{ "schemaVersion": "1.0", "kind": "comparison", "generatedAt": "2026-10-27T13:59:51.686Z", "host": "claude-code", "writtenBy": { "name": "mousa", "version": "0.7.1" }, "medium": "game", "title": "For an audience that loves Stardew Valley", "audience": { "references": [ { "name": "Stardew Valley", "found": true } ] }, "headline": { "value": "0.62", "text": "heuristic distance between the two designs, from 0 (alike) to 1", "sentence": "9 of 9 devices rest on what the prediction did not contain." }, "arms": [ { "label": "With Qloo", "folder": "compare/with-qloo", "taste": "qloo", "kind": "session", "headline": { "value": "9 of 9", "text": "design devices rest on what the model did not predict", "sentence": "9 of 9 devices rest on what the prediction did not contain." }, "link": "/gallery/thistledown-claude-code/arms/with-qloo/" }, { "label": "Without Qloo", "folder": "compare/without-qloo", "taste": "own prediction", "kind": "baseline", "headline": { "value": "9", "text": "design devices rest on the model's own prediction, with no Qloo data", "sentence": "9 devices rest on the prediction alone; no Qloo data was used." }, "link": "/gallery/thistledown-claude-code/arms/without-qloo/" } ], "samePrediction": true, "measure": "data", "distance": { "overall": 0.623, "palette": 0.311, "structure": 0.935, "voice": 0.809, "method": "Weighted heuristic over the files that differ between the two designs: palette CIE76 colour distance (45%), the parts they name, as ids in their data or as functions, classes and constants in their code (30%), and the words of their text (25%); a part neither design has is left out and the rest reweighted." }, "prediction": { "frozenAt": "2026-10-26T20:49:35.770Z", "sha256": "cfd455c432e8d91fc52f98db113ba286b0dc71b31257e71ee791dc0c0ea8837f", "sealHolds": true, "summary": "Players who love Stardew Valley want a gentle, self-paced life in a small rural community: tending crops, gathering, befriending neighbours, and slowly restoring something, with cosy pixel art and no real failure state.", "groups": [ { "domain": "videogame", "label": "Games", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", "measured": true }, { "name": "Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town", "measured": false }, { "name": "Minecraft", "measured": false }, { "name": "Terraria", "measured": false }, { "name": "Spiritfarer", "measured": false }, { "name": "Hollow Knight", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "movie", "label": "Films", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "My Neighbor Totoro", "measured": false }, { "name": "Kiki's Delivery Service", "measured": false }, { "name": "Spirited Away", "measured": false }, { "name": "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "measured": false }, { "name": "Howl's Moving Castle", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "tv_show", "label": "TV", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "Avatar: The Last Airbender", "measured": false }, { "name": "Gilmore Girls", "measured": false }, { "name": "Parks and Recreation", "measured": false }, { "name": "The Great British Baking Show", "measured": false }, { "name": "Gravity Falls", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "artist", "label": "Music", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "ConcernedApe", "measured": false }, { "name": "Joe Hisaishi", "measured": false }, { "name": "Hozier", "measured": false }, { "name": "Bon Iver", "measured": false }, { "name": "Fleet Foxes", "measured": false }, { "name": "Phoebe Bridgers", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "book", "label": "Books", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "The Hobbit", "measured": false }, { "name": "Legends & Lattes", "measured": false }, { "name": "The House in the Cerulean Sea", "measured": false }, { "name": "Anne of Green Gables", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "style", "label": "Pacing", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "slow, gentle pacing", "measured": false }, { "name": "seasonal, episodic rhythm", "measured": false }, { "name": "quiet everyday moments", "measured": false }, { "name": "warm ensemble scenes", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "aesthetic", "label": "Surfaces", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "cozy", "measured": false }, { "name": "rustic wood and earth", "measured": false }, { "name": "hand-crafted pixel detail", "measured": false }, { "name": "pastoral countryside", "measured": false }, { "name": "warm lantern light", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "tone", "label": "Tone", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "wholesome", "measured": false }, { "name": "nostalgic", "measured": true }, { "name": "heartwarming", "measured": true }, { "name": "calm", "measured": false }, { "name": "whimsical", "measured": true } ] }, { "domain": "qualities", "label": "Shared qualities", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "cozy small-town community", "measured": false }, { "name": "nature and seasons", "measured": false }, { "name": "escape from city routine", "measured": false }, { "name": "growing and nurturing", "measured": false }, { "name": "quiet magic", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "art_style", "label": "Art styles", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "pixel art", "measured": true }, { "name": "hand-drawn", "measured": true }, { "name": "watercolor", "measured": false }, { "name": "Studio Ghibli-like painterly", "measured": false } ] } ], "sketch": { "summary": "A top-down 16-bit pixel farm village on a single screen: plant and water crops, forage, fish at a pond and deliver gifts to villagers over one compressed season, ending with a harvest festival score and a replay button.", "palette": [ "#7cb342", "#8d6e63", "#f4e1b0", "#4fc3f7", "#ffb74d", "#3e2723" ], "fonts": [], "sections": [ "game", "hud", "dialog-box", "inventory-bar", "controls-help", "ending-screen" ], "motifs": [ "tilled soil rows", "wooden sign UI panels", "day clock with sun", "festival bunting" ] } }, "measured": { "counts": { "works": 60, "worksPredicted": 1, "worksNew": 59, "qualities": 18, "qualitiesPredicted": 3, "tags": 16, "tagsPredicted": 1, "artStyles": 8, "predictions": 26, "predictionsMeasured": 1, "requests": 10, "fromCache": 0 }, "qualities": { "look": [ { "name": "Atmospheric", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "The World's Most Extraordinary Homes", "Losers", "It's Such a Beautiful Day" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film" ], "lift": 2.2 }, { "name": "Energetic", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "Beach Bunny", "PUP", "Modern Baseball" ], "domains": [ "music", "TV" ], "lift": 2.11 }, { "name": "Intimate", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "Modern Baseball", "beabadoobee", "Magic for Humans" ], "domains": [ "music", "TV", "film" ], "lift": 1.53 }, { "name": "Documentary like", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father", "Something Better to Come" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film" ], "lift": 2.73 }, { "name": "Engaging", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "PUP", "Declan McKenna", "Modern Baseball" ], "domains": [ "music" ], "lift": 2.39 } ], "mood": [ { "name": "whimsical", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "predicted", "works": [ "Slime Rancher", "Undertale", "Untitled Goose Game" ], "domains": [ "game" ], "lift": 4.43 }, { "name": "curious", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy", "The Look of Silence" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film", "game" ], "lift": 2.76 }, { "name": "nostalgic", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "predicted", "works": [ "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "High Score", "beabadoobee" ], "domains": [ "TV", "music", "game" ], "lift": 2.35 }, { "name": "Catchy", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "Peach Pit", "PUP", "Declan McKenna" ], "domains": [ "music" ], "lift": 3.37 }, { "name": "Investigative", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "High Score", "Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy", "Episode 3: 'Enjoy Poverty'" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film" ], "lift": 3.13 } ], "meaning": [ { "name": "Youth", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "Peach Pit", "Modern Baseball", "Mom Jeans." ], "domains": [ "music", "film" ], "lift": 5 }, { "name": "Reflective", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "63 Up", "High Score" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film" ], "lift": 2.88 }, { "name": "Youthful", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "Beach Bunny", "Peach Pit", "Declan McKenna" ], "domains": [ "music" ], "lift": 3.97 }, { "name": "Analytical", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "High Score", "The World's Most Extraordinary Homes", "Vermilion Souls" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film" ], "lift": 2.89 }, { "name": "Nostalgia", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "predicted", "works": [ "Modern Baseball", "Slaughter Beach, Dog", "Mom Jeans." ], "domains": [ "music" ], "lift": 2.89 } ] }, "tags": { "pacing": [ { "name": "Sharp-Tongued", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Mockumentary", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Narratively Bold", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Scientifically Rich", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Bleakly Beautiful", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Folkloric", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" } ], "tone": [ { "name": "Heartwarming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "predicted" }, { "name": "Relaxing", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Creative", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Charming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Thought-Provoking", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Challenging", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" } ], "artStyles": [ { "name": "3D", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Cartoony", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "2D", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Colorful", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Low-poly", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Hand-drawn", "kind": "art style", "mark": "predicted" } ] }, "worlds": [ { "label": "Games", "works": [ { "name": "Slime Rancher", "kind": "game", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "3D", "Colorful", "Low-poly" ] }, { "name": "Omori", "kind": "game", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "2D", "Hand-drawn", "Illustrative" ] }, { "name": "Undertale", "kind": "game", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "2D", "Pixel Art", "Retro-inspired" ] }, { "name": "My Time At Portia", "kind": "game", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "3D", "Cartoony", "Colorful" ] } ] }, { "label": "Films", "works": [ { "name": "The Act of Killing", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Surreal", "Complex", "The victim" ] }, { "name": "Anomalisa", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Moody", "Melancholic", "Character studies" ] }, { "name": "It's Such a Beautiful Day", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Stick figure minimalism", "Atmospheric", "Intimate" ] }, { "name": "Dogtooth", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Mature", "Sociological drama", "Knocking out a tooth" ] } ] }, { "label": "Films, lesser known", "works": [ { "name": "Vermilion Souls", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Dreamlike staging", "Period gritty", "Curious" ] }, { "name": "Eldorado", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Observational pacing", "Moody", "World weary" ] } ] }, { "label": "TV", "works": [ { "name": "Abstract: The Art of Design", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Studio intimacy", "Process driven montage", "Portrait lighting" ] }, { "name": "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Observational", "Conversationally intimate", "Naturalistic" ] }, { "name": "63 Up", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Minimalist interview framing", "Conversational intimacy", "Reflective" ] }, { "name": "Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Personal relationships", "Philanthropy and social impact", "Coding" ] } ] }, { "label": "Music", "works": [ { "name": "Beach Bunny", "kind": "music", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Bedroom Pop", "Energetic", "Indie Rock" ] }, { "name": "Peach Pit", "kind": "music", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Jangly Indie Rock", "Melancholic Indie Pop", "Catchy" ] }, { "name": "PUP", "kind": "music", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Emotive Punk Rock", "Energetic", "Engaging" ] }, { "name": "Declan McKenna", "kind": "music", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Glam Rock", "Engaging", "Indie Rock" ] } ] }, { "label": "Books", "works": [ { "name": "The Night Circus", "kind": "book", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Fiction", "Magic", "Young Adult" ] }, { "name": "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)", "kind": "book", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Science Fiction", "Teen", "Audiobook" ] }, { "name": "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)", "kind": "book", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Paranormal", "Fantasy", "Supernatural" ] }, { "name": "Looking for Alaska", "kind": "book", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Realistic Fiction", "Mystery", "Young Adult" ] } ] } ], "required": [ { "name": "Slime Rancher", "kind": "game", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Modern Baseball", "kind": "music", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Atmospheric", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "whimsical", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "predicted" }, { "name": "Youth", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new" } ], "cautions": [ "aesthetic tags returned no tags." ] }, "views": [ { "key": "frame-walk", "label": "frame · walk", "a": { "id": "r2-frame-walk", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "walk", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · walk", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-walk.png", "file": "assets/captures/a-r2-frame-walk.png" }, "b": null }, { "key": "frame-ending", "label": "frame · ending", "a": { "id": "r2-frame-ending", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "ending", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · ending", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-ending.png", "file": "assets/captures/a-r2-frame-ending.png" }, "b": { "id": "r2-frame-ending", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "ending", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · ending", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-ending.