I set the concept, art direction and key design calls, and playtested every build; Claude generated the code, pixel art and story text under my direction.
Setting the look: borrowing from FishyTails
I set the direction on day one: reuse the 8-bit portrait Kairosoft style of my earlier game FishyTails. The game runs on a 180×320 pixel canvas with no image assets. Every person is a 20×34 sprite assembled from parameters (age, hairstyle, outfit, glasses, walking cane) and every scene is drawn in code.
Playtesting shaped the characters and scenes
After playing, I flagged that baldness and a beer belly looked wrong on women, so aging now differs by gender. I found the scenes monotonous and said a rich family's home should look rich, so homes split into five tiers, from a mud-brick farmhouse to an estate with a fountain garden, with new hairstyles and casual outfits. I also called the title screen rough, and it became a street that walks through every stage of life.
If the text says it, the picture shows it
I kept catching mismatches between text and sprites: a fox spirit "returning to true form" while still drawn as a human, a partner who had ascended still standing on stage. The fixes became rules: any year whose text mentions the true form draws the fox, anyone who leaves the story leaves the stage, and hidden routes never use modern scenes. Two audit rounds over simulated lives then caught about 220 more contradictions.
The fate capsule: handing one talent to fate
In the original game you pick all three talents. I suggested letting the system roll one that the player can't change. It became one fate talent plus two of your choice: the machine drops a fate capsule first, 40% of them hold a curse, and a curse pays back 3 extra stat points. When I asked what else reincarnation should give, that led to the Hall of Reincarnation upgrades and past-life karma.
Less writing, less AI flavour
I found some events overwritten; a pirate captain's farewell read as greasy. I set a rule: no event longer than three lines, just say what happened, because piling on detail is what makes text read as AI-written. About 120 long events were rewritten. When same-sex love was added, it followed my note to not make a big deal of it: it plays out like any other love story.
Player discussion
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