# V8 Features — Ariadne: The Self-Authoring Detective Universe (Unreal Engine 5) Status: V8 feature inventory. Source: **originating design document for V8.** Like V6 (Egbe) and V7 (Mawu) — and unlike V1–V5, whose feature maps were derived from a pre-existing implementation backlog — V8 begins from this document. `V8_TODOS.md` is derived from the scope defined here, and thereafter the backlog checklist becomes the source of truth for completion state. V8 extends the **V5** open-world detective game (`V5/V5_features.md` § "Cross-Cell Mind Palace (Sherlock)" and § "Vice Squad"), reuses the **V1/Isis** generation pipeline (`libs/isis`), the **Yemaya** multi-agent creative studio (`libs/yemaya/agents`), the **Hathor** LLM-NPC layer (`libs/hathor/llm-npc`), the **V6** Ori portable agent identity (`V6/V6_features.md` § "The Ori"), and the **V7** trust-and-safety regime (`V7/V7_features.md` § "Sekhmet"). Audience: product, design, narrative, gameplay, AI/agents, generative-AI, art, audio, netcode, security, trust-and-safety, live-service, research, and rights leads scoping V8. Inspired by the design footprint of L.A. Noire, the Frogwares _Sherlock Holmes_ line (Crimes & Punishments / Chapter One), _Return of the Obra Dinn_, _Her Story_, _Outer Wilds_, _Disco Elysium_, _The Case of the Golden Idol_, _Pentiment_, the Inworld × NVIDIA "Covert Protocol" UE5 demo, and the research lines of Stanford "Generative Agents", procedural-mystery constraint solving (EXAG "Eliminating the Impossible"), and fair-play-in-detective-fiction modeling (arXiv 2507.13841). See `V8_SOTA_RESEARCH.md` for the full grounding. Date derived: 2026-06-04. Naming note: V8's product and core subsystems are named for the **Ariadne / labyrinth myth cycle**, consistent with the Oshun monorepo convention of mythological subsystem names, and each name was checked against the existing `libs/`, `apps/`, and `DOMAINS/` registries to avoid collision (Ariadne, Clew, Minos, Theseus, Daedalus, Oracle, Palimpsest are free; Ori is reused as an explicit bridge to an existing asset). _(The continuity-graph subsystem was briefly codenamed "Mnemosyne Canon"; it was renamed **Palimpsest** to avoid colliding with the existing `libs/mnemosyne/*` learning-science domain, which is unrelated and which V9 reuses directly.)_ The labyrinth is the deliberate metaphor: a fair mystery _is_ a solvable maze, Ariadne's thread (the _clew_ — the etymological root of "clue") is the deduction chain, and Theseus is the player who walks it. --- > **This feature map has been decomposed into focused pages under > [`features/`](./features/README.md).** This file remains the canonical hub — > it preserves every section heading (so existing `features§"…"` and > `V8_features.md#…` anchors keep resolving); the in-depth, code-grounded > companion pages live under [`features/`](./features/README.md). Start at the > [features page index](./features/README.md). The runtime/package architecture > is in [`V8_ARCHITECTURE.md`](./V8_ARCHITECTURE.md) / > [`architecture/`](./architecture/README.md). ## Purpose This document is the **feature map for V8**. V8 is **one coherent product — a self-authoring detective universe — not a tool.** It turns V5's authored detective game into a living world where an integrated system of state-of-the-art AI agents generates an **endless supply of fair, solvable, fully-voiced, fully-realized cases**, and wires every existing Oshun generation system into the shipping V5/V6 game at runtime. V8's entire thesis is **integration + generation-completion**. V1–V7 already ship the two halves — a real playable detective game and a real multi-modal AI content factory — but they are not connected, and neither half can _generate a complete case_. V8 builds the missing generative core, **proves each case solvable before it ships**, and compiles output into V5's _existing_ authored case format so the playable game needs no rewrite. (See `V8_GAP_ANALYSIS.md`.) `V8_TODOS.md` carries the numbered execution backlog and agent execution order; `V8_ARCHITECTURE.md` carries the technical design and exact data contracts; `V8_DEPENDENCIES.md` carries the dependency graph; `V8_SOTA_RESEARCH.md` carries the external state-of-the-art that grounds every design decision. --- ## The product, layered - **Ariadne** — the product: the system that hands the player an unbreakable thread out of any labyrinth it builds. Ariadne guarantees that every case it authors _can_ be solved with the clues it provides — fairness is a property the system _proves_, not hopes for. - **The Labyrinth** — a single generated case: a crime, a cast, a timeline, a web of evidence and red herrings, and exactly one culprit who is the _only_ suspect consistent with the player-available clues. - **The Clew** — Ariadne's thread: the canonical deduction chain from first clue to accusation. It is generated _first_ (solve-first) and the case is built backward from it. - **Minos** — the judge at the labyrinth's gate: the formal verifier that refuses to let any case ship unless its solution is uniquely entailed and fair. - **Theseus** — the hero who walks the maze: an autonomous AI detective that _plays_ every generated case before release to prove it is solvable end-to-end and to calibrate its difficulty. - **Daedalus** — the architect: the compiler and runtime bridge that turns a verified case into V5 data (`FV5*` structs + `cold_cases_manifest.json` packs + an asset manifest) and streams it into the running game. - **The Oracle** — the storyteller that decides _which_ labyrinths appear in the open world, for _whom_, and _when_ — the drama/experience manager. --- ## Player-facing experience (what V8 ships) ### 1. The Endless Case Board The Vice Squad case-desk and the cross-cell Mind Palace stop being a fixed set of 25 + 20 authored cases. The **Bureau Case Board** continuously offers fresh, themed, difficulty-tuned