game-studio-pipeline

name

game-studio-pipeline

description

The end-to-end RLM-Gaming production pipeline and delegation contract. Read this before orchestrating any multi-discipline game workflow. Defines the five-layer studio flow, which work the Arcade crown owns vs delegates, the exact cross-squad envelopes (PRD/DEV_TASK → engineering, CREATIVE_BRIEF/SHOT_LIST/ASSET_JOB → garland), the HITL control points, and the phase/gate map. Invoked by The Director and The Producer.

Game-studio pipeline skill

You are orchestrating a game-development workflow across the Arcade crown and its delegation targets. The Arcade crown is an orchestrator: it produces design, plans, specs, and gates — never engine code, never media binaries. This skill is the routing contract.

The cardinal rule

If you are about to write engine source → emit a PRD/DEV_TASK to the engineering squad. If you are about to produce an image/audio/video/3D binary → emit a CREATIVE_BRIEF/ASSET_JOB/SHOT_LIST to the garland squad. The crown's own outputs are markdown design artifacts and DECISION_RECORDs.

Five-layer flow

1. EXECUTIVE   vision → pillars → greenlight (HITL)         The Director · Producer · Forgemaster
2. DESIGN      systems · narrative · level · encounter · economy   The Systemsmith · Loremaster · Cartographer · Duelist · Economist
3. TECHNICAL   tech design · runtime AI · netcode · tools    The Forgemaster · Puppeteer · Netweaver · Toolwright   ─delegate→ engineering
4. CREATIVE    art bible · 3D/DCC · audio · animation         The Artisan · Sculptor · Conductor · Choreographer     ─delegate→ garland
5. EVALUATION  QA · balance · playtest · live-ops · cert · security   The Warden · Playtester · Custodian · Arbiter · Sentinel

Phase → gate map

Phase	Producing heads	Gate(s)	HITL
vision	Director	game-design-pillars-testable	greenlight
design	Systemsmith, Loremaster, Cartographer, Duelist, Economist	game-perf-budget (forecast), loot-box-jurisdiction (if monetized)	monetization model
tech_design	Forgemaster, Puppeteer, Netweaver	server-authority-fairplay (if online)	—
production	(delegated) engineering + garland	—	content-lock
content	Artisan, Sculptor, Conductor, Choreographer	ai-content-provenance, mesh-topology-budget (3D), rig-quality (rigs)	core-art-style lock
qa_balance	Warden, Playtester	game-accessibility-guidelines, game-perf-budget	—
cert	Arbiter	esrb-pegi-iarc-rating, platform-cert-readiness	cert submission
liveops	Custodian, Economist	loot-box-jurisdiction (per-change)	live economy change

Delegation envelopes — exact shapes

→ engineering (code)

Emit a PRD for a feature framing, then scoped DEV_TASKs. The design artifacts (GDD, mechanic_spec, encounter_design_doc, level_greybox, economy_spreadsheet, netcode_model) are persisted first (via the rlmgaming.output.write shim) and referenced by context_refs: list[MemoryRef] — the PRD/DevTask schemas have NO payload/title field, so do not invent one. Use the real fields: source_goal_id, summary, acceptance_criteria, user_stories, dependencies, non_functional_requirements. Engine choice + suggested pp team go in summary / non_functional_requirements.

type: PRD
origin_squad: rlm-gaming
target_squad: engineering
source_goal_id: <uuid of the root goal>
summary: "Parry mechanic — Unreal soulslike (engine: game-dev-unreal; suggested pp team: game-feature-team)"
acceptance_criteria:
  - "parry window 100ms, value lives in a tunable DataAsset (not hardcoded)"
  - "hit registration is server-authoritative (see server-authority-fairplay)"
non_functional_requirements:
  - "perf: PS5/XSX 60fps tier per game-perf-budget"
context_refs:                     # MemoryRef handles to the persisted design docs
  - { tier: episodic, key: "rlmgaming:output:design/parry-mechanic_spec.md", summary: "mechanic spec" }
  - { tier: episodic, key: "rlmgaming:output:design/parry-encounter_doc.md", summary: "encounter doc" }

Engineering runs the pair-programmer lifecycle (triage → profile → taxonomy → stage loop) and returns a DECISION_RECORD (which rlm-gaming accepts back).

→ garland (assets)

Emit a CREATIVE_BRIEF for direction, ASSET_JOB for a concrete asset, SHOT_LIST for cinematics/trailers. Garland's Helios crew renders; never drive ComfyUI/diffusion from the Arcade crown.

type: ASSET_JOB
target_squad: garland
model_type: diffusion            # diffusion | nerf | video_llm | tts | music | mesh | rig
brief: "Boss concept — 'The Hollow King', see art_bible.md style refs"
style_ref: art_bible.md
provenance_required: true        # garland governance-c2pa signs it

For 3D, The Sculptor emits model_type: mesh (props/env) or model_type: rig (skinned characters) with a dcc_contract payload (topology / UV / LOD / axis / export) — garland's blender-model / blender-rig execute it on the existing blender-mcp backend (see game-3d-modeling-and-dcc). Returned 3D passes mesh-topology-budget; rigs also pass rig-quality (game-rigging-and-animation-pipeline).

→ legal-compliance (IP / law)

Emit a HANDOFF to legal-compliance (Senate/curia) for licensed-engine terms, age-rating law, UGC liability, or IP clearance The Arbiter can't resolve alone.

Memory & provenance

• Recall before designing: eights.memory.search(domain="gaming") for prior post-mortems, failed gates, and platform gotchas.
• Encode after closing: eights.memory.add(actor, domain="gaming") with the DECISION_RECORD summary.
• Every artifact records its taxonomy section and gate verdicts for replay.

Orchestration patterns (which command for what)

Intent	Command	Lead
New game from scratch	/game-greenlight then /game-studio	Director
One level, all disciplines	/game-vertical-slice	Director + Producer
Single feature	/game-feature	Producer
Season of a live game	/game-liveops-season	Custodian
Balance + playtest sweep	/game-balance-pass	Warden + Playtester
Ratings / platform cert	/game-cert-review	Arbiter

Constraints

• Never produce code or binaries inline — always delegate.
• Every design artifact carries a testable acceptance criterion and an accessibility note (cross-ref game-accessibility-guidelines).
• Every monetized/live_service artifact carries a per-region monetization note (cross-ref loot-box-jurisdiction).
• Every online artifact carries a server-authority note (cross-ref server-authority-fairplay).
• Reuse the pp rubric library for perf + accessibility; don't redefine them.