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-ending.png" } }, { "key": "frame-selftest", "label": "frame · selftest", "a": { "id": "r2-frame-selftest", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "selftest", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · selftest", "cited": false, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-selftest.png", "file": "assets/captures/a-r2-frame-selftest.png" }, "b": { "id": "r2-frame-selftest", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "selftest", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · selftest", "cited": false, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-selftest.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-selftest.png" } }, { "key": "frame-interview", "label": "frame · interview", "a": { "id": "r2-frame-interview", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "interview", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · interview", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-interview.png", "file": "assets/captures/a-r2-frame-interview.png" }, "b": null }, { "key": "frame-rehearsal", "label": "frame · rehearsal", "a": { "id": "r2-frame-rehearsal", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "rehearsal", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · rehearsal", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-rehearsal.png", "file": "assets/captures/a-r2-frame-rehearsal.png" }, "b": null }, { "key": "frame-dusk", "label": "frame · dusk", "a": null, "b": { "id": "r2-frame-dusk", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "dusk", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · dusk", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-dusk.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-dusk.png" } }, { "key": "frame-fishing", "label": "frame · fishing", "a": null, "b": { "id": "r2-frame-fishing", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "fishing", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · fishing", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-fishing.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-fishing.png" } }, { "key": "frame-day", "label": "frame · day", "a": null, "b": { "id": "r2-frame-day", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "day", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · day", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-day.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-day.png" } }, { "key": "frame-woods", "label": "frame · woods", "a": null, "b": { "id": "r2-frame-woods", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "woods", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · woods", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-woods.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-woods.png" } } ], "layers": [ { "layer": "palette", "arms": [ [ { "id": "dna1", "layer": "palette", "device": "Two-ink riso flyer under a dimming dusk wash", "anchors": [ { "name": "Energetic", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Atmospheric", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Energetic", "Atmospheric" ], "translation": "Energetic becomes the hot pink and teal of a two-ink gig flyer, with mint and flyer-yellow as the paper; Atmospheric becomes a lavender-to-ink dusk tint laid over the whole world that deepens as the day runs out. My interpretation; Qloo gave no colours.", "convention": "indie gig flyers: two-ink risograph prints in hot pink and teal on bright paper, slightly misregistered", "tokens": { "colors": [ "#1f4e5a", "#ff6f91", "#9be3c4", "#6a5d9e", "#ffe27a", "#2b2140" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [ "#1f4e5a", "#ff6f91", "#9be3c4", "#6a5d9e", "#ffe27a", "#2b2140" ], "fonts": [], "ids": [] }, "method": "source", "why": "The palette is a JS constant object the canvas renderer and the page CSS both read, so every colour lives in one place.", "cluster": "Bedroom-pop garage summers", "check": "present" } ], [ { "id": "dna1", "layer": "palette", "device": "Turned-earth farm tiles: checkered grass, tilled loam and weathered wood", "anchors": [ { "name": "nature and seasons", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "rustic wood and earth", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "pixel art", "kind": "art style", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "nature and seasons", "rustic wood and earth" ], "translation": "Nature and seasons, drawn the way 16-bit farm sims draw them: a limited earthy palette of two grass greens in a checker, a loam brown and its darker tilled row, weathered plank wood for every panel, and one dark bark outline around each sprite.", "convention": "16-bit farm-sim tiles: a limited earthy palette, checkered grass, tilled rows, and hard one-pixel dark outlines around every sprite", "tokens": { "colors": [ "#5e9a3e", "#7cb84c", "#7a5232", "#4e3220", "#b07a44", "#2a1c12" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [ "#b07a44" ], "fonts": [], "ids": [] }, "method": "source", "why": "The farm palette lives as named constants in the game script that every tile and sprite draws from.", "cluster": "Seasons in the soil", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna2", "layer": "palette", "device": "Lantern dusk: deep blue evening washed over the map with warm pools of lantern light", "anchors": [ { "name": "quiet magic", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "warm lantern light", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "My Neighbor Totoro", "kind": "film", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "quiet magic", "warm lantern light" ], "translation": "Quiet magic arrives as light: each evening a deep blue wash falls over the tiles, and lit lanterns cut warm amber circles through it, the way hand-painted animated films paint dusk in the countryside.", "convention": "hand-painted animated-film dusk: warm lantern glow pooling on deep blue evening shadows while seed fluff drifts in the air", "tokens": { "colors": [ "#1c2748", "#3a4f86", "#ffb84d", "#ffe3a0" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [ "#1c2748", "#3a4f86" ], "fonts": [], "ids": [] }, "method": "source", "why": "Dusk is a canvas overlay pass: a blue wash with lantern light cut out using composite operations, colours as constants.", "cluster": "Quiet magic at dusk", "check": "present" } ] ] }, { "layer": "typography", "arms": [ [ { "id": "dna2", "layer": "typography", "device": "Pixel dialogue box with handwritten tape labels", "anchors": [ { "name": "Intimate", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Undertale", "kind": "game", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Intimate", "Pixel Art" ], "translation": "Intimate is set the way bedroom-pop tapes are labelled: a scrawled hand (Caveat) for tape names, the title and the zine; the game's speech uses a blocky pixel sans (Pixelify Sans) in boxed windows, as pixel RPGs set their dialogue.", "convention": "bedroom-pop tape culture: handwritten cassette J-cards and photocopied zines with scrawled titles", "tokens": { "fonts": [ "Pixelify Sans", "Caveat" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [ "Pixelify Sans", "Caveat" ], "ids": [] }, "method": "library-font", "why": "Pixelify Sans and Caveat are copied locally into fonts/ and loaded with @font-face, so no network request is made.", "cluster": "Bedroom-pop garage summers", "check": "present" } ], [ { "id": "dna3", "layer": "typography", "device": "Pixel lettering in a wooden day-calendar panel", "anchors": [ { "name": "growing and nurturing", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "hand-crafted pixel detail", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "growing and nurturing", "hand-crafted pixel detail" ], "translation": "The day count is how growth is felt, so the HUD sets Day, time and lanterns lit in a soft pixel sans on a plank panel in the corner, as farm-sim calendars do; the same face sets the dialogue.", "convention": "day-calendar HUD: a wooden corner panel with the day number, a sun-to-moon dial and the time in pixel lettering", "tokens": { "fonts": [ "Pixelify Sans" ], "ids": [ "day-dial" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [ "Pixelify Sans" ], "ids": [ "day-dial" ] }, "method": "library-font", "why": "Pixelify Sans is copied locally into fonts/ and loaded by @font-face, so the canvas HUD and dialogue use it with no network request.", "cluster": "Seasons in the soil", "check": "present" } ] ] }, { "layer": "imagery", "arms": [ [ { "id": "dna4", "layer": "imagery", "device": "Chunky outlined 2D pixel sprites on a 3x grid, under a dusk wash", "anchors": [ { "name": "2D", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Colorful", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Atmospheric", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "2D", "Colorful", "Atmospheric" ], "translation": "2D and Colorful become hand-placed pixel sprites drawn from string maps, each scaled 3x with a one-pixel ink outline, bright riso fills against the teal ground; Atmospheric becomes the long sprite shadows and the evening tint drawn over the whole valley scene.", "tokens": { "literals": [ "const PX = 3", "OUTLINE = '#2b2140'", "function drawValley" ] }, "surprise": true, "method": "source", "why": "Sprites are string pixel maps drawn to canvas at 3x with an outline pass; the dusk wash is a full-screen tint pass.", "cluster": "Whimsical pixel worlds", "check": "present" } ], [ { "id": "dna8", "layer": "imagery", "device": "Hand-placed 16-pixel sprites with dark one-pixel outlines, and a shy moss spirit in a hollow tree", "anchors": [ { "name": "hand-crafted pixel detail", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "My Neighbor Totoro", "kind": "film", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Kiki's Delivery Service", "kind": "film", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "hand-crafted pixel detail" ], "translation": "Every tile and sprite is drawn in code from small pixel maps at 16 pixels, scaled up with smoothing off, outlined in dark bark. The forest spirit is an original round moss creature with ember eyes that peeks from a hollow tree and answers offerings, a small patient magic rather than a monster.", "convention": "a shy forest spirit in a hollow tree who answers small offerings, never seen hunting or fighting", "tokens": { "css": [ "image-rendering: pixelated" ], "ids": [ "spirit-sprite", "pixel-tiles" ], "literals": [ "const SPRITES = {", "imageSmoothingEnabled = false" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "spirit-sprite", "pixel-tiles" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "Sprites are pixel maps in a SPRITES table rendered with smoothing off, which keeps the work hand-placed and needs no image files.", "cluster": "Seasons in the soil", "check": "present" } ] ] }, { "layer": "motion", "arms": [ [ { "id": "dna3", "layer": "motion", "device": "Mockumentary punch-in with a sliding lower-third", "anchors": [ { "name": "Mockumentary", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Mockumentary" ], "translation": "Mockumentary pacing becomes a quick camera punch-in on the speaker when the tape starts rolling, and a name bar that slides in fast from the left, then a beat of stillness; sharper than the slow fade I predicted.", "tokens": { "literals": [ "PUNCH_ZOOM = 1.6", "LOWER_THIRD_MS = 240" ] }, "surprise": true, "method": "source", "why": "The punch-in and lower-third slide are camera and overlay timings in the game loop.", "cluster": "Conversational documentary", "check": "present" } ], [ { "id": "dna7", "layer": "motion", "device": "Slow drift and lantern breath", "anchors": [ { "name": "slow, gentle pacing", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "calm", "kind": "tone", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "slow, gentle pacing", "calm" ], "translation": "Slow, gentle pacing becomes motion with no snap: thistledown drifts on a sine wind, lantern glow breathes in and out over a few seconds, and the frame around the game breathes with the same slow glow; it stops for reduced motion and when paused.", "tokens": { "css": [ "animation: lantern-breath 4s ease-in-out infinite" ], "keyframes": [ "lantern-breath" ] }, "surprise": false, "method": "source", "why": "Canvas drift and glow are computed per frame; the page frame uses the lantern-breath keyframes with a reduced-motion fallback and pauses with the game.", "cluster": "Quiet magic at dusk", "check": "present" } ] ] }, { "layer": "voice", "arms": [ [ { "id": "dna9", "layer": "voice", "device": "Wry first line, honest second line", "anchors": [ { "name": "Charming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Reflective", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Heartwarming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "predicted" } ], "qualities": [ "Charming", "Reflective", "Heartwarming" ], "translation": "Charming and Reflective become a two-beat register: neighbours open with a dry, charming joke, then say one honest, reflective thing. Short lines, no exclamation marks.", "tokens": { "copy": [ "You came home for one summer day. The show is at nine.", "Everyone says this town never changes. Everyone is wrong, but politely.", "Same faces, next summer. Bring the tape." ] }, "surprise": true, "method": "copy", "why": "The lines are written into the game's dialogue data and title/ending text.", "cluster": "Conversational documentary", "check": "present" } ], [ { "id": "dna9", "layer": "voice", "device": "Short, kind lines that tell you to slow down", "anchors": [ { "name": "heartwarming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "wholesome", "kind": "tone", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Legends & Lattes", "kind": "book", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "heartwarming", "wholesome" ], "translation": "Neighbours speak in one or two short warm sentences, never urgent, praising small effort; the game never scolds or fails you.", "tokens": { "copy": [ "Slow down, dear. The turnips are not in a hurry.", "Four lanterns, four neighbours. Thistledown glows for you tonight." ] }, "surprise": false, "method": "copy", "why": "Dialogue lines are written in the script's neighbour data and shown in the wooden dialogue box.", "cluster": "Hearth and ensemble", "check": "present" } ] ] }, { "layer": "structure", "arms": [ [ { "id": "dna8", "layer": "structure", "device": "One summer day that dims toward the nine o'clock show, ending in a zine", "anchors": [ { "name": "Youth", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Folkloric", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Youth", "Folkloric" ], "translation": "Youth becomes the frame: you are home for one summer day; the day-clock runs from morning to nine, the light dims, and the garage show ends it. The ending is a hand-stapled zine of the day: who you taped, how many puffs, how the set went.