# Creative direction: frozen-waterworks (all of icyjumps5d)

A proposal for the whole map: the questionnaire answered once for all 23 sections of the Full Map
Run, inside Airtime's frozen city (`airtime-repo/docs/world/setting.md`), followed by what each
section becomes. Rules that always apply: [`GOAL.md`](../../../../GOAL.md) (the collision stays
exactly as it is); "ice" means any slick surface ([`slick-surfaces.md`](../../../../slick-surfaces.md)).
The sections' material: [`blockouts/`](../../blockouts/) (shots, geometry, players' paths).

| | |
|---|---|
| Map | ut43_icyjumps5d (Rambetter) |
| Route(s) | all 23 sections of the Full Map Run, noob-filter … teh-end |
| Concept name | frozen-waterworks |
| Date | 2026-10-14 |
| Answered by | Claude (proposal, to be reviewed) |

## The idea in one paragraph

icyjumps5d becomes **the city's frozen waterworks**: the flood-control and pumping system under
the frozen city, which froze while the water was still running. **The run follows the water**:
in through the street intake screens (Noob Filter), down drop shafts and spillways, through the
deepest vortex shaft (Indigo Twister), the machine heart of pump halls and separators, up the surge
shafts and out along an open canal to the outfall on the frozen river (Teh End), where the run
ends in daylight. **The section colours survive as the waterworks' zone colours**: every zone of a
real waterworks is colour-coded (pipes, stripes, signs), so Khaki, Thistle, Indigo … stay as the
paint of their zone. It honours the original map and tells players where they are.

## Creative direction

**1. What should this place fundamentally be?**
> Answer: A frozen municipal waterworks: intake screens, drop shafts, spillway halls, filter beds,
> vortex shafts, pump halls, separators, surge shafts, a canal and an outfall, all one connected
> system under and at the edge of the frozen city.

**2. Should it feel believable and functional, or highly stylized and fantastical?**
> Answer: Believable and functional (real infrastructure, real concrete, steel and brick), with
> heightened moments where the frozen water itself becomes architecture (frozen vortices,
> frozen waterfalls, frozen surf). Stylised realism.

**3. Choose up to three tone words.**
> Answer: Monumental, serene, cold.

**4. Should it still feel connected to Urban Terror, or become an almost entirely new universe?**
> Answer: Airtime's frozen city. Urban Terror survives in the geometry, in the section colours
> (zone paint) and in small easter eggs (the checker pattern frozen under the ice at the start).

**5. Are there games or films whose atmosphere you love?**
> Answer: Tokyo's G-Cans spillway (scale, pillars, light from above), Control (brutalist
> monumentality), Mirror's Edge (readability, colour-coded routes), Blade Runner 2049 (cold haze,
> single warm accents), Breath of the Wild's ice (readable gloss), Inside (silent industrial
> journey), Victorian pump houses such as Crossness and Abbey Mills (the brick and iron heritage
> sections).

**6. Are there visual styles you definitely do not want?**
> Answer: Grimy horror, neon cyberpunk clutter, toon shading, greeble-everywhere sci-fi, anything
> that hides where the ice is.

## World and story

**7. What was this structure originally built for?**
> Answer: Flood control and water supply: storms from the streets were caught, dropped deep
> underground, slowed, cleaned and pumped back up into the river.

**8. Is it actively maintained, recently abandoned, ancient, damaged, or being reclaimed?**
> Answer: Abandoned and frozen since the winter began, reclaimed by runners as one of the city's
> legendary lines: tags, bolted lamps, rope and carve marks. The oldest parts are Victorian brick,
> the newest are the authority's concrete.

**9. Is it on Earth, another planet, underground, underwater, or in space?**
> Answer: Earth, under the frozen city; the last sections come out into the open at the river.

**10. Should the environment quietly tell a story? If so, what happened here?**
> Answer: Yes. The night the winter came, a storm was running through the system. Everything froze
> mid-flow: frozen waves on walls, frozen whirls in the shafts, a frozen waterfall over the dam,
> debris trapped under clear ice. The further you go, the more the frozen water dominates; at the
> outfall the frozen flood spills out into the river.

**11. Should the location appear inhabited?**
> Answer: No people. Evidence of runners only: record tags at the start and finish, carve marks,
> strings of battery lamps, a camp in the control room (Telekinetic Noobyportal).

