CDL PRODUCTION · MOBILE · VERTICAL SHOOTER
Tao Baryon

TAO
BARYON

"We do not cross."
A mobile bullet-hell where matter resists its own annihilation.

ENTER THE GDD THE STORY
H-1 VANGUARD · M0
GAMEPLAY CONCEPT · FINAL VISUALS MAY DIFFER
TAO
The principle underlying all things.
BARYON
Protons, neutrons. Ordinary matter. The stuff that actually exists.

"The name is the thesis. Matter, as it is. Against the Telos who would unmake the vacuum and take everything with it. Against false transcendence. Against crossing."

SECTOR 1 → FRONTIER
SECTOR 2 → LONG REACH
SECTOR 3 → THE VEIL
SECTOR 4 → ERGOSPHERE
SECTOR 5 → APPARATUS
THE NARRATIVE

The false vacuum is not a metaphor.

2.4 million years ago the Telos entered dormancy at the edge of the Virgo Supercluster. What woke them — and why now — is not fully understood.

Ω·01 · THE COALITION
CDL — Coalition Defense Legion
The CDL is humanity's forward military response to the Telos incursion. Built around three ship series — H (functional), V (Veiled-influenced), C (joint masterwork) — the CDL pilots operate under a single mandate: hold the line. Do not cross into Telos space. Do not trigger escalation.

Pilot Cristian is Tier-2 Adept, flying the H-1 Vanguard. Rank 17. Starting in Sector 1: Frontier Patrol.
Ω·02 · THE TELOS
They are beautiful. That's the point.
The Telos do not look evil. They look like cathedral stained glass — warm colors, ornate geometry, liturgical proportions. Their ships are religious artifacts. Their bullets trace sacred mathematics.

They believe baryonic matter is an obstacle. The false vacuum — a lower-energy state of the Higgs field — is their goal. They intend to collapse it. Everything we know would cease to exist in 10²³ seconds. No warning. No resistance. Just a different physics.
Ω·03 · THE VEILED
Sira-Vel and the thread
The Veiled are neither Telos nor Coalition. They are the third civilization — ancient, enigmatic, watching. Sira-Vel contacts Cristian at Achernar Station after the first Frontier engagement. Her guidance is precise and cryptic: "The thread holds. Do not cross it."

The Veiled engineered the V-series ships in quiet partnership with CDL engineers. Their technology is teal where human engineering is blue-gray. Their understanding of the false vacuum is the only edge the Coalition has.
Ω·04 · THE ARCHITECT
Architect-Saint Halen — the source
At the end of Sector 5, beyond the Apparatus — the Telos physics-breaking installation — is the Architect-Saint Halen. Phase 1: still recognizable as a ship. Phase 3: barely.

The ghost frame appears for 0.5 seconds during Phase 2→3 transition: a humanoid silhouette in near-white at 30% opacity. The ghost of what Halen was before the Telos theology absorbed the human. This is who we're fighting.

Defeating Halen collapses the Apparatus. The vacuum holds. The thread holds. We do not cross.
READ FULL STORY BIBLE →
SHIP DESIGN SYSTEM

Nine ships. Three lineages.

H-Series: Coalition military — functional, reliable, asymmetric shading. V-Series: Veiled-influenced — teal from M1, exotic silhouettes. C-Series: Joint masterwork — darkest hull, both lime and teal at M2+.

LIME (#c8f542) APPEARS ON HULL ONLY AT M3 — NEVER BEFORE

H-Series
COALITION · MILITARY
Factory-built. Functional. The shape every other series is measured against. Hull #8b8fa8 — blue-gray. Asymmetric shading: lit from upper-left. No ornament.
H-1 VANGUARD H-2 INTERCEPTOR H-3 BULWARK
V-Series
VEILED-INFLUENCED · EXOTIC
Built with Veiled science. Hull #7a8090 — cooler gray. Teal at M1+. Each ship is a distinct instrument: scope/rifle, phase ghost, weapon platform.
V-1 MARKSMAN V-2 PHANTOM V-3 STRIKER
C-Series
JOINT MASTERWORK · END-GAME
Hand-assembled. Coalition-Veiled joint designs. Hull #606472 — darkest. Both lime AND teal at M2+. Pentagon, resonance rings, gravity disc. These ships shouldn't exist.
C-1 APEX C-2 RESONATOR C-3 SINGULARITY
COMBAT SYSTEMS

Momentum-mastery.
Discipline rewarded.

