Between New Year

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 playable third-person 3D open-world school-fantasy RPG slice titled “Between New Year,” set in New Halcyon, a small town on the edge of the Middle World. Begin with a full-screen dark translucent recap modal titled “Between Worlds 2: Between a New Year.” Show the recap text: last year Kylow crossed the Middle World, collected strange movement cards, and left people unsure whether he was hero or problem; now he has moved to New Halcyon, the school year is ending, old choices matter, and he can become a villain or talk his way back into friendship. Provide two buttons: “Start with recap on” and “Skip recap and play.” Once either is selected, close the modal and begin play.

Use a low-poly, colorful Kenney-style 3D presentation with blocky character models, modular fantasy-town buildings, stylized trees, soft shadows, a pale blue sky, atmospheric fog, and a broad green meadow ground. Lay out a navigable town on a 92-by-92-ish open plane with tan rectangular paths: a main north-south path to school, a market crossing, and an angled old-memory path. Place Kylow’s new house to the southwest, Mira’s house to the east, Jace’s card shop to the northwest, and a school complex at the north edge consisting of a tower and side/science halls. Add scattered fantasy trees around the town. Put floating signboards reading “NEW HALCYON” and “NEW HALCYON SCHOOL.” Use an over-the-shoulder follow camera positioned above and behind Kylow, smoothly following and looking at him.

The player controls Kylow, a blocky third-person character initially at the south end of town. Movement must work with WASD and arrow keys, as well as a large on-screen virtual joystick for touch devices. Movement is camera-relative, turns Kylow in the travel direction, and supports walking/sprinting animation. Add mobile HUD buttons for Talk, Dodge, Attack, Card 1, and Card 2. Also support E for talk/interact/collect, J or Attack for attack, K or Space for dodge, 1 and 2 for the equipped cards, and C to open the Card Binder.

Show a persistent dark translucent HUD panel in the upper-left with the title, “HP 100 / 100,” “Villainy 25 — Undecided,” “Cards 1 / 5,” and a hint that C opens the Card Binder. Show the current quest in a panel at upper-right on desktop, including the initial objective: “Explore New Halcyon before school. Talk to Mira, Jace, and Principal Voss.” On small screens the quest panel can be hidden. At the bottom-left show two equipped card slots with their names and descriptions, and at bottom-right show the touch action buttons. Show contextual prompts near the bottom center such as “E / Talk Talk to Mira” or “E / Talk Collect Echo Strike card.”

Implement three named NPC conversations. Mira stands near her eastern house and says Kylow may be trying to become the villain. Offer the choice “I decide who the villain is. Stay out of my way. (+villain)” which increases villainy by 15 and decreases Mira friendship, or “I don't know yet. I need someone to call me out. (+friend)” which decreases villainy by 12, increases Mira friendship by 2, and awards the Kind Word card. Jace stands by the card shop and explains that cards can be paths and that the school gate is locked by a memory from last year. Offer “Trade for the Gate Pass card.” or “Take the Echo Strike and challenge Riven. (+villain),” with the latter increasing villainy by 8 and updating the quest toward the practice ring or school gate. Principal Voss stands before the school entrance and says people or cards can open the barrier. If Kylow has Gate Pass, allow him to force the barrier open; otherwise show that the card is needed. Alternatively, Voss can open it if Mira friendship is positive. For the trust route, opening the gate lowers villainy by 8; forcing it with Gate Pass increases villainy by 10. After opening, update the quest to explore the yard or fight Riven. Afterward, Voss offers “Promise to protect people. (-villain)” to lower villainy by 10 and increase Voss friendship, or “Say the school belongs to you now. (+villain)” to increase villainy by 18 and lower Voss friendship. Dialogue should pause movement and use a centered dark modal with a character name, text, and stacked choice buttons.

At the north school entrance, put a blue translucent spirit barrier across the path that blocks Kylow until opened. Include a card pickup near Jace’s shop path at approximately (-10.6, 7.8), one at the east practice-ring approach around (18, 15.2), and one on the angled western path around (-19, 14). The pickups should be floating, rotating rectangular cards with glowing colored faces and a circular ring effect. The initial collected card is Dash, automatically equipped in slot 1; the pickups are Gate Pass, Echo Strike, and Phase Step. The card collection must support owning up to five card types but equipping only two at once. The Binder modal should list owned cards with descriptions and “Equip slot 1” and “Equip slot 2” buttons, visibly marking equipped cards. The five card definitions are: Dash — “Burst forward. Good for town movement and dodging combos.”; Gate Pass — “Breaks school spirit locks. Needed to enter the school yard.”; Echo Strike — “Combat card: a ranged shockwave that stuns enemies.”; Kind Word — “Story card: calms people and lowers villainy during dialogue.”; Phase Step — “Short blink through blue cracks and tight gaps.”

Create a circular dark-purple “PRACTICE RING” arena to the east/north at approximately (18, 21), with a floating pink practice-ring label. Interacting there starts combat against Riven, a named blocky rival with 90 HP. Display Riven’s HP in the HUD when relevant. Combat is a close-range action loop: J/Attack chains up to a three-hit combo, with increasing damage (8 + combo number times 5), hit bursts, knockback, attack animations, and punch sound effects. The third hit uses a kick animation. Riven approaches Kylow when within roughly nine units, attacks in melee range, and deals 8 damage periodically. Kylow can dodge 2.1 units with K/Space or the Dodge button, has a short invulnerability window and cooldown, and can use card abilities. Echo Strike emits a colored shockwave within about 8.5 units, deals 18 damage, and stuns Riven for one second. When Riven reaches zero HP, end combat, award Phase Step, update the quest to say Riven is beaten, and explain that new routes are open. If Kylow reaches zero HP, reset HP to 100, return him home, end combat, and show a toast advising the player to use cards, dodge, or befriend people.

Card abilities should have visible cooldowns and colored particle bursts. Dash moves Kylow forward about 4.2 units; Phase Step moves him forward about 6.2 units; Gate Pass opens the school barrier only when near it; Echo Strike is the combat shockwave; Kind Word lowers villainy by 5 when used. Prevent card use while its cooldown is active and show a toast such as “Card is cooling down.” Keep cooldowns approximately Dash 1.1 seconds, Gate Pass 3.5, Echo Strike 2.1, Kind Word 4, and Phase Step 2.6. Allow movement bounds roughly from x=-36 to 36 and z=-34 to 35, with the closed school barrier stopping progress beyond z=20.2 in the central entrance.

Track villainy, friendships with Mira/Jace/Voss, player health, card ownership/equipment, gate state, dialogue flags, and whether Riven was defeated. Derive the route label as “Villain route” at villainy 65 or higher, “Friend route” at 20 or lower, otherwise “Undecided.” Include small toast notifications for collecting cards, starting combat, opening the gate, route changes, and combat outcomes. Use soft ambient lighting, directional sunlight, shadows, simple audio feedback for clicks, impacts, and phase/dash effects, and idle/walk/sprint/attack/die animations where available. The game should be a playable vertical slice rather than a cinematic: the core loop is explore New Halcyon, collect and equip cards, talk through branching relationships, open the school, and optionally defeat Riven while steering Kylow toward villainy or friendship.