# Downer Management — Steam Store Copy

All copy below is written in the in-fiction bureaucratic-comedy voice the
game already uses (see strings.lua for tonal reference). Drop in directly
or trim per Steamworks character limits.

---

## TAGLINE (capsule overline / press kit)

**Manage downward. File upward. Survive laterally.**

(Alt taglines if needed elsewhere:)
- A bureaucratic autobattler.
- Personnel management for the difficult employee.
- Three desks. Three problems. One filing system.

---

## SHORT DESCRIPTION (300 char max — store search results)

A bureaucratic autobattler about managing three difficult employees through
a hostile org chart. Promote, demote, file, transfer, and stamp your way
through Department of Management Division III. Forms in triplicate. No
overtime. Termination is permanent.

(285 chars. Trim if needed:)

> A bureaucratic autobattler. Manage three employees through a hostile org
> chart. Promote, demote, file, transfer. Forms in triplicate. Termination
> is permanent.

---

## ABOUT THIS GAME (long-form body — ~2-3k chars recommended)

> **PERSONNEL FILE 3NQ-001 — DEPT. OF MANAGEMENT, DIVISION III**
>
> *You have been assigned a department.*
> *The previous personnel officer is unavailable for comment.*

You inherit three employees. You will not enjoy them. You will not be
permitted to fire them — termination requires Form T-4, which requires
your supervisor's signature, which requires an appointment, which is a
matter for Form A-7. Instead, you will **manage them**.

**DOWNER MANAGEMENT** is a 3-vs-3 autobattler set inside a corporate
purgatory where every conflict is resolved through positional politics.
Your three employees occupy three desks — Upper, Middle, Entry — and
fight other three-employee departments by exchanging memos, motions,
and clipboards. You don't control the fight. You control where they sit.

Promote a struggling employee upward. Demote your top performer to soak
hits. Tag a benched coworker in for a passive boost. File grievances.
Stamp paperwork. Watch your authority pool drain as the room fills with
mid-level managers who cite policy at one another until someone
liquidates.

It's an autobattler the way a Tuesday at the office is a battle.

### KEY FEATURES

- **THREE-DESK COMBAT.** The Upper, Middle, and Entry positions each get
  different damage and resilience modifiers. Promote an exhausted
  middle-manager up to take a hit. Demote your hero to soak one. Position
  is the entire game.

- **ELEVEN DEPARTMENTS, ELEVEN AURAS.** HR's Coffee Run heals your row.
  Legal's Paper Trail puts the enemy On Probation. IT's Phishing Hooks
  silences them. Marketing flags them. Each benched employee projects
  their department's aura onto the active row in the same position. Bench
  composition becomes a strategy puzzle.

- **THE FORMS.** Skills aren't fireballs. They're Memos, Audits, Cold
  Calls, Performance Improvement Plans, Hostile Takeovers, and the
  occasional Wrench Smash. Every attack is a piece of paperwork that
  generates more paperwork.

- **STATUS EFFECTS WITH HR APPROVAL.** Flagged. Silenced. On Probation.
  Delayed. Fast-Tracked. Every effect has been audited and approved by
  the Bureau of Personnel Standards, Form S-2.

- **PROCEDURAL PERSONNEL.** Hire from a shifting applicant pool. Each
  employee has a department, a role, a skill loadout, and a small,
  exhausted personality. They will die. You will replace them. The new
  ones will also die.

- **THE THEME MACHINE.** Before you take a building, you file a
  Department Theme — a procedural 80s-corporate aesthetic generator
  that re-skins your office every run. Names like *Open Plan*,
  *After Hours*, *Hold Music*, *Exit Interview*. Bureaucracy as
  procedural mood.

- **PARKING LOT INCIDENT REPORTS.** A parking-garage roguelike subgame
  layers under the main run. Boot clamps. Tow trucks. Meter checks.
  Get out of the structure before a Boss Boss arrives in a town car.

- **NO MICROTRANSACTIONS, NO LIVE SERVICE, NO METAPROGRESSION YOU
  DIDN'T EARN.** A complete game in one filing. Subsequent runs unlock
  new departments, new bosses, new floor plans, and a procedurally
  populated *Records* archive of every employee you've ever mismanaged.

### THIS GAME IS FOR YOU IF…

- You have ever been in a meeting that should have been an email.
- You have ever been in an email that should have been a meeting.
- You enjoyed *Papers, Please*, *Lethal Company*, *The Stanley Parable*,
  or any spreadsheet you didn't have to maintain.
- You miss the smell of toner.

### THIS GAME IS NOT FOR YOU IF…

- You expected a happy ending.
- You expected to leave on time.

---

## PRESS BLURB (180 char alt for marketing surfaces)

> Three desks, three problems, one filing system. A bureaucratic
> autobattler about managing the worst employees you've ever
> inherited. Forms in triplicate. Termination is permanent.

---

## SCREENSHOT CAPTIONS — final 12-pack (./screenshots/)

Steam allows up to 12 screenshots in the carousel. The first 5 show
without scrolling, so the order matters. Captions ≤ 100 chars each.

1. `01_title.png` — *Manage downward. File upward. Survive laterally.*
2. `02_desk_hub.png` — *Your office. The clock is wrong. The coffee is not.*
3. `03_battle_briefing.png` — *Pre-incident orientation. Mandatory.*
4. `04_battle_combat.png` — *Two departments resolve a dispute through the proper channels.*
5. `05_recruit.png` — *Personnel intake. Form H-3 in triplicate.*
6. `06_roster.png` — *Eleven departments. Three desks. The math does not work.*
7. `07_theme_machine.png` — *File a Department Theme before you take the floor.*
8. `08_decor_studio.png` — *Authorized furniture, per Form D-12. Yes, we have a couch.*
9. `09_floor_plan.png` — *Building Services Ref. FP-12. Some doors are locked.*
10. `10_boss_dossier.png` — *Lifetime record on file. Subject is aware.*
11. `11_performance_review.png` — *Post-incident audit. Pie chart of harm caused.*
12. `12_department_prevails.png` — *Case closed. Filing complete. Initialed in three places.*

---

## TAGS (Steamworks suggestion)

Recommended tag set, in order of priority:
- Auto Battler
- Roguelike Deckbuilder
- Comedy
- Strategy
- Indie
- Turn-Based Tactics
- Singleplayer
- Procedural Generation
- Office (if available)
- Dystopian
- Atmospheric
- Pixel Graphics (only if final art reads as such)
- Choices Matter

---

## SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (placeholder — confirm at build)

**Minimum**
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit / macOS 11 / Linux 64-bit (LÖVE 11.x)
- Processor: 2.0 GHz dual-core
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Integrated graphics with OpenGL 2.1
- Storage: 250 MB

**Recommended**
- OS: Windows 11 / macOS 13+ / recent Linux
- Processor: 2.5 GHz quad-core
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Any dedicated GPU with OpenGL 3.0
- Storage: 500 MB
