Scaffold Gateables

Performance Notes

• Take your time to understand the game before proposing features
• Quality is more important than speed — wrong gateables hurt the game permanently
• Do not skip the locked-path verification in Step 4

Scaffold Gateables

Add gateable features to an existing game. This skill produces hooks — skin pickers, continue-after-death flows, bonus modes, save slots, daily challenges — each wired through EventBus with a single capability-check seam (isEntitled(key)). It does NOT add any specific monetization SDK (Play.fun, sub.games, Stripe, etc.); it produces the scaffolding that any paywall, subscription, or entitlement layer can later switch on.

The default state is everything locked — isEntitled(key) returns false for all keys. The game must feel completely normal in that state. When a downstream monetization layer flips an entitlement on, the gateable feature lights up.

Core Principles

Use these to reason about what to propose and what to reject. They are rules, not guidelines.

1. Never gate the core loop. If the game is about jumping, everyone jumps. Gate skins, not gravity.
2. Prefer additive over subtractive. Add a bonus mode; don't shrink the free mode. Free players never feel punished.
3. Match the game's rhythm. Short sessions → session-scoped perks (continue, daily skin, daily challenge seed). Long-form → persistence (save slots, unlock tree, bonus chapters).
4. Propose 2–3 gateables at silver and gold only. Bronze is the default — every player gets the bronze experience by default, so no feature is scaffolded there. Aim for one or two silver conveniences and one gold spectacle. Numbers are targets — suggest what actually fits the game.
5. Every gateable must degrade cleanly. With isEntitled returning false, the game must feel normal — not broken, not missing.

Tier Vocabulary

Use game-standard progression labels: bronze / silver / gold. This keeps the skill monetization-agnostic and reads naturally to players.

Bronze is the default tier — every player is bronze by default. The bronze experience IS the core game loop that everyone always gets. No feature is scaffolded at bronze; scaffold-gateables only produces features at silver and gold.

The downstream integration layer maps silver/gold to its own paid tier system:

State this mapping in the Step 2 output so the handoff to /subgames or /monetize-game is explicit.

Instructions

The user wants to add gateables to the game at $ARGUMENTS (or the current directory if no path given). Optional hint tokens after the path (e.g., skins continue) bias the proposal.

Step 1: Understand the game

• Read package.json — detect engine (phaser → Phaser, three → Three.js).
• Read src/core/Constants.js, src/core/EventBus.js, src/core/GameState.js.
• Read src/main.js to find window.render_game_to_text() and the orchestrator entry point.
• Read progress.md at the project root if it exists (written by the /viral-game pipeline).
• Read the primary scene/system files to understand the core loop.

Then tell the creator one sentence:

The core loop is `<verb>` — I will not gate it. Gateables will be additive features that layer on top.

Step 2: Propose features

Generate 2–3 candidate gateables at silver and gold tiers anchored in the five principles. Present as a Markdown table:

Anchor picks in the principles. Reject any suggestion that gates the core loop. Never propose bronze-tier features — bronze is the default everyone gets. Prefer cosmetic > convenience > bonus > persistence for short-session games; flip the order for long-form.

In interactive mode (user-invoked skill): wait for creator confirmation before implementing. Let them drop, swap, or tweak suggestions.

In pipeline mode (called from `/viral-game` Step 1.25): auto-pick the top 2–3 and continue without prompting.

Step 3: Implement

Follow this order strictly:

3a. Create `src/systems/Entitlements.js` — the single capability-check seam:

// src/systems/Entitlements.js
// Single capability check for all gateable features.
// Returns false by default — every gateable must degrade cleanly when locked.
// Wire this to your monetization layer (sub.games, Play.fun, custom paywall)
// by replacing the body with real checks. See `/monetize-game` or `/subgames`.

export function isEntitled(key) {
  // TODO: wire to monetization layer.
  return false;
}

3b. Add events to `src/core/EventBus.js` (append-only, domain:action form).

3c. Add state fields to `src/core/GameState.js`. Update reset() to preserve persistent fields (e.g., unlockedSkins, bonusModeUnlocked) and clear transient ones (e.g., usedContinue, continueOffered).

3d. Add constants to `src/core/Constants.js` under a new GATEABLES section (skin list, continue cooldown, bonus mode config, etc.).

3e. Create gateable modules in the existing src/ subdirectories matching the game's layout:

• src/ui/SkinPicker.js (Phaser scene or Three.js panel)
• src/systems/ContinueFlow.js
• src/systems/BonusMode.js
• etc.

Each gateable's entry point calls isEntitled(key) and branches:

import { isEntitled } from '../systems/Entitlements.js';

function openSkinPicker() {
  if (!isEntitled('premium_skins')) {
    // Locked path: greyed-out button with lock icon, no picker opens.
    // Default skin remains selected. Game continues normally.
    return;
  }
  // Entitled path: open the picker scene.
  scene.scene.launch('SkinPickerScene');
}

Never create a pre-gameplay title screen or skin-picker-first flow. The template boots directly into gameplay. Gateable UI opens from pause menu, settings, or GameOverScene only.

3f. Update `window.render_game_to_text()` in `src/main.js` additively — add new observable fields (selectedSkin, continueAvailable, bonusModeActive) without removing existing ones. This is load-bearing for AI test harnesses.

Step 4: Verify

• npm run build clean.
• npm run dev and play with isEntitled returning false (default). Core loop must feel identical to pre-skill state. If anything feels broken or missing, you gated the core loop — revert and revise.
• Temporarily edit Entitlements.js to return true; for all keys. Confirm each feature activates correctly. Revert.
• If tests/ exists and snapshots render_game_to_text() via exact equality (toEqual), update baselines — field additions are intentional. If tests use toMatchObject, no update needed.
• Append a ## Gateables section to progress.md at the project root with:
• Features added (name + tier + entitlement key)
• EventBus events added
• GameState fields added (marked as persistent or transient)
• Constants keys added
• Locked-path description (one line per feature)

Troubleshooting