After the Bell

Cinevva's analyzer read this game's design doc and its source, then wrote the brief below. "Make your own" hands it to the game creator as your opening message, so you start from a real spec rather than a one-line idea.

Create a browser-based, single-player life-simulation/story game titled “After the Bell.” It is a stateful high-school story played entirely through a polished responsive dashboard UI rather than an on-screen action scene. Use a dark navy background, slate-blue cards with rounded corners and thin borders, pale text, muted lavender secondary text, periwinkle accent buttons, teal positive accents, amber warnings, and pink/red danger accents. Use a clean modern sans-serif typeface, uppercase letter-spaced eyebrow labels, large headings, progress bars, pills/tags, and compact cards. The desktop layout has a 68px top bar with the AFTER THE BELL logo (THE BELL in teal), player name and age, current long-form date, and money. Below it is a left vertical navigation rail and a scrollable main content area; on narrow screens the rail collapses to icon-like buttons and grids become one or two columns.

At first launch show a character creation form titled “Build your teenage life.” Let the player enter a name, starting age 13–17, birthday, gender (including Prefer not to say, Girl, Boy, Non-binary), appearance (Casual and colorful, Sporty, Artistic, Classic, Quietly mysterious), starting location (Suburban neighborhood, Busy city block, Small coastal town), and difficulty (Relaxed, Normal, Hard mode). Let them select up to three personality traits from Curious, Confident, Kind, Ambitious, Creative, Rebellious, Calm, Funny, Organized, Athletic, and up to four interests from Music, Writing, Sports, Art, Gaming, Science, Fashion, Cooking. Include “Start my story” and “Use demo character.” The demo character should be Alex, age 15, with Curious and Kind traits, Music and Writing interests, starting on September 14, 2026 in a suburban neighborhood, with $42, and a pre-populated story state.

After creation, the HOME dashboard should show a greeting based on time of day, the current school year/grade and location, a large initial avatar made from the first letter of the player’s name, and a line that reacts to stress or low energy. Show a “Today” card: the morning routine happens automatically, and the player can Continue Day or Advance a week. Days advance the date; weekday attendance and random events may occur, weekends have different event odds, energy recovers, stress decreases, happiness drifts, birthdays increase age, and NPC relationships can drift. If an event is waiting, replace the routine with a prominent event card showing category, title, narrative text, and three full-width choice buttons, each with a label and consequence hint. Choices should change stats, relationships, grades, money, stress, etc., and add a dated entry to a capped recent log. Include a Snapshot card with Energy, Happiness, Stress, and Confidence numeric progress bars; Recent log; At a glance with school reputation label, relationship status, and a context-sensitive current goal (raise math, make a connection, save money, find balance, or keep momentum); and shortcuts to Phone, School, and Activities.

Implement these navigation sections and their real functions:
- HOME: daily progression, random decision events, recent log, snapshot, goals, and shortcuts.
- SCHOOL: show current school year, attendance/trouble status, all classes with grades and colored bars (English, Math, Science, History, Art, P.E.) and average. Buttons: Study after school (raise Math/intelligence but cost energy and add stress), Ask a teacher for help (raise Science, school reputation, confidence), Join a club (first Student Media, then Art Club; improve social and school reputation), and Skip a class (lower attendance/discipline/reputation while raising trouble). Clearly communicate that teachers and school remember behavior.
- PEOPLE and RELATIONSHIPS: show cards for NPCs and family. Include Jordan Lee, a bold/loyal/competitive 15-year-old classmate and friend interested in basketball; Sam Rivera, a private/artistic/observant 15-year-old art acquaintance; Casey Morgan, a sharp/ambitious/insecure 16-year-old debate rival; and family members Maya (Mom) and Eli (younger brother). Each NPC card shows role/relationship, age/personality or opinion, and for NPCs Friendship, Trust, and Respect values, plus Interact and Text controls. Interact improves friendship/trust and social skill; Text decreases notifications and improves trust/friendship/social skill. Family cards have Talk and Ask for money controls. Include “Let the day unfold” to trigger relationship drift, where NPC friendship/opinions change and a log entry is added. Relationships should retain memories and opinions.
- ACTIVITIES: offer cards for Study, Practice music, Exercise, Write in a journal, Hang out, Work on a side job, Do a chore, Stay home, and Go to a party. Each action visibly communicates its benefit and applies the corresponding state changes: academics/grades, music skill/happiness, athletics/health/stress, writing/stress, social/happiness/friendship, money/energy/stress, discipline/reputation/family trust, energy/stress recovery, or social/happiness with a chance of trouble. Log every action.
- MONEY: show current dollar balance, savings bar, weekly income, recent spending, a Quick shift earning button, opportunity controls for applying to a weekend cafe shift, selling a creative piece if creativity is high enough, and asking family for allowance. Provide spending buttons for a $4 snack, 
2 gift, and $8 book. Prevent purchases when funds are insufficient, track spending, and add a Gift item when buying a gift. Money actions affect energy, confidence, trust, jobs, inventory, and the activity log as appropriate.
- INVENTORY: list Phone, Backpack, School planner, and any acquired Gift items. Each item has a short description and a Use button; using an item can display a small toast such as “item is ready for a story moment.”
- PHONE: show notification count, a messages list for the NPCs with short message previews and Open/Text buttons, plus a notifications/log list with category, text, and date. The phone is the main place for messages, plans, rumors, and relationship interactions.
- MAP: show location cards for Home, School, Town center, Park, Community center, and Online with descriptions and Go there buttons that route to the relevant dashboard sections. Do not create a literal illustrated map; this is a textual location chooser.
- STATS: show progress bars for Intelligence, Confidence, Popularity, Discipline, Social life, Reputation, School reputation, and Trouble; show numeric Skills for Academics, Creativity, Music, Athletics, Social, Organization, and Leadership; and show identity signals based on emergent behavior, such as responsible, smart, popular, artistic, rebellious, quiet, or confident, alongside selected traits and interests.
- SETTINGS: include Copy save summary and Reset story controls, explain that the story is saved in the browser after meaningful choices, and confirm before reset.

Use a persistent local save under a key like after-the-bell-save-v1, automatically saving after actions and supporting reset. Maintain player stats including money, energy, health, happiness, stress, intelligence, confidence, reputation, popularity, discipline, social, school reputation, trouble, attendance, class grades, skills, relationship status, traits and interests, inventory, clubs, jobs, notifications, events, flags, and a dated log. Clamp wellbeing/progress values to sensible 0–100 ranges where applicable. Give feedback with small bottom-right toast notifications for limits, insufficient funds, successful copies, and similar lightweight messages. Keep the tone grounded and reflective: ordinary school days happen around the player, while meaningful moments pause for player decisions; relationships remember choices and school reacts to them. Do not add combat, 3D exploration, animated characters, or features outside this dashboard-driven narrative life simulation.