What problem does it solve? Game designs often feel flat because designers over-explain relationships or leave elements disconnected, robbing players of the satisfaction of discovering connections themselves. This Skill provides a structured workflow for designing and reviewing games around the principle that players derive the strongest pleasure from connecting dots on their own. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Five-phase design workflow: Inventory the dots, map potential lines, design the gaps (whitespace), plan placement order, and verify connection strength. - Pattern library: Covers knowledge-unlock, synergy-discovery, foreshadowing-payoff, metaphor, and hidden-structure patterns with concrete examples from incremental and factory games. - Anti-pattern detection: Identifies over-explained mechanics, unreachable connections, cognitive overload, ambiguous hints, and unrewarded discoveries. - Use Case: When a game feels dull or lacks "aha moments," run a dot-line diagnostic to find isolated elements, over-explained synergies, and missed foreshadowing opportunities, then get a prioritized improvement roadmap. ## Quick Start Ask the AI to run a dot-line design review on your game mechanic or story, for example by saying "Review my factory game's producer synergy using dot-line design."
