premise with strong faction flavor (including exile formations fighting their occupied homelands).
2. Mechanical hybrid: deck-as-roster fused with base building — buildings and resources unlock deck phases in-battle. Neither CoH (bases, no deck) nor Wargame/Broken Arrow (deck, no bases) does this; it reproduces Steel Division's phase pacing through player-driven build order instead of a timer.
3. Distribution: zero-install browser delivery in a genre that has none.
4. Persistence: divisions/decks evolve across the campaign via EndWar-style upgrades and Broken Arrow-style loadout variants.

Constraints

• Solo developer; greenfield repo (no code yet).
• Browser performance budget: Three.js/WebGL — instancing/LOD required; realistic unit ceiling per battle likely in the low hundreds, to be proven.
• Art: Kenney CC0 packs are stand-ins sourced from the user's GitHub asset mirrors (GeorgeQLe/assets-3d-city, assets-3d-nature, etc. — manifest.json per repo, CC0-1.0). No WW2-specific Kenney packs exist; vehicles/infantry are proxied from generic kits until a later art pass.
• Single-player architecture first; design the simulation cleanly (ideally deterministic) so multiplayer could be added later, but build no netcode now.
• Theater: Europe only.

Non-Goals

• Multiplayer/netcode (v1).
• Pacific/Asia theaters; naval combat as a core layer.
• Photorealism or milsim fidelity — stylized low-poly is the aesthetic.
• 1:1 historical simulation — "historically inspired," not accurate.
• Mobile/touch support; monetization.

Assumptions And Unknowns

Decided in interview: Central Europe historical split (swing-state events later); single-player first; tactical battle vertical slice first; full base building integrated with deck unlocks (Steel Division-like phases); Kenney stand-in art from the user's asset repos.

Open / riskiest:

• Fun hypothesis untested — the tactical slice exists to test it.
• The base-building × deck integration is novel and needs a real design spec (resource model, building tree, phase-gating rules).
• Browser performance ceiling unknown (units on screen, pathfinding cost).
• Faction pair for the first slice (suggest UK/Commonwealth vs USSR).
• Campaign-layer scope (EndWar map) is large and entirely unspecified.

ICP Readiness

Concept-level ambiguity is resolved; the idea is ready for /icp if a commercial path is ever pursued. Inputs for /icp: the secondary beneficiary hypotheses (desktop wargame communities, browser-game players, alt-history fans) and the browser-distribution wedge. However, as a stated passion project with the developer as primary beneficiary, formal ICP work may reasonably be skipped in favor of design/prototyping. Assumption to test first: the fun of the hybrid base/deck tactical loop — by building it. No marketplace/multi-sided structure apparent — single-sided product.

Next Steps

Primary: /pack recommend — personal game project, not a business app; let pack recommendation route it (business-discovery/ICP likely skippable unless commercial intent emerges).

Other options: design spec for the tactical vertical slice (combat model, deck/phase rules); Three.js performance spike (instanced units + pathfinding stress test); unit/division data schema draft (factions, divisions, units, loadouts).

Source coverage gaps: no web research performed (by design — this skill is pre-research); no performance measurements; no competitive scan of browser RTS titles. Rejected alternatives recorded in §2 (interview options not chosen: all-Soviet Central Europe, multiplayer-first, campaign-map-first slice, no-base-building models, fresh kenney.nl downloads).

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