**12. Should the outside world be visible through the open roof or windows? What should be out there?**
> Answer: At the start through street grates (city towers, snow falling in), in the deep middle
> not at all, and fully at the end: the canal and the outfall open to a winter sky at sunrise.

## Architecture

**13. Should the original geometry remain visually recognizable, or be disguised inside larger
architectural forms?**
> Answer: Each original room stays recognizable as one channel, basin or shaft, set inside bigger
> waterworks architecture (pillars, outer aisles, galleries) that lies outside the collision.

**14. What should the route's signature element become?**
> Answer: One per section, see the table below (vortex shaft, dam wall, filter beds, clarifier …).

**15. Should the architecture use sharp geometric forms, flowing curves, or a mixture?**
> Answer: Mixture: rectilinear concrete and brick for everything built, flowing curves for
> everything the frozen water made, which is exactly where the original has its curves (patches).

**16. Should the space feel enormous and cathedral-like, human-scale and detailed, or claustrophobic?**
> Answer: It changes on purpose: tight at the intake, cathedral halls in the middle, vertiginous in
> the shafts, open sky at the end.

**17. Would you like multiple visual layers above the playable space?**
> Answer: Yes, few and big: roof grates and beams, maintenance gantries, giant pipes and valves,
> suspended pump motors, nothing low over the lines.

**18. Do you want glimpses into inaccessible side areas to imply a much larger world?**
> Answer: Yes: side aisles of the spillways, the next basin behind a wall, other shafts through
> grilles; the waterworks should feel endless. The secret rooms of the map can later become
> hidden parts of the same system (old Victorian chambers).

## Materials and palette

**19. Pick a main material family.**
> Answer: Concrete and steel with clear ice; Victorian brick and cast iron in the heritage sections
> (pump halls, velodrome); galvanized grates everywhere a runner stands.

**20. Pick a primary palette or describe your own.**
> Answer: Ice blue, concrete grey, sodium amber as the base for the whole map; each section adds its
> own zone colour (its name) as paint only.

**21. Should the original colour survive as a subtle tribute, or disappear completely?**
> Answer: It survives everywhere, as the core idea: each section's colour is its zone paint (wall
> stripes, pipe bands, door frames, signs with the section's name). Paint never touches ice, so
> slick surfaces keep one look on the whole map.

**22. Should surfaces look pristine, lightly used, heavily weathered, wet, frosted, dusty, overgrown,
or mixed?**
> Answer: Mixed: concrete weathered and stained up to the old water line, frost above it, ice clean
> and glossy where runners ride.

**23. How reflective should the ice be?**
> Answer: Floors: clear, glossy ice like transparent frozen glass; walls: satin, frosted; frozen
> water features (vortices, waterfalls): glassy with internal streaks.

**24. Do you want plants, water, snow, fog, dust, sparks, steam, or none of these?**
> Answer: Snow (falling in through grates at the start, drifts outside the lines), cold haze, ice
> crystals in light shafts, icicles; a little steam only in the pump halls (old heaters).

## Lighting and atmosphere

**25. Choose the time and atmosphere.**
> Answer: One night into one morning across the run: blue hour at the street intake, artificial
> darkness in the deep middle, sunrise at the outfall.

**26. Should the overall image be bright and inviting or dark with concentrated pools of light?**
> Answer: Dark with concentrated pools of light in the deep sections (the light falls on the
> lines), bright and open at the end.

**27. Choose the main accent-light colour.**
> Answer: Sodium amber (runner lamps, old work lights), against the ice blue; each zone's colour
> appears in its signal lamps.

**28. Should a section of the route have a dramatic lighting transition?**
> Answer: The whole run is one: street light → daylight shafts → deep indigo darkness (Indigo
> Twister lit only by runner lamps) → warm pump halls → rising grey shafts → golden canal → sunrise
> at the outfall.

**29. How atmospheric should it be?**
> Answer: Cinematic volumetric beams in the halls and shafts, light haze elsewhere, never fog over a
> line.

**30. Do you want animated-looking elements?**
> Answer: Minimal and physical: drifting ice crystals, a flickering lamp, light caustics through ice,
> one slowly turning frozen fan in the pump hall. No holograms.

## Detail and gameplay readability

**31. How dense should the decoration be, from 1 to 10?**
> Answer: 4 in the halls, 2 in the shafts and on all curved surfaces, 5 at the start and finish.

