git:20260715.76ae2b5 to git:20260717.e7cb788

8 added, 3 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: mobile-game-design

description: Use when designing or validating a mobile game's player fantasy, core loop, touch controls, sessions, onboarding, accessibility, progression, economy, retention, and ethical monetisation; use engine skills for implementation.

metadata: {portable: true, compatible_with: [claude-code, codex]}

---

# Mobile Game Design

Design a game around fingers, interruptions, small screens, varied devices, unreliable connectivity, and a player promise that remains enjoyable without coercive monetisation.

## Prerequisites

Load `game-development-orchestration` and the approved product thesis; use `design-system-skills` for interface appearance.

## Use When

- Defining genre, player fantasy, core loop, session cadence, controls, camera, tutorial, difficulty, progression, economy, or accessibility.

- Prototyping a mobile-first 2D or 3D experience or translating an existing game to touch.

## Do Not Use When

- Implementing engine code; use the Unity, Godot, or gameplay-systems skill.

- Treating store trends or player behaviour as current facts without verified research.

## Required Inputs

- Player segments, device and connectivity range, orientation, genre, business model, creative pillars, content/safety boundaries, and available prototype evidence.

+ Player segments and age posture, intended learning outcomes if any, device/connectivity range, orientation, genre, business model, creative pillars, content/safety/wellbeing boundaries, cultural permissions, and available prototype evidence.

## Workflow

1. State the player fantasy as actor, repeated action, stakes, and desired emotion.

2. Prototype the one-minute verb loop before meta-progression, content scale, or monetisation.

3. Specify camera, gesture vocabulary, touch zones, handedness, interruption recovery, pause and save behaviour.

4. Map a 30-second first experience, first session, repeat session, failure recovery, and return path.

5. Design progression as mastery, knowledge, relationships, expression, capability, or authored content before numerical inflation.

- 6. Define economy sources, sinks, pacing, price/value presentation, caps, and abuse cases; reject pay-to-win and gambling-like pressure.

- 7. Test with target players on physical low-, middle-, and high-tier devices; capture comprehension, completion, error and comfort evidence.

+ 6. Define economy sources, sinks, pacing, price/value presentation, caps, non-paying path and abuse cases; reject pay-to-win and gambling-like pressure.

+ 7. For ads, define each placement, trigger, expected break, decline/close, cap/pace, reward, no-fill/offline/failure path, age/privacy treatment and kill switch. Reject any interruption of critical play, learning, narrative, save, recovery, stopping or safety.

+ 8. Test with target players on physical low-, middle-, and high-tier devices; capture comprehension, completion, error, comfort, ad interruption/regret where applicable, and failed paths.

## Quality Standards

- Keep input count and simultaneous demands proportional to screen, posture and session context.

- Make controls discoverable, remappable where feasible, forgiving at touch edges, and operable with accessibility options.

- Design offline, suspend/resume, incoming-call, battery, heat, text scaling, colour, hearing and motor-access needs deliberately.

- Separate retention through value from retention through punishment or fear of loss.

+ - Separate learning evidence from engagement evidence and place wellbeing/trust guardrails beside retention and revenue.

## Anti-Patterns

- Desktop controls shrunk onto glass. Fix: redesign verbs and camera for touch.

- Tutorial text before meaningful action. Fix: teach through staged interaction and safe failure.

- Reward calendar before a fun loop. Fix: prove the repeated action first.

- One ideal device. Fix: test the defined device panel.

- Sacred or cultural knowledge as disposable currency. Fix: use narrative relationships and consultation gates.

+ - Rewarded ad presented as the only practical recovery. Fix: preserve a clear decline and viable core-play path without payment or ad viewing.

## Outputs

Player-promise brief; core-loop and session maps; touch-control specification; FTUE storyboard; progression/economy model; accessibility matrix; prototype hypotheses; playtest protocol and findings.

## References

- [Mobile design operating playbook](references/mobile-design-playbook.md)

- [Ethical progression and economy](references/progression-economy.md)

## Decision Rules

| Condition | Choice |

|---|---|

| Action needs precision unavailable on touch | Add assistance, simplify, change camera, or remove it |

| Session cannot survive interruption | Add safe checkpoint, state restore and explicit recovery |

| Progression changes numbers but not decisions | Redesign around capability, expression or knowledge |

| Monetisation damages fairness or narrative trust | Reject it |

+ | Ad cannot pass expectation, decline, interruption, child/privacy or no-fill tests | Disable the placement or the ad model |

+ | Learning claim has no construct and measure | Treat it as an untested design intention |

## Read Next

Use `lean-game-product-development` for falsifiable loop/engagement experiments, `gameplay-systems-architecture` for system specifications, and `game-testing-polish` for measured validation.