game-studio

name	game-studio
description	Route a game brief to a gated, engine-agnostic pipeline.
version	1.0.0
author	Jeremiah Echerd + Hermes Agent
license	MIT
platforms	["linux","macos","windows"]
metadata	{"hermes":{"category":"creative","tags":["game","gamedev","studio","ue5","godot","unity","3d","graphics","orchestrator","creative","council"],"activation_phrases":["make a game","build a game","create a game","game studio","vertical slice","prototype a game","greybox a level","design a game","build the vertical slice","generate a 3d asset"],"related_skills":["ue5-render","comfyui","aos-enterprise-council","kanban-orchestrator"]}}

Game Studio Skill

muse's apex-grade surface for orchestrating the production of a graphically state-of-the-art PC game. It routes a one-line brief through a gated, engine-agnostic pipeline that reuses the existing agent/studio/ production DAG, the ue5-render skill (Unreal Nanite/Lumen — the SOTA-graphics path), the comfyui skill (textures/concept/audio), and the asset3d_generate tool (text-to-3D meshes).

Honest framing

A single agent turn cannot literally ship a 100-person, $100M AAA title. What this skill does is drive every step of the production pipeline through SOTA generative + engine APIs, so the system goes from one-line brief → GDD + concept art + 3D assets + greybox level + gameplay systems + lighting + audio → a playable, runnable vertical slice in one orchestrated, gated, ledgered run. Quality scales with the model and engine access you point it at. The same framing the underlying engine uses (docs/studio/README.md).

Do not claim a build that did not happen. No "the game is built" without the export log + the artifact listing in the same message (the ue5-render "verify, don't vibe" rule).

When to Use

On any of the activation phrases above — "make a game", "build a vertical slice", "greybox a level", "generate a 3D asset", etc.

Routing table

This skill is a routing layer (same stance as aos-enterprise-council). It does not write code/assets itself — it dispatches to the agent roles in agents/<role>.md via delegate_task, enforces maker-checker, and records the routing decision to memory under game-studio/<slug>/.

Request signal	Primary roles dispatched
"make/build/create a game", "vertical slice"	studio-director → game-designer → graphics-tech-artist + 3d-asset-artist → level-designer → gameplay-engineer → audio-designer → qa-playtest → build-release-engineer
"design a game" / GDD only	game-designer (+ studio-director for scope)
"greybox a level" / "blockout"	level-designer + gameplay-engineer
"make this look SOTA" / lighting / materials	graphics-tech-artist + art-direction (UE5 path via ue5-render)
"generate a 3D asset"	3d-asset-artist (uses the asset3d_generate tool)
"add music / SFX"	audio-designer (uses comfyui audio)
"build & ship the slice"	build-release-engineer (owner-gated)

For lightweight asks the chain collapses to: studio-director (scope) → the single relevant role → qa-playtest.

Engine profiles

Engines are pluggable worker profiles (hermes_cli/profiles.py), so /orchestrate + kanban_decompose route to them by name:

Profile	Engine	Status here
game-godot	Godot 4	The only headless-verifiable path in this environment / CI (godot --headless --export). Default for the vertical slice.
game-ue5	Unreal Engine 5	The documented SOTA-graphics path (Nanite/Lumen/MetaHuman). Requires an owner-provided GPU + licensed engine host; drives renders via the ue5-render skill.
game-unity	Unity 6	Documented profile only.

See ../../../docs/game-studio/engine-profiles.md for the reference profiles: config snippet.

How this ties into /orchestrate and /swarm

• Decomposition — for a full game, hand the brief to kanban_decompose (hermes_cli/kanban_decompose.py); it routes child tasks to the engine profile names above and to the role agents.
• Parallel work — asset, level, and audio production own disjoint file domains (assets/, levels/, audio/), so fan them out via /swarm (hermes_cli/swarm/ — git worktrees over proven-disjoint globs). The studio-director declares the file domains before fan-out (the single-writer / disjoint-ownership contract in CLAUDE.md).
• Underlying engine — long-running production is executed by agent/studio/ (StudioOrchestrator.produce_game()); this skill is the muse-facing persona + gate layer on top of it.

Owner gates

These are owner-gated (docs/jarvis-verification-gates.md, Owner Approval Gate). Defer until the owner replies exactly Yes, with authorization.

1. Engine process spawn — launching a Godot/Unity export or a UE5 render. Gated by MUSE_GAME_ALLOW_SPAWN=1 (modeled on ue5-render's MUSE_UE5_ALLOW_SPAWN). Without the grant, scripts/export_godot_slice.py dry-runs: it prints the exact command and reports spawned: false.
2. GPU / paid-API spend — text-to-3D mesh generation and texture batches cost money. Surface the provider's est_cost_usd before bulk generation.
3. Asset licensing — any non-original / third-party asset requires owner sign-off; record provenance in the asset's README.
4. Publishing a build — uploading to Steam / itch / a store is an absolute owner-only wall (same class as the AOS five walls).

Procedure

1. Classify scope (full game vs slice vs single asset) — studio-director.

2. Pick the engine profile (default game-godot here).

3. Run the pipeline in workflows/game-production-pipeline.md, honoring the gates above. To execute the generative DAG end-to-end from a brief, use scripts/run_pipeline.py (stub-safe; --offline forces zero-spend dry-run):

   python scripts/run_pipeline.py --title "Aether Drift" --genre "sci-fi explorer" \
       --engine godot --core-loop "scan, salvage, upgrade" --offline
   

4. Produce + verify the artifact. For the reference slice, run scripts/export_godot_slice.py (gated) and scripts/verify_slice.py.

Templates

Role agents emit structured, gate-ready artifacts from templates/:

Template	Owner role	Purpose
game-design-document.md	game-designer	The GDD (matches the sections the studio DAG generates).
art-direction-brief.md	graphics-tech-artist + audio-designer	Locks the look + sound so assets stay coherent.
vertical-slice-checklist.md	qa-playtest	Evidence-backed acceptance gate for the slice.
asset-provenance-log.md	3d-asset-artist + audio-designer	Backs the asset-licensing owner gate.

Verification

• A build claim must be accompanied by the export log + artifact path.
• For the reference slice: skills/creative/game-studio/reference-slice/ exports to a non-empty build/slice.x86_64 and scripts/verify_slice.py passes.
• Tests: tests/skills/test_game_studio_skill.py, tests/skills/test_game_studio_slice.py.

Pitfalls

• Claiming a finished game from a stub/manifest run — always name what was actually generated vs. stubbed.
• Spawning an engine process without the owner grant.
• Sharing a writable file between two parallel roles (sequence them instead).
• Treating UE5 as runnable in this environment — it needs a GPU host; the runnable demo is Godot.