Bait Desk

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.

Recreate a stylized browser management game titled “Bait Desk,” presented as a fictional, harmless social-feed operations desk. The game is mouse/touch controlled and should feel like a polished 2.5D desktop/control-room interface over a softly lit office scene.

Visual presentation: use a transparent Three.js-style 2.5D office scene behind the interface, viewed with an orthographic camera from a slightly elevated front-right angle. The background is a pale blue/gray control room with a bright central wall glow, blue glow on the left, warm glow on the right, and a perspective floor grid. Place a stylized desk, desk chair, computer monitor, keyboard, laptop, and a small operator character in the scene. Use soft shadows, bright neutral lighting, pastel colors, and a clean glassmorphism UI: translucent white panels, rounded corners, subtle borders, blur, and large soft shadows. The operator and office props are decorative; the actual interaction happens in the HUD.

Main objective and round flow: start each shift with 0 engagement, 0% ban meter, 0 credits, and a 90-second countdown. The target is 2500 engagement. The player must reach 2500 before time expires while keeping the ban meter below 100%. The round ends immediately with a “Shift complete” result overlay on success, or a “Feed shut down” overlay if the ban meter reaches 100% or the timer reaches zero. The result overlay displays an icon, explanatory final message, final score, posts sent, and a “Run another shift” button.

HUD layout: a full-screen top bar contains the label “FICTIONAL FEED OPS,” the title “Bait Desk,” an Engagement readout such as “0 / 2500” with a blue/green progress bar, a Ban meter readout such as “0%” with a yellow/orange/red progress bar, an Upgrade credits readout, and a dark rounded digital timer starting at “01:30.” Below it, arrange translucent rounded panels. On the left is step 1, “Pick a silly topic,” with a “New cards” button and three topic cards. On the right is step 2, “Choose headline tone,” with four tone cards, followed by step 3, “Time the post,” a timing meter, a prominent “POST TO FEED” button, and a “Sponsored slot” ad panel with a “RUN AD” button. In the center/lower area show “Reaction feed” and “Office upgrades” panels on wide screens; make the layout responsive, stacking panels and allowing scrolling on narrow/mobile screens.

Topic selection: deal three randomly selected cards from this fictional absurd topic pool, with no real people, groups, politics, or targeted harassment: “Moon cheese should squeak by law,” “Sock goblins deserve bedtime rights,” “Cloud pets are better than umbrella pets,” “The tiny spoon cartel is hiding soup,” “Ban square pancakes from breakfast arenas,” “Wizard hats need turn signals,” “Glitter dragons are ruining library whispers,” “Invisible sandwiches count as lunch,” “Garden gnomes should pay tiny rent,” and “Bubble wrap is a musical instrument.” Each topic card shows its title and three stat pills: Heat, Anger, and Safety. Use the values from the selected topic; heat is approximately 105%–162%, anger 12–34, and safety 61–90. The first card is selected initially and selected cards have a blue outline and pale blue background. Selecting a card updates the active topic. Clicking “New cards” redraws three random topics and costs +3 ban pressure, capped just below the immediate loss threshold (99%).

Tone selection: offer four selectable cards, initially selecting “Melodramatic gasp”: “Wide-eyed question” with 🤔, multiplier 0.95, low anger, copy “+safe / steady”; “Melodramatic gasp” with 😱, multiplier 1.25, copy “+buzz / fair risk”; “Tiny chaos gremlin” with 🔥, multiplier 1.55, copy “+big buzz / hot”; and “Fake wholesome feud” with ✨, multiplier 1.08, copy “+warm / safer.” Selected tone cards use a blue outline and pale blue fill.

