Claude-Code-Game-Studios/.claude/skills/review-all-gdds/references/4-scenarios.md

/review-all-gdds — Phase 4: Cross-System Scenario Walkthrough

Part of /review-all-gdds. SKILL.md names when to read this file; the settings it resolved and the rules under its later headings still apply here.

Phase 4: Cross-System Scenario Walkthrough

Walk through the game from the player's perspective to find problems that only appear at the interaction boundary between multiple systems — things static analysis of individual GDDs cannot surface.

4a: Identify Key Multi-System Moments

Scan all GDDs and identify the 3–5 most important player-facing moments where multiple systems activate simultaneously. Look specifically for:

• Combat + Economy overlap: killing enemies that drop resources, spending resources during combat, death/respawn interacting with economy state
• Progression + Difficulty overlap: level-up triggering mid-fight, ability unlocks changing combat viability, difficulty scaling at progression milestones
• Narrative + Gameplay overlap: dialogue choices locking/unlocking mechanics, story beats interrupting resource loops, quest completion triggering system state changes
• 3+ system chains: any player action that triggers System A, which feeds into System B, which triggers System C (these are highest-risk interaction paths)

List each identified scenario with a one-line description before proceeding.

4b: Walk Through Each Scenario

For each scenario, step through the sequence explicitly:

1. Trigger — what player action or game event starts this?
2. Activation order — which systems activate, in what sequence?
3. Data flow — what does each system output, and is that output a valid input for the next system in the chain?
4. Player experience — what does the player see, hear, or feel at each step?
5. Failure modes — are there any of the following?
   • Race conditions: two systems trying to modify the same state simultaneously
   • Feedback loops: System A amplifies System B which re-amplifies System A with no cap or dampener
   • Broken state transitions: a system assumes a state that a previous system may have changed (e.g., "player is alive" assumption after a combat step that could have caused death)
   • Contradictory messaging: player receives conflicting feedback from two systems reacting to the same event (e.g., "success" sound + "failure" UI)
   • Compounding difficulty spikes: two systems both scaling up at the same progression point, multiplying the intended difficulty increase
   • Reward conflicts: two systems both reacting to the same trigger with rewards that together exceed the intended value (double-dipping)
   • Undefined behavior: the GDDs don't specify what happens in this combined state (neither system's rules cover it)

Example walkthrough:
Scenario: Player kills elite enemy at level-up threshold during active quest

Trigger: Player lands killing blow on elite enemy
→ combat.md: awards kill XP (100 pts)
→ progression.md: XP total crosses level threshold → triggers level-up
  Output: new level, stat increases, ability unlock popup
→ quest.md: kill-count criterion met → triggers quest completion event
  Output: quest reward XP (500 pts), completion fanfare
→ progression.md (again): quest XP added → triggers SECOND level-up in same frame
  ⚠️  Data flow issue: quest.md awards XP without checking if a level-up
  is already in progress. progression.md has no guard against concurrent
  level-up events. Undefined behavior: does the player level up once or twice?
  Does the ability popup fire twice? Does the second level use the updated or
  pre-update stat baseline?

4c: Flag Scenario Issues

For each problem found during the walkthrough, categorize severity:

• BLOCKER: undefined behavior, broken state transition, or contradictory player messaging — the experience is broken or incoherent in this scenario
• WARNING: compounding spikes, feedback loops without caps, reward conflicts — the experience works but produces unintended outcomes
• INFO: minor ordering ambiguity or messaging overlap — worth noting but unlikely to cause player-visible problems

Add all findings to the output report under "Cross-System Scenario Issues". Each finding must cite: the scenario name, the specific systems involved, the step where the issue occurs, and the nature of the failure mode.

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