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "day-clock", "zine-ending" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "day-clock", "zine-ending" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "A day-clock drives the tint and triggers the show; the zine ending is a DOM overlay with a replay key.", "cluster": "Atmospheric dusk", "check": "present" } ], [ { "id": "dna4", "layer": "structure", "device": "Four neighbours, four elements, four lanterns on the lane", "anchors": [ { "name": "cozy small-town community", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Avatar: The Last Airbender", "kind": "TV", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "warm ensemble scenes", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "cozy small-town community", "warm ensemble scenes" ], "translation": "A found-family ensemble of four, each owning one element: Maple the baker (earth, wants turnips), Fen the fisher (water, wants fish), Wren the kite-maker (air, wants thistledown) and the Mossling in the hollow tree (fire, wants an offering of mushrooms). Each request you fulfil lights that neighbour's lantern on the lane; the four lanterns are the whole progress bar.", "convention": "found-family ensembles: a cast of four, each with one element or craft they own, who come together for a final gathering", "tokens": { "ids": [ "lantern-earth", "lantern-water", "lantern-air", "lantern-fire" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "lantern-earth", "lantern-water", "lantern-air", "lantern-fire" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "The four neighbours and lanterns are data objects in the script with these ids; the lane draws them and the ending counts them.", "cluster": "Hearth and ensemble", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna6", "layer": "structure", "device": "Five short days from the last bus to Lantern Night, then the bus home or another stay", "anchors": [ { "name": "escape from city routine", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "seasonal, episodic rhythm", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "escape from city routine", "seasonal, episodic rhythm" ], "translation": "The game is an episode of escape: it opens at the bus stop as you leave the city, runs five days of about a minute each (sleep in the cottage or the day ends at midnight), and closes on the fifth night with Lantern Night, whose ending changes with how many lanterns burn. Enter plays again from the bus stop.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "bus-stop", "lantern-night" ], "copy": [ "The last bus leaves you at Thistledown. No signal. Just wind.", "Press Enter to stay another season" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "bus-stop", "lantern-night" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "A state machine in the script: bus-stop intro, five timed days, sleep, and the lantern-night ending with replay.", "cluster": "Quiet magic at dusk", "check": "present" } ] ] }, { "layer": "interaction", "arms": [ [ { "id": "dna5", "layer": "interaction", "device": "Thistlepuff round-up: herd bouncing puffs into the pen", "anchors": [ { "name": "Slime Rancher", "kind": "game", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "whimsical", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "predicted" } ], "qualities": [ "Colorful", "whimsical" ], "translation": "Creature ranching becomes thistlepuffs: round candy-coloured seed creatures that bob in place and scurry away from you, so you herd them by walking behind them into the puff-pen.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "puff-pen" ], "literals": [ "HERD_RADIUS = 46" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "puff-pen" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "Herding is flee-from-player steering in the update loop, with a pen rectangle that counts puffs.", "cluster": "Whimsical pixel worlds", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna6", "layer": "interaction", "device": "Tape-recorder interviews with a question choice", "anchors": [ { "name": "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "63 Up", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "curious", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Conversationally intimate", "Reflective", "curious" ], "translation": "Conversational intimacy and the return-interview become the core verb: walk to a neighbour, press record, choose which question to ask, and the answer is filed as one line in your tape-log.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "tape-log", "lower-third" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "tape-log", "lower-third" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "Interviews are a small dialogue state machine with a two-choice question and a tape-log DOM list.", "cluster": "Conversational documentary", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna7", "layer": "interaction", "device": "Garage rehearsal in a three-lane riff lane", "anchors": [ { "name": "Modern Baseball", "kind": "music", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Catchy", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Indie Punk", "Catchy" ], "translation": "Indie punk and catchiness become a playable rehearsal: notes fall down three lanes and you hit J, K, L on the beat of a short catchy chiptune riff; the grade carries into the show.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "riff-lane" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "riff-lane" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "The rehearsal is a timed note chart with WebAudio square-wave tones, scored per hit.", "cluster": "Bedroom-pop garage summers", "check": "present" } ], [ { "id": "dna5", "layer": "interaction", "device": "Three chores and an offering: till-plant-water-harvest, a reel-timing bar, catching drifting thistledown", "anchors": [ { "name": "Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town", "kind": "game", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", "kind": "game", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "growing and nurturing", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "growing and nurturing" ], "translation": "What the player does is tend: Space on a plot tills, plants, waters and harvests (crops grow one stage per watered night); at the pond a marker sweeps a bar and Space lands it in the green zone to catch a fish; in the meadow puffs drift on the wind and you walk into them; in the woods you pick mushrooms and leave them at the hollow. Talking (E) and giving fill friendship hearts.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "crop-plot", "fishing-bar", "thistle-puff", "hollow-tree", "friend-hearts" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "crop-plot", "fishing-bar", "thistle-puff", "hollow-tree", "friend-hearts" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "Each mechanic is a playable system in the game loop: crop plots, the fishing bar mini-game, drifting puffs and the hollow tree offering.", "cluster": "Seasons in the soil", "check": "present" } ] ] } ], "limits": [ "One pair is one sample. Model variance alone makes two designs differ, so one distance does not isolate what Qloo changed; repeat the pair before calling a difference the data's effect.", "The distance is a heuristic over the palettes, part ids and words of the files the two arms changed differently. It does not measure quality or what people prefer.", "The headline counts devices anchored to what the prediction did not contain. It shows that the data changed the specification, not that the result is better." ], "records": [ { "schemaVersion": "1.0", "kind": "session", "generatedAt": "2026-10-27T13:59:51.681Z", "host": "claude-code", "writtenBy": { "name": "mousa", "version": "0.7.1" }, "medium": "game", "taste": "qloo", "title": "For an audience that loves Stardew Valley", "audience": { "references": [ { "name": "Stardew Valley", "found": true } ] }, "headline": { "value": "9 of 9", "text": "design devices rest on what the model did not predict", "sentence": "9 of 9 devices rest on what the prediction did not contain." }, "numbers": [ { "value": 60, "label": "works measured, 1 of them predicted" }, { "value": 18, "label": "shared qualities, 3 predicted" }, { "value": 16, "label": "pacing, surface and tone tags, 1 predicted" }, { "value": 10, "label": "Qloo requests" } ], "prediction": { "frozenAt": "2026-10-26T20:49:35.770Z", "sha256": "cfd455c432e8d91fc52f98db113ba286b0dc71b31257e71ee791dc0c0ea8837f", "sealHolds": true, "summary": "Players who love Stardew Valley want a gentle, self-paced life in a small rural community: tending crops, gathering, befriending neighbours, and slowly restoring something, with cosy pixel art and no real failure state.", "groups": [ { "domain": "videogame", "label": "Games", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", "measured": true }, { "name": "Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town", "measured": false }, { "name": "Minecraft", "measured": false }, { "name": "Terraria", "measured": false }, { "name": "Spiritfarer", "measured": false }, { "name": "Hollow Knight", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "movie", "label": "Films", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "My Neighbor Totoro", "measured": false }, { "name": "Kiki's Delivery Service", "measured": false }, { "name": "Spirited Away", "measured": false }, { "name": "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "measured": false }, { "name": "Howl's Moving Castle", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "tv_show", "label": "TV", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "Avatar: The Last Airbender", "measured": false }, { "name": "Gilmore Girls", "measured": false }, { "name": "Parks and Recreation", "measured": false }, { "name": "The Great British Baking Show", "measured": false }, { "name": "Gravity Falls", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "artist", "label": "Music", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "ConcernedApe", "measured": false }, { "name": "Joe Hisaishi", "measured": false }, { "name": "Hozier", "measured": false }, { "name": "Bon Iver", "measured": false }, { "name": "Fleet Foxes", "measured": false }, { "name": "Phoebe Bridgers", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "book", "label": "Books", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "The Hobbit", "measured": false }, { "name": "Legends & Lattes", "measured": false }, { "name": "The House in the Cerulean Sea", "measured": false }, { "name": "Anne of Green Gables", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "style", "label": "Pacing", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "slow, gentle pacing", "measured": false }, { "name": "seasonal, episodic rhythm", "measured": false }, { "name": "quiet everyday moments", "measured": false }, { "name": "warm ensemble scenes", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "aesthetic", "label": "Surfaces", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "cozy", "measured": false }, { "name": "rustic wood and earth", "measured": false }, { "name": "hand-crafted pixel detail", "measured": false }, { "name": "pastoral countryside", "measured": false }, { "name": "warm lantern light", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "tone", "label": "Tone", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "wholesome", "measured": false }, { "name": "nostalgic", "measured": true }, { "name": "heartwarming", "measured": true }, { "name": "calm", "measured": false }, { "name": "whimsical", "measured": true } ] }, { "domain": "qualities", "label": "Shared qualities", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "cozy small-town community", "measured": false }, { "name": "nature and seasons", "measured": false }, { "name": "escape from city routine", "measured": false }, { "name": "growing and nurturing", "measured": false }, { "name": "quiet magic", "measured": false } ] }, { "domain": "art_style", "label": "Art styles", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "pixel