Timing mechanic: while the shift is running, continuously move a needle back and forth across a horizontal timing track. The track is gray, with a green safe zone in the center (initially approximately 38%–62%) and a red risky zone at the far right (approximately 82%–100%). The player clicks “POST TO FEED” at any moment. If the needle is in the green zone, label the result “perfect window,” award a score multiplier of 1.45, reduce anger multiplier to 0.72, and use a happy reaction icon. If the needle is beyond 82%, label it “too hot,” use score multiplier 1.25 and anger multiplier 1.72 with an angry icon. If it is before 18%, label it “too early,” use score multiplier 0.62 and anger multiplier 0.75 with a dots icon. Otherwise label it “okay timing,” using score multiplier 1.0 and anger multiplier 1.0 with an alert icon. After each post, automatically deal a fresh set of three topic cards.

Posting math and feedback: on each post calculate engagement approximately as 185 × topic heat × tone multiplier × timing score multiplier × a random variance from 0.86 to 1.14. Add a scanner upgrade multiplier if owned. Round the result to points, add the same amount to credits, and increase the ban meter by topic anger × tone anger × timing anger × a small random factor, reduced by the plant upgrade; minimum ban gain is 3. Show status text such as “perfect window: +N, +N cr, ban +N.” Add a burst of two or three reaction-feed items with pixel-art style emote icons (hearts/happy, anger, alert, or dots), fictional usernames such as @noodlePilot, @goblinIntern, @cloudMoth, @tinySpoonFan, @waffleArchivist, @hatSignalDept, @dragonLibrarian, and @bubbleSoloist, and silly reactions such as “lol,” “wait what,” “tiny debate,” “spicy take,” “goblin approved,” “mods are watching,” or “chaos popcorn.” The feed entry should show the topic or a harmless fictional comment and a green points label such as +250, +buzz, or +reply. Keep only the newest 16 items.

Moderator events: show temporary rounded moderator popups in the upper-right with a close button and choices. Popup tiers are safe, watch, and danger. Popups may appear randomly, when ban crosses 30%, 50%, or 75%, or after a post adds heavy pressure. A safe note says the absurdity is acceptable and offers “Pin safety note” (reduces ban by 5%) or “Keep posting.” Watch/danger notices warn that the thread is getting spicy and offer “Cool thread” (costs credits and lowers ban by 10% or 18%) or a risky reply that adds +100 or +180 engagement/credits and +7 or +12 ban. Show harmless fictional text like “keep it fictional and silly” and “the tiny committee has entered the chat.”

Sponsored slot: the “RUN AD” button immediately runs a fictional ad such as “Fizzy Socks™ wants your imaginary attention.” It grants quick credits and some engagement, increases ban pressure, and then enters an 18-second cooldown during which the button is disabled and the status reads “Ad break cooling down: Ns.” The first payout is 260 credits and 90 engagement; later payouts rise by 40 credits and 25 engagement per ad. Ban gain starts at 8 and rises up to 18. Ads can trigger a moderator watch popup and can also win the round if they push engagement to target.

Office upgrades: show clickable upgrade cards with level labels “Lv current/3,” costs, and effects. Upgrade credits come from posts and ads. “Trend scanner” costs 450 for level 1 with rising costs each level and adds +12% engagement per level; visually add or scale another monitor/screen prop on the desk. “Calm desk plant” costs 350 initially and reduces ban gain from posts by 10% per level; visually add or scale a potted cactus. “Extra timing monitor” costs 650 initially and makes the needle slower while widening the green timing window by about 4.5 percentage points per level; visually add or scale another monitor. Costs rise each level using the increasing level formula, each upgrade maxes at level 3, and maxed cards read “Maxed.” Locked unaffordable cards are visibly subdued. Use Kenney-like low-poly office furniture, UI button artwork, pixel-style emotes, and a simple click sound for interactions.

Interaction requirements: support pointer/mouse and touch using tap/click behavior. All cards and buttons should have hover/tap feedback, selected states, disabled states, and clear readable typography. The game should be playable entirely from the HUD; the decorative 3D canvas must not block pointer input. Keep the tone playful and explicitly fictional, using only absurd imaginary topics and commenters.