M-TIER SYSTEM
Four tiers per ship
Every ship has four upgrade tiers: M0 → M1 → M2 → M3. Hull silhouette identical across tiers. Engine bay color is the visible upgrade: blue → yellow → red+lime. Lime appears on the hull only at M3 — the color of discipline rewarded.
COMBO SYSTEM
×1 → ×10 → LIME STATE
Hit consecutive enemies without taking damage. At ×10 combo, the score counter turns lime and the SPECIAL meter fully charges. The lime state is a visual promise: discipline is working. Breaking combo resets to ×1 — but the game tracks your highest achieved multiplier per stage.
HEAT MANAGEMENT
Fire or cool — never both
Every weapon generates heat. At 90%+: weapon locks. Heat dissipates naturally when not firing. The H-3 Bulwark passive COMPOSURE increases dissipation when standing still — discipline is a mechanical advantage, not just a metaphor. Heat bar shifts color: blue → orange → red.
ENERGY & SESSIONS
8 units · +1 per 18 minutes
Each campaign stage costs 1 energy. Endless costs 2. Maximum 8 units. Refills gradually, 1 per 18 minutes. Skip-with-ad: maximum one skip per 3 hours. No pay-to-win on combat mechanics — all ship and weapon purchases unlock via gameplay credits or optional purchase. No weapon is combat-locked behind paywall.
THE TELOS FACTION

"Every Telos enemy is a religious artifact. They do not look evil. They look beautiful in the way of cathedral stained glass."

Warm palette only: magenta #d4548a, gold #e8b84b, warm orange #c47040. All enemies face downward. Higher-tier enemies carry prayer-script bands — alternating gold/shadow pixels that read as liturgical text at game resolution.

GRUNTS · G1–G5
Rounded rectangles, progressively larger. Prayer bands from G4. G5 is gold-dominant with a front cannon — a miniature boss.
STRAFERS · S1–S2
Horizontal wedges — wider than tall. The only enemy shape that reads as "side-to-side." The movement type is in the silhouette.
BOMBERS · B1–B5
Oval/egg shapes. The rounder, the heavier the bomb load. B5 has three gold hardpoints per side — armed and ready.
SNIPERS · Sn1–Sn3
Narrow gold downward triangles. Sn3 has dual barrels. The extreme height-to-width ratio reads as "precision at distance."
KAMIKAZES · K1–K4
Magenta teardrops, point at the bottom. Beautiful in their single purpose. K3 has two gold horn spikes. They are vivid because they move fast.
ELITES · E1–E4
128×128px cells. E1 Choral Knight (cross geometry). E2 Inquisitor Hunter (cold blue — unique). E3 Geometer Saint (pentagon, gold). E4 Apparatus Guardian (asymmetric, all three colors).
FIVE BOSSES · ONE PER SECTOR
Reverent Maelin (S1 — ace pilot, most human). Final Chorus (S2 — four-ship formation). Inquisitor Cohort (S3 — cold blue, surgical). Mathematician-Saint Voren (S4 — pentagon, proof in plasma). Architect-Saint Halen (S5 — Phase 3: barely recognizable as a ship. Ghost frame: 0.5s humanoid silhouette at 30% opacity during Phase 2→3 transition).
GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT

Full specification.

Complete design reference. Version 0.4.1. CDL Production. — Click any section to expand.

CONTENTS
VIEW FULL GDD →
01Overview
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Genre & Platform

Tao Baryon is a mobile vertical-scrolling shooter (bullet hell) for iOS and Android. Single-player. Portrait orientation. Designed for 5–20 minute session bursts with meaningful progression between sessions.

AttributeValue
GenreVertical shooter / bullet hell
PlatformiOS 16+ · Android 9+
Target audience16–35, casual to mid-core
Session length5–20 minutes
Content64 campaign stages across 5 sectors
Ships9 (3 series × 3 ships)
Bosses5 (one per sector)
StudioCDL Production

Core loop

  • Fly → Dodge → Fire → Combo build → Stage cleared → Rewards → Upgrade → Repeat.
  • The M-tier system provides meaningful unlock milestones that don't require endless grinding.
  • Every session has a clear objective (stage) and clear reward (credits, XP, possible shard).
02Design Philosophy
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Lime is discipline — never decoration. #c8f542 appears on ships only at M3. In UI it marks active state, current stage, earned rewards. Its rarity is what makes it land.

Core principles

  • Matter as it is. The game's physics basis (false vacuum, baryonic matter, vacuum decay) is real physics used as metaphor. The Telos want to change the rules of existence. CDL exists to prevent that.
  • Enemies are beautiful, not evil. Every Telos ship is a religious artifact — warm palette, liturgical geometry, prayer-script bands. The tension of the game comes from their beauty colliding with their danger.
  • Discipline rewarded. No-damage bonuses. Heat management rewards composure. Combo multiplier rewards consistency. The game notices when you're doing well.
  • Honest economy. No weapon is locked behind paywall. No combat advantage from spending. Purchase = cosmetics and ship unlocks that are also earnable with credits.