**32. Should the route be marked explicitly with illuminated lines or arrows, or guided only through
composition and lighting?**
> Answer: Composition and light; zone colours tell where you are, light shafts and carve marks where
> to go. One painted runner arrow at each section's entry at most.

**33. Should slick ice always use one consistent visual language across the level?**
> Answer: Yes, on the whole map: three variants of one ice (floor, wall, frozen water), always the
> same gloss and blue tint. See "Slick surfaces" below.

**34. Do you want recognizable safety graphics and signage, or fictional symbols with minimal readable
text?**
> Answer: Fictional municipal waterworks signage: section names in the zone colour (KHAKI SPILLWAY,
> INDIGO SHAFT), flood level markers, pictograms; plus runner tags.

**35. Should a modernized version of the original checker pattern remain anywhere as an Easter egg?**
> Answer: Yes: the old checker as tiles frozen under the ice at the start (Noob Filter) and at the
> finish (Teh End).

**36. Should hazard bars remain yellow-black, be redesigned in the new palette, or disappear?**
> Answer: They stay where they were, as chipped yellow-black flood-gate markings: the same edges
> still read as edges.

**37. Which environmental elements interest you most?**
> Answer: Frozen water features, structural ribs and pillars, giant pipes and valves, pump impellers,
> roof grates and light shafts, gantries, cables with icicles, runner tags, Victorian brick arches.

**38. Any elements that must never intrude into the player's sightline?**
> Answer: Anything on the lines: each section's `paths.json` shows where players run; decoration
> stays off those corridors, and curved surfaces where the paths spread (curves, bowls, vortices)
> stay completely clean.

## Presentation and deliverables

**39. What should the first finished concept show?**
> Answer: Three key moments that define the map: the Khaki spillway hall from player height, the
> Indigo vortex shaft looking down, and the Wheat canal opening to the sunrise. Then a map
> overview of the whole journey.

**40. Do you prefer realistic next-generation game rendering, polished concept art, or a blend of
both?**
> Answer: A blend: concept art grounded in believable real-time rendering.

**41. Should it look achievable in a modern game engine, or may it be visually extravagant?**
> Answer: Achievable: one modular kit (concrete, brick, grates, pipes) for the whole map, a few hero
> meshes per section (vortices, waterfall, impellers).

**42. Should the mood board include material swatches, palette chips, lighting references, prop
language, architectural motifs, and a small hero scene?**
> Answer: Yes, plus the zone colour chart (23 sections) and the ice swatches next to the non-slick
> materials.

**43. Do you want one strongly resolved direction or 2–3 competing directions before committing?**
> Answer: One resolved direction (this one), then one variant of the same waterworks in the heated
> core style (polished steel and wet glass instead of ice).

**44. What image format would be most useful?**
> Answer: 16:9 at 1920×1080 (the framing of the route shots), 4K for the hero images, one ultrawide
> strip for the map overview.

**45. After the mood board, should only finished concept images be created, or also an
implementation guide covering materials, lighting, modular props, and placement?**
> Answer: Both: images first, then the implementation guide (kit, materials, light, placement per
> section around the exact collision).

## The sections

In run order. "Data" are from the blockouts (size of the section's space, players' paths).

