design-research · diff
git:20260403.a66086a to git:20261005.41e388b
2 added, 1 removed. Audit B to B.
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description: "Search for how other games solve a specific design problem — game loops, mechanics, systems, progression, economy. Returns a comparison of 2-4 reference games with what to borrow. Use when designing a new feature, exploring game mechanics, or looking for design inspiration before writing a design doc."
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Respond in the user's preferred language (detect from their recent messages, or fall back to the language setting in CLAUDE.md).
Search for **game design** references to the problem currently being discussed. Focus on design patterns and player experience, not code.
Arguments: $ARGUMENTS
## Process
1. Identify the core design question (e.g., "how to structure a survival loop on a ship", "how trading between cities creates interesting choices")
2. Search for game design analyses, GDC talks, postmortems, and design breakdowns using WebSearch. Good query patterns:
- `"[game name]" game design analysis [mechanic]`
- `GDC [mechanic] design postmortem`
- `[mechanic] game design breakdown`
3. Organize into a comparison table:
| Game | How they do it | What makes it fun | What we could borrow |
|---|---|---|---|
4. Recommend which approach best fits this project's scope and feel, and why
+ 5. Save the result, sources included, to `Docs/qq/<branch-name>/<topic>_design-research.md` (or wherever the project already keeps research notes; branch name from `git branch --show-current | tr '/' '_'`). If the project's instructions ask for research notes to be committed, commit that file alone, following them; otherwise leave it for `/qq:commit-push`
## Notes
- Focus on the **player experience**, not implementation — "RimWorld uses a bill queue per workbench that lets players set min/max thresholds" is good; "WorkGiver_DoBill class" is not
- Prefer games the team has likely played or that are well-documented
- Include at least one game from a different genre if it solves the same design problem in an interesting way
- - If searching yields thin results, lean on your own knowledge of game design — but flag which insights came from search vs. your own analysis
+ - Tag every conclusion with its source: official material (dev blog, GDC talk, postmortem; link it), third-party analysis (link it), game source you actually read (for example, an open-source game), or own knowledge. If searching yields thin results, lean on your own knowledge of game design, tagged as such