Le Poids des Cendres

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 browser-based third-person 3D narrative exploration game titled “Le Poids des Cendres,” with all interface text in French. Begin with a full-screen content warning overlay on a nearly black, subtly radial-gradient background. Center a wide dark translucent panel with a thin muted-gold border and soft shadow. The heading reads “Avant de commencer,” followed by a warning that the story deals with grief, a loved one’s suicide, depression, psychological violence, and parental rejection, explicitly stating that suicide is never shown or presented as a solution. Include the French 3114 suicide-prevention number (national, free, 24/7) and a button labeled “Je comprends.” After acknowledging it, show a title screen with the subtitle “Une tragédie interactive,” the large serif title “Le Poids / des Cendres,” the text “Le château d'Aldéric se réveille sous la pluie. Une porte est close. Une bougie brûle encore.” and a “Nouvelle partie” button. Also display French controls: “ZQSD / flèches : se déplacer · Souris : caméra · Espace : sauter · E : interagir · clic gauche : attaque · Maj : courir · Tab : changer de pouvoir.”

On starting, enter a dark, atmospheric third-person 3D courtyard rendered in Three.js-style low-poly/procedural geometry. Use a fixed-follow third-person camera behind and above the player, with mouse camera control, fog, a deep blue-black background, soft shadows, ACES-like subdued tone mapping, cool moonlight, dim hemisphere fill, and one warm orange light near the starting area. The world is a square stone castle courtyard roughly 28 units across, bounded by chunky gray stone wall sections about 5 units high. At the rear/side are a dark prison tower (a large block with a red roof), a dark throne room, a red dais, an empty wooden throne, and a final portcullis/raised-gate structure. Place a sequence of eight rectangular stone bridge slabs leading toward the gate. Use a restrained palette of charcoal, slate gray, muted red, brown wood, pale gold, and warm orange torchlight. Add five simple orange glowing torch meshes around the courtyard whose flames/light visibly flicker by scaling; the torches are decorative and share the general warm lighting rather than each creating a separate large light source.

The controllable avatar is named Élias and is a simple stylized low-poly figure: cylindrical slate-blue-gray body/cloak, small skin-colored cylindrical head, and a muted red scarf across the front. Start him near the prison tower at approximately the courtyard’s back-left area. Movement is third-person with ZQSD or arrow keys, jumping with Space, and running with Shift; use gravity and ordinary grounded jumping. The player can fall below the level and is returned to the starting/last-rest position with a French message about the fall, incrementing a death counter internally. Left mouse click performs a brief knife attack with a short synthesized sound and the message “Le couteau du Fou fend l'air.” (The knife is implied by the attack; do not turn it into a combat system.) Escape pauses/unpauses the game.

Show a minimal HUD once gameplay begins: at top left a bordered badge reading “CHÂTEAU — TOUR-PRISON,” below it an objective badge initially reading “Trouver une issue avant l'aube”; at top right a badge “ÉNERGIE” with a pale-gold horizontal bar initially full. The energy display should exist visually, but mirror the actual implementation: it begins at 100 and is not visibly consumed by the available actions. Display temporary centered-bottom dark translucent narrative/interact messages with a thin gold top border and fade them out.

Create these discoverable objects and interactions, all usable by approaching within about 3.2 world units and pressing E. Four small pale-gold glowing rectangular “fragments” are placed around the courtyard. Each disappears when collected, increments a fragment counter, and displays “Fragment de lettre retrouvé (n/4).”; collecting all four additionally says “Les quatre morceaux parlent d'une porte au-delà du château.” Six small pale paper-colored “lettre” objects are arranged in a row near the far wall; each disappears on interaction and displays “Lettre non envoyée (n/6).” Place a brown vertical cell lever near the tower: interacting rotates it and marks the puzzle solved, with the message “Le mécanisme de la cellule cède. La herse attend encore un dernier geste.” Place a dark lock/bar object in front of the final gate. It cannot open until the lever is solved or at least two fragments have been collected; otherwise say “Un verrou ancien retient la herse. Cherche le levier de la tour.” When unlocked, hide the gate lock, set the gate open, change the objective to “Atteindre le pont-levis,” change the zone badge to “CHÂTEAU — PONT-LEVIS,” and show “La herse se lève. La pluie entre dans la cour.” After the player walks beyond the gate toward z > 14, show “Le pont-levis disparaît dans la brume. La route est ouverte.” and set the objective to “La fuite commence — à suivre.”

Include one simple patrolling guard in the courtyard, made from low-poly cylindrical body and head meshes, moving side-to-side on a sinusoidal patrol path. It is visible as environmental pressure but does not need a full combat, damage, or detection system because the actual game only animates its position. Include a purple-gray cylindrical statue called “statue du fou”; interacting with it increments a secret counter and displays “Le Fou te regarde comme s'il savait déjà. E E E E révélera peut-être un souvenir.” Implement the actual hidden input sequence as A, E, A entered within the short sequence timeout: on success, clear the sequence, activate a 10-second “Mode Spectre,” show “Le Mode Spectre s'ouvre dans le silence. Dix secondes.” and make Élias semi-transparent while active. While spectral, an attack says “Le Spectre ne frappe pas.” rather than the ordinary knife message. Tab toggles the displayed equipped power between “Lumière” and “Voix,” showing “Pouvoir équipé : Lumière” or “Pouvoir équipé : Voix”; these powers are labels/toggles only, with no additional mechanics.

Use elegant French serif typography, pale ivory text, muted gold headings and borders, dark translucent panels, understated red accents, and no bright modern UI. Preserve the solemn, rain-soaked, psychological gothic mood suggested by the title screen and castle setting. Include short synthesized tones for interaction and attack, but no elaborate soundtrack is required. The game should be playable directly in the browser with responsive canvas resizing and should retain the sparse cinematic presentation shown in the reference screenshot.