/brainstorm

name: brainstorm
description: "Guides the user through finding and choosing a game concept. Use when the user wants game ideas, a new concept, a game jam idea, or to explore other directions, including dropping the current idea and starting over."
argument-hint: "[genre or theme hint, or 'open'] [--review full|lean|solo]"
user-invocable: true
allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep, Write, WebSearch, Agent, AskUserQuestion, Bash(bash "*/.claude/skills/brainstorm/../../hooks/yaml-helper.sh" resolve_config *)
model: sonnet

!`bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../hooks/yaml-helper.sh" resolve_config --keys review_mode,automation,docs.density,workflow`

Resolved above; use as-is. No block → the defaults in `.claude/docs/config-resolution.md` (`workflow: minimal`, `review_mode: solo`, `automation: collaborative`, `docs.density: terse`), and say that the settings were not read.

Brainstorm

Turns no idea, or a rough one, into a written design the next step builds from. How much it writes depends on `workflow`:

• **`minimal`:** the Lean Brief flow below: a one-page `design/game-brief.md`, then stop. No

discovery questions, pillars, director gates or `game-concept.md`, and do not load `references/full-concept.md`.

• **`standard` or `full`:** read `references/full-concept.md` and follow it. It writes

`design/gdd/game-concept.md` from `.claude/docs/templates/game-concept.md`. Its gates follow `.claude/docs/director-gates.md`; each director agent is given its own gate file, `.claude/docs/director-gates/<gate-id in lower case>.md` (`cd-pillars.md`, `ad-concept-visual.md`, `td-feasibility.md`, `pr-scope.md`), and you do not read those files yourself.

`--review` in the text typed after the skill name overrides `review_mode` for this run. `docs.density` sets each section's depth: `terse` = bullets; `balanced` = with brief rationale; `thorough` = rationale and alternatives. Questions follow `.claude/docs/automation-modes.md` (collaborative asks, guided asks only for major decisions, autonomous logs and proceeds; the always-ask categories always ask).

Ask with the question tool. Without one, list the options numbered and end your turn to wait. The question is the last thing in the reply: no advice or lean after it. A skipped or dismissed question is not an answer: ask again in plain text.

Lean Brief flow (`workflow: minimal`)

A few exchanges, not fifteen: capture the thinking that carries the game on one page, then get to a playable game. Write from the template `.claude/docs/templates/game-brief.md` (six required fields, the rest one line each). If `design/game-brief.md` exists, read it and refine it instead of starting over; its In your words section is never rewritten, only added to.

1. **Concept.** From the hint typed after the skill name (or one quick open question if there is none), propose **2 or 3 one-line concepts** (verb-first or a mashup of genre and theme), not full concept cards. Ask the user to pick or combine them. This is the one creative question every run asks.

**No engine set, at this tier:** the pick is the only question. (`engine.name` in `project.yaml` absent, empty or `web`.) On the pick, write nothing and say, with the picked concept and their hint in the brackets: "Type `/prototype <the picked concept, in their words>` to build it: it asks one round of questions, writes the one-page brief from the genre's sheet and builds a playable browser game." End with `Verdict: COMPLETE — concept picked; /prototype writes the brief.` Go on to step 2 only when they ask to write the brief here first ("write it down", "formalize it", or `/start`'s `Formalize it first`). 2. **Fill the brief** in conversation, several fields per exchange:

• **In your words:** everything the user writes about the game, word for word: the hint, their

descriptions, their changes. Never your concept lines; when they only picked one, it holds their hint and which concept they picked.

• **Working title:** the brief's title line. Offer one from the chosen concept and let the user

change it; `/create-stories` names the epic folder after it.

• **Pitch:** the excited one-liner.
• **Genre**, **Controls** (how you play) and **Look** (how it looks and sounds, in their

words, under Look and references): one line each.

• **Question** (what a first playable build must answer) and **Hooks** (what makes it this

game and not its genre): propose them from the concept; the user changes them.

• **Core loop:** the 2 to 4 steps the player repeats.
• **Goal & fail state**: what the player tries to do, and how they lose. `/create-stories` turns

it into acceptance criteria.

• **Features:** the short list that makes it the game, each `[ ]` (not built yet); each becomes

a story. **More than 7 items: push back.** Say it is too long for an MVP, propose which items to cut (the ones the core loop works without), and keep the brief to 7 or fewer.

• **Out of scope:** what they are deliberately not building (the cut items go here).
• **Avoid:** every removal in their words ("no combat", "no waiting"), and anything they reject.
• **Build order:** the riskiest or least proven part first.
• **Intent:** only from their words or a game they name ("no game over", "a toy, no goal");

usually empty.

• **Kill condition** (when to drop it), **Who it's for / what they feel**, **Games you love /

don't** (any number, a word on why each): one line each; offer, don't force.

Mark each field the user did not give *(guessed)*, or *(provisional)* when they said "you pick". **Keep** stays empty: it fills after they play. 3. **Show the filled brief in full.** Then ask, as its own question: "Brief is ready. May I write it to `design/game-brief.md`?" `Yes — write it` / `Revise a field first`. Write only on an explicit yes to this question; agreeing to a cut or saying "go on" is not a yes to the write. On a revision,