art", "measured": true }, { "name": "hand-drawn", "measured": true }, { "name": "watercolor", "measured": false }, { "name": "Studio Ghibli-like painterly", "measured": false } ] } ], "sketch": { "summary": "A top-down 16-bit pixel farm village on a single screen: plant and water crops, forage, fish at a pond and deliver gifts to villagers over one compressed season, ending with a harvest festival score and a replay button.", "palette": [ "#7cb342", "#8d6e63", "#f4e1b0", "#4fc3f7", "#ffb74d", "#3e2723" ], "fonts": [], "sections": [ "game", "hud", "dialog-box", "inventory-bar", "controls-help", "ending-screen" ], "motifs": [ "tilled soil rows", "wooden sign UI panels", "day clock with sun", "festival bunting" ] } }, "measured": { "counts": { "works": 60, "worksPredicted": 1, "worksNew": 59, "qualities": 18, "qualitiesPredicted": 3, "tags": 16, "tagsPredicted": 1, "artStyles": 8, "predictions": 26, "predictionsMeasured": 1, "requests": 10, "fromCache": 0 }, "qualities": { "look": [ { "name": "Atmospheric", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "The World's Most Extraordinary Homes", "Losers", "It's Such a Beautiful Day" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film" ], "lift": 2.2 }, { "name": "Energetic", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "Beach Bunny", "PUP", "Modern Baseball" ], "domains": [ "music", "TV" ], "lift": 2.11 }, { "name": "Intimate", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "Modern Baseball", "beabadoobee", "Magic for Humans" ], "domains": [ "music", "TV", "film" ], "lift": 1.53 }, { "name": "Documentary like", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father", "Something Better to Come" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film" ], "lift": 2.73 }, { "name": "Engaging", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "PUP", "Declan McKenna", "Modern Baseball" ], "domains": [ "music" ], "lift": 2.39 } ], "mood": [ { "name": "whimsical", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "predicted", "works": [ "Slime Rancher", "Undertale", "Untitled Goose Game" ], "domains": [ "game" ], "lift": 4.43 }, { "name": "curious", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy", "The Look of Silence" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film", "game" ], "lift": 2.76 }, { "name": "nostalgic", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "predicted", "works": [ "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "High Score", "beabadoobee" ], "domains": [ "TV", "music", "game" ], "lift": 2.35 }, { "name": "Catchy", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "Peach Pit", "PUP", "Declan McKenna" ], "domains": [ "music" ], "lift": 3.37 }, { "name": "Investigative", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "High Score", "Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy", "Episode 3: 'Enjoy Poverty'" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film" ], "lift": 3.13 } ], "meaning": [ { "name": "Youth", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "Peach Pit", "Modern Baseball", "Mom Jeans." ], "domains": [ "music", "film" ], "lift": 5 }, { "name": "Reflective", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "63 Up", "High Score" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film" ], "lift": 2.88 }, { "name": "Youthful", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "Beach Bunny", "Peach Pit", "Declan McKenna" ], "domains": [ "music" ], "lift": 3.97 }, { "name": "Analytical", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new", "works": [ "High Score", "The World's Most Extraordinary Homes", "Vermilion Souls" ], "domains": [ "TV", "film" ], "lift": 2.89 }, { "name": "Nostalgia", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "predicted", "works": [ "Modern Baseball", "Slaughter Beach, Dog", "Mom Jeans." ], "domains": [ "music" ], "lift": 2.89 } ] }, "tags": { "pacing": [ { "name": "Sharp-Tongued", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Mockumentary", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Narratively Bold", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Scientifically Rich", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Bleakly Beautiful", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Folkloric", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" } ], "tone": [ { "name": "Heartwarming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "predicted" }, { "name": "Relaxing", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Creative", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Charming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Thought-Provoking", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Challenging", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" } ], "artStyles": [ { "name": "3D", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Cartoony", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "2D", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Colorful", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Low-poly", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Hand-drawn", "kind": "art style", "mark": "predicted" } ] }, "worlds": [ { "label": "Games", "works": [ { "name": "Slime Rancher", "kind": "game", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "3D", "Colorful", "Low-poly" ] }, { "name": "Omori", "kind": "game", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "2D", "Hand-drawn", "Illustrative" ] }, { "name": "Undertale", "kind": "game", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "2D", "Pixel Art", "Retro-inspired" ] }, { "name": "My Time At Portia", "kind": "game", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "3D", "Cartoony", "Colorful" ] } ] }, { "label": "Films", "works": [ { "name": "The Act of Killing", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Surreal", "Complex", "The victim" ] }, { "name": "Anomalisa", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Moody", "Melancholic", "Character studies" ] }, { "name": "It's Such a Beautiful Day", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Stick figure minimalism", "Atmospheric", "Intimate" ] }, { "name": "Dogtooth", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Mature", "Sociological drama", "Knocking out a tooth" ] } ] }, { "label": "Films, lesser known", "works": [ { "name": "Vermilion Souls", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Dreamlike staging", "Period gritty", "Curious" ] }, { "name": "Eldorado", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Observational pacing", "Moody", "World weary" ] } ] }, { "label": "TV", "works": [ { "name": "Abstract: The Art of Design", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Studio intimacy", "Process driven montage", "Portrait lighting" ] }, { "name": "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Observational", "Conversationally intimate", "Naturalistic" ] }, { "name": "63 Up", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Minimalist interview framing", "Conversational intimacy", "Reflective" ] }, { "name": "Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Personal relationships", "Philanthropy and social impact", "Coding" ] } ] }, { "label": "Music", "works": [ { "name": "Beach Bunny", "kind": "music", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Bedroom Pop", "Energetic", "Indie Rock" ] }, { "name": "Peach Pit", "kind": "music", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Jangly Indie Rock", "Melancholic Indie Pop", "Catchy" ] }, { "name": "PUP", "kind": "music", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Emotive Punk Rock", "Energetic", "Engaging" ] }, { "name": "Declan McKenna", "kind": "music", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Glam Rock", "Engaging", "Indie Rock" ] } ] }, { "label": "Books", "works": [ { "name": "The Night Circus", "kind": "book", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Fiction", "Magic", "Young Adult" ] }, { "name": "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)", "kind": "book", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Science Fiction", "Teen", "Audiobook" ] }, { "name": "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)", "kind": "book", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Paranormal", "Fantasy", "Supernatural" ] }, { "name": "Looking for Alaska", "kind": "book", "mark": "new", "tags": [ "Realistic Fiction", "Mystery", "Young Adult" ] } ] } ], "required": [ { "name": "Slime Rancher", "kind": "game", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Modern Baseball", "kind": "music", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Atmospheric", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "whimsical", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "predicted" }, { "name": "Youth", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new" } ], "cautions": [ "aesthetic tags returned no tags." ] }, "reading": { "clusters": [ { "id": "c1", "name": "Bedroom-pop garage summers", "reading": "The music this audience loves is young, catchy, loud-but-tender indie: bands in garages and bedrooms singing about being nineteen. Stardew fans are not only cottage-core; the valley is a place to be young in.", "layers": [ "palette", "typography", "interaction", "structure" ], "conventions": [ "indie gig flyers: two-ink risograph prints in hot pink and teal on bright paper, slightly misregistered", "bedroom-pop tape culture: handwritten cassette J-cards and photocopied zines with scrawled titles" ], "refs": [ { "name": "Youth", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Energetic", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Catchy", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Intimate", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Modern Baseball", "kind": "music", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Beach Bunny", "kind": "music", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Peach Pit", "kind": "music", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Youthful", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new" } ], "surprise": true }, { "id": "c2", "name": "Whimsical pixel worlds", "reading": "Their games are whimsical, colourful and character-led: ranching bouncy creatures, talking your way through a strange small world, causing gentle mischief.", "layers": [ "imagery", "interaction", "motion" ], "conventions": [ "retro pixel RPGs: chunky sprites with dark outlines and boxed dialogue windows with a blinking advance marker", "creature-ranching games: round candy-coloured critters that bob and bounce in place" ], "refs": [ { "name": "whimsical", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "predicted" }, { "name": "Slime Rancher", "kind": "game", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Undertale", "kind": "game", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Omori", "kind": "game", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "2D", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Colorful", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Charming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Untitled Goose Game", "kind": "game", "mark": "new" } ], "surprise": true }, { "id": "c3", "name": "Conversational documentary", "reading": "Their TV is people talking about their lives: long sit-down conversations, the same faces revisited years later, a curious and reflective ear. The pleasure is listening.", "layers": [ "voice", "structure", "interaction", "motion" ], "conventions": [ "documentary lower-thirds: a name and a place on a plain bar under the speaker", "return-visit documentaries: the same faces revisited and captioned by year" ], "refs": [ { "name": "Documentary like", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Reflective", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "curious", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "63 Up", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Mockumentary", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Heartwarming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "predicted" }, { "name": "High Score", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new" } ], "surprise": true }, { "id": "c4", "name": "Atmospheric dusk", "reading": "Their films are atmospheric and intimate, small figures under big washes of light; the folkloric and the relaxing sit together.", "layers": [ "palette", "motion" ], "conventions": [ "hand-animated films washed in one evening tint: the whole scene shifts colour as the light goes" ], "refs": [ { "name": "Atmospheric", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "It's Such a Beautiful Day", "kind": "film", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Folkloric", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Relaxing", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" } ], "surprise": true } ], "setAside": [ { "name": "Dogtooth", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "reason": "A bleak, mature sociological drama; it signals the audience's taste for odd films but nothing a gentle five-minute valley game should carry." }, { "name": "The Act of Killing", "kind": "film", "mark": "new", "reason": "A documentary about real atrocity; its documentary-like quality is carried by gentler works in c3, and its subject has no place in a cosy game." } ], "approach": "A canvas pixel RPG whose look is a dusk-washed risograph flyer (c1, c4) drawn in chunky outlined 2D pixel sprites (c2). The three things to do come from the clusters rather than from farming: round up whimsical puff creatures (c2), record neighbours' stories on a tape recorder with documentary lower-thirds (c3), and rehearse with a garage band in a rhythm lane (c1). The structure is one summer day that dims toward an evening garage show, ending in a printed zine of the day (c1, c3, c4)." }, "dna": { "thesis": "Thistledown is one young summer day in a valley hamlet, drawn as a dusk-washed risograph gig flyer in chunky pixels: you herd whimsical thistlepuffs, tape your neighbours' stories like a little documentary, and rehearse with the