cases — daily drops, player-requested commissions ("a 1947 arson case in the warehouse district, hard, two suspects"), and ambient open-world mysteries seeded into the living city. Every one is generated, fair, voiced, and solvable. ### 2. Cases that fit the world (and remember) Generated cases are **canon-consistent**: they reuse the persistent city's districts, recurring NPCs, factions, and the _outcomes of the player's prior cases_. Accuse the wrong man in case #7 and he can resurface — freed and vengeful — in case #19. The world has a memory because Ariadne writes to and reads from a shared canon knowledge graph. ### 3. Living suspects you actually interrogate Suspects are not branching dialogue trees. Each carries an **Ori** (the V6 portable agent identity) — memory, personality, secrets, and a stake in the case — and is driven at runtime by Hathor LLM-NPC + NVIDIA ACE / Inworld for live, lip-synced, MotionScan-style interrogation. They hold consistent alibis, crack under correctly-presented evidence, and lie _fairly_ (every lie is catchable with a clue the game actually gives you). ### 4. Fully-realized, not text-only Every generated case ships with generated **crime-scene environment art and 3D props** (Hunyuan3D/Meshy), **suspect portraits and document/photo evidence** (Stability/Flux), **case music and stings** (Suno), and **full voice-over for every line** (ElevenLabs) — all produced by the Isis fabric, keyed to the case, and provenance-stamped (C2PA, per V3). ### 5. Fairness you can feel Because Minos proves uniqueness and Theseus plays the case first, players never hit an unsolvable wall or a "gotcha" solution. Difficulty is honest: harder cases have more suspects and subtler clue chains, never _hidden_ information. The "Brilliant / Good / Doubtful / Wrong" accusation rating (V5's `EV5MindPalaceAccusationRating`) is earned against a solution the system can defend. ### 6. Co-op and creator cases A **Co-op Bureau** lets a party work one generated case together (shared Mind Palace, divided legwork). A **Commission Studio** lets creators steer Ariadne (set era, tone, cast, constraints) and publish vetted cases to the community through the V7 Mawu distribution + Sekhmet safety regime. --- ## Subsystem ownership | Subsystem | Codename | Owns | | -------------------------------- | ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Generative Case Engine | **Clew** | Solve-first ground-truth construction; clue derivation tied to solution variables; red-herring generation; the case as a constraint network. | | Solvability & Fair-Play Verifier | **Minos** | Formal CSP/ASP unique-solution proof; deductive-completeness check; gating via the existing yemaya mystery-fairness + investigation-balance validators. | | Canon & Continuity Graph | **Palimpsest** | The world/character/timeline/prior-outcome knowledge graph; SCORE-style state tracking + graph-RAG retrieval that grounds all generation (`@yemaya/canon-graph`). _Codename:_ a palimpsest — the canon is overwritten after each case (write-back) while prior-case outcomes persist and resurface. | | Writers' Room Orchestration | **Anansesɛm** | The multi-agent DAG (showrunner → specialists → integrator) on yemaya's `WorkflowBuilder`/`StateGraph`; narrative realization via `CreativeAgent`s. | | Asset Realization Fabric | **Loom** | Per-case orchestration of Isis jobs (env/3D/portrait/document/music/VO/video); retrieve-then-generate; asset binding. | | Living Suspects | **Ori-Detective** | Suspect minds (V6 Ori memory/reflection/planning) + Hathor LLM-NPC + ACE/Inworld runtime interrogation. | | Case Compiler & Runtime Bridge | **Daedalus** | Compile verified case → `FV5*` + `cold_cases_manifest.json` + asset manifest; the UE5 backend-relay; case-on-demand streaming. | | Automated Playtester & Eval | **Theseus** | Autonomous solver that plays each case; LLM-as-judge 8-dimension quality gate; difficulty calibration; release gating. | | Open-World Case Director | **Oracle** | Drama/experience manager: which cases appear where/when/for whom; pacing to a player model; ambient-mystery seeding. | | Cross-cutting | — | Cost/budget (yemaya `budget-management`), HITL (yemaya `hitl`), provenance (V3 C2PA), safety (V7 Sekhmet), determinism/replay, multiplayer canon sync, localization, accessibility, telemetry/evals. | --- ## Non-goals - V8 does **not** replace authored cases — V5's 25 hand-made cases remain the golden corpus and Theseus/judge calibration fixtures. - V8 does **not** rebuild V5's deduction UI, interrogation rig, or world streaming — it emits data those systems already consume. - V8 does **not** add new asset providers — it orchestrates Isis's existing ones. - V8 does **not** let an LLM "freestyle" a whole mystery — the symbolic ground-truth + constraint solver is authoritative; the LLM realizes the skeleton (see `V8_SOTA_RESEARCH.md` §1, "the LLM proposes, the solver disposes"). --- ## Definition of done (GA) V8 is GA-complete when, with zero human authoring per case: 1. A player requests or is offered a case; within the cost/latency budget the system generates it. 2. Minos has **proven** the culprit is the unique solution consistent with player-available clues, and the case passes the Knox/Van-Dine fairness gate. 3. Theseus has **solved** the compiled case in V5's actual data and confirmed the intended deduction path reaches a "Brilliant"-eligible accusation. 4. The case ships with generated environment/props/portraits/documents/music and full VO, all provenance-stamped and safety-cleared. 5. Suspects interrogate live (ACE/Inworld) with consistent alibis and fairly-catchable lies. 6. The case is canon-consistent with the persistent world and prior player outcomes, and its own outcome writes back to canon. 7. Everything is reproducible from a seed and auditable; nothing unsafe, unsolvable, unfair, or canon-breaking can reach a player.