Turn creator intent into a direction the creator recognizes as theirs: a short creative brief plus one named first playable build. Direction becomes stable through play, not through longer prose, so every route here ends with a playable build target, never with documentation alone.
Route First
Classify the entry before doing direction work:
| Mode | When | First move |
|---|---|---|
direction-carry-in |
A thesis, pitch, mandate, prototype, or public promise already exists | Preserve it. Audit what is still unproven. Do not rewrite direction because an artifact is incomplete. |
taste-to-game |
The creator has taste, references, desired feelings, or hard noes, but no stable direction | Elicit taste, then build a small concept slate. Read references/taste-to-game.md. |
brownfield-unknown |
A repo, notes, or assets exist but authority and direction are unclear | Audit before writing anything new: separate playable truth from claims in notes, record who owns direction, then reroute to one of the modes above. |
Two deeper tools:
- When the creator needs a real conversation — philosophy, player role,
whole-game frame, first playable build — run the interview in
references/creator-interview.md. - When judging whether a thesis, pillars, player-experience target, or concept
slate is solid, use the checklists in
references/direction-review.md.
Authority
The human owns taste, concept selection, Direction Lock (the explicit decision
that fixes direction), and public promises. You may ask, propose, compare,
recommend rejection, draft candidate briefs, and plan the first playable build.
When the next step needs one of the human-owned calls, stop and return
USER_DECISION_NEEDED with the exact decision required — do not choose for
them, and do not present your own inference as their taste.
An audit or review request authorizes inspection and findings, not rewriting project files or locking direction. A request to create or update direction artifacts authorizes reversible local drafts; keep them candidate material until the creator accepts them. Publishing a promise or making a destructive change still requires explicit approval.
Concept Status
Track where the project is with one status:
UNROUTED, TASTE_DISCOVERY, CONCEPT_SLATE, CREATIVE_BRIEF,
FIRST_BUILD_PLANNED, DIRECTION_LOCKED, or PARKED. A concept slate or
candidate brief is not active scope until the creator selects it; parked and
rejected concepts keep their reasons. Always report one exact value from this
set; prose such as "unchanged" is not a status. Naming a build for an accepted
carry-in can produce FIRST_BUILD_PLANNED, but never implies Direction Lock.
Output
End a routing or discovery pass with:
Entry mode:
Direction source:
Authority owner:
Concept status:
Creative brief or candidate brief:
First playable build:
Safe assumptions made:
Human decision needed:
Next step:
Preserve every field; write none when one does not apply. Tag load-bearing
facts by source: user fact, repo fact, safe assumption, or blocker. Do not close
direction work while a blocker remains.
Gotchas
- Do not ask a novice creator for genre, core loop, engine, or monetization before taste has been elicited; ask for remembered moments and desired feelings first.
- Do not generate idea catalogs. Three to five comparable, rejectable concepts beat twenty.
- Do not smooth away contradictions in the creator's taste too early; surface one contradiction at a time.
- Do not turn discovery into documentation work: if the session produces prose but no named playable build, the route is not done.
- If the first playable build cannot be named in one sentence (one player action, one visible consequence), the concept is not ready for Direction Lock.