garage band for the nine o'clock show that ends the day.", "devices": [ { "id": "dna1", "layer": "palette", "device": "Two-ink riso flyer under a dimming dusk wash", "anchors": [ { "name": "Energetic", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Atmospheric", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Energetic", "Atmospheric" ], "translation": "Energetic becomes the hot pink and teal of a two-ink gig flyer, with mint and flyer-yellow as the paper; Atmospheric becomes a lavender-to-ink dusk tint laid over the whole world that deepens as the day runs out. My interpretation; Qloo gave no colours.", "convention": "indie gig flyers: two-ink risograph prints in hot pink and teal on bright paper, slightly misregistered", "tokens": { "colors": [ "#1f4e5a", "#ff6f91", "#9be3c4", "#6a5d9e", "#ffe27a", "#2b2140" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [ "#1f4e5a", "#ff6f91", "#9be3c4", "#6a5d9e", "#ffe27a", "#2b2140" ], "fonts": [], "ids": [] }, "method": "source", "why": "The palette is a JS constant object the canvas renderer and the page CSS both read, so every colour lives in one place.", "cluster": "Bedroom-pop garage summers", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna2", "layer": "typography", "device": "Pixel dialogue box with handwritten tape labels", "anchors": [ { "name": "Intimate", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Undertale", "kind": "game", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Intimate", "Pixel Art" ], "translation": "Intimate is set the way bedroom-pop tapes are labelled: a scrawled hand (Caveat) for tape names, the title and the zine; the game's speech uses a blocky pixel sans (Pixelify Sans) in boxed windows, as pixel RPGs set their dialogue.", "convention": "bedroom-pop tape culture: handwritten cassette J-cards and photocopied zines with scrawled titles", "tokens": { "fonts": [ "Pixelify Sans", "Caveat" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [ "Pixelify Sans", "Caveat" ], "ids": [] }, "method": "library-font", "why": "Pixelify Sans and Caveat are copied locally into fonts/ and loaded with @font-face, so no network request is made.", "cluster": "Bedroom-pop garage summers", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna3", "layer": "motion", "device": "Mockumentary punch-in with a sliding lower-third", "anchors": [ { "name": "Mockumentary", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Mockumentary" ], "translation": "Mockumentary pacing becomes a quick camera punch-in on the speaker when the tape starts rolling, and a name bar that slides in fast from the left, then a beat of stillness; sharper than the slow fade I predicted.", "tokens": { "literals": [ "PUNCH_ZOOM = 1.6", "LOWER_THIRD_MS = 240" ] }, "surprise": true, "method": "source", "why": "The punch-in and lower-third slide are camera and overlay timings in the game loop.", "cluster": "Conversational documentary", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna4", "layer": "imagery", "device": "Chunky outlined 2D pixel sprites on a 3x grid, under a dusk wash", "anchors": [ { "name": "2D", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Colorful", "kind": "art style", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Atmospheric", "kind": "look quality", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "2D", "Colorful", "Atmospheric" ], "translation": "2D and Colorful become hand-placed pixel sprites drawn from string maps, each scaled 3x with a one-pixel ink outline, bright riso fills against the teal ground; Atmospheric becomes the long sprite shadows and the evening tint drawn over the whole valley scene.", "tokens": { "literals": [ "const PX = 3", "OUTLINE = '#2b2140'", "function drawValley" ] }, "surprise": true, "method": "source", "why": "Sprites are string pixel maps drawn to canvas at 3x with an outline pass; the dusk wash is a full-screen tint pass.", "cluster": "Whimsical pixel worlds", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna5", "layer": "interaction", "device": "Thistlepuff round-up: herd bouncing puffs into the pen", "anchors": [ { "name": "Slime Rancher", "kind": "game", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "whimsical", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "predicted" } ], "qualities": [ "Colorful", "whimsical" ], "translation": "Creature ranching becomes thistlepuffs: round candy-coloured seed creatures that bob in place and scurry away from you, so you herd them by walking behind them into the puff-pen.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "puff-pen" ], "literals": [ "HERD_RADIUS = 46" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "puff-pen" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "Herding is flee-from-player steering in the update loop, with a pen rectangle that counts puffs.", "cluster": "Whimsical pixel worlds", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna6", "layer": "interaction", "device": "Tape-recorder interviews with a question choice", "anchors": [ { "name": "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "63 Up", "kind": "TV", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "curious", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Conversationally intimate", "Reflective", "curious" ], "translation": "Conversational intimacy and the return-interview become the core verb: walk to a neighbour, press record, choose which question to ask, and the answer is filed as one line in your tape-log.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "tape-log", "lower-third" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "tape-log", "lower-third" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "Interviews are a small dialogue state machine with a two-choice question and a tape-log DOM list.", "cluster": "Conversational documentary", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna7", "layer": "interaction", "device": "Garage rehearsal in a three-lane riff lane", "anchors": [ { "name": "Modern Baseball", "kind": "music", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Catchy", "kind": "mood quality", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Indie Punk", "Catchy" ], "translation": "Indie punk and catchiness become a playable rehearsal: notes fall down three lanes and you hit J, K, L on the beat of a short catchy chiptune riff; the grade carries into the show.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "riff-lane" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "riff-lane" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "The rehearsal is a timed note chart with WebAudio square-wave tones, scored per hit.", "cluster": "Bedroom-pop garage summers", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna8", "layer": "structure", "device": "One summer day that dims toward the nine o'clock show, ending in a zine", "anchors": [ { "name": "Youth", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Folkloric", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "new" } ], "qualities": [ "Youth", "Folkloric" ], "translation": "Youth becomes the frame: you are home for one summer day; the day-clock runs from morning to nine, the light dims, and the garage show ends it. The ending is a hand-stapled zine of the day: who you taped, how many puffs, how the set went.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "day-clock", "zine-ending" ] }, "surprise": true, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "day-clock", "zine-ending" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "A day-clock drives the tint and triggers the show; the zine ending is a DOM overlay with a replay key.", "cluster": "Atmospheric dusk", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna9", "layer": "voice", "device": "Wry first line, honest second line", "anchors": [ { "name": "Charming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Reflective", "kind": "meaning quality", "mark": "new" }, { "name": "Heartwarming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "predicted" } ], "qualities": [ "Charming", "Reflective", "Heartwarming" ], "translation": "Charming and Reflective become a two-beat register: neighbours open with a dry, charming joke, then say one honest, reflective thing. Short lines, no exclamation marks.", "tokens": { "copy": [ "You came home for one summer day. The show is at nine.", "Everyone says this town never changes. Everyone is wrong, but politely.", "Same faces, next summer. Bring the tape." ] }, "surprise": true, "method": "copy", "why": "The lines are written into the game's dialogue data and title/ending text.", "cluster": "Conversational documentary", "check": "present" } ], "stats": { "devices": 9, "layers": [ "palette", "typography", "motion", "imagery", "interaction", "structure", "voice" ], "surpriseAnchored": 9, "measuredAnchored": 9, "predictionAnchored": 0, "qualityAnchored": 9 } }, "departure": { "sketch": { "palette": [ "#7cb342", "#8d6e63", "#f4e1b0", "#4fc3f7", "#ffb74d", "#3e2723" ], "fonts": [], "sections": [ "game", "hud", "dialog-box", "inventory-bar", "controls-help", "ending-screen" ] }, "palette": [ { "color": "#1f4e5a", "nearest": "#3e2723", "delta": 31, "moved": true }, { "color": "#ff6f91", "nearest": "#8d6e63", "delta": 50, "moved": true }, { "color": "#9be3c4", "nearest": "#f4e1b0", "delta": 34, "moved": true }, { "color": "#6a5d9e", "nearest": "#8d6e63", "delta": 46, "moved": true }, { "color": "#ffe27a", "nearest": "#ffb74d", "delta": 24, "moved": true }, { "color": "#2b2140", "nearest": "#3e2723", "delta": 25, "moved": true } ], "fonts": [ { "name": "Pixelify Sans", "moved": true }, { "name": "Caveat", "moved": true } ], "ids": [ "puff-pen", "tape-log", "lower-third", "riff-lane", "day-clock", "zine-ending" ], "threshold": 20 }, "decisions": [ { "question": "pacing", "ask": "How do the films and series they love move?", "decision": "How the interview mechanic and its camera should move: a slow, gentle fade or something sharper and comic.", "guess": "Slow, gentle and cosy: soft fades and a calm dialogue crawl, no punchy cuts.", "answer": [ { "label": "Pacing", "names": [ "Sharp-Tongued (new)", "Mockumentary (new)", "Narratively Bold (new)", "Scientifically Rich (new)", "Bleakly Beautiful (new)", "Folkloric (new)" ] } ], "requests": 0 }, { "question": "tone", "ask": "What emotional tone runs through what they love?", "decision": "The register of the neighbours' lines and the game's UI text.", "guess": "Wholesome and warm, gently sentimental, cosy small-town kindness.", "answer": [ { "label": "Tone", "names": [ "Heartwarming (predicted)", "Relaxing (new)", "Creative (new)", "Charming (new)", "Thought-Provoking (new)", "Challenging (new)" ] } ], "requests": 0 } ], "reviews": [ { "round": 1, "summary": "The world, the interview and the rehearsal read as planned: a riso-coloured pixel hamlet with a documentary interview and a garage rhythm lane. The dusk that should carry Atmospheric is too faint, and the ending clips its own replay prompt, so both need repair.", "met": 3, "partly": 2, "missed": 0, "criteria": [ { "id": "r1", "device": "dna1", "look": "In the walk view the ground reads deep teal with mint grass, hot pink and flyer-yellow appear on puffs and HUD, and a lavender dusk tint is visible over the scene, not a green-and-brown farm.", "capture": "r1-frame-walk", "verdict": "partly", "observed": "The ground reads teal with mint tufts, the garage is hot pink, the cottage and HUD carry flyer-yellow, the pond is lavender: not a green-and-brown farm. But at 6 pm the evening wash is a faint pink film; no lavender dusk tint is visible over the scene.", "repair": "Strengthen the light curve: lavender wash from 3 pm rising to about 0.3 by 6 pm, then lavender plus ink toward nine, so the dusk is visible in the walk view." }, { "id": "r2", "device": "dna3", "look": "In the interview view the camera is visibly zoomed onto two figures, a lower-third bar with the neighbour's name sits at lower left, and a boxed pixel dialogue window shows two question choices.", "capture": "r1-frame-interview", "verdict": "met", "observed": "The camera is punched in on the player and Juniper by the hives, a pink lower-third reads 'Juniper Hale / beekeeper, fifty-two summers here' at upper left, a 'rec' tag sits top right, and a boxed pixel dialogue window lists two questions with a pink caret on the first." }, { "id": "r3", "device": "dna7", "look": "In the rehearsal view three lanes labelled J, K and L with falling notes and a hit line fill the garage screen.", "capture": "r1-frame-rehearsal", "verdict": "met", "observed": "Three lanes in pink, yellow and mint with falling notes, a hit line and J, K, L labels fill the garage, with posters, an amp, string lights, the player and Mo. The lit K lane reads as a muddy brown and one note sits below the hit line over the K label, which is untidy but does not hide the lanes." }, { "id": "r4", "device": "dna8", "look": "In the ending view a zine page in handwritten type lists the taped stories, the puff count and the set grade, with a visible Play again prompt.", "capture": "r1-frame-ending", "verdict": "partly", "observed": "A tilted flyer-yellow zine in handwritten type lists three taped lines, 'Puffs home: 4 of 5' and 'The set: B'. The closing line is cut off at the bottom and the Play again prompt is not visible at all.", "repair": "Lay the zine out in two columns at a smaller size so the closing line and the Play again button both sit inside the frame." }, { "id": "r5", "device": "dna4", "look": "In the walk view sprites are chunky pixel figures with a dark one-pixel outline, and the puff-pen fence holds at least one puff while others roam outside.", "capture": "r1-frame-walk", "verdict": "met", "observed": "Every figure is a chunky pixel sprite with a dark one-pixel outline and a soft shadow; the fenced pen holds a pink and a yellow puff while mint, lilac and white puffs roam outside it." } ], "critique": { "generic": [ { "choice": "The Keys panel is a dark box of key caps and labels, the help card any browser game has.", "capture": "r1-frame-walk", "action": "replaced" }, { "choice": "Plain three-lane