STANDSTILL

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 browser-based 3D survival-crossing game titled “STANDSTILL.” Use a third-person, over-the-shoulder camera looking down a long narrow desert ruin path from behind the player; smoothly follow the player as they travel along the world Z axis. The scene is a warm, low-poly desert under a bright cream-yellow sky: sandy ochre ground, a faint darker 12-unit-wide path, atmospheric fog, soft shadows, and a chain of ancient stone ruins. Use Three.js-style directional sunlight with visible cast shadows and a glowing sun disc that travels across the sky from one horizon to the other over a 90-second arc. The playable route runs from approximately z=-42 to a cave at z=54, with the player clamped to a broad desert lane (x=-13.5 to 13.5).

The player is a small stylized “living shadow”: a nearly black low-poly conical body, faceted round/icosahedral head, and one tiny pale blue eye. It moves at 5 units per second using WASD or arrow keys; W/up advances toward the cave, S/down retreats, and A/D or left/right strafe. On small screens, provide a left virtual analog stick. The player visibly rotates in its movement direction.

The central mechanic is reading and using the real shadows cast by the ruins. The player must dash from one patch of shade to the next while progressing forward. Determine shade from actual line-of-sight ray tests from several points on the player toward the current sun, blocked by the world-space geometry/bounds of the same stone props that visibly cast shadows. Consider the player “IN REAL SHADOW” when at least about 34% of its sampled points are blocked; display “IN REAL SHADOW” or “IN SUNLIGHT.” In shade, exposure falls at up to 35 points per second based on shade coverage. In sunlight, exposure rises at 25 points per second (with partial shade reducing the increase). Start at 0% exposure; if exposure reaches 100%, stop the game and show a dark modal end panel titled “Burned Away,” with copy explaining that direct sunlight burned the living shadow to ash and a Retry button.

Place a readable chain of actual low-poly shadow shelters down the route, matching this layout: a large obelisk shelter near (-2.1,-43.8); an L-wall corner near (1.6,-36.5); a wide broken wall/stone-wall column shelter near (-4.6,-27.5); a leaning obelisk near (3.7,-17.8); a midway L-wall near (-2,-7.5); a fallen/narrow gate ruin near (5,4); a left obelisk near (-5.5,16); a late wall-column shelter near (2.6,28.5); an L-wall on the cave approach near (-2.9,40.5); and a final obelisk near (1.1,50). Also scatter small irregular stones/rubble along both sides of the path. Use low-poly stone assets or visually equivalent geometry for obelisks, columns, graveyard wall columns, L-wall corners, narrow gates, and rubble. At the end, construct a prominent cave mouth around z=58 from two large side rock blocks, a top rock arch, and a nearly black opening. Reaching z=54 triggers victory/nightfall.

The objective is to reach the cave before exposure maxes out. Press Space, or a mobile Standstill button, to activate the key power: freeze the sun’s movement for 3 seconds, stopping its changing shadows, then impose an 8-second cooldown. It must not activate while already active, during cooldown, after death, or before starting. Show a top-right dark rounded HUD panel reading “SPACE: STANDSTILL READY,” a progress bar for the active/cooldown state, “SUN STANDING STILL [seconds]s” while active, and “RECHARGING [seconds]s” during cooldown. When active, add a subtle time-freeze visual/vignette effect.

Build the HUD in the same warm editorial style as the reference: large rounded translucent cream panels across the top for EXPOSURE and progress/TO NIGHT, with dark brown uppercase labels, percentage text, and inset horizontal bars. Show exposure percentage and a progress percentage toward the cave. Put a rounded dark status pill near the lower-left reading “IN SHADE”/shade state, and a lower-right control hint reading “WASD / Arrows move · Space freezes the sun.” Include a centered start overlay before play: a large dark-brown rounded rectangle, oversized serif title “STANDSTILL,” subtitle “Stay in the shade. Press SPACE to make the sun stand still. Reach the night.” and a gold/orange rounded Start button. Add a soft dark vignette that intensifies with exposure and warm orange flickering/emission on the shadow player as it burns.

When the player reaches the cave, end successfully with a modal titled “You reached the night” and copy “The sun finally sinks. Your shadow is whole under the stars.” Change the environment to nighttime: deep blue background and fog, muted purple-gray ground, very dim sunlight, low hemisphere light, and reveal a field of small white stars. Provide a Play Again button. Use soft shadows, ambient occlusion-like darkening, rounded UI corners, cream/gold/dark-brown palette, and low-poly stylized geometry throughout. The game should be playable immediately after pressing Start and should support retry/reset to the initial position and 0% exposure.