Whitepaper

Cloud Rift Whitepaper

A practical design spec and game-logic document for Cloud Rift, a Web3 floating-island village builder on the Sui blockchain.

Core Vision

Cloud Rift is a browser-based floating-island village builder with a cozy art direction, low-friction onboarding, and a long-term Web3 economy hidden beneath simple village progression.

The player fantasy is: start with a tiny sky island, harvest airy elemental resources, refine them into crafted materials, expand the island, unlock higher-value production, climb seasonal Altitude rankings, and eventually participate in trading, guild competition, and token-based ownership.

Design pillars:

  • Cozy and readable, not hardcore crypto-native.
  • On-chain first, crypto-native economy.
  • On-chain ownership where it adds value: trade, premium assets, season badges, founder items, and future token utility.
  • Easy to market visually: floating islands, clouds, windmills, zeppelins, glowing materials, soft fantasy UI.

Player Fantasy and Progression

Every player is the mayor of a floating island settlement called a Riftlet.

Their core goals are:

  • Make the island larger.
  • Increase Altitude.
  • Unlock more efficient buildings.
  • Produce rarer materials.
  • Compete in seasonal leaderboards.
  • Join a Constellation guild.

Player journey:

  • Create account with wallet or social login (zkLogin).
  • Receive a Starter Riftlet.
  • Place first production buildings.
  • Harvest basic resources and feel immediate progress.
  • Unlock crafting/refining.
  • Enter social and trading meta.
  • Prepare for tokenized endgame.

Core Loop

The gameplay loop should be intentionally simple:

  • Generate basic resources over time from passive buildings.
  • Collect resources manually or via timed auto-collection upgrades.
  • Refine resources into processed materials with longer timers.
  • Spend materials on buildings, upgrades, expansions, and quests.
  • Earn Altitude from meaningful progress actions.
  • Repeat with better efficiency, new bottlenecks, and higher outputs.

Core Resources

Resource design should be minimal at launch so players understand it instantly.

Tier 1 Raw Resources

  • Wind: produced by Windmills; used in many refinements.
  • Dew: produced by Dew Collectors; used in growth and soft crafting.
  • Cloud Fiber: produced by Cloud Harvesters; used in textiles.
  • Pebblemist: mined from Cloudstone Outcrops; used for structural upgrades.

Tier 2 Refined Resources

  • Aether Silk: from Cloud Fiber + Dew.
  • Cloudstone Blocks: from Pebblemist + Wind pressure processing.
  • Skyglass: from Dew + Pebblemist + furnace-like refinement.
  • Lift Resin: from special botanical/refinery chains.

Tier 3 Rare Resources

  • Star Shards: rare drop from advanced production or seasonal quests.
  • Sunmetal Dust: guild/event-driven rare ingredient.
  • Storm Cores: high-tier progression material tied to prestige buildings.

Buildings

Each building should do one clear job and have 5 upgrade tiers at launch.

Starter Buildings

  • Town Hall: central level gate; determines island tier and unlock tree.
  • Windmill: generates Wind.
  • Dew Collector: generates Dew.
  • Cloud Harvester: generates Cloud Fiber.
  • Pebble Extractor: generates Pebblemist.

Refining Buildings

  • Loom: converts Cloud Fiber into Aether Silk.
  • Masonry: converts Pebblemist into Cloudstone Blocks.
  • Condensation Lab: converts Dew into enhanced liquid components.
  • Skyforge: combines refined materials into premium structural goods.

Utility Buildings

  • Storage Shed: raises capacity caps.
  • Dock Beacon: unlocks Trading Zeppelin access later.
  • Quest Board: surfaces daily/weekly missions.
  • Guild Spire: required for joining Constellations.
  • Observatory: unlocks rare-resource visibility and endgame events.

Altitude System

Altitude is the central progression score and should act as the game’s universal prestige metric.

Players earn Altitude from:

  • Building placement and upgrades.
  • Island expansion.
  • Quest completion and milestone achievements.
  • Seasonal participation and rare resource discovery.
  • Guild contribution.

Altitude is used for:

  • Leaderboards and unlock thresholds.
  • Airdrop-point precursor logic.
  • Matchmaking into competition brackets.
  • Seasonal reward tiers.

Economy Design

The economy should be sink-heavy from day one.

Sources

  • Passive building production.
  • Quest rewards and event participation.
  • Rare drops.
  • Referral/seasonal milestone bonuses.

Sinks

  • Building construction and upgrades.
  • Expansion costs and refining fees.
  • Expedition entry and premium crafting recipes.
  • Repair/maintenance on high-tier chains.
  • Market listing fees later.

Quests & Achievements

Quests are the main retention engine during the pre-token phase.

  • Daily quests: Collect 500 Wind, Refine 20 Aether Silk, Upgrade one building.
  • Weekly quests: Gain 1,000 Altitude, Expand island once, Contribute to guild.
  • Seasonal quests: Reach specific Altitude milestones, Discover rare materials.

Achievements should be permanent account-level progression markers granting a small Altitude bonus and permanent profile badges.

Constellations (Guilds) & Social

Guilds should be called Constellations to fit the theme.

  • Shared guild identity and banner.
  • Weekly cooperative goals and shared donation board.
  • Seasonal Constellation rankings.
  • Guild-only expedition events.

Social features include visiting player islands, liking/favoriting, friend lists, and referral chains.

Seasonal Model

The game should run in Seasons, likely 6–8 weeks each.

Each season includes:

  • Resettable season points and fresh quest ladders.
  • New leaderboard brackets.
  • Limited event buildings or skins.
  • Snapshot logic for founder scoring.
  • Special rare-resource rotation.

Future Token Logic ($AERO)

The token should come later, after CloudRift proves retention.

Later, $AERO can be used for:

  • Premium crafting catalysts.
  • High-tier expedition access.
  • Special event entries and cosmetic minting.
  • Governance-lite votes and marketplace fee discounts.
  • Constellation perks and land expansion at endgame.

On-chain Architecture on Sui

Sui is a strong fit because its storage and asset model is object-centric, meaning game state, assets, and capabilities can be modeled as individual objects with ownership rules.

Recommended split:

  • Mostly off-chain systems: Island layout state, timer queues, production calculations, quest state, leaderboards.
  • On-chain Sui systems: Premium island NFT, Premium building NFTs, Founder badges, Season reward claims, Marketplace listings, and later $AERO token.

For onboarding, CloudRift uses zkLogin so users can sign in with Google or Discord and still get a stable Sui address without managing seed phrases directly.