rhythm-game highway with a hit line.", "capture": "r1-frame-rehearsal", "action": "kept", "anchor": "Modern Baseball" }, { "choice": "Offset solid drop shadows behind the game screen and panels.", "capture": "r1-frame-walk", "action": "kept", "anchor": "Energetic" } ], "fan": { "works": [ "Undertale", "Slime Rancher", "Omori", "Beach Bunny", "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman" ], "verdict": "partly", "why": "An Undertale or Omori player would recognise the boxed dialogue and the odd, wry neighbours, a Slime Rancher player the bobbing candy-coloured puffs, and a Beach Bunny listener the garage set and the tape. But the evening that should make the day feel like it is ending barely shows, and the ending hides its own replay, so the last impression is weaker than the middle." } } }, { "round": 2, "summary": "Both repairs landed: the dusk wash now reads at 6 pm, and the zine ending shows its closing line and replay prompt. The keys are now a taped pink setlist rather than a generic help box. One gameplay weakness remains outside the criteria: in the scripted play-test, one of three seeded herding runs stalled at 2 of 5 puffs, so herding can be fiddly; the ending handles a partial pen.", "met": 5, "partly": 0, "missed": 0, "criteria": [ { "id": "r1", "device": "dna1", "look": "In the walk view the ground reads deep teal with mint grass, hot pink and flyer-yellow appear on puffs and HUD, and a lavender dusk tint is visible over the scene, not a green-and-brown farm.", "capture": "r2-frame-walk", "verdict": "met", "observed": "At 6 pm the whole valley now sits under a visible lavender wash: the teal ground goes slate-blue, the yellow cottage and lane are dimmed toward lilac, the pond is deep violet, while the hot pink garage, the puffs and the HUD still carry the riso pink and flyer-yellow. It no longer reads as a green-and-brown farm." }, { "id": "r2", "device": "dna3", "look": "In the interview view the camera is visibly zoomed onto two figures, a lower-third bar with the neighbour's name sits at lower left, and a boxed pixel dialogue window shows two question choices.", "capture": "r2-frame-interview", "verdict": "met", "observed": "The camera is punched in on the player and Juniper beside the hives; a pink lower-third reads 'Juniper Hale / beekeeper, fifty-two summers here' at upper left with a 'rec' tag at top right; the boxed pixel dialogue window says 'Press record. Ask something you actually want to know.' over two questions with a pink caret." }, { "id": "r3", "device": "dna7", "look": "In the rehearsal view three lanes labelled J, K and L with falling notes and a hit line fill the garage screen.", "capture": "r2-frame-rehearsal", "verdict": "met", "observed": "Three lanes in pink, yellow and mint with falling notes, a hit line and J, K, L labels fill the garage screen, with posters, an amp, string lights, the player and Mo with a guitar; the stray note under the K label is gone and the lit lane is a light wash above the hit line only." }, { "id": "r4", "device": "dna8", "look": "In the ending view a zine page in handwritten type lists the taped stories, the puff count and the set grade, with a visible Play again prompt.", "capture": "r2-frame-ending", "verdict": "met", "observed": "The zine is now a two-column flyer-yellow sheet: title, 'one summer day, folded and stapled' and three handwritten tape lines on the left; 'Puffs home: 4 of 5', 'The set: B', 'Same faces, next summer. Bring the tape.' and a visible 'Press Enter or R to play again' button on the right, all inside the frame, with the taped neighbours and penned puffs standing below." }, { "id": "r5", "device": "dna4", "look": "In the walk view sprites are chunky pixel figures with a dark one-pixel outline, and the puff-pen fence holds at least one puff while others roam outside.", "capture": "r2-frame-walk", "verdict": "met", "observed": "All figures are chunky pixel sprites with a dark one-pixel outline and a long evening shadow; the fenced pen holds a pink and a yellow puff while mint, lilac and white puffs roam outside it." } ], "critique": { "generic": [ { "choice": "Plain three-lane rhythm highway with a hit line.", "capture": "r2-frame-rehearsal", "action": "kept", "anchor": "Modern Baseball" }, { "choice": "Offset solid shadows behind the screen, tape log and setlist.", "capture": "r2-frame-walk", "action": "kept", "anchor": "Energetic" }, { "choice": "A dark status strip of labels and counters above the game.", "capture": "r2-frame-interview", "action": "kept", "anchor": "Youth" } ], "fan": { "works": [ "Undertale", "Slime Rancher", "Omori", "Beach Bunny", "Modern Baseball" ], "verdict": "yes", "why": "An Undertale or Omori player gets the boxed pixel dialogue and wry, odd neighbours with a real question choice; a Slime Rancher player gets candy-coloured bobbing puffs to round up; a Beach Bunny or Modern Baseball listener gets a garage set, a tape of the day and a hand-stapled zine. The dimming lavender evening makes it feel like one young summer day ending, not a farm chore loop." } } } ], "captures": [ { "id": "r2-frame-walk", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "walk", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · walk", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-walk.png", "file": "assets/captures/a-r2-frame-walk.png" }, { "id": "r2-frame-ending", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "ending", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · ending", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-ending.png", "file": "assets/captures/a-r2-frame-ending.png" }, { "id": "r2-frame-selftest", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "selftest", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · selftest", "cited": false, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-selftest.png", "file": "assets/captures/a-r2-frame-selftest.png" }, { "id": "r2-frame-interview", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "interview", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · interview", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-interview.png", "file": "assets/captures/a-r2-frame-interview.png" }, { "id": "r2-frame-rehearsal", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "rehearsal", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · rehearsal", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-rehearsal.png", "file": "assets/captures/a-r2-frame-rehearsal.png" } ], "check": { "score": 1, "system": "css-vars", "present": 9, "devices": [ { "id": "dna1", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna2", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna3", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna4", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna5", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna6", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna7", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna8", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna9", "status": "present" } ], "style": { "atStart": { "stylesheets": [], "handWritten": 0, "classes": 0 }, "now": { "stylesheets": [], "handWritten": 303, "classes": 24 } } }, "limits": [ "Qloo measured the entities, tags and shared qualities named here and how they relate to this audience. Every colour, font, layout, motion and line drawn from them is the agent's interpretation, marked as such.", "A name marked new was not in the prediction the agent froze before any data. Only names are published here: Qloo's ids, affinity scores, popularity and descriptions stay in the project.", "The check shows that the declared tokens are in the files, not that the design is good. The review is the agent's own reading of its captures.", "One session is one sample. It shows where this design's choices came from, not that people prefer it." ] }, { "schemaVersion": "1.0", "kind": "baseline", "generatedAt": "2026-10-27T13:59:51.684Z", "host": "claude-code", "writtenBy": { "name": "mousa", "version": "0.7.1" }, "medium": "game", "taste": "own prediction", "title": "For an audience that loves Stardew Valley", "audience": { "references": [ { "name": "Stardew Valley" } ] }, "headline": { "value": "9", "text": "design devices rest on the model's own prediction, with no Qloo data", "sentence": "9 devices rest on the prediction alone; no Qloo data was used." }, "numbers": [ { "value": 49, "label": "entries in the prediction" }, { "value": 0, "label": "Qloo requests" }, { "value": 9, "label": "design devices over 7 layers" } ], "prediction": { "frozenAt": "2026-10-26T20:49:41.465Z", "sha256": "bf6d13905fa0078bb32530aef34588946ce68bc8697243653fcd1e3fd01a6ade", "sealHolds": true, "summary": "Players who love Stardew Valley want a gentle, self-paced life in a small rural community: tending crops, gathering, befriending neighbours, and slowly restoring something, with cosy pixel art and no real failure state.", "groups": [ { "domain": "videogame", "label": "Games", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" }, { "name": "Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town" }, { "name": "Minecraft" }, { "name": "Terraria" }, { "name": "Spiritfarer" }, { "name": "Hollow Knight" } ] }, { "domain": "movie", "label": "Films", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "My Neighbor Totoro" }, { "name": "Kiki's Delivery Service" }, { "name": "Spirited Away" }, { "name": "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" }, { "name": "Howl's Moving Castle" } ] }, { "domain": "tv_show", "label": "TV", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "Avatar: The Last Airbender" }, { "name": "Gilmore Girls" }, { "name": "Parks and Recreation" }, { "name": "The Great British Baking Show" }, { "name": "Gravity Falls" } ] }, { "domain": "artist", "label": "Music", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "ConcernedApe" }, { "name": "Joe Hisaishi" }, { "name": "Hozier" }, { "name": "Bon Iver" }, { "name": "Fleet Foxes" }, { "name": "Phoebe Bridgers" } ] }, { "domain": "book", "label": "Books", "quality": false, "entries": [ { "name": "The Hobbit" }, { "name": "Legends & Lattes" }, { "name": "The House in the Cerulean Sea" }, { "name": "Anne of Green Gables" } ] }, { "domain": "style", "label": "Pacing", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "slow, gentle pacing" }, { "name": "seasonal, episodic rhythm" }, { "name": "quiet everyday moments" }, { "name": "warm ensemble scenes" } ] }, { "domain": "aesthetic", "label": "Surfaces", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "cozy" }, { "name": "rustic wood and earth" }, { "name": "hand-crafted pixel detail" }, { "name": "pastoral countryside" }, { "name": "warm lantern light" } ] }, { "domain": "tone", "label": "Tone", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "wholesome" }, { "name": "nostalgic" }, { "name": "heartwarming" }, { "name": "calm" }, { "name": "whimsical" } ] }, { "domain": "qualities", "label": "Shared qualities", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "cozy small-town community" }, { "name": "nature and seasons" }, { "name": "escape from city routine" }, { "name": "growing and nurturing" }, { "name": "quiet magic" } ] }, { "domain": "art_style", "label": "Art styles", "quality": true, "entries": [ { "name": "pixel art" }, { "name": "hand-drawn" }, { "name": "watercolor" }, { "name": "Studio Ghibli-like painterly" } ] } ], "sketch": { "summary": "A top-down 16-bit pixel farm village on a single screen: plant and water crops, forage, fish at a pond and deliver gifts to villagers over one compressed season, ending with a harvest festival score and a replay button.", "palette": [ "#7cb342", "#8d6e63", "#f4e1b0", "#4fc3f7", "#ffb74d", "#3e2723" ], "fonts": [], "sections": [ "game", "hud", "dialog-box", "inventory-bar", "controls-help", "ending-screen" ], "motifs": [ "tilled soil rows", "wooden sign UI panels", "day clock with sun", "festival bunting" ] } }, "reading": { "clusters": [ { "id": "c1", "name": "Hearth and ensemble", "reading": "No measured taste was used: this reads my own frozen prediction. These entries share a small cast who matter to each other, where kindness is the plot: neighbours with one craft each, small requests, and a found family gathered by the end.", "layers": [ "voice", "structure", "interaction" ], "conventions": [ "village-sim dialogue: a wooden-framed text box with a speaker nameplate, short friendly lines, and friendship hearts that fill one by one", "found-family ensembles: a cast of four, each with one element or craft they own, who come together for a final gathering" ], "refs": [ { "name": "cozy small-town community", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "warm ensemble scenes", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", "kind": "game", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Avatar: The Last Airbender", "kind": "TV", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "The Great British Baking Show", "kind": "TV", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Legends & Lattes", "kind": "book", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "wholesome", "kind": "tone", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "heartwarming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "own" } ] }, { "id": "c2", "name": "Seasons in the soil", "reading": "In my prediction, the audience loves tending: a day is a loop of small chores, the calendar is the story, and the world is drawn tile by tile in earthy, hand-placed pixels.", "layers": [ "palette", "typography", "structure", "imagery" ], "conventions": [ "16-bit farm-sim tiles: a limited earthy palette, checkered grass, tilled rows, and hard one-pixel dark outlines around every sprite", "day-calendar HUD: a wooden corner panel with the day number, a sun-to-moon dial and the time in pixel lettering" ], "refs": [ { "name": "nature and seasons", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "growing and nurturing", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town", "kind": "game", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "seasonal, episodic