A solo high score has never won an argument.
Section 01 · answered 2026-08-03
A potato seeking his purpose — to become a Tater Tot hero. The story is the game; the fists are how it argues.
Show, don't declare. Classic mode is where Tater Dash began — the flappy-bird-like original, kept in the game under its new name. Click, tap, or press Space to keep the potato airborne through the gaps. Every color below is read live from the document's own tokens.
Static fallback — with JavaScript enabled, this panel is a playable slice of Classic mode: the potato falls under launch-gradient skies, and you tap to thread it through the gaps. Without JavaScript, take our word for it — or better, don't: the App Store build is the real thing.
The mission of Tater Dash is to tell a story about a Potato seeking to find his purpose — to become a Tater Tot hero. Story mode is full of instances speaking to this, and tons of reflective moments. Deep down, the game is a fun 2D fighter.
Mature themes, handled with purpose: sickness, body dysmorphia, depression, loneliness — all centered around the pursuit of O, which is intrinsically tied to the notion of scripture without seeming like it. In every story mode, revealed or not, Odie takes what he gets from O and uses it to dramatically impact the lives of those he meets.
The world is under attack from four factions — potato beetles · birds · late blight · spuddies (dead set on vengeance against potato kind). Relatively easy levels so far, to be developed later; the background story runs conversationally through them.
The tournaments are the world's answer: it is set up to bring the best out of people by compelling them to compete and train, so they might better serve the world's good.
And on the moon, two watchers: Ghost, the ghost pepper — a nightshade, like Odie — the destroyer, considering annihilating the planet because it has fallen into vain, prideful, sinful behaviors; he thinks it's time to start over. Dragon, the dragonfruit — a bit sweeter — believes there is still hope, and constantly takes on the burden of rallying and inspiring people. That's what the tournaments do. Ghost is always watching. (Character entries: section 07.)
The sleep canon · answered 2026-08-03
Every Odie story begins the same way: he wakes up having forgotten his past. Tater Dash is the only time Odie has ever gotten to sleep and woken up able to remember the day before. That is the emotional spine of this game — the whole brand stands on one good morning.
Ohm — the friendly boo who gives the player diamonds — remembers. Diamonds are Ohm's memory; every one handed over is a piece of a day that, for once, didn't disappear.
Cross-IP law: the time skip is Potato Literature's infinite loop, and this is what escaping it feels like. Never trivialize the escape.
| Unlock | How it's earned |
|---|---|
| New skins — Versus, potentially Classic too | Fruits of the fights |
| Certain characters | In-app purchase |
| Certain characters | Guaranteed unlocks through story mode |
| Certain characters | Story-mode high scores — stars collected, 1 / 2 / 3 per game |
| Certain characters | Beating certain versus modes |
| Certain characters | Certain collections of collectibles |
| Leaderboard profile card | Customizable with cosmetics unlocked from a variety of places |
| Diamonds — the currency in the universe | The diet everyone runs on, given to the player by Ohm. How diamonds trade against the unlocks above is deliberately unspecified for now |
Corrected 2026-08-03: a fighter is not a color — guard-bubble colors are a fight-readability convention only, so the old "every fighter is a color" principle is retired.
Section 02 · proposed
The title card is the mark: outlined caps and a potato mid-dash, flame trailing.
Two parts, separable: the lettering (chunky caps, ink outline, white fill) and the dasher (the determined potato with its flame trail). Together they are the title card; the dasher alone can carry small placements. Clear space: the height of the flame. Minimum: 44 px for the dasher, 120 px wide for the full title card.
standalone lettering-only wordmark file — the title art is one flattened image; split the layers
Section 03 · proposed
The tri-orange sky, a potato-brown earth, a guard color for every one of the 32 fighters, and an HP bar that tells the truth.
Guard bubbles, focus motes, and HUD accents render in the owner's guard color — a fight-readability convention, nothing more. A fighter is not a color (Brett, 2026-08-03): these are tokens because combat has to read at a glance, not because characters reduce to palettes. The founding four are shown here; all 32 guard colors live in tokens.css and render as the dots beside every fighter in section 07.
#4DC759 safe · #F3D433 caution · #E16416 warning · #DB332E critical. Status colors are reserved — never decorative.
| Pairing | Ratio | WCAG AA |
|---|---|---|
| Ink on Cream | 15.0 : 1 | PASS — all text |
| Cream on Dark Brown | 13.8 : 1 | PASS — all text |
| Butter on Ink | 12.1 : 1 | PASS — all text |
| Blight on Ink | 7.0 : 1 | PASS — all text |
| Fiery Orange on Cream | 3.1 : 1 | large text / UI only |
| Blight on Cream | 2.1 : 1 | decorative only |
Rule: fighter colors live on ink or in bubbles — never as text on cream. Body copy is Ink-on-Cream or Cream-on-Dark-Brown. The launch gradient (180°, orange → sienna → gold) backs hero moments only.
