design-minigame

Design Mini-Game — Interactive Spec Builder

3 agents (mechanic-designer → reward-and-funnel → critic) turn a marketing goal into a playable mini-game spec: one dead-simple mechanic, sustainable reward economics, an honest value-exchange for the data, and the conversion path out. The spec an engineer or a no-code tool builds from. Method: references/agent-manifest.md.

Core question: Is it fun in one action, honest in its odds, and does it hand off to a real next step — or is it a dark-pattern email trap?

Critical Gates — load first

1. Serves a marketing goal. Lead capture, engagement, or virality — named, with the metric. A game with no goal is a toy.
2. One action to fun. The core loop is one obvious action (spin, pick, scratch). Friction before the first hit of fun kills it.
3. Honest by construction. Real odds, real prizes, no fake "you won!" then a paywall. Dark patterns are a hard FAIL (and a legal/brand risk).
4. Has a funnel. The game ends in a real next step (claim → email value-exchange → offer), not a dead end or a forced wall.

Before Starting

Apply references/_shared/before-starting-check.md. Resolve via ≤4 Cold Start questions only what's unstated:

Dimension	Why
Game type + the marketing goal	the mechanic + the success metric
The reward/incentive	drives participation + the economics
Placement (landing / email / social / event kiosk)	constraints + the funnel target
Data capture (email? none?)	the value-exchange + compliance

Mode per references/_shared/mode-resolver.md. budget: standard. --fast → mechanic + funnel sketch, skip the deep reward-economics model; never skips the honesty check (the safety floor). Per the mode-resolver, --fast does drop the critic gate.

Quality Gate — 5 dimensions

Full rubric: references/agent-manifest.md § Rubric.

• Goal fit — the mechanic serves the named marketing goal + metric
• One-action fun — the core loop is instantly playable; minimal pre-fun friction
• Honest mechanics — real odds, real prizes, no dark patterns
• Reward economics — the incentive is enticing AND sustainable (cost/redemption modelled)
• Funnel — a real value-exchange capture + a next step out

Pass ≥35/50 AND no dim 0. FAIL twice → BLOCKED.

Artifact Contract

• Path: docs/forsvn/artifacts/marketing/design-minigame/[game-type]-[YYYY-MM-DD]-[slug].md. Lifecycle: execution.
• Frontmatter (11): skill, version, date, stack, type, id, review_surface, status, game_type, capture_mode, keywords.
• Body: Concept (game + goal + metric) · Mechanic (the loop · win condition · odds) · Reward economics (prizes · odds · cost model · redemption cap) · Funnel (entry → play → capture value-exchange → next step) · Build notes (states, accessibility, anti-cheat) · Critic verdict. Full contract: references/format-conventions.md.

Routing + Dispatch

Sequential graph (mechanic-designer → reward-and-funnel → critic): references/agent-manifest.md.

Chain Position

Prev: plan-campaign (the campaign the game sits in) OR create-brand. Next: an engineer / no-code tool builds it; measure-results after, on the placement's channel. Re-run: new game type, reward change, goal pivot.

Deference: building the game's code → engineering (out of this stack's scope); a static ad/asset → write-ad / brief-graphic / produce-asset; the campaign → plan-campaign.

Anti-Patterns

references/anti-patterns.md — 7 patterns (fake-win-dark-pattern, friction-before-fun, broken-prize-economics, no-funnel, gambling-regulation-blind, inaccessible, off-brand). Re-read before ship.

Durable Rules (protected)

Completion Status

• DONE — mechanic + economics + funnel, honest by construction, critic ≥35.
• DONE_WITH_CONCERNS — delivered; critic 25-34 OR an unresolved prize-cost / compliance unknown (flagged).
• BLOCKED — critic FAIL twice; dark pattern unremovable; goal undefined.
• NEEDS_CONTEXT — no goal or reward; recommend defining the goal + incentive first.

Worked Example

A spin-the-wheel for a launch email-list (real odds, capped prize budget, email value-exchange, the dark-pattern + prize-economics guards): references/examples/minigame-walkthrough.md.