rhythm", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "slow, gentle pacing", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "rustic wood and earth", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "pixel art", "kind": "art style", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "hand-crafted pixel detail", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" } ] }, { "id": "c3", "name": "Quiet magic at dusk", "reading": "In my prediction, the magic of these works is small and patient: a spirit in a tree, a girl arriving in a new town, lanterns at dusk. It rewards slowing down after leaving the city.", "layers": [ "palette", "motion", "imagery", "voice" ], "conventions": [ "hand-painted animated-film dusk: warm lantern glow pooling on deep blue evening shadows while seed fluff drifts in the air", "a shy forest spirit in a hollow tree who answers small offerings, never seen hunting or fighting" ], "refs": [ { "name": "quiet magic", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "escape from city routine", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "My Neighbor Totoro", "kind": "film", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Kiki's Delivery Service", "kind": "film", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "warm lantern light", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "calm", "kind": "tone", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "nostalgic", "kind": "tone", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Joe Hisaishi", "kind": "music", "mark": "own" } ] } ], "setAside": [ { "name": "Hollow Knight", "kind": "game", "mark": "own", "reason": "A dark, combat-heavy underground descent: its melancholy and difficulty contradict the calm, no-failure loop the rest of the prediction shares." }, { "name": "Terraria", "kind": "game", "mark": "own", "reason": "Its pull is combat, bosses and digging for gear; this one-screen gentle game has no fights or crafting tree." }, { "name": "Parks and Recreation", "kind": "TV", "mark": "own", "reason": "Office-and-council workplace comedy; its humour of bureaucracy does not carry into a pastoral world." }, { "name": "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", "kind": "film", "mark": "own", "reason": "Its escape is global adventure and travel photography, the opposite of settling into one small place." }, { "name": "Phoebe Bridgers", "kind": "music", "mark": "own", "reason": "Her melancholic confessional register would pull the voice away from the wholesome, heartwarming tone the clusters share." } ], "approach": "The game is a single-screen pixel hamlet drawn on a canvas. Seasons in the soil sets the ground: earthy 16-bit tiles, a day-calendar panel and a five-day loop of tending crops. Hearth and ensemble sets what the player does: four neighbours, each owning one element (earth, water, air, fire), each with a request fulfilled by a different activity (farming, fishing, gathering thistledown, offering to the forest spirit), told through wooden dialogue boxes with friendship hearts. Quiet magic at dusk sets the ending and the light: each fulfilled request lights a lantern on the lane, evenings fall into deep blue with lantern glow, and on the fifth night the Lantern Night gathers whoever you befriended. No measured taste was used." }, "dna": { "thesis": "Thistledown is a five-day pixel hamlet where you leave the city, tend soil, fish and gather, and light four neighbours' lanterns one kindness at a time, until Lantern Night gathers whoever you befriended (built from my own frozen prediction; no measured taste was used).", "devices": [ { "id": "dna1", "layer": "palette", "device": "Turned-earth farm tiles: checkered grass, tilled loam and weathered wood", "anchors": [ { "name": "nature and seasons", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "rustic wood and earth", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "pixel art", "kind": "art style", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "nature and seasons", "rustic wood and earth" ], "translation": "Nature and seasons, drawn the way 16-bit farm sims draw them: a limited earthy palette of two grass greens in a checker, a loam brown and its darker tilled row, weathered plank wood for every panel, and one dark bark outline around each sprite.", "convention": "16-bit farm-sim tiles: a limited earthy palette, checkered grass, tilled rows, and hard one-pixel dark outlines around every sprite", "tokens": { "colors": [ "#5e9a3e", "#7cb84c", "#7a5232", "#4e3220", "#b07a44", "#2a1c12" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [ "#b07a44" ], "fonts": [], "ids": [] }, "method": "source", "why": "The farm palette lives as named constants in the game script that every tile and sprite draws from.", "cluster": "Seasons in the soil", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna2", "layer": "palette", "device": "Lantern dusk: deep blue evening washed over the map with warm pools of lantern light", "anchors": [ { "name": "quiet magic", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "warm lantern light", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "My Neighbor Totoro", "kind": "film", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "quiet magic", "warm lantern light" ], "translation": "Quiet magic arrives as light: each evening a deep blue wash falls over the tiles, and lit lanterns cut warm amber circles through it, the way hand-painted animated films paint dusk in the countryside.", "convention": "hand-painted animated-film dusk: warm lantern glow pooling on deep blue evening shadows while seed fluff drifts in the air", "tokens": { "colors": [ "#1c2748", "#3a4f86", "#ffb84d", "#ffe3a0" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [ "#1c2748", "#3a4f86" ], "fonts": [], "ids": [] }, "method": "source", "why": "Dusk is a canvas overlay pass: a blue wash with lantern light cut out using composite operations, colours as constants.", "cluster": "Quiet magic at dusk", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna3", "layer": "typography", "device": "Pixel lettering in a wooden day-calendar panel", "anchors": [ { "name": "growing and nurturing", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "hand-crafted pixel detail", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "growing and nurturing", "hand-crafted pixel detail" ], "translation": "The day count is how growth is felt, so the HUD sets Day, time and lanterns lit in a soft pixel sans on a plank panel in the corner, as farm-sim calendars do; the same face sets the dialogue.", "convention": "day-calendar HUD: a wooden corner panel with the day number, a sun-to-moon dial and the time in pixel lettering", "tokens": { "fonts": [ "Pixelify Sans" ], "ids": [ "day-dial" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [ "Pixelify Sans" ], "ids": [ "day-dial" ] }, "method": "library-font", "why": "Pixelify Sans is copied locally into fonts/ and loaded by @font-face, so the canvas HUD and dialogue use it with no network request.", "cluster": "Seasons in the soil", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna4", "layer": "structure", "device": "Four neighbours, four elements, four lanterns on the lane", "anchors": [ { "name": "cozy small-town community", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Avatar: The Last Airbender", "kind": "TV", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "warm ensemble scenes", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "cozy small-town community", "warm ensemble scenes" ], "translation": "A found-family ensemble of four, each owning one element: Maple the baker (earth, wants turnips), Fen the fisher (water, wants fish), Wren the kite-maker (air, wants thistledown) and the Mossling in the hollow tree (fire, wants an offering of mushrooms). Each request you fulfil lights that neighbour's lantern on the lane; the four lanterns are the whole progress bar.", "convention": "found-family ensembles: a cast of four, each with one element or craft they own, who come together for a final gathering", "tokens": { "ids": [ "lantern-earth", "lantern-water", "lantern-air", "lantern-fire" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "lantern-earth", "lantern-water", "lantern-air", "lantern-fire" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "The four neighbours and lanterns are data objects in the script with these ids; the lane draws them and the ending counts them.", "cluster": "Hearth and ensemble", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna5", "layer": "interaction", "device": "Three chores and an offering: till-plant-water-harvest, a reel-timing bar, catching drifting thistledown", "anchors": [ { "name": "Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town", "kind": "game", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", "kind": "game", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "growing and nurturing", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "growing and nurturing" ], "translation": "What the player does is tend: Space on a plot tills, plants, waters and harvests (crops grow one stage per watered night); at the pond a marker sweeps a bar and Space lands it in the green zone to catch a fish; in the meadow puffs drift on the wind and you walk into them; in the woods you pick mushrooms and leave them at the hollow. Talking (E) and giving fill friendship hearts.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "crop-plot", "fishing-bar", "thistle-puff", "hollow-tree", "friend-hearts" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "crop-plot", "fishing-bar", "thistle-puff", "hollow-tree", "friend-hearts" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "Each mechanic is a playable system in the game loop: crop plots, the fishing bar mini-game, drifting puffs and the hollow tree offering.", "cluster": "Seasons in the soil", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna6", "layer": "structure", "device": "Five short days from the last bus to Lantern Night, then the bus home or another stay", "anchors": [ { "name": "escape from city routine", "kind": "quality", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "seasonal, episodic rhythm", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "escape from city routine", "seasonal, episodic rhythm" ], "translation": "The game is an episode of escape: it opens at the bus stop as you leave the city, runs five days of about a minute each (sleep in the cottage or the day ends at midnight), and closes on the fifth night with Lantern Night, whose ending changes with how many lanterns burn. Enter plays again from the bus stop.", "tokens": { "ids": [ "bus-stop", "lantern-night" ], "copy": [ "The last bus leaves you at Thistledown. No signal. Just wind.", "Press Enter to stay another season" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "bus-stop", "lantern-night" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "A state machine in the script: bus-stop intro, five timed days, sleep, and the lantern-night ending with replay.", "cluster": "Quiet magic at dusk", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna7", "layer": "motion", "device": "Slow drift and lantern breath", "anchors": [ { "name": "slow, gentle pacing", "kind": "pacing", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "calm", "kind": "tone", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "slow, gentle pacing", "calm" ], "translation": "Slow, gentle pacing becomes motion with no snap: thistledown drifts on a sine wind, lantern glow breathes in and out over a few seconds, and the frame around the game breathes with the same slow glow; it stops for reduced motion and when paused.", "tokens": { "css": [ "animation: lantern-breath 4s ease-in-out infinite" ], "keyframes": [ "lantern-breath" ] }, "surprise": false, "method": "source", "why": "Canvas drift and glow are computed per frame; the page frame uses the lantern-breath keyframes with a reduced-motion fallback and pauses with the game.", "cluster": "Quiet magic at dusk", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna8", "layer": "imagery", "device": "Hand-placed 16-pixel sprites with dark one-pixel outlines, and a shy moss spirit in a hollow tree", "anchors": [ { "name": "hand-crafted pixel detail", "kind": "surface", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "My Neighbor Totoro", "kind": "film", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Kiki's Delivery Service", "kind": "film", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "hand-crafted pixel detail" ], "translation": "Every tile and sprite is drawn in code from small pixel maps at 16 pixels, scaled up with smoothing off, outlined in dark bark. The forest spirit is an original round moss creature with ember eyes that peeks from a hollow tree and answers offerings, a small patient magic rather than a monster.", "convention": "a shy forest spirit in a hollow tree who answers small offerings, never seen hunting or fighting", "tokens": { "css": [ "image-rendering: pixelated" ], "ids": [ "spirit-sprite", "pixel-tiles" ], "literals": [ "const SPRITES = {", "imageSmoothingEnabled = false" ] }, "surprise": false, "moved": { "colors": [], "fonts": [], "ids": [ "spirit-sprite", "pixel-tiles" ] }, "method": "source", "why": "Sprites are pixel maps in a SPRITES table rendered with smoothing off, which keeps the work hand-placed and needs no image files.", "cluster": "Seasons in the soil", "check": "present" }, { "id": "dna9", "layer": "voice", "device": "Short, kind lines that tell you to slow down", "anchors": [ { "name": "heartwarming", "kind": "tone", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "wholesome", "kind": "tone", "mark": "own" }, { "name": "Legends & Lattes", "kind": "book", "mark": "own" } ], "qualities": [ "heartwarming", "wholesome" ], "translation": "Neighbours speak in one or two short warm sentences, never urgent, praising small effort; the game never scolds or fails you.", "tokens": { "copy": [ "Slow down, dear. The turnips are not in a hurry.", "Four lanterns, four neighbours. Thistledown glows for you tonight." ] }, "surprise": false, "method": "copy", "why": "Dialogue