The Algorithm of Us

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 a mobile-friendly interactive romantic-comedy story sandbox titled “The Algorithm of Us.” The player is the director/author: they create two leads, choose each major scene beat, see transparent relationship stats, and directly choose the ending after four scenes. Do not have the game autonomously select scenes or emotional outcomes.

Presentation and camera: Render a dusk/night park diorama behind the interface using Three.js or an equivalent 3D renderer. Use a fixed, gently animated perspective camera looking toward a small conversation area, with subtle side-to-side and vertical drift. The scene has a dark navy background and fog, a circular dark-blue ground platform with a ring-shaped walkway, a central bench, four trees around the space, a low moon with a pink halo, scattered stars, 28 softly blinking pink/teal fireflies, and 12 translucent pink heart particles hovering around the characters. Use warm pink and cool teal point lights plus moonlight, soft shadows, and a dreamy romcom atmosphere. Place two animated blocky humanoid characters near the bench, facing one another. Use Kenney-style blocky character/park assets when available, with simple capsule-and-sphere fallback figures if assets fail. Their spacing and facing should respond visually to the relationship state: higher spark/trust brings them closer, while tension affects their turn toward one another. Keep the HUD as a glassmorphism overlay over the 3D scene: translucent dark blue-violet panels, thin pale borders, rounded corners, blur, soft shadows, white text, pink uppercase eyebrow labels, and pink/teal/gold/violet accents.

Top HUD: Show the eyebrow “INTERACTIVE ROMCOM SANDBOX,” the title “The Algorithm of Us,” and a “New Cast” button. The initial screen contains a “YOU WRITE THE LOVE STORY” section titled “Build your cast,” with copy explaining that nothing happens until the player chooses the people, vibe, and opening beat, and that extra people can be generated if a scene needs them.

Setup screen: Provide editable fields for Lead One and Lead Two. Each lead has a name (default Maya and Jules), an archetype dropdown, and a “Secret soft spot” text field (defaults: “old playlists” and “handwritten notes”). Include Story DNA controls for Dynamic, Opening setting, and Shared history. Archetype options must include: Chaotic charmer, Secret soft cynic, Overachiever with feelings, Soft-spoken anchor, Weaponized flirt, and Sunshine menace. Dynamic options: “Childhood friends with unfinished business,” “Rivals who care too much,” “Unlikely strangers with instant weird chemistry,” and “Almost-exes pretending this is normal.” Opening settings: “Twilight park bench,” “School festival after-hours,” “Rooftop above the noise,” and “Corner store in the rain.” Default shared history is “They used to trade dumb dares after school and never admitted who started liking who first.” Include a pink “Start episode one” button. “New Cast” returns to setup.

When the story starts, reset visible state to Episode 1 with Spark 50, Trust 50, Tension 35, and Chaos 25. Show a play screen headed “VISIBLE CHEMISTRY BOARD — NOTHING HIDDEN,” the current episode, and a pill showing “Name A × Name B.” Display four live horizontal meters with numeric values: Spark, Trust, Tension, and Chaos. Values are clamped from 0 to 100 and visibly update after every scene.

Scene selection flow: Present three numbered selection cards. 1) “Pick the moment,” with six selectable scene cards: Unexpected reunion (a tiny collision forces them to talk), Ridiculous challenge (a dare avoids sincerity), Quiet pause (honesty gets room), Comedy of errors (a small disaster becomes flirting), Old memory resurfaces (shared history cracks open), and Almost-confession (one sentence nearly changes everything). 2) “Choose [Lead One]’s move.” 3) “Choose [Lead Two]’s move.” Both leads choose independently from eight beat cards: Tease, Admit something real, Deflect with humor, Throw a challenge, Bring up a memory, Protect the moment, Push too far, and Linger. Each card includes a short description and selected cards are visibly highlighted.

Under the choices, include a Director note textarea for an optional custom detail, such as a power cut, rain, or somebody laughing too hard. Include a full-width “Play this scene” button. On play, generate a short readable romcom scene in the output panel using the selected scene, setting description, dynamic, both archetype voices, both chosen beats, shared history, soft spots, and the director note. The output should be separated into paragraphs. Archetypes should add small visible biases to the meters and give characters distinct tones: chaotic/flirty types tend toward spark and chaos, cynic/overachiever types can add tension or trust, anchors add trust, etc. Beat effects should be transparent and deterministic: Tease +6 spark/+4 tension/+3 chaos; Admit +7 spark/+8 trust/-2 chaos; Deflect +2 spark/-4 trust/+5 tension/+7 chaos; Challenge +4 spark/-1 trust/+6 tension/+4 chaos; Remember +5 spark/+6 trust/+1 tension; Protect +3 spark/+7 trust/-2 tension/-3 chaos; Push +1 spark/-6 trust/+10 tension/+4 chaos; Linger +6 spark/+4 trust/+2 tension/-1 chaos. Apply both leads’ effects plus small archetype biases, then clamp each meter.

Some generated scenes should add a supporting character when the selected scene is Comedy of errors, Ridiculous challenge, Old memory resurfaces, Chaos reaches at least 55, or either lead chooses Push too far. Choose a context-appropriate incidental character from the setting and write them into the scene (examples include a dog walker or park volunteer, a festival booth captain or emcee, a film-club kid on a rooftop, or a cashier/delivery rider under a store awning). Do not turn the support character into a third player-controlled lead.

After each played scene, append a compact episode summary to a persistent “Story thread” panel, newest first. The summary should state what each lead chose, name the scene, describe the dynamic changing, and indicate whether spark/trust rose or wobbled. Increment the episode and scene count. Clear the director note. After four played scenes, reveal a “Write the ending” button; until then it remains hidden.

Ending flow: Clicking “Write the ending” changes the scene-choice area into four direct ending cards and tells the player to pick the ending tone—the game must not choose it based on hidden stats. Options: “Go for the confession” (someone says it out loud), “Make a promise instead” (choose the next chapter before naming the feeling), “Leave it at almost” (intentionally unresolved), and “Let it crash into comedy” (interrupted, derailed, or misfired confession). Generate a final multi-paragraph ending using the chosen tone, names, setting, dynamic, and visible state. High trust can make the confession sincere, high spark can make it land like a dare, high chaos can make the comedy ending spectacularly messy, and high tension can keep the air electric; these are visible-state variations, not hidden outcomes. End with the idea that the player steered every beat. Mark the finale complete and hide further scene-play/ending controls appropriately.

Use touch-friendly pointer interactions, large rounded buttons, responsive one-column layout on narrow screens, scrollable glass panels, and accessible focus outlines. Include click feedback when buttons are pressed. Preserve the story state and all selected beats in the current session, and expose the visible state conceptually for save/debug integration, but do not add unshown combat, inventory, scoring, branching maps, or unrelated mechanics.