Visual vocabulary

  • Cool palette (player): blue #42A5F5, teal #2dd4bf, lime #c8f542, near-white #e8eaf0.
  • Warm palette (enemy): magenta #d4548a, gold #e8b84b, warm orange #c47040.
  • Backgrounds: Space Black #0a0c10. Station Dark #12151c. Never pure black.
  • Typography: DM Sans (UI copy). DM Mono (numbers, labels, all-caps identifiers). Major Mono Display (logo only).
03Narrative & World
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Setting

Far-future. The Telos — an alien civilization that entered dormancy 2.4 million years ago — have reactivated. Their theology: baryonic matter is an obstacle to true existence; the false vacuum (a lower-energy quantum state) is enlightenment. They intend to trigger vacuum decay — a catastrophic phase transition of the Higgs field that would eliminate all ordinary matter within 10²³ seconds.

Characters

  • Cristian — Player character. CDL pilot, Tier-2 Adept, Rank 17. Flying H-1 Vanguard.
  • Sira-Vel — Veiled handler. Contact established at Achernar Station after Frontier engagement.
  • Architect-Saint Halen — Final boss. Was human before Telos theology absorbed him.

Narrative delivery

  • Sira-Vel dialogue appears as a single line of italicized DM Sans text at the top of the Hub screen.
  • Codex entries unlock as you encounter enemies, clear stages, and purchase ships.
  • Boss phase transitions have brief text overlays.
  • No cutscenes. Story lives in UI text, Codex, and the enemy designs themselves.
04Core Combat Systems
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Movement

Left-side virtual joystick. Analog input, no snap-to-grid. Ship momentum is instant. Player can hold fire while moving.

Combat

  • Fire button (right side): Hold to fire. Auto-fires at weapon rate. Tap SPECIAL button when charged.
  • HP system: Hit = HP damage. Bar turns amber at 30%, red at 10%.
  • Heat system: Every weapon generates heat. At 90%+, weapon locks for 2 seconds. Color shifts: blue→orange→red.

Combo multiplier

  • ×1 at start of stage. Each enemy defeated without taking damage increases combo.
  • Milestones: ×5 (SPECIAL partially charges), ×10 (LIME STATE).
  • Taking damage resets combo to ×1.

SPECIAL ability

Each ship has a unique special: H-1 COMPOSURE, H-2 AFTERBURN, H-3 BULWARK ARMOR, V-1 PRECISION LOCK, V-2 PHASE SHIFT, V-3 VENT VOLLEY, C-1 GRAVITY FIELD, C-2 RESONANCE BURST, C-3 EVENT HORIZON PULL.

05Ships & Tier System
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Pixel art spec: 64×64px cells, 256×128px spritesheet (4 tiers × 2 rows idle/damaged). 1px black outline. No anti-aliasing. 2× nearest-neighbor display.

H-Series (Coalition)

ShipRolePassiveUnlock
H-1 VanguardStarter · All-rounderComposure (+heat dissipation)Start
H-2 InterceptorSpeed · RushAfterburn (+speed after SPECIAL)Tier 3 / 6,400cr
H-3 BulwarkTank · HeavyBulwark Armor (+shield recharge)Tier 4 / 9,200cr

V-Series (Veiled-influenced)

ShipRoleVisual signatureUnlock
V-1 MarksmanPrecision · Long rangeForked scope prongsTier 5 / S2 clear
V-2 PhantomPhase · StealthPhase gaps at M0Tier 6 / S3 clear
V-3 StrikerSustained fireCruciform weapon-podTier 6 / 14,000cr

C-Series (Joint masterwork)

ShipRoleVisual signatureUnlock
C-1 ApexBalanced · End-gamePentagon. Void-markers at M3.Defeat Halen
C-2 ResonatorDPS rampResonance rings at M3Rank 40
C-3 SingularitySlow devastatorGravity disc. Cascade at M3.24,000cr or Rank 50