Section 04 · answered 2026-08-03 — approved, awaiting formal lock
Bowlby One SC for the plaques, Kongtext for the arcade guts — both ship in the binary. Brett: "i like our typography choices."
FIGHT
hero · display · clamp(2.8rem → 5.5rem)
Choose your fighter
h1 · display
HIGH SCORE 00909
arcade · Kongtext · scores, tickers, retro plaques
Every commitment is a chance to push — or eat a punish.
h3 / taglines · Outfit 800
Body is Outfit, per the umbrella. Player names, match stats, and store copy set in the body face — the display faces are for plaques and moments.
body · Outfit 400
room-code A7F2 · com.hotpotatogames.taterdash
mono · JetBrains Mono · codes, IDs
Bowlby One SC is the poster voice — titles, fighter names, mode plaques. Kongtext is the machine voice — scores, timers, anything the arcade cabinet itself would say. They never share a line. The in-app sticker buttons currently set their letters in AvenirNext-Heavy — a system-font relic, flagged for replacement with Bowlby.
Section 05 · proposed
The verb stickers are the icon system: P · A · O · T, round, colored, pressable.
Tater Dash's icons are its controls. Four round stickers carry the whole verb language — Punch, Kick (A), Focus (O), Clinch (T) — each on its assigned brand color. Beyond the stickers: the diamond (currency, four shimmer variants), heart pips (HP), and Lucide inherited for chrome the game doesn't own.
punch
kick
focus
clinch
| Element | Rule |
|---|---|
| Sticker geometry | Perfect circle, 3px ink border, hard shadow; letter in the display face |
| Color assignment | P orange · A sienna · O gold · T white — fixed, never swapped |
| Diamond | The one collectible glyph; four shimmer frames; never recolored |
| Hearts | Segmented HP pips in the HUD — status, not decoration |
| Chrome icons | The canonical HPG seven (below) — Lucide, stroke 2, 24 grid, flowed down from the parent |
Adopted from the declared Hot Potato Games icon set (context: potatuhs-design Iconography.jsx). This set supersedes every ad-hoc subset and flows down from the parent — where Tater Dash needs chrome the game doesn't own, it draws from these seven first.
gamepad-2 · Gamepad
trophy · Trophy
dice-5 · Dice
swords · Battle
users · Multiplayer
timer · Timer
crown · Leaderboard
Section 06 · proposed — rebuilt 2026-08-03 after Brett's shred
Rubber-hose fighters on painterly-pixel fields — 205 imagesets of one world, every one shown the shape it actually is.
Native aspect ratios are law (Brett, 2026-08-03): every image renders at its measured pixel proportions — arenas are landscape (1672×941) and stay landscape; fighters are portrait (1024×1536) and stay portrait. No cropping a world into a frame it didn't ask for.
North star: the HPG Environment Style Guide v1.0 (filed under Tater Dash) — linework, texturing, palette, idle animation, tiling.
Section 07 · the roster made real — rebuilt 2026-08-14, doubled 2026-08-22 from code
Thirty-two fighters — the 16 free story fighters (four worlds, a Mind·Soul·Body·Heart quartet each) plus 16 paid “aux” fighters in four packs of four. Every world below pairs its main 4 (story) with its aux 4 (that world's IAP pack), and every fighter now has real art.
Main 4 · story
Aux 4 · Produce Pack IAP $0.99
Main 4 · story
Aux 4 · Underground Pack IAP $0.99 · clear W1
Main 4 · story
Aux 4 · Skyward Pack — the mushrooms IAP $0.99 · clear W2
Main 4 · story
Aux 4 · Cosmic Pack IAP $0.99 · clear W3
Every portrait above is a real ready-frame sliced from that fighter's in-game atlas (the select-idle pose) — the whole 32-fighter cast, W2–W4 and the paid packs included. The rich per-fighter profiles and the psyche spine follow below.
Odie · “Tater”
The closer. Makes space, charges Focus to MAX, dashes in for the boop. Under ⅓ HP: ALL OUT.
Story
The purpose arc: a potato seeking to become a Tater Tot hero. Everything he takes from the pursuit of O, he spends on the people he meets. And this is the one story where sleep gives instead of takes — the sleep canon (section 01) is his morning.
Customer mirror: Ike — relentless self-improvement, at war with time, learning to step forward in faith instead of burning out (§16).
Chip · “Butter”
The slipster. Weaves punches, feeds P-mashers slip stuns, loves the rising uppercut. A butter chip in very good shape.
Customer mirror
Horatio — the aesthete with body dysmorphia who would rather train than perform; arrival that didn't answer the hollowness. Story slot open (§16 is the seed).
Burt · “Burlap”
The drill. Walk in, one swing, back off. The easiest lesson in the ladder. In tune with the universe, keeps everyone's spirits up.
Customer mirror
James — the cheerful sack who feels empty inside; the good spirits are a shirt that stays on. Story slot open (§16 is the seed).
Eido · “Blight”
The aggressor. Full combo strings, hunts the clinch, throws from the lock. Thwomp his Late form for Hot Potato Mode.
Customer mirror
The shadow (not a customer) — a good friend before he got sick; now toxic, blames others, endangers everyone. Where any of the three lands if the fear runs the man. Also Conquest, the first Horseman.
Gobie
tomato · Mind — trains solo & serious; Vine Snare.
Story
Inspired by the Odie/Chip fight; becomes Odie's rival, later a training partner. His ambition is glory; Odie's is provision — they butt heads. Blames himself when his little brother is taken.
Woody
wooden crate · Soul — summons a marching minion; Crate Minion.
Story
Gobie's buddy, Burt's crate-equivalent; the two containers butt heads then find they're kindred. Shoulda/woulda/coulda who builds instead of committing — yet always there for his kids.
Strings
mozzarella stick · Body — massive aura, long reach; Stretchy Backhand.
Story
Tall and lanky, can't put on weight and it drives him crazy. Last competition he stopped only for fear of hurting Gobie — revealed to Odie through Ohm while Strings prayed after eating a diamond.
Gobbo / War
unripe tomato · Heart — the little rascal; Greatsword Slash.
Story
Gobie's kid brother — young, ambitious, told he's not old enough. Whispers in Eido's ear then betrays him for Ghost's crew; released the blight ghost and faked the postponed-fight message. This is what makes Odie and Gobie rivals.
Kofi
eggplant · Mind — big, sturdy, slow, barely budges; Egg Mine.
Story
The social mender — unites the nightshades, getting Odie and Gobie to stop being antagonistic and train together as the blight threat becomes clear.
Bach
cardboard box (snake inside) · Soul — Snake Strike.
Story
Everyone underestimates him, but he's a real contender: flung around easily yet conforms back fast, with mid/long-range bite. Kofi's friend — formless, now taking form. Extremely emotional, misunderstood.
Oli
olive · Body — short, scrappy; Toothpick Javelin.
Story
Little-man syndrome — constantly picking fights but always learning. Kofi's friend, hits it off with Woody; his arc is toning down the aggression and one day opening his own dojo.
Reggie / Famine
ravaged eggplant · Heart — sparse aura, world-4 rules early; Slow Aura.
Story
Mistaken for Kofi; insists he's Reggie. A past champion who returned through the reality gap into a massacre — cold, ruthless, body too weak to heal. When Kofi departs this plane, Reggie returns in his place; his friends do not abandon him.
Opie
jalapeño · Mind — fastest in the game; Fire Breath.
Story
Spicy so nobody wants to eat him; already victorious, at war with the microbes, framed positively — he faces his weakness by choice.
Tikaba
plastic bag · Soul — Stun Burst.
Story
A bag of air; one of many on Ghost's rotten team; helps capture Eido. Tough. An emotional vessel — high highs and low lows.
Moe
avocado · Body — Avocado Pit.
Story
the endomorph, a bit bummed about his reality — story slot open, Brett fills this in a sentence
Ghost / Death
ghost pepper · Heart — fastest, fights dirty; Uppercut Slam.
Story
King of the Lunar Kingdom, head of the rotten team; took Eido, KO'd Burt and Chip. Seems evil but it's a misunderstanding — Eido had infected his friends; he and Dragon are buddies. Cheats (wins by DQ); believes death is a return to the Father; filled with wrath by O because it reminds him he lost. Odie changes his heart.
The roster is wired, drawn, and doubled — 2026-08-22. All 32 fighters are defined in code today (CharacterRoster.swift · VersusCharacter.swift · ExpansionPack.swift) — the 16 free story fighters plus 16 paid aux fighters in four $0.99 packs (Produce · Underground · Skyward · Cosmic) — each with a guard color, a play-style, a signature special, and an unlock path, and every one now has real art (shown in the gallery above). Two unlock lanes: story fighters cost a story-reach + a win + diamonds; pack fighters are granted directly on purchase. Dragon (dragonfruit) is now a pickable Pack-4 fighter and keeps his lore final-boss canon — no longer hidden off the select screen. The whole cast is clinch-enabled (the old “paid produce are clinch-immune” rule is retired).
