The Game That Remembers You

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 2D top-down psychological mystery/exploration game titled “The Game That Remembers You.” The game must be playable with keyboard and touch controls and persist the player’s progress in local storage between sessions.

Presentation and art direction: use a nearly black background (#08090c) and a restrained, eerie minimalist style. The playable world is a fixed apartment floor plan drawn on an HTML canvas, centered responsively in the viewport with a scale-to-fit transform. Rooms are simple dark charcoal rectangles with thin gray outlines and muted uppercase labels. The visible apartment layout is: BEDROOM at x=60,y=70,w=260,h=190; HALL x=320,y=70,w=170,h=310; LIVING x=510,y=70,w=350,h=220; KITCHEN x=510,y=310,w=300,h=190; BATH x=60,y=280,w=200,h=170; STUDY x=60,y=470,w=300,h=170; and a normally hidden STORAGE room x=380,y=470,w=280,h=170. Keep the sparse floor plan and large empty spaces seen in the reference: no decorative textures or furniture-heavy rendering. Draw the player as a small pale circular avatar. Draw interactable objects as simple muted blocks; use a warm tan block for the photograph, red-brown for the chair, a pale human-shaped rectangle/head for Mara, and a dark red block for the red door.

Title screen: show a centered dark panel over a subtle radial-gradient/scanline-like background. Display the title in widely spaced uppercase lettering and the tagline “Close the game. Come back tomorrow. It remembers.” The menu has NEW GAME, CONTINUE, MEMORIES, SETTINGS, and ABOUT buttons. Disable CONTINUE if no save exists. Update the title/tagline based on progress: initially the normal title, after returning/ending use variations such as “Again?”, and after the true ending use “Thank you for coming back.” Include the small footer “v1.0 · a browser mystery.”

Opening flow: NEW GAME opens a modal headed “BEFORE WE BEGIN,” with the lines “Some games remember your score. Some remember your progress. This one remembers you.” and a name input (maximum 18 characters, default Guest) plus BEGIN. Start in the living room with a prologue dialogue repeating those lines, advanced by Enter/click, then begin DAY 1. Maintain a saved profile containing name, current day, room/player position, object interaction counts, room visits, playtime, sessions, completed days, choices, relationship with Mara, discovered memories/achievements, endings, playthrough number, and flags.

Core exploration: move the avatar with WASD or arrow keys at approximately 115 pixels/second. Constrain movement to the current room and switch rooms when crossing an edge through these connections: bedroom down=bath and right=hall; bath up=bedroom and right=study; study right=storage and up=bath; hall left=bedroom, right=living, down=kitchen; living left=hall and down=kitchen; kitchen up=living and left=hall; storage left=study. The storage room must be inaccessible until unlocked. On desktop show a bottom-center “[E] EXAMINE” prompt when near an object; on small screens show “TAP TO EXAMINE,” with a virtual joystick, EXAMINE button, and pause button. Use Escape or the touch pause control to open a pause overlay with RESUME, MEMORY LOG, SETTINGS, SAVE, and EXIT TO TITLE.

