11.6.1 — Designer Feedback Loop and Tooling (M11.6)

[SorraTheOrc]

Description

Build designer-facing tools and workflows that make balance iteration accessible to non-engineers. Provide intuitive interfaces for running sweeps, viewing reports, and experimenting with tuning changes without requiring code changes.

Acceptance Criteria

• Command-line tool echoes-balance-studio provides guided workflows for designers
• Workflows include: "Run exploratory sweep", "Compare two configs", "Test tuning change", "View historical reports"
• Configuration changes testable via YAML overlays (similar to difficulty presets) without modifying base configs
• Interactive report viewer (HTML dashboard or Jupyter notebook) allows filtering, sorting, and drilling into results
• Designer-focused documentation: "How to diagnose dominant strategies", "Iterating on action costs", "Testing narrative pacing changes"
• Example workflows demonstrated with case studies (e.g., "Balancing the Industrial Tier faction")
• At least 8 tests covering CLI commands, config overlay loading, and report generation

Priority

Low (Optional enhancement - UX improvement)

Dependencies

• ✅ 11.1.1 (Batch Parameter Sweeps) - Completed
• ✅ 11.3.1 (Analysis and Balance Reporting) - Completed

Responsible

gamedev-agent (with designer/PM feedback loop)

References

See .pm/tracker.md task 11.6.1 for complete details and context.