M-Tier progression

  • M0→M1: Minor wing/body modifications. Trail brightens. Engine exhaust blue.
  • M1→M2: Engine turns yellow. Series-specific hull marks appear.
  • M2→M3: Engine turns red+lime halo. LIME appears on hull for the first time.
06Weapons
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Color rule: Player bullets = cool palette (blue, teal, lime, white). Enemy bullets = warm palette (magenta, gold, orange). Threading has NO glow — the only bullet without a halo.
WeaponPhysics basisShapeSeries affinity
PULSEMagnetically confined plasma4×4 circle, lime core, blue glowH-Series
WAVEOscillating magnetic field3×8 S-curveH-Series
SPREADFan emitterThree-pellet fanH-Series
PREDICTIVETargeting system guided3×10 capsule with chevron tipH/V
SPIRALRotating magnetic field4×10 teal arc (Veiled)V-Series
MANDALASacred geometry5×5 diamond, lime crossTelos-affinity
CASCADINGBoltzmann statisticsMain + 2 child bulletsV-Series
LENSEDGravitational lensing3×12 slightly bent columnC-Series
THREADINGCosmic string / 1D defect1×20 column, NO GLOWC-Series

Building system

Weapons are built over real time (4–12 hours). One weapon can build at a time. All weapons obtainable without spending.

07Enemies
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Facing rule: All enemies face DOWNWARD — nose toward the player at bottom of screen. Prayer script mandatory from G4+.

Enemy types

  • Grunts G1–G5: Rounded rectangles. Progressive size. G5 gold-dominant.
  • Strafers S1–S2: Horizontal wedges — wider than tall. Side-to-side movement.
  • Bombers B1–B5: Oval/egg shapes. Rounder = heavier payload.
  • Snipers Sn1–Sn3: Narrow downward gold triangles.
  • Kamikazes K1–K4: Magenta teardrops pointing down.
  • Elites E1–E4: 128×128px cells. E2 Inquisitor Hunter is cold-blue — unique.

Boss design principles

  • Each boss is unique — no recycled sprites at different scales.
  • Phase transitions are visual, not just HP-bar jumps.
  • Halen's ghost frame is the most important cinematic moment in the game.
08Sectors
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SectorNameAtmosphereMoodBoss
S1FRONTIERCold blueMilitary lonelyReverent Maelin
S2LONG REACHDustyWar-wearyFinal Chorus
S3THE VEILTealStrange beautyInquisitor Cohort
S4ERGOSPHEREOrange-redGravitational pullMathematician-Saint Voren
S5APPARATUSPalePhysics-breakingArchitect-Saint Halen

Each sector has 12 standard stages + 1 boss stage. Sector atmosphere tint bleeds into the Hub background.

09Progression
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Pilot rank (1–50)

  • XP from: stage completion, no-damage bonus, rank-A performance, first-time clears.
  • Rank unlocks: V-series at Rank 15, C-series at Rank 30, cosmetic trails.

Stage medals

  • ★ (Star): First completion.
  • △ (No damage): Complete without taking any hit.
  • ◇ (Rank A): Score above threshold for the stage.

Ship mastery

Each ship has a mastery level (1–20). Mastery XP from stages flown with that ship.

10Economy & Monetization
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Core principle: No weapon or combat advantage locked behind payment. No pay-to-win in any form.

Currencies

CurrencySourceUses
CreditsStage completion, daily bonusShip purchase, weapon build
ShardsNo-damage clears, boss killsM-tier acceleration
EnergyPassive refill (+1/18min, max 8)Stage entry cost

Purchasable

  • Energy refill: Instant 4 energy. Max 2 per 24h at reduced price.
  • Ship bundle: Specific ship + 500 credits starter.
  • CDL Pass (monthly): +1 energy/day, 20% credit bonus, exclusive cosmetic trail.
  • Skip build: Skip one weapon build timer. Also available via rewarded ad.
11Technical Notes
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Art pipeline

  • Ships: Krita pixel art at 1×, 64×64px cell, PNG-32 with alpha.
  • Bullets: 32×64px cell, 288×192px spritesheet.
  • Enemies: 64×64px cells (elites 128×128px).
  • Display: 2× nearest-neighbor upscale everywhere.

Color rules (enforcement)

  • Lime #c8f542 on ships: ONLY at M3.
  • Enemy warm palette: no blue or teal, EXCEPT E2 Inquisitor Hunter.
  • Player bullet cool palette: no magenta, gold, orange.
VIEW FULL GDD →
THE STUDIO
CDL
Production

CDL Production is an independent studio building disciplined, narrative-grounded games. Tao Baryon is our first title — a mobile vertical shooter with the ambition of a console game and the constraints of a phone screen.

We believe in honest monetization, physics-grounded narrative, and the idea that every pixel placed intentionally communicates something. The lime rule is not a design constraint — it's the whole thesis in a single color.

tao-baryon.cdlofficial.eu