game-design-skill-catalog.md

Game Design Skill Catalog

A quick index of the game design skills currently available in the workspace.

Emotional / thematic direction

game-design-emotional-canvas

Define the emotional core, atmosphere, and vibe of a game, feature, event, or theme. Best for emotional identity, moodboards, and tone alignment.

General decision framework

game-design-grow-design

Use the GROW model to structure feature discussions through Goal, Reality, Options, and Will. Good for teams that need more process and clearer decisions.

Motivation / psychology audits

game-design-player-motivation-audit

Audit what kinds of motivation a design creates: reward-driven, status-driven, value-endorsed, identity-based, or intrinsic.

game-design-player-need-satisfaction-audit

Audit whether a design satisfies or denies autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Good for spotting emotionally nourishing versus quietly depleting systems.

Prototyping / uncertainty

game-design-unknown-unknowns-prototyping

Map uncertainty, identify hidden unknowns, and decide what should be prototyped before production commitment.

GROW-derived workflow family

game-design-goal-framing

Turn a vague idea into a clear feature goal with purpose, fit, success criteria, and constraints.

game-design-option-generation

Generate multiple credible solution paths before committing to one.

game-design-five-options

Force explicit comparison across at least five candidate approaches.

game-design-roadblock-reframing

Get unstuck by isolating the main blocker, imagining it removed, and deriving workaround paths.

game-design-ideal-outcome-backcasting

Start from the ideal player-facing result and work backward to the design steps needed to reach it.

game-design-transformative-reuse

Solve new problems by adapting, extending, recombining, or retuning what already exists.

game-design-feature-prioritization

Compare candidate options by impact, cost, risk, fit, and timing to decide what to do now versus later.

FTUE / onboarding audits

game-design-ftue-hero-journey-audit

Audit FTUE and onboarding flows through the Hero's Journey lens: call to adventure, mentor, threshold crossing, early autonomy, and first-session emotional connection.

Pitch / publishing audits

game-design-pitch-deck-audit

Audit a game pitch deck for structure, clarity, dream-versus-proof balance, business-case strength, readability, and publisher-fit.

Creative disruption / unblockers

game-design-creative-unblocker

Use oblique prompts, sideways reframing, and playful provocations to break creative block and generate weird-but-useful next directions.

Suggested ways to combine them

• Need clarity first -> game-design-goal-framing
• Need more solution paths -> game-design-option-generation or game-design-five-options
• Need to get unstuck -> game-design-roadblock-reframing or game-design-creative-unblocker
• Need stronger emotional direction -> game-design-emotional-canvas
• Need better psychological diagnosis -> game-design-player-motivation-audit or game-design-player-need-satisfaction-audit
• Need to decide what to prototype -> game-design-unknown-unknowns-prototyping
• Need to pick what to do now -> game-design-feature-prioritization

Notes

• The GROW-derived skills are mostly workflow skills.
• The motivation and need-satisfaction skills are mostly audit skills.
• game-design-creative-unblocker is intentionally sillier and more disruptive than the rest of the pack.