| World | Fighter | Species | Play-style · signature | Guard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W1 | Odie “Tater” | potato | the closer; Focus→MAX, ALL OUT under ⅓ HP · Meteor Mash | #F58C24 |
| W1 | Burt “Burlap” | burlap sack | the drill; one swing per 3s · Clone Teleport | #8C663D |
| W1 | Chip “Butter” | butter chip | the slipster; weaves, slip-stuns · Counter Blink | #FAD940 |
| W1 | Eido “Blight” | late blight | the aggressor; Hot Potato Mode · Blight Field | #73B84D |
| W2 | Gobie | tomato | rival→teammate; juicy knockback · Vine Snare | #D93329 |
| W2 | Woody | wooden crate | spawns crate-minions from his head · Crate Minion | #9E7042 |
| W2 | Strings | mozzarella stick | long reach, flexible · Stretchy Backhand | #FAEBB8 |
| W2 | Gobbo | unripe tomato | Gobie's kid brother · Greatsword Slash | #8CB847 |
| W3 | Kofi | eggplant | the mender; sturdy, slow · Egg Mine | #6B3D8C |
| W3 | Bach | cardboard box | snake-in-the-box, underestimated · Snake Strike | #B88C57 |
| W3 | Oli | olive | short, scrappy · Toothpick Javelin | #808C38 |
| W3 | Reggie | ravaged eggplant | mistaken for Kofi · Slow Aura (rot DoT) | #523366 |
| W4 | Opie | jalapeño | overpowered, positive · Fire Breath | #4DA638 |
| W4 | Moe | avocado | Opie's training partner, usually wins · Avocado Pit | #85994D |
| W4 | Tikaba | plastic bag | Stun Burst (melting-plastic bind) | #CCD1D9 |
| W4 | Ghost | ghost pepper | the destroyer, fights unfair · Uppercut Slam | #E6591F |
Guard colors derived RGB→hex from VersusCharacter.swift. Specials share one grammar: ↓↓↓ + world-direction + archetype-verb (W1 down · W2 up · W3 left · W4 right) — the input encodes the world.
None of the roster is paid. The 16 unlock through story progression, each a two-step gate: a story milestone unlocks the fight against a character, and beating that character unlocks them as playable. Once a fight is unlocked you can initiate it any time in any Versus mode with character select — except multiplayer. The paid expansion packs (§17) are a separate produce cast, never these 16.
| Milestone | Unlocks |
|---|---|
| default | Odie · Burt |
| play Story once | Chip (fight) |
| complete W1 A4 | Eido |
| complete W1 → opens W2 | — |
| begin W2 story | Gobie |
| complete W2 A2 | Woody |
| complete W2 A4 | Gobbo |
| complete W2 A6 | Strings |
| complete W2 → starting W3 | Kofi |
| complete W3 A2 | Bach |
| complete W3 A4 | Reggie |
| complete W3 A6 | Oli |
| begin W4 story | Opie |
| complete W4 A2 | Tikaba |
| complete W4 A6 | Moe (avocado) |
| complete W4 | Ghost |
W3 A6 = Oli (confirmed; Gobbo unlocks once, at W2 A4). W4 has no A4 unlock by design — a tetrad's fourth world caps at the antagonist (completion → Ghost). The pattern generalizes: completing a tetrad's 4th world unlocks its antagonist; beginning the next tetrad unlocks two — the standard + the sparring partner.
The Four Horsemen. The four antagonists are the Horsemen — Eido = Conquest (white fire) · Gobbo = War · Reggie = Famine · Ghost = Death, the true antagonist and king of the Lunar Kingdom. Each world's health-gate tightens: W1 half HP · W2 quarter · W3 eighth · W4 zero. The extended cast is real but NOT one crew yet — never market them as an assembled team.
07.1 · answered 2026-08-14
The four archetypes that order every world's quartet also order the four tetrads of Odie's arc, one scale up — the same rules at both scales. Mind, Soul, and Body are a trinity; the Heart is the fourth — the hardened antagonist welcomed in and made new by proximity to the trinity. The hermetic key: the All is Mind — Odie understands soul, body, and heart through mind.
