Heartwood

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 short, choice-driven 3D visual-novel encounter titled “Heartwood.” It is a playable browser game, not a static slideshow: the player reads scene text and chooses one of three responses at each exchange, with mouse/touch buttons and keyboard shortcuts. The premise is that a lost adult traveler has entered an ancient forest clearing and is confronted by Modeus, a towering feral mythic forest creature. The encounter is about tension, curiosity, trust, and body-language communication rather than combat.

Use a dark fantasy forest presentation in a full-screen 3D canvas behind translucent UI. Build an ancient circular forest clearing with a dark green-brown ground disk, fog, moonlit blue lighting, soft shadows, a warm pink point light near the character, a translucent vertical moonbeam, and a ring of roughly two dozen irregular tree trunks with leafy crown shapes around the perimeter. Add many slowly drifting/glowing yellow firefly particles. Apply a strong dark vignette around the screen. The camera is a medium, front-facing perspective shot of the creature, with subtle floating drift and gentle changes based on the hidden stats: higher trust shifts the camera slightly toward the character, while lower tension brings the camera closer. Animate the scene continuously with a slight bob, slow rotation, pulsing pink eyes/light, rotating particles, and a breathing/pulsing moonbeam.

Model Modeus as a stylized original low-poly humanoid figure standing in the clearing: pale pink skin, a large white-haired head with side bangs, two black pointed horns, bright pink heart-shaped pupils/eyes, a tan/brown four-sided cone-like leopard-pattern cloak or pelt with scattered dark spots, simple arms and legs, and an oversized axe held to the right side. The axe has a dark wooden haft and a chunky silver-gray metal blade. Give the model soft shadows and a dark circular grounding shadow. Her idle animation should gently sway her body/head, arms, axe, and enlarge the pink eyes rhythmically. Beside the 3D figure, show a large stylized SVG/cartoon portrait card of the same character: white hair, black horns, pink heart pupils, rosy cheeks, brown cloak, and floating question marks and pink hearts. Change the portrait’s brows, mouth, heart opacity, and question-mark opacity for expressions such as curious, sniffing, soft, alarmed, questioning, or heart-struck.

The UI should use a restrained parchment/charcoal/rose palette: cream serif typography, muted beige secondary text, pink speaker labels and accents, translucent nearly-black panels with thin pale borders and blur/shadow. At the top, show the title HEARTWOOD in uppercase/spaced lettering, two horizontal meters labeled TRUST and TENSION, and a Mute button. Trust is a hidden relationship value displayed as a green bar, initialized at 5/10; tension is a danger value displayed as a red bar, initialized at 5/10. Clamp both values from 0 to 10 and update the bars after every response. The layout should be desktop two-column: the portrait/character card on the left and a large dialogue panel on the right; on narrow screens stack the top bar, portrait card, and dialogue panel vertically.

The dialogue panel must show a speaker label, a short mood line, multiline narrative text, and exactly three selectable response buttons on non-ending turns. Start with speaker “The Clearing,” mood “Wide-eyed curiosity. Watching your every move.”, and this scene: “The forest suddenly goes still. An iron axe drops into the earth with a brutal thud. She steps out after it — towering, white-haired, horns dark against the moonlit mist. Her heart-shaped pupils lock on you. She tilts her head too far. ‘...Warm thing?’” Offer these three choices: (1) “Hold still and keep your hands visible.” -> trust +1, tension -1, a sniffing/less-tense Modeus exchange; (2) “Speak softly: ‘I’m lost. I won’t hurt you.’” -> trust +2, no tension change, a confused-but-interested exchange; (3) “Take one step back toward the roots.” -> trust -1, tension +2, an alarmed possessive warning.

Implement the branching conversation with these concrete routes and response effects. The “still” exchange has the creature advance and sniff the traveler, then offers: ask what she wants (trust +1 -> ask), offer a canteen in both hands (trust +2, tension -1 -> offer), or dart sideways toward an exit (trust -2, tension +3 -> run). The “speak” exchange has her loosen her axe grip and struggle to understand “lost,” then offers: nod and ask if she knows the woods (trust +2, tension -1 -> ask), tell her she startled you (tension +1 -> startled), or back away while talking (trust -1, tension +2 -> back). The “back” exchange has her rapidly move with the traveler and plant the axe in the dirt as a warning, then offers: stop and lower your gaze (trust +1, tension -1 -> still), say “Okay. I’ll stay” (trust +2, tension -1 -> promise), or sprint into the trees (trust -2, tension +3 -> run).

The “ask” exchange explains that she knows the woods and asks whether the traveler wants a path out or a safe place first. Choices: ask for a safe place (trust +2, tension -1 -> rest), ask for the fastest path out (tension +1 -> path), or edge away (trust -2, tension +2 -> run). The “offer” exchange has her carefully accept the canteen as a gift. Choices: say yes and ask her name (trust +2, tension -1 -> name), use the distraction to slip away (trust -2, tension +2 -> run), or ask for guidance out (trust +1 -> path). The “startled” exchange has her puzzled and guilty about the loud axe. Choices: say yes and ask her to move it (trust +1, tension -1 -> promise), laugh despite yourself (trust +2, tension -1 -> rest), or say nothing and retreat (trust -1, tension +2 -> run). The “promise” exchange has her pull the axe free, rest it on her shoulder, and settle into watchful calm. Choices: ask for the path (trust +1 -> path), agree to rest first (trust +2, tension -1 -> rest), or change your mind and bolt (trust -2, tension +3 -> run). The “name” exchange has her identify herself as “Mo...deus,” then ask for the traveler’s name. Choices: give a name and ask for shelter (trust +2, tension -1 -> rest), give no name and ask for the path (tension +1 -> path), or refuse and step back (trust -2, tension +2 -> run).

There are three terminal scenes. “rest” ends as STILL WARM THING: Modeus leads the traveler through roots and fern shadow to a dry moss-wrapped stone overhang, then stands outside guarding them; show hint “You found shelter under her watch.” “path” ends as MARKED PATH: she guides the traveler along a narrow deer path to the forest edge, watches them leave, and implies the woods know their steps; show hint “She let you leave — but the woods know your steps now.” “run” ends as RUN THROUGH ROOTS: the traveler runs, roots catch their boots, and Modeus crashes through the brush and plants her axe in a stump ahead, hurt and furious; show hint “You learned how fast the forest moves when it chooses you.” If tension reaches 10 or higher after any choice, force the current scene to the run ending route regardless of the selected next node. Endings replace the choices with the ending title and hint and reveal a Restart button.

Add simple ambient audio with Tone.js, initialized only after the first click or key press: a quiet repeating triangle-wave pad using D4/A4/C5 and short sine feedback tones. Play higher feedback for good/calm choices, low feedback for bad choices, and a neutral tone otherwise. The Mute button and M key toggle audio; R restarts. The hint should say “Click a choice to respond — R to restart” during play. Restart resets current scene to start, trust and tension to 5, game-over state, and progression. Keep the overall tone eerie, intimate, and slightly whimsical, with the giant axe and dangerous creature contrasting against the soft pink heart eyes and romantic-looking visual accents.