Game Concept Design (Novel to Game)

Turns a novel bible and product brief into a compared set of game directions, then locks one playable concept using hard vetoes and explicit trade-offs in a single CONCEPT.md.

Content & WritingIntermediate★ 840⑂ 118AI score 7/10Last updated: Oct 3, 2026

What it does

Requires SOURCE_BIBLE.md and PRODUCT_BRIEF.md as input; if either is missing it stops and reports the gap instead of inventing upstream content.
Lists which design dimensions the brief already locked and which remain open, then compares only alternatives that reveal a real trade-off — no padding the candidate list.
Eliminates candidates by hard veto (not weighted scoring), then selects along the comparison axes defined in references/concept-method.md. Supports a quick mode (auto-pick strongest evidence) and a director mode (recommend and wait for your choice).
Produces one concepts/CONCEPT.md containing the experience promise with observable success/failure signals, precedents, concept cards (core verbs, loop, pressure, failure, world response), key trade-offs, the player-agency contract, and a minimum validation slice.
Explicitly out of scope: code, tuning tables, scene-by-scene scripts.

Who it's for

Producers and IP teams adapting novels or web novels into games or interactive fiction
Narrative designers and game writers doing pre-production direction setting
Teams that need a written, defensible record of why concepts were rejected

Examples

"What kind of game should this fantasy series become?" — generates competing concept cards, kills the non-viable ones by veto, and recommends a direction.
"Should this be a branching narrative game or does it need a custom greybox prototype?" — judges validation form based on reliance on real-time feel, space, sightlines, or physics.
"We already picked the direction" — skips re-opening the choice and instead surfaces risks and the minimum validation questions for that direction.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zenstory-ai/novel-to-game/HEAD/skills/game-concept/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)

Download the ZIP with the button below.
In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.

↓ Download ZIP

Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the skills/game-concept folder from the GitHub repo zenstory-ai/novel-to-game into my ~/.claude/skills/zenstory-ai-game-concept/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/zenstory-ai/novel-to-game.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r novel-to-game/skills/game-concept ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

Open a terminal.
Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/zenstory-ai/novel-to-game.git
Create the skills folder if needed: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
Copy the skill: cp -r novel-to-game/skills/game-concept ~/.claude/skills/
Verify that references/concept-method.md came along — it holds the actual veto and comparison criteria.
Prepare SOURCE_BIBLE.md and PRODUCT_BRIEF.md in your project folder (other skills in the same repo generate these); the skill halts without them.
Restart Claude Code and ask something like "compare game directions for this novel" to get concepts/CONCEPT.md. Note that most instructions are written in Chinese, though output language follows your brief or conversation language.

View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT