design-research
Skill12 starsChanged 8 months agoMITView on GitHub
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.
9 other projects use a version of this.
Adopted by
Most recently taken up by
- ldaume/agentic-engineering-harnesstheir own version, first seen Nov 8, 2026
- matthewdigiuseppe/MStacktheir own version, first seen Nov 1, 2026
- ZachArticulateV/designer-pro-and-seotheir own version, first seen Oct 19, 2026
- int2t05/engineering-skillstheir own version, first seen Oct 15, 2026
- shub-rajput/design-superskillstheir own version, first seen Oct 14, 2026
- adtn0810/truestacktheir own version, first seen Sep 12, 2026
Other versions9 projects use a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 0
None found.
Wrote their own version · 9
- hamelsmu/design-research★ 76same name
- matthewdigiuseppe/MStack★ 17same name
- mevans2120/design-suite-claude-skills★ 11same name
- shub-rajput/design-superskills★ 10same name
- ZachArticulateV/designer-pro-and-seo★ 10same name
- int2t05/engineering-skills★ 3same name
- ldaume/agentic-engineering-harness★ 3same name
- adtn0810/truestack★ 2same name
- wjlgatech/design-anything★ 1same name
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
In this repository29 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- CLAUDE.mdCLAUDE.md
- add-testsSkill
- best-practiceSkill
- bootstrapSkill
- briefSkill
- changesSkill
- claude-code-reviewSkill
- claude-plan-reviewSkill
- codex-code-reviewSkill
- codex-plan-reviewSkill
- commit-pushSkill
- depsSkill
- designSkill
- doc-driftSkill
- doc-syncSkill
- doc-tidySkill
- executeSkill
- explainSkill
- full-briefSkill
- goSkill
- grandmaSkill
- planSkill
- post-design-reviewSkill
- recordSkill
- self-reviewSkill
- tech-researchSkill
- testSkill
- timelineSkill
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
3 rules. 0 are common, 3 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
0
Common
Most of the 9 edited versions we read keep these.
3
Distinctive
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 7
Search for game design references to the problem currently being discussed.
- Distinctive: line 14
Search for game design analyses, GDC talks, postmortems, and design breakdowns using WebSearch
- Distinctive: line 26
Prefer games the team has likely played or that are well-documented
“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 9 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
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.
Arguments: $ARGUMENTS
Process
- Identify the core design question (e.g., "how trading between cities creates interesting choices")
- Search for game design analyses, GDC talks, postmortems, and design breakdowns using WebSearch
- Organize into a comparison table:
| Game | How they do it | What makes it fun | What we could borrow |
- Recommend which approach best fits this project's scope and feel, and why
- Save the result, sources included, to
Docs/qq/<branch-name>/<topic>_design-research.md(or wherever the project already keeps research notes; branch name fromgit 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
- 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
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