| Archetype | Fighters | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Mind — protagonist | Odie · Gobie · Kofi · Opie | the Focus meter is Mind's mechanic; Odie's arc is metanoia — changing his mind, pursuing God through O, honing focus to become a hero |
| Soul — container | Burt · Woody · Bach · Tikaba | the vessel you pour into; extremely emotional, high highs & low lows. Burt empty; Woody shoulda/woulda/coulda; Bach formless→form; Tikaba a bag of air. Shattered pieces needing Mind/Body/Heart for integrity |
| Body — the material | Chip · Strings · Oli · Moe | reality, constraint, limitation before the individual: a fit body that sees fat (Chip); lanky (Strings); small (Oli); endomorph, bummed (Moe) |
| Heart — the Horsemen | Eido · Gobbo · Reggie · Ghost | hardened hearts softened by Mind–Soul–Body; each fight ends in a heart made new, not a kill |
| Tetrad | Archetype | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| T1 · W1–4 | Mind | pre-tater — before he can transform; once a fat potato, he broke it, and Tater Dash begins |
| T2 · W5–8 | Soul | breaking the mold — goes Greater Tater (sun-crisped into a hash / a tot); temporary. A potato-only privilege — the same sun only sun-dries a tomato or eggplant |
| T3 · W9–12 | Body | sustained, yet despair — the Greater Tater becomes permanent, but insecurity returns: superior here, yet Greater Taters are common, so he doubts his form |
| T4 · W13–16 | Heart | the Greatest Tot — service over ambition (heal the sick, disciple the young, feed the hungry, be present for the mourning and dying); a light on a hill, unafraid to be seen, facing problems head-on |
T4 is taught through loss. The final tournament opens the tetrad — you lose. W13: win round 1, then lose. W14: win 1, win 2, then lose. W15: win 1, lose 2 — mirroring the archetype ladder (Mind's spirit → Soul's training → Body's “you've come so far” → the fall). In that despair Odie forsakes the tournament and revisits the old worlds, improving their conditions in his purified state, and comes out unaltered — impossible before. Peer pressure is the theme: the worlds that once dragged him down no longer can. Humbled, consistent anyway — the holy transformation.
The in-game names are stage names. The fighters are the Originals, the first cast of the whole Potatuhs canon: Odie plays as Tater · Buddy as Butter · Burt as Burlap · Eido as Blight. Odie IS Potato Literature's Odie, post-time-skip — the time skip is an infinite loop, and getting out of it is epic-scale canon on the order of the origin story and of Tater Dash itself. Never treat the escape as backstory trivia. The later four (Odie · Gobie the tomato · Yogi the eggplant · Javi the jalapeño) are not a crew until much later in canon — never market them as one yet.
The moon, split by dominion — the one sanctioned circle in this book.
The tournaments are the hopeful side's argument made playable: the world is set up to bring the best out of people by compelling them to compete and train, so they might better serve the world's good. Every story-mode tournament beat sits inside this frame.
Ghost & Dragon art — no art exists for either; no visual canon may be implied until it does
| Faction | Status |
|---|---|
| Potato beetles | Relatively easy levels so far — to be developed later |
| Birds | Relatively easy levels so far — to be developed later |
| Late blight | Relatively easy levels so far — to be developed later |
| Spuddies | Dead set on vengeance against potato kind — to be developed later |
The world is under attack from all four. The background story is conversational through these levels — lore arrives in dialogue between fights, never in cutscene lectures.
Section 08 · proposed — the overhaul direction, for Brett's shred
Actual components, not mirrors: the leaderboard, the buttons, the fight menu — drawn in the brand's own chrome, grounded in the extracted specs.
Everything below is built from the measured system: ButtonFactory cornerRadius 10 / lineWidth 2, half-height pills, the HP triad, opaque ink strokes. The extraction-accurate v0.2 component tables remain in DESIGN.md history — this page shows the overhauled direction. Sample data is sample data; the real board is real players only (section 13).
Primary is Fiery Orange with ink lettering; secondary is paper with the same 2px ink stroke; disabled goes warm-flat and drops its shadow — the game states limits, it never greys them into whispers. Press collapses the shadow and shifts the plate — depth is a physical promise. Focus ring: 3px Fiery Orange, always visible.
TATER DASH · CLASSIC
SPUDNIK01204MASHA01138YOU00982HASHBRAWN00944Rank in the arcade face, names in body, a profile-card chip slot per row (the customizable cosmetic from section 01's economy). The you-row is gold; the ghost row is your own best — you vs you rides along on every board.
Pills take half their height as radius (26pt → 13, straight from the HUD); the HP strip keeps the triad-plus-critical semantics from section 03.
Tater
the closer
Butter
the slipster
Burlap
the drill
Blight
the aggressor
Every card is one size — a fixed image box with the body pinned to the bottom, so a row never goes ragged. The sprite is contained, never stretched. No color strips on any edge; the guard color appears only as the small ink-ringed dot beside the name.
Section 09 · context
Opaque offset shadows, ink strokes, pill plates — measured off the live HUD, not invented.
Everything chunky: 3px ink borders, hard offset shadows (4px 4px card · 7px 7px pop), never blurred, never transparent. Press collapses the shadow flat — depth is a physical promise, not a glow. The winner card in the app literally draws its shadow as a second offset shape node behind the panel.
Pills take half their height as radius (26pt pill → 13, 34pt → 17, 38pt → 19, 46pt → 23 — straight from the HUD code). Panels sit at 14–18. Small chrome at 8–10. The document tokens (8 / 12 / 18 / 26 / 999) round that observed system.
| Surface | Value |
|---|---|
| Quiet chrome (HUD plates, pills, damage cards) | lineWidth 2 — VersusController.swift:205, 465, 2492 |
| Structural strokes (HP bar border, panels, guard rim) | lineWidth 3 — VersusController.swift:278, 366, 950 |
| Winner panel / selected highlight | lineWidth 3.5 / 4.5 — VersusController.swift:1253, 311 |
| Buttons (ButtonFactory) | cornerRadius 10, lineWidth 2 — ButtonFactory.swift:31, 39 |
| Pills (ready / mode / action) | cornerRadius 13 · 17 · 19 · 23 — VersusController.swift:462, 483, 995, 1313 |
| Panels (pause, mechanics, winner) | cornerRadius 14 · 16 · 18 — VersusController.swift:1073, 202, 947 |
| Winner-card shadow | offset shape node behind the panel — VersusController.swift:1244 |
Rule: shadows are opaque ink, offset down-right, zero blur. Borders never drop below 2px on any pressable surface.
Section 10 · context
Commitment reads as asymmetry: short windups, long cooldowns — rises ease out, falls ease in.
Every swing telegraphs briefly, lands fast, and costs a long recovery — the punish window IS the personality. All numbers below are the shipping values in Versus/VersusConfiguration.swift.
| Beat | Timing |
|---|---|
| Punch | windup 60ms · active 120ms · cooldown 350ms (:116–119) |
| Kick | windup 125ms · active 120ms · cooldown 600ms (:124–126) |
| Combo chain windows | P 450ms · A 500ms · P·P·P recovery lag 600ms (:131–134) |
| Jump | airtime 800ms — "floatier arc" (Brett, 2026-07-24) (:44) |
| Dash | out 300ms · return 120ms · cooldown 500ms (:48–50) |
| Thwomp | charge 250ms · drop 180ms · landing lag 300ms (:69–73) |
| Countdown step | 700ms per 3·2·1 beat (:315) |
| Animation | Timing |
|---|---|
| Idle loop | 350ms/frame — VersusPlayer.swift:1658 |
| Jump / dash / uppercut / KO | 180 / 70 / 90 / 120 ms/frame — VersusPlayer.swift:1661–1667 |
| Runner idle / dash | 200 / 100 ms/frame — GameConstants.swift:64–65 |
| Death arc (runner) | rise 50pt/200ms · hold 200ms · fall 500pt/600ms — GameConstants.swift:68–72 |
| Hit shake | 3 beats: 40 + 40 + 60ms — VersusController.swift:2628–2632 |
| Announce pop | scale 0.6→1.0 in 200ms · hold 1.2s · fade 400ms — VersusController.swift:783–788 |
| Follow camera | zoom 1.0–1.35× · lerp 0.12 — VersusConfiguration.swift:105–106 |
runner gravity −9.8 (GameConfiguration.swift:107) · flap impulse 30 (GameConstants.swift:57) · walk 260pt/s (VersusConfiguration.swift:21) · launch gravity 1600pt/s² · wall bounciness 0.75 (:159–161) · A·A·A launch 700/320pt/s (:136–137)
Section 11 · proposed
One hand, one thumb: portrait is permanent, and the world scrolls in speed bands.
The game launches portrait, and arena mode turns the phone: versus tells you to "TILT YOUR PHONE SIDEWAYS" and renders its landscape arena by rotating content 90° inside the portrait scene — the OS never re-lays-out, but the player's device does turn. Web and marketing surfaces inherit the spirit: vertical-first compositions, thumb-reach controls, one dominant action per screen.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Containers: narrow 46rem · default 72rem · wide 88rem. Ground lines are contracts — every arena declares its measured grass-top ratio, and art respects it.
Section 12 · context
The announcer shouts one past-tense verb; the store copy argues; the limits get stated out loud.
In-match copy is ALL CAPS, one beat, usually a past-tense verb with an exclamation mark — the machine calls what just happened and gets out of the way. Verbatim from VersusController.swift:
"FIGHT!" (:766) · "BOOP!" (:1544) · "CLASH!" (:1830) · "SLIPPED!" · "WEAVED!" · "ROLLED OUT!" (:1861–1869) · "DUCKED!" (:1885) · "CHECKED!" (:1894) · "SHIELD BREAK!" (:1908) · "LAUNCHED!" (:1953) · "CLINCH!" (:2028) · "DOMINANT!" (:2131) · "THROWN!" (:2250) · "BROKE FREE!" (:2289) · "CANNONBALL!" (:2390) · "TATER WINS" (pattern, :836)
Limits are announced in the same voice as victories, never hidden: "NO CLINCH ONLINE — YET" (:2003) · "NO PAUSES LEFT" (:920) · "WAITING FOR OPPONENT..." (:2668). The rematch is a named ritual: "RUN IT BACK" (:1266) — a handshake, both players vote. Instructions stay imperative and literal: "TILT YOUR PHONE SIDEWAYS" (:725) · "TAP HERE TO RESUME" (:1111).
"Tater Dash Versus. Because a solo high score has never won an argument."
the 5-second read — versus.json marketing.adRead5s; the cover tagline is its adaptation
Section 13 · answered 2026-08-03
Story is sacred; AI builds, trains, and stands in — always at human direction, always disclosed.
The story is sacred. AI never tells it.
The sacred law — HPG-wide, outranks every permission below. AI never creates or tells the story. It may fill in blanks or sections — composition only, at human direction — and it never injects its own side stories. Where any sanctioned use touches narrative, this law wins.
| Use | Rule |
|---|---|
| Initial designs | AI generates initial designs at dev time; a human approves everything that ships |
| Training against users | AI trains against players to produce more difficult enemies — in-house training only; player data still never enters third-party tools [derived] |
| Tournament stand-ins | AI fills tournament seats when people aren't there — always disclosed as AI, tagged out of real-session and leaderboard counts [derived from disclosure + honest-scoreboard rules]. Whether stand-in results count anywhere is an open item |
| Surface | Rule |
|---|---|
| Game code | AI welcome, directed live, human-reviewed before ship |
| Game art | AI generation within the Environment Style Guide; human approves every shipped imageset (205 and counting) |
| Leaderboard | Real players only. The KPI is honest or it is nothing — CPU fighters are labeled CPU, everywhere, always |
| Store copy & ads | Drafted with AI, approved by a human, in the brand voice |
| Player data | Never enters third-party AI tools |
Disclosure is the default. Tater Dash is built in the open with Claude Code. The versus bots have named personalities because honesty is a mechanic here: you always know when you fought Burlap the bot and when you fought your friend.
Section 14 · context
A child of Hot Potato Games; seasons — roster waves of four — are the content architecture.
web-port engine decision — Godot vs Unity vs canvas; no brand ruling until the platform is chosen
| Season | Contents |
|---|---|
| Season 0 live | The current App Store build — classic endless, pre-relaunch. Retroactively labeled. |
| Season 1 in-flight | The release: story mode + the founding four (Tater · Butter · Burlap · Blight). The rubber-hose relaunch IS the season 1 drop. |
| Season 2 pipeline | The second wave: Rot (green battered tomato) · Crate (wooden crate brawler) · Gobie (red tomato) · Strings (noodle-dread stringer). |
Declared 2026-07-29 (yumutsu): each season is a content drop, and roster waves of four fighters are the season currency going forward. Spec + staged art: potatuhs-dashboard/src/data/versus.json (seasons block) + public/versus/season-2/.
Section 15 · context
One spec, one registry home, named consuming repos — nothing re-declares a brand value.
| Reference | Owns |
|---|---|
| potatuhs-dashboard/src/data/versus.json | Versus Battle Arena spec: combat model, seasons ladder, marketing ad reads |
| potatuhs-dashboard/src/data/kpi.json | The KPI lanes: leaderboard · diamonds · assets |
| potatuhs-dashboard/src/data/taterdashAssets.json | Key-art tally (with scripts/gen-taterdash-assets.mjs) |
| hpg/_status/tater_dash.md | The live status board — session-by-session ship log |
| FlappyTot/Versus/VERSUS.md · ROSTER.md | Combat design truth · character canon wiring in-game |
Change protocol. Brand values change in DESIGN.md first, tokens second, surfaces third. Game-design numbers (frame data, damage) belong to the game's own files — this book cites them, it never forks them.
Section 16 · answered 2026-08-14
The root variables are fears & passions — not needs & wants. Three customers, one man at three stages of a body-transformation journey; purpose is the through-line. And the tie the book asks for: the roster IS the customer. We cast him, we don't lecture him.
| Fighter (§07) | Customer | Passion → Fear | What Tater Dash is to him |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odie “Tater” | Ike — the relentless | GO, discipline → STOPPING (a rest day = becoming James again) | the retention loop: the endless runner, the banked-forever diamond count, and the Fire cap that teaches guilt-free rest |
| Chip “Butter” | Horatio — arrived, and empty | enjoying himself → “is this all there is?” | the collection and the paying customer: the 16→64 roster and the $0.99 packs, with people as the off-ramp |
| Burt “Burlap” | James — the escapist | escapism / worlds → his shirt coming up, being seen | the escapism door and the free download. Sell the world, never the exercise |
| Eido “Blight” | the shadow (not a customer) | the fear running the man → sickness that becomes blame | the cautionary end — where any of the three lands untempered |
Leverage passions to serve; never weaponize fears. The story may dramatize the shirt-fear — Chip's dysmorphia, Burt's emptiness — with empathy and purpose. The store may never sell against it: no before/after shaming, no body-targeted copy. An artifact that only works by making the person feel worse is cut.
Body-composition stance. Not toxic body-positivity, not the harmful extreme — sub-7% is not the goal. For these men sub-20% is a great place: the you who can take his shirt off and swim without shame.
