Life Paths

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.

Rebuild “Life Paths” as a mobile-first, browser-based 3D life-simulation game with a dark stylized low-poly diorama scene behind a glassmorphism HUD. Use an orthographic-feeling third-person/presentation camera (actual perspective camera) aimed at a central rounded capsule-bodied humanoid avatar on a large dark navy circular platform. The avatar has a capsule torso and legs, spherical head, simple capsule arms, tiny dark eyes, a small light badge, and selectable hair, skin, and outfit materials. Keep the avatar visible in a sticky preview area at the top of the scrolling HUD; when the player changes hair, skin, or outfit, briefly zoom the camera closer for a face/style preview. The avatar gently bobs and sways. Surround the platform with a glowing cyan torus/city ring and a distant circular arrangement of approximately 18 randomly varied blue-gray rectangular buildings. Use soft shadows, fog, a dark navy background, cool cyan and pink accent lighting, and polished colorful rounded UI panels/buttons.

The game starts at age 18 with 
20, happiness 52, karma 55, looks 50, smarts 50, charm 50, no children, single, unemployed, and no jail history. The main HUD should show title “Life Paths,” age and relationship/status chips, money, career, happiness and karma values with horizontal bars, and summary values for looks, smart/smarts, charm, and kids. Include a live timeline/log of recent age-stamped life events. Include an Avatar Builder with buttons for three hair styles (Buzz Cut, Puff Hair, Long Hair), three skin tones (Skin A/B/C), and three outfit colors (Blue/Pink/Green); selected choices are visibly highlighted. Changing hair slightly increases charm and changing outfit slightly increases looks.

Provide action buttons for: Age Up, Study, Apply for Job, Work Hard, Go on Date, Marry Partner, Have Kid, Do Crime/Risk Job, Rebuild Life/Rehab, and Restart. Support tap/click controls on desktop and mobile, plus keyboard shortcuts: Space age up, S study, J job, W work, D date, M marry, K kid, C crime, R rehab, Escape closes a mini-game. On mobile the HUD is vertically scrollable with the avatar preview staying at the top/sticky; use large touch-friendly buttons.

Implement the life systems faithfully. Career progression is Unemployed → Retail Worker → Office Staff → Manager → Founder. Applying for a job uses smarts, charm, randomness, and a jail-history penalty to determine success; successful promotions grant money and happiness. Working requires already having a job and opens an interactive timing mini-game: a white marker sweeps across a red/yellow/green/red meter and the player taps “Stop Shift”; accuracy around the green center produces a better shift and larger pay, while work also costs some happiness. Studying costs 
80 and opens a memory game: briefly show a four-symbol sequence chosen from triangle, square, circle, and diamond, hide it, then have the player tap the symbols back in order; better recall gives a larger smarts gain and small karma/happiness effects. Dating costs 
40 and opens a three-question dialogue-choice mini-game selected from prompts about listening, kindness, goals, awkward stories, and ending the date; responses award different chemistry points. A strong result starts a relationship, increases happiness and charm, a middling result gives a small improvement, and a poor result makes the date go nowhere. Dating is unavailable after marriage.

Crime is an interactive safe-code memory mini-game: briefly show a four-digit code using digits 1–9, hide it, then let the player enter it through a 3×3 digit grid. More correct digits produce more cash, but the crime always reduces karma; random arrest risk is affected by low karma, prior jail years, and mini-game performance. If arrested, show jail bars in the 3D scene, change status to “In Jail,” and assign a random 1–4 year sentence; relationship state may be lost if arrested. While jailed, study/work/date/crime/job/family actions are disabled and Age Up advances one year behind bars, increases recorded jail years, reduces happiness, and slightly restores karma.

Marriage requires a dating partner and at least 
,500, costs that amount, and raises happiness and karma. Having a child requires a partner/spouse and costs $700; increase kids, happiness, and karma, and render small simple child figures around the avatar in the diorama. A spouse is represented by a second small purple-clothed humanoid figure beside the avatar; marriage also displays the avatar badge. Rebuild Life/Rehab costs 
50 and improves karma, happiness, and charm, but is disabled when jailed or when there is insufficient money.

Age Up simulates one year. When free, annual income comes from the current career, while living costs are $9,000 plus an age-based amount and family costs are $3,200 per child plus 
,000 for a spouse; apply the net to money, adjust happiness based on work, family, and debt, and slightly increase karma. When money falls below a severe debt threshold, end the run. End the game when age exceeds 78 or happiness reaches zero, then show a timeline ending based on the run: a Legacy ending for a spouse, at least two kids, wealth above 
5,000, and karma at least 70; a Hard ending for at least four years in jail; a Rich ending for wealth above $80,000; otherwise a Mixed ending. Once game over, disable normal actions except Restart.

Use modal activity sheets for the four mini-games with a close/cancel control, clear kicker/title/subtitle/status text, progress indicators, touch-friendly controls, and a result card followed by a “Take Outcome” button. Use color-coded timeline/result feedback: green for good, yellow for warnings, red/pink for bad outcomes. The overall tone should be an approachable, replayable life-path sandbox: a central animated toy-like avatar and city ring, with all meaningful progression communicated through the glass HUD and short interactive challenges.