Refactor meme-game and viral-game to use the make-game pipelines

[M4cs]

Summary

Two things in one PR:

1. Cherry-pick /meme-game from Gate public-figure work on explicit mention; add /meme-game skill #22 (without the changes that conflicted with Add initial V2 make-game skill updates #26's make-game v2).
   /meme-game is a focused skill that swaps named entities in an existing game for photo-composite public
   figures (Trump, Altman, Musk, etc.) and wires reactive expressions to game events. It can be
   auto-invoked by /viral-game when a public figure is detected, or run standalone (/meme-game
   ).
2. Refactor both /viral-game and /meme-game to the rules-driven, phase-based, sub-pipeline architecture
   introduced by /make-game v2. Same structural shape across all three skills.

Why

/viral-game (the renamed-by-#26 old monolithic make-game) was a 650-line SKILL.md of rigid Step 0..5.5
prose with "wait for user confirmation between every step" sprinkled through it. /meme-game from #22 was
useful but lived as a separate skill with duplicated public-figure detection logic and a /make-game
hand-off contract that no longer matched main's structure.

Both skills now use the same playbook: slim SKILL.md, finite rules, named phases, reusable
sub-pipelines, minimum-viable docs by default, pause only at phase boundaries.

What changed

New: /meme-game skill (cherry-picked from #22, then refactored)

skills/meme-game/
SKILL.md # Slim: rules + phase index
phases/
audit.md # Read project, identify entities, resolve slug list
resolve.md # 5-tier 2D / 4-tier 3D fallback per slug
wire.md # Bobblehead + expressions (2D) / SkeletonUtils (3D)
verify.md # Build + visual + expression spot-check + tests
sub-pipelines/
public-figure-detection.md # SHARED detection logic (referenced by viral-game too)
character-resolution-2d.md # 5-tier photo-composite flow
character-resolution-3d.md # 4-tier Meshy/library/Sketchfab flow
expression-wiring.md # Event → expression mapping

Refactored: /viral-game

skills/viral-game/
SKILL.md # Slim: rules + phase index (was 650-line monolith)
phases/
concept.md # Form A/B parsing, public-figure detection, 2 questions, slim docs
scaffold.md # Template copy, install, transform subagent, verify
build.md # 7 conditional tasks with verification (gateables → assets →
meme-pass → design → promo → audio → QA)
ship.md # Deploy → monetize → review → graduation hand-back
sub-pipelines/
verification.md # (renamed from verification-protocol.md)
step-details.md # Subagent prompt templates (content unchanged)
tweet-pipeline.md # Form B + reference to shared detection
live-iterate.md # Borrowed from /make-game v2
templates/
gameplan-slim.md # 1-page auto-fillable, /make-game-schema-compatible
state.md # docs/STATE.md skeleton (shared with /make-game)

Pulled from PR #22

• /meme-game skill (4 source files, relocated into phases/ + sub-pipelines/)
• "personality" → "public figure" rename across add-assets, design-game, game-3d-assets, game-assets/,
  game-designer/, meshyai, phaser/project-setup
• The Step 0 public-figure detection block, Step 1 conditional scaffolding hints (Trump/Musk/Altman
  placeholders), and Step 1.6 /meme-game hand-off — re-targeted onto /viral-game since main's /make-game
  is the v2 phase-based skill
• agents/game-creator.md orchestrator: same conditional public-figure logic so it doesn't drift

Skipped from PR #22

• All skills/make-game/ edits (PR Gate public-figure work on explicit mention; add /meme-game skill #22's branch predated Add initial V2 make-game skill updates #26 — those edits target obsolete file paths)
• All examples/maze-tanks/ and skills/add-multiplayer/ deletions (unrelated branch state)
• The /viral-game → /make-game reverse-renames in 9 SKILL descriptions (wrong direction for main, where
  both skills coexist)

Consistency contracts

Both skills hold to the same rules:

• Slim SKILL.md: frontmatter → when-to-use → rules → phases → sub-pipelines → reference files
• Write docs/STATE.md + docs/gameplan.md (with progress.md + design-brief.md kept for back-compat)
• Minimum-viable doc mode by default — no mandatory ADRs, milestones, or tech.md
• Pause for user confirmation at phase boundaries, not between sub-tasks
• Redirect to /make-game if the user asks for milestones, ADRs, or multi-session iteration
• All code-writing work goes through Task subagents; main thread orchestrates

Single source of truth for public-figure detection lives at
skills/meme-game/sub-pipelines/public-figure-detection.md. viral-game/SKILL.md,
viral-game/sub-pipelines/tweet-pipeline.md, and agents/game-creator.md all reference it instead of
duplicating.

Graduation path

/viral-game's output is /make-game-compatible by design. docs/STATE.md and docs/gameplan.md use the same
schema as /make-game's templates. A user who outgrows the one-shot model can run /make-game against the
same directory in their next session — no file rewrites.

Regression case to watch

/viral-game 2d maze-tank (or any generic prompt that names no real people) must stay purely generic — no
public figures injected anywhere, no Expression Map in docs/gameplan.md, no assets/characters/ copy, no
/meme-game invocation. This is the case the old monolithic pipeline got wrong; the architectural
commitment is to keep it generic.

Test plan

• /viral-game 2d maze-tank — generic, no public-figure pass, slim docs only
• /viral-game 2d trump-dodger — public figure detected, /meme-game runs as Step 1.6
• /viral-game — Form B detection, /meme-game runs
• /meme-game examples/asteroid-dodge trump,musk — standalone use on existing game
• /meme-game examples/asteroid-dodge (no names) — falls through to user question
• User asks for milestones during either skill → both redirect to /make-game
• All four MONETIZATION_INTENT branches (none / playfun / subgames / both) complete cleanly

Files

23 files touched. New: 13 (4 meme-game phase docs, 4 viral-game phase docs, 1 shared detection
sub-pipeline, 2 viral-game templates, 1 borrowed live-iterate, 1 meme-game SKILL.md). Modified: 8 (3
cherry-picked rename pass + viral-game SKILL/step-details/tweet-pipeline rewrites + CLAUDE.md +
agents/game-creator.md). Renamed: 3 (viral-game's old top-level companions moved into sub-pipelines/).
No deletions of pre-existing user-visible files.

[coderabbitai]

Important

Review skipped

Draft detected.

Please check the settings in the CodeRabbit UI or the .coderabbit.yaml file in this repository. To trigger a single review, invoke the @coderabbitai review command.

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 6afe19ed-7fe3-417c-b831-8ff8735fdb2f

You can disable this status message by setting the reviews.review_status to false in the CodeRabbit configuration file.

Use the checkbox below for a quick retry:

• 🔍 Trigger review

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch feat/viral-meme-refactor

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands and usage tips.}