Competition is there for you, but the lean is you-vs-you — yesterday's self is the rival (the “YOUR BEST” ghost row, §08). It serves Ike (self over war-with-time) and James (a ladder with no getting picked last).
Full profile: ic-profiles/hotpotatogames/tater-dash/ICP.md — derived as a facet of the parent James / Ike / Horatio roots, never new roots. This section is the in-book anchor; the ICP is the source of truth.
The arc is the argument. The deepest tie is the Mind·Soul·Body·Heart tetrad architecture (§07.1): the archetypes align with the customer roots — Mind = Ike (metanoia, the mind learning to change) · Soul = James (the empty vessel, the escapist) · Body = Horatio (arrival that is bodily and still unsatisfied) · Heart = the shadow (the hardened heart, redeemable). Odie's metanoia is the customer's transformation — the escapist who stops hiding, the relentless one who trades war-with-time for service, the arrived-but-empty one who finds purpose past the body. The Greatest Tot is the image of the outcome: a man who takes care of himself so he can be a better father, brother, son, friend, and community member. We don't argue the transformation — we make it playable.
Section 17 · answered 2026-08-14
A free-to-play iPhone game whose product is in-app purchases. Grow downloads first; the KPI gate is ten real leaderboard players; the web port is the expansion, not the launch.
| Metric | Role |
|---|---|
| Downloads | near-term headline — the free install tops every funnel |
| 10 leaderboard players | the KPI gate (unchanged, honest-sessions) |
| 100 pack sales | fast-follow trigger → pulls the next content drop. (The old “coming-soon” mushrooms already shipped in the Skyward Pack.) The roster grows 16 → 64 in waves of four. |
The web port is the expansion, not the launch. iOS is the launch (live v1.1.3, iOS 17+). The web port comes only after iOS validates — it expands the audience AND homes the NFT/crypto cosmetic layer the App Store forbade (Apple 3.1.1). Engine ruling is open item 9.
| Channel | Weight | Facet |
|---|---|---|
| App Store discovery (world-first screenshots) | 0.30 | James |
| Fellow-gamer vouch / redeemable codes in chat servers | 0.25 | James, Horatio |
| Short-video clips (dash chain, KO, boop) | 0.20 | James, Ike |
| Potatocore devlog (building in public) | 0.15 | Ike |
| hotpotatogames.com catalog + web board (post-port) | 0.10 | all |
Ethics rails (binding). No fear-selling · no pay-to-win at the door (packs & cosmetics are lateral) · the board stays honest (real players only, AI/CPU labeled) · one CTA at the exit (RUN IT BACK, or a step toward the next world / a friend). Full strategy: gtm-strategies/hotpotatogames/tater-dash.md.
Section 18 · logged baseline · 2026-08-22
A snapshot, not a spec — 48 real device screenshots of the shipping build (v1.1.3), logged the day before the home-page revamp so the redesign has a “before.” The rest of this book is the target; this section is what actually ships today.
The incoming IA replaces most of this. The current home (MenuView — logo / video / fire / diamonds / leaderboard / six buttons) becomes a persistent chrome + a 5-tab bottom navbar: Home · Arcade · Versus · Story · Rank (§14). Fire will gate Arcade only; Versus stays unlimited; Story has no fire. Every screen below re-homes under one of those five tabs.
Observed in the screenshots. Brett annotates the gameplay issues a still frame can't show; these feed the lock queue, they are not brand rules.
| # | Where | Issue |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Versus menus | Entire Versus menu UI renders rotated 90° in a portrait frame — the biggest legibility problem in the set |
| 2 | Shop / Profile / Collectables | Cards & rows clipped by headers, CLOSE bars, and the category-chip row |
| 3 | Overlays | Panels bleed through to the layer behind (no solid scrim) |
| 4 | Classic game-over | Score & leaderboard rows sink into cloud art — poor contrast |
| 5 | Multiple | Debug content exposed to players: “Unlock All Characters” toggle, “DUMMY: STILL”, “Rank 0”, raw “Current: -9.8” |
| 6 | Story | Heavy “TO BE WRITTEN” placeholders and 0/210, 0/30 progress read as unfinished |
| 7 | Story | Ghost mascot & Odie art float / overlap banners with no ground |
| 8 | Leaderboard | Empty rank medals and identity duplication — one player appears on two rows |
| 9 | Shop | Low-contrast search placeholder reads as broken |
| 10 | Versus combat | Control cluster (T/A/O/P + S-SHIELD + joystick + SELECT/START) crowds corners, overlaps terrain |
What survives the revamp. The flaming-potato mark and title lockup, the honest leaderboard, the rubber-hose fighter art, the diamond currency, and the “TILT YOUR PHONE SIDEWAYS” versus ritual are brand-durable. The chrome, nav, and rotated-UI plumbing are not.