Game Architect

AI agent skill for end-to-end indie game design — system mechanics, numeric balancing, GDD, narrative, audio, marketing, and post-launch ops, with Claude Code integration.

What This Skill Does

The Architect — a 15-year senior game system designer persona for game design AI work. Tunes scope to what a solo or small indie team can actually ship and sell, and integrates with Claude Code to scaffold project documentation.

Coverage:

1. Game system / combat / progression / economy / narrative structure
2. Numeric balancing (TTK, probability, procedural generation)
3. GDD writing and structuring
4. Platform fit analysis (Steam vs mobile vs hybrid)
5. Engine selection (Unity / Godot / Unreal) decisions
6. CLAUDE.md and project document structure for Claude Code
7. Audio strategy (BGM sourcing, SFX design, middleware)
8. Indie marketing (devlog, wishlist, streamer outreach)
9. Post-launch operations (patch priority, sales strategy, roadmap)
10. Procedural generation (maps, item pools, seed design)

Core Skills (13)

| ID | Name | File | |----|------|------| | S-01 | System Mechanics | skills/system-mechanics.md | | S-02 | Numeric Simulation | skills/numeric-simulation.md | | S-03 | GDD Structuring | skills/gdd-structure.md | | S-04 | Persona Testing | skills/persona-test.md | | S-05 | Narrative Design | skills/narrative-design.md | | S-06 | Claude Code Bridge | skills/claude-code-bridge.md | | S-07 | Platform Fit Analysis | skills/platform-fit.md | | S-08 | Game Juice / Accessibility / Steam Copy | skills/game-juice-launch.md | | S-09 | Audio Design | skills/audio-design.md | | S-10 | Indie Marketing | skills/indie-marketing.md | | S-11 | Post-Launch Ops | skills/post-launch-ops.md | | S-12 | Procedural Generation | skills/procedural-generation.md | | S-13 | Solo Dev Survival | skills/solo-dev-survival.md |

Genre Presets (10)

Action Adventure / Narrative RPG / Roguelike / Metroidvania / Text RPG · Visual Novel / Action RPG / Simulation / Card Game / Idle RPG / Open World RPG

→ presets/*.md

Install

npx skills add rhino-ty/game-architect

Usage Examples

Triggers in 8 languages (EN / KO / JA / ZH / ES / FR / DE / IT). Sample prompts:

"I want to make a roguelite game"
→ Genre check → platform fit → preset load → engine recommendation

"My game has 0.8s TTK — too fast?"
→ Numeric simulation + reference comparison + balancing proposal

"How do I grow a Steam wishlist?"
→ Devlog · Next Fest · streamer strategy combined plan

"How do I write a GDD?"
→ Idea → GDD structure + CLAUDE.md scaffold for Claude Code

Workflow

Step 1. Identify genre / concept → visualize core system structure
Step 2. Platform fit (S-07) — Steam vs mobile vs hybrid
Step 3. Load preset → reference genre design principles
Step 4. Engine selection (if undecided) → engine/engine-selection.md
Step 5. Claude Code integration (S-06) → CLAUDE.md + document structure

File Structure

SKILL.md                         # Main skill instructions (persona · workflow · policy)
skills/                          # 13 core skills (S-01 ~ S-13)
presets/                         # 10 genre design presets
engine/                          # Engine selection + engine-skill stubs
ref/                             # Reference material
  design-frameworks.md           # MDA · Flow · Tetrad · DDE · 8 Kinds of Fun
  game-formulas.md               # Balancing formulas
  steam-market.md                # Steam market data
  market-analysis.md             # Mobile / console market analysis
  dev-tools.md                   # Recommended dev tools
  data-freshness.md              # External data refresh policy

Note: SKILL.md is in English; reference files in skills/, presets/, engine/, ref/ are written in Korean and the skill translates on the fly when responding.

Code Usage Policy

The code in this skill comes in three categories with different purposes. Do not conflate them.

| Type | Location | Purpose | |------|----------|---------| | A. Balancing sim tools | skills/numeric-simulation.md, ref/game-formulas.md | Run externally. Not game code. Safe to copy | | B. Reference pseudocode | skills/procedural-generation.md, etc. | Concept illustration. Do NOT copy into game | | C. Claude Code templates | skills/claude-code-bridge.md | Base structure. Always adapt before applying |

Core principle: this skill produces design documents. Implementation decisions belong to the developer, not the agent.

Data Freshness Policy

External data tagged 🔴 / 🟠 (Unity licensing, AI-tool commercial licenses, Steam stats, etc.) must be verified before use. Full freshness status → ref/data-freshness.md

Trigger Keywords

| Language | Keywords | |----------|----------| | English | game design, indie game, balancing, TTK, GDD, narrative, Steam wishlist, devlog, scope creep, burnout, solo dev, roguelike, procedural generation, BGM, SFX | | 한국어 | 게임 만들려고, 시스템 설계, 밸런싱, GDD, 위시리스트, 데브로그, 스코프 크리프, 번아웃, 솔로 개발, 로그라이크, 절차적 생성 | | 日本語 | ゲーム設計, インディーゲーム, バランス調整, GDD, ウィッシュリスト, 開発日誌, ローグライク | | 中文 | 游戏设计, 独立游戏, 数值平衡, GDD, 心愿单, 开发日志, 肉鸽 | | Español | diseño de juego, juego indie, balance, GDD, lista de deseos, devlog, roguelike | | Français | conception de jeu, jeu indé, équilibrage, GDD, liste de souhaits, devlog, roguelike | | Deutsch | Spieldesign, Indie-Spiel, Balance, GDD, Wunschliste, Devlog, Roguelike | | Italiano | design del gioco, gioco indie, bilanciamento, GDD, lista dei desideri, devlog, roguelike |

Language

• SKILL.md: English (main entry point, used by Claude as instructions)
• Reference files (skills/, presets/, engine/, ref/): Korean — Claude translates contextually when responding
• Responses: match the user's language

License

MIT