Use this skill at the very beginning of a 2D web game project — before picking a tech stack, before scaffolding, before naming the genre. Walks the user through a one-sentence pitch, worldview (setting, tone, protagonist, themes, references), core player verbs, and audience/scope. Ends by matching the answers to a genre and writing docs/concept.md with a named chosen genre that downstream skills read. TRIGGER when: user says "new game idea", "concept", "worldview", "lore", "GDD draft", "pitch", "not sure what kind of game", "help me brainstorm a game", or opens an empty repo without docs/concept.md and mentions any game idea. DO NOT TRIGGER when: docs/concept.md already exists with a named **Chosen Genre** — load the matching game-<genre> skill instead; the user asks a purely technical question (use the relevant generic skill); the user is working inside an existing game project with a loop and scenes already in place.
Concept and worldview come first. Tech and genre come second. This skill extracts just enough of a game's identity to pick a genre with confidence — no more, no less. Everything downstream (stack, loop shape, systems) falls out of the genre decision, so the concept doc is the contract.
By the end you will have docs/concept.md with six sections and a Chosen Genre line. A genre skill (game-roguelike, game-deckbuilder, …) reads that line and takes over.
Force a one-sentence pitch. If the user can't write one, the idea isn't ready.
Template: "A [genre-ish adjective] game where the player [core verb] in order to [goal], set in [setting]."
Example: "A short turn-based game where the player drafts cards to survive nightly sieges in a collapsing lighthouse."
Write the logline as the top of docs/concept.md. Revise it at the end if later phases change it.
Six quick answers. Keep each to 1–3 sentences. The goal is evocation, not a novel.
Then capture references: 3 games + 3 non-game (film, book, place, music, painting, myth). References are stronger signal than abstract adjectives.
Worldview directly constrains genre. A tone of "dread + isolation + collapse" plus a protagonist with no combat skills rules out bullet-hell; it points at puzzle, narrative, or survival.
Ask: "What does the player actually do, second to second?" List 3–7 verbs. These are the honest spine of the genre.
If the verbs don't cluster, the concept isn't a game yet — push the user back to Phase 1.
Three one-liners:
Map the verb cluster from Phase 2 to a candidate genre, cross-check against tone from Phase 1. Pilot genre skills currently available in this repo:
| Verb cluster | Candidate genre | Load skill |
|---|---|---|
| Draw / play / draft cards | Deckbuilder | game-deckbuilder |
| Move-bump / descend / permadeath | Roguelike | game-roguelike |
More genres will be added (platformer, tactics, metroidvania, bullet-hell, puzzle, simulation). If the verb cluster doesn't fit a listed genre, record it anyway as a free-form Chosen Genre and proceed to game-scaffold, which falls back to its own stack matrix.
If the user is genuinely torn between two genres: pick the one whose pillars (read in the genre skill's opening section) line up with the worldview's tone and themes. Mechanics are interchangeable; meaning is not.
docs/concept.mdCreate docs/concept.md with exactly these sections:
# <working title>
## Pitch
<one-sentence logline from Phase 0>
## Worldview
- **Setting:** …
- **Tone:** …
- **Protagonist:** …
- **Antagonist forces:** …
- **Themes:** …
- **Sensory palette:** …
- **References:** 3 games + 3 non-game
## Verbs
- …
- …
- …
## Audience & scope
- **Scope:** jam | prototype | commercial
- **Session length:** …
- **Platform:** …
## Chosen Genre
<genre name — exactly matches a game-<genre> skill name if one exists>
## Why this genre
<2–4 sentences connecting verbs and worldview to the genre pick>
The Chosen Genre line is a machine contract, not prose. Downstream skills grep for it. Keep it to a single lowercase word matching an existing genre skill (roguelike, deckbuilder, …) when possible.
game-<genre> (e.g. game-roguelike, game-deckbuilder).game-scaffold for tech stack + folder layout (the genre skill will inject its recommended stack).game-loop → game-systems → game-perf as normal.