lines are written in the script's neighbour data and shown in the wooden dialogue box.", "cluster": "Hearth and ensemble", "check": "present" } ], "stats": { "devices": 9, "layers": [ "palette", "typography", "structure", "interaction", "motion", "imagery", "voice" ], "surpriseAnchored": 0, "measuredAnchored": 0, "predictionAnchored": 9, "qualityAnchored": 9 } }, "departure": { "sketch": { "palette": [ "#7cb342", "#8d6e63", "#f4e1b0", "#4fc3f7", "#ffb74d", "#3e2723" ], "fonts": [], "sections": [ "game", "hud", "dialog-box", "inventory-bar", "controls-help", "ending-screen" ] }, "palette": [ { "color": "#5e9a3e", "nearest": "#7cb342", "delta": 13, "moved": false }, { "color": "#7cb84c", "nearest": "#7cb342", "delta": 3, "moved": false }, { "color": "#7a5232", "nearest": "#8d6e63", "delta": 18, "moved": false }, { "color": "#4e3220", "nearest": "#3e2723", "delta": 11, "moved": false }, { "color": "#b07a44", "nearest": "#8d6e63", "delta": 28, "moved": true }, { "color": "#2a1c12", "nearest": "#3e2723", "delta": 9, "moved": false }, { "color": "#1c2748", "nearest": "#3e2723", "delta": 29, "moved": true }, { "color": "#3a4f86", "nearest": "#3e2723", "delta": 43, "moved": true }, { "color": "#ffb84d", "nearest": "#ffb74d", "delta": 1, "moved": false }, { "color": "#ffe3a0", "nearest": "#f4e1b0", "delta": 10, "moved": false } ], "fonts": [ { "name": "Pixelify Sans", "moved": true } ], "ids": [ "day-dial", "lantern-earth", "lantern-water", "lantern-air", "lantern-fire", "crop-plot", "fishing-bar", "thistle-puff", "hollow-tree", "friend-hearts", "bus-stop", "lantern-night", "spirit-sprite", "pixel-tiles" ], "threshold": 20 }, "reviews": [ { "round": 1, "summary": "No measured taste was used: this design rests on my frozen prediction. The scripted play-test (r1-frame-selftest) passed 19 of 19 checks with no script errors: walking, pause, farming through growth and harvest, fishing hits and misses, thistledown, mushrooms, all four deliveries, both endings and replay. The look holds in daylight; dusk, the fishing panel's placement and the HUD need repairs.", "met": 3, "partly": 3, "missed": 0, "criteria": [ { "id": "r1", "device": "dna1", "look": "In the daytime view, grass is a two-green checker, the farm shows tilled dark-loam rows with sprouting crops, and every sprite has a dark outline.", "capture": "r1-frame-day", "verdict": "met", "observed": "Grass alternates two close greens tile by tile with lighter tufts; the fenced farm shows dark tilled loam rows with three ripe turnips and sprouts; houses, trees, people and the fence all carry a dark one-pixel outline." }, { "id": "r2", "device": "dna2", "look": "In the dusk view the whole map is washed deep blue and each lit lantern on the lane throws a visible warm amber circle.", "capture": "r1-frame-dusk", "verdict": "partly", "observed": "Evening falls and the three lit lanterns throw clear pools of light, windows glow; but the wash reads grey-teal rather than deep blue, and the additive pools turn the meadow yellow-green instead of warm amber.", "repair": "Tint the evening with a multiply pass of #3a4f86 under the #1c2748 wash so greens go blue, and paint the lantern pools as a source-over amber radial with a small additive core, so they read warm on grass." }, { "id": "r3", "device": "dna5", "look": "In the fishing view a horizontal bar with a green catch zone and a moving marker sits above the pond, with a prompt naming the Space key.", "capture": "r1-frame-fishing", "verdict": "partly", "observed": "The bar shows a water-blue track, a green catch zone, a moving marker and the line 'A bite! Press Space in the green', and the bobber sits on the pond; but the panel is pinned to the top centre over the bakery, far from the pond.", "repair": "Place the fishing panel just above the player's cast, over the pond side of the map, clamped inside the world." }, { "id": "r4", "device": "dna6", "look": "The ending view shows Lantern Night: the four lanterns (lit or dark), the befriended neighbours gathered, an ending line, and 'Press Enter to stay another season'.", "capture": "r1-frame-ending", "verdict": "met", "observed": "Lantern Night: four lit lanterns on the lane, Maple, Fen, the player, Wren and the Mossling gathered under them, thistledown wishes rising, the line 'Four lanterns, four neighbours. Thistledown glows for you tonight.', hearts per neighbour, and 'Press Enter to stay another season'." }, { "id": "r5", "device": "dna3", "look": "The HUD in the daytime view is a plank-wood panel reading the day number, time and lanterns lit in Pixelify Sans, and the keyboard controls are listed on screen.", "capture": "r1-frame-day", "verdict": "partly", "observed": "A plank panel reads 'Day 3 of 5' and '10:30 am' in Pixelify Sans with a sun dial and the keys are listed in the side panel; but the face's 5 reads as an S, and the lantern-lane panel overflows ('find the hollow tr') and covers the woods and hollow tree.", "repair": "Move the HUD into a plank strip under the world (day dial, inventory, lantern lane), write 'Day N' with five calendar pips instead of 'of 5', widen the lane panel and raise label contrast." }, { "id": "r6", "device": "dna8", "look": "In the woods view the hollow tree is visible with the round moss spirit peeking out, drawn in blocky outlined pixels, not smooth shapes.", "capture": "r1-frame-woods", "verdict": "met", "observed": "The hollow tree stands in the darker woods with the round moss spirit peeking from the hollow, ember eyes and sprout visible, drawn in blocky outlined pixels; the dialogue portrait shows the same sprite." } ], "critique": { "generic": [ { "choice": "Parchment dialogue box inside a plank frame, with a nameplate and portrait", "capture": "r1-frame-woods", "action": "kept", "anchor": "warm ensemble scenes" }, { "choice": "A uniform ring of identical round trees framing every edge of the map, like any tile-map starter", "capture": "r1-frame-day", "action": "replaced" }, { "choice": "Additive yellow-green glow for lantern light, a stock bloom effect rather than painted lamplight", "capture": "r1-frame-dusk", "action": "replaced" } ], "fan": { "works": [ "Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town", "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", "My Neighbor Totoro", "Kiki's Delivery Service" ], "verdict": "partly", "why": "They would recognise the farm loop, the bakery and neighbours with hearts, and the shy spirit in a hollow tree; but the evening does not yet read as the deep blue painted dusk they love, and the identical tree ring makes the hamlet look like a template." } } }, { "round": 2, "summary": "No measured taste was used; the design rests on my frozen prediction. Round 2 meets all six criteria: dusk now reads blue with amber lamplight, the fishing bar sits at the pond, and the HUD moved into a plank strip with calendar pips. The scripted play-test (r2-frame-selftest) again passed 19 of 19 with no script errors, and the font's broken fi ligature is fixed.", "met": 6, "partly": 0, "missed": 0, "criteria": [ { "id": "r1", "device": "dna1", "look": "In the daytime view, grass is a two-green checker, the farm shows tilled dark-loam rows with sprouting crops, and every sprite has a dark outline.", "capture": "r2-frame-day", "verdict": "met", "observed": "Two-green grass checker with tufts, tilled loam rows in the fence holding ripe turnips and sprouts, every sprite and house outlined in dark bark; the tree ring now mixes deep, mid and turning amber canopies with berry shrubs." }, { "id": "r2", "device": "dna2", "look": "In the dusk view the whole map is washed deep blue and each lit lantern on the lane throws a visible warm amber circle.", "capture": "r2-frame-dusk", "verdict": "met", "observed": "At 8:40 pm the whole map is washed deep blue (houses, pond, woods); the three lit lanterns throw a clear warm pool over the lane and the lower meadow, the unlit fire lantern stays dark, and windows glow. Over grass the pool's edge still leans yellow-green; the amber was strengthened afterwards and reads orange in r2-frame-ending." }, { "id": "r3", "device": "dna5", "look": "In the fishing view a horizontal bar with a green catch zone and a moving marker sits above the pond, with a prompt naming the Space key.", "capture": "r2-frame-fishing", "verdict": "met", "observed": "The fishing panel now hangs just above the angler at the pond's north shore: a water-blue track, a green catch zone, the marker, and 'A bite! Press Space in the green', with the line and bobber on the water below." }, { "id": "r4", "device": "dna6", "look": "The ending view shows Lantern Night: the four lanterns (lit or dark), the befriended neighbours gathered, an ending line, and 'Press Enter to stay another season'.", "capture": "r2-frame-ending", "verdict": "met", "observed": "Lantern Night card with 'Four lanterns, four neighbours. Thistledown glows for you tonight.', totals, hearts for Maple, Fen, Wren and the Mossling, and 'Press Enter to stay another season'; below it the four lit lanterns pool amber on the lane where all five stand together while thistledown rises." }, { "id": "r5", "device": "dna3", "look": "The HUD in the daytime view is a plank-wood panel reading the day number, time and lanterns lit in Pixelify Sans, and the keyboard controls are listed on screen.", "capture": "r2-frame-day", "verdict": "met", "observed": "A plank strip under the world holds the day dial (sun arc, 'Day 3', '10:30 am', five calendar pips with the third lit) in Pixelify Sans, the inventory slots, and the lantern-lane list with element and progress per neighbour; nothing covers the map, and the keys are listed beside the canvas." }, { "id": "r6", "device": "dna8", "look": "In the woods view the hollow tree is visible with the round moss spirit peeking out, drawn in blocky outlined pixels, not smooth shapes.", "capture": "r2-frame-woods", "verdict": "met", "observed": "The hollow tree in the darker woods shows the round moss spirit with ember eyes and sprout peeking out, in blocky outlined pixels; the dialogue portrait and nameplate with hearts show the same spirit." } ], "critique": { "generic": [ { "choice": "Parchment dialogue box inside a plank frame with portrait and a nameplate", "capture": "r2-frame-woods", "action": "kept", "anchor": "warm ensemble scenes" }, { "choice": "A web-style side panel of keycaps listing the controls beside the canvas", "capture": "r2-frame-day", "action": "kept", "anchor": "hand-crafted pixel detail" }, { "choice": "The pond drawn as a stepped rectangle straight off the tile grid", "capture": "r2-frame-fishing", "action": "replaced" } ], "fan": { "works": [ "Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town", "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", "My Neighbor Totoro", "Kiki's Delivery Service" ], "verdict": "yes", "why": "They would recognise their own: a fenced turnip patch tended day by day, a bakery and neighbours whose hearts fill as you visit, a shy moss spirit in a hollow tree who answers offerings, and a blue evening where lanterns pool warm light before the whole lane gathers on Lantern Night." } } } ], "captures": [ { "id": "r2-frame-dusk", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "dusk", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · dusk", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-dusk.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-dusk.png" }, { "id": "r2-frame-ending", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "ending", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · ending", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-ending.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-ending.png" }, { "id": "r2-frame-fishing", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "fishing", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · fishing", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-fishing.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-fishing.png" }, { "id": "r2-frame-day", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "day", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · day", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-day.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-day.png" }, { "id": "r2-frame-woods", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "woods", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · woods", "cited": true, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-woods.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-woods.png" }, { "id": "r2-frame-selftest", "round": 2, "view": "frame", "target": "selftest", "width": 1440, "height": 810, "label": "frame · selftest", "cited": false, "source": ".mousa/captures/r2-frame-selftest.png", "file": "assets/captures/b-r2-frame-selftest.png" } ], "check": { "score": 1, "system": "css-vars", "present": 9, "devices": [ { "id": "dna1", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna2", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna3", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna4", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna5", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna6", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna7", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna8", "status": "present" }, { "id": "dna9", "status": "present" } ], "style": { "atStart": { "stylesheets": [], "handWritten": 0, "classes": 0 }, "now": { "stylesheets": [], "handWritten": 65, "classes": 0 } } }, "limits": [ "No Qloo data was used: the taste input is the agent's own prediction, frozen before the design began.", "The check shows that the declared tokens are in the files, not that the design is good. The review is the agent's own reading of its captures.", "One session is one sample. It shows where this design's choices came from, not that people prefer it." ] } ], "fonts": [ { "family": "Fraunces", "license": "OFL-1.1" }, { "family": "Inter", "license": "OFL-1.1" }, { "family": "DM Mono", "license": "OFL-1.1" }, { "family": "Pixelify Sans", "license": "OFL-1.1" }, { "family": "Caveat", "license": "OFL-1.1" } ] }