Place these exact interactables and narrative responses:
- BEDROOM: bed at x=135,y=115,w=100,h=55, initially says “The sheets are cold. You slept lightly.” Examining it on a later day advances to the next day.
- BEDROOM: drawer at x=230,y=170,w=32,h=35, says “The drawer is open. There is a faint smell of dust.” After examining it more than twice, grant storageKey and change the implication to “Something was inside it before.”
- LIVING: chair at x=625,y=150,w=45,h=45, says “A chair. It is facing the wall.” On examination mark it moved/remembered, rotate it slightly, and use the later text “The chair is still facing the wall. You do not remember leaving it like this.” Award the FIRST MEMORY discovery.
- LIVING: photograph at x=745,y=110,w=30,h=35, with text “The photograph shows this apartment. Turn it over: ‘You have been here before.’” After day 4 make it say that the photograph has changed and shows the player in the apartment. After three inspections set photoTruth.
- LIVING: plant at x=820,y=215,w=25,h=42, says “The plant looks unhealthy. One leaf points toward you.”
- LIVING: Mara at x=570,y=105,w=28,h=55. She stands very still and begins the branching conversation described below.
- KITCHEN: clock at x=650,y=350,w=35,h=35, says “The clock has stopped at 03:17.”
- BATH: mirror at x=155,y=320,w=30,h=55, says “Your reflection is a fraction late.” After enough total interactions change it to “The mirror says: ‘You missed something.’”
- STUDY: computer at x=210,y=515,w=65,h=45, initially says it is turned off and its power light blinks once. From day 5 onward it opens the MEMORY_LOG.
- STUDY: note at x=125,y=570,w=38,h=26, says “The note reads: ‘You moved this yesterday.’” and awards FIRST MEMORY.
- HALL: storage room door at x=405,y=350,w=28,h=12. Without the key it says “The storage room is locked. A key might be inside the apartment.” and increments warnings. With storageKey, open storage, move the player into it, and award “YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE.”
- HALL: red door at x=465,y=210,w=18,h=65. Before the required progression, say “The paint is still wet. There is no handle.” On day 7 or after photoTruth, send the player to the hidden/storage area and set the hidden-room flag.
- STORAGE: hidden desk at x=600,y=535,w=25,h=25, says “A desk. A file marked PLAYER_PROFILE.” On examination open a PLAYER_PROFILE modal showing NAME, SESSIONS, PLAYTIME, ROOM VISITS, and OBJECTS EXAMINED, followed by “They’re getting closer. Don’t let them finish.”

Mara dialogue: the first conversation starts with “You’re awake.” and offers choices such as “Do I know you?”, “How did you get here?”, and “I want to leave.” Branch responses include “Not yet,” “Someone who remembers,” “I was waiting for you,” “Then stop pretending you have not been here before,” and “The apartment keeps what you leave behind.” Track choices, lies, relationship changes, and flags. Later conversations vary based on day, lies, and number of Mara interactions, with options “What do you mean?”, “I remember.”, “You’re lying.”, and “I want to leave.” Include the key revelation: “The game is not remembering you. You are remembering the game.” Award a SHE REMEMBERS discovery when appropriate.

Time and replay structure: sleeping in the bed advances the day until day 7, moving the player to the bedroom and showing a short “DAY N” and “08:00 AM” dialogue. Day 3 awards “AGAIN?” and represents another playthrough; day 5 enables the computer; day 7 enables the revelation/red-door progression. On day 7, interacting with the bed opens an ending choice modal headed “DELETE MEMORY?” with “Something in the apartment waits for an answer.” and NO/YES. NO produces THE LOOP. YES asks “WHOSE MEMORY?” with PLAYER, MARA, THE HOUSE, and EVERYTHING choices. Endings should be: PLAYER → “FORGETTING” / “Maybe that’s better.”; MARA → “STRANGER” / “Who are you?”; THE HOUSE → “ESCAPE” / “You were never supposed to remember this place.”; EVERYTHING or loop → “THE LOOP” / “You chose to stay.” or “You have done this before.” Save endings and return to title.

True ending: if the player has found the hidden room, has photoTruth, has spoken with Mara at least 7 times, has told no lies, and is on playthrough 2 or later, convert the ending into “TRUE MEMORY,” award “THE TRUTH,” and display “The game isn’t remembering you. You’re remembering the game.”

HUD and UI: at the top left show PROLOGUE, DAY N, or FINAL NIGHT; at the top right show the current uppercase room name. Use muted off-white text, warm beige dialogue accents, thin gray borders, semi-transparent black panels, and serif Georgia-like dialogue text. Dialogue appears in a bottom panel with speaker, line, click/Enter advancement, and branching choice buttons. Include a MEMORY LOG modal/pause option showing room visits, photograph inspections, Mara conversations, doors opened, objects examined, playtime, sessions, completed days, and playthrough. Include a MEMORIES menu listing discoveries such as FIRST MEMORY, MARA’S WARNING, MEMORY LOG, STORAGE ROOM, RED DOOR, HIDDEN ROOM, PLAYTHROUGH 02, and TRUE MEMORY, showing discovered entries with checkmarks and undiscovered entries as ???. SETTINGS should provide master volume, text speed, reduce camera motion, and RESET SAVE DATA. Add subtle synthesized interaction tones, but keep the overall soundscape sparse and ominous. Ensure all progress is saved automatically and manually to localStorage and can be reset.