| # | section (zone colour) | in the waterworks | signature element | light | data / notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Noob Filter (white) | **street intake**: the screens (trash racks) where storm water entered from the street | bar screens the runners pass, the start's tag wall, checker frozen under the ice | blue hour through street grates, sodium street light, snow falling in | short, 3.6 s; the start: tags and records here |
| 2 | Red Drop (red) | **drop chamber**: the water fell from the intake into the system | the drop, frozen splash ring at the bottom | red signal lamps | fast entry (avg 595 ups) |
| 3 | Green Jump (green) | **overflow weir** | the weir crest you jump over, frozen overflow lip | cold daylight shafts | the most ground time (85 %): strafe jumps |
| 4 | Blue Ramp (blue) | **bypass channel** rising to the spillway | curved channel walls, frozen ripples | daylight shafts | many curves (26 patches) |
| 5 | Khaki Curve (khaki) | **the spillway hall**, the G-Cans cathedral, ending in the **intake vortex** | the frozen whirl in the curve, lit through the ice | volumetric beams, cyan glow in the vortex | fastest section (avg 834 ups); paths bundle in the hall, spread over the curve wall |
| 6 | Thistle Wall (thistle) | **the dam**: inside face of a weir wall | a frozen waterfall over the wall | grey dawn light through the crest | 85 % ice, 62 curved surfaces, 1 470 units of height |
| 7 | Golden Tabletop (gold) | **filter beds**: flat rectangular sand filters | the beds as tables, gallery between them | warm sodium work lights | wide (5 000 units), slow (avg 387) |
| 8 | Indigo Twister (indigo) | **vortex drop shaft**: the deepest point, water spiralled down | the shaft's frozen spiral, looking down into darkness | nearly dark, runner lamps only, indigo signal lights | 2 880 units deep, the top speed of the map (2 198 ups) |
| 9 | Olive Gap (olive) | **shaft gallery** at the bottom | the broken bridge (the gap) | lamps on the gallery | |
| 10 | Salmon Slide (salmon) | **inclined pressure conduit** | the long frozen pipe | rings of lamps along the pipe | long and narrow (5 600 × 900) |
| 11 | Aqua Bowl (aqua) | **equalization basin**: the round reservoir | the frozen bowl, calm surface | a soft skylight shaft from far above: the quiet moment | slowest section (avg 304 ups), 52 curved surfaces |
| 12 | Purple Speedway (violet) | **outflow culvert**: the long straight box tunnel | rhythm of ribs and lamps: the speed feeling | violet emergency lights in a row | 6 000 units straight, 800 wide |
| 13 | Orange Chute (orange) | **spillway chute** | the curved chute, frozen white water | orange warning beacons | 58 curved surfaces |
| 14 | Telekinetic Noobyportal (none) | **control room**, the runners' camp | frozen control desks, the camp | warm lamps, steam from a heater | tiny, slow (avg 160): the breather |
| 15 | Brown Spiral (bronze) | **helical access ramp** of the pump station | the spiral, bronze railings | warm work lights | longest curve section (77 patches, 26 s) |
| 16 | Avocado Centrifuge (avocado) | **grit separator**: the giant round settling tank | the centrifuge ring, a frozen central column | green-yellow lamps around the ring | 5 600 × 5 500, top speed 1 978 ups |
| 17 | Pink Fling (pink) | **pump hall**, Victorian brick and iron | giant pump impellers, one frozen fan turning slowly | warm, steam | 8 200 units long |
| 18 | Gray Vert (grey) | **surge shaft**, going up | vertical frozen walls | grey daylight from far above: the way out begins | 1 660 units of height |
| 19 | Slate Air (slate) | **surge chamber**: a vast air cavern | open void, long airtime | high cold light | longest airtime (28.6 s, 48 % in the air) |
| 20 | Firebrick Velodrome (firebrick) | **circular clarifier** in an old brick building | the banked ring, brick arches | warm through high windows | 81 curved surfaces |
| 21 | Wheat Halfpipe (wheat) | **the canal**, finally open to the sky | the frozen canal under bridges | golden low sun | 14 400 units long: the big outdoor run |
| 22 | Amber Cylindro (amber) | **storage cylinder / penstock** back into the river | the giant cylinder | amber sunlight through the outlet | 89 % ice, 82 see-through surfaces |
| 23 | Teh End (white) | **the outfall** on the frozen river | the finish tag wall, checker under the ice, the river | sunrise | the finish |

## Slick surfaces

One ice for the whole map, three variants with the same gloss and the same blue tint
([slick-surfaces.md](../../../../slick-surfaces.md)):

| variant | where | look |
|---|---|---|
| **floor ice** | slick floors and ramps | clear black ice a hand thick over concrete or brick: you see the floor, debris, the old checker below; carve marks where runners ride |
| **frozen water** | the curved slick surfaces (patches: vortices, bowls, chutes, the canal, the velodrome) and the see-through slick ones | glassy, clear, streaks and bubbles along the flow (= the riding direction), lit through where it is see-through |
| **wall ice** | slick walls | frosted white-blue, satin, frozen drip lines |

Not slick: rough board-formed concrete, galvanized grates, brick, snow drifts. No paint (zone
colours) on ice, no gloss or blue on anything that is not slick.

Why ice for all of it: in the frozen city it is the natural answer, and one language across 23
sections teaches players once. The skates fit: blades for the whole waterworks.