§ masterplan.md
8-Bit Game Dev Studio
A retro game studio site with pixel previews, devlogs, sprite galleries and playable browser demos.
01
App overview and objectives
A studio site for a tiny game team: playable demos, an honest devlog, a sprite gallery showing the craft, and a mailing list that turns visitors into launch-day players.
02
The problem worth solving
Small studios have no marketing budget, so the development process itself is the marketing. A site built around visible progress converts curiosity into a wishlist and eventually a purchase.
03
Target audience
- Primary — Players who follow indie development and wishlist early.
- Secondary — Press, publishers and potential collaborators.
04
Roles and permissions
- Visitor — read-only public pages, can sign up.
- Member — owns their own records, cannot see other users' data.
05
Core features
- Game pages with trailer, screenshots, platforms and store links
- Playable browser demos embedded directly
- Devlog with regular short posts and animated GIFs
- Sprite and asset gallery showing the art pipeline
- Mailing list with a launch-notification promise
- Team page with roles and contact for press
Deliberately later
- Press kit generator
- Community Discord integration
- Merchandise
06
Technical stack
Static-rendered site with markdown devlogs, demos hosted as static WebGL or canvas builds, an email provider for the list.
Why: Static hosting handles launch-day traffic spikes cheaply, and demos are just static assets.
Alternatives: A store page only (less work, no owned audience) or a full CMS (nicer authoring, unnecessary overhead for a three-person team).
07
Conceptual data model
Game — title, status, platforms, description, media, store links
DevlogPost — game, title, body, media, published_at
Asset — game, sprite sheet, description, animation preview
Subscriber — email, source, confirmed, interests
TeamMember — name, role, bio, links
08
Integrations
- Email marketing provider
- Store platform links
- Analytics on demo plays
09
UI design principles
- Period-accurate details: pixel or bitmap type, dithered textures, chunky borders.
- Nostalgia must not cost usability — keep tap targets and contrast modern.
- Sound and animation are opt-in, never autoplay.
10
Security considerations
- Double opt-in for the mailing list and one-click unsubscribe.
- Demos sandboxed in iframes with restricted permissions.
- No personal data collected from demo players beyond anonymous metrics.
11
Development phases
Phase 1 — Prove the core
- — Game pages with trailer, screenshots, platforms and store links
- — Playable browser demos embedded directly
- — Devlog with regular short posts and animated GIFs
- — Static content and design system in place
- — Basic analytics
Phase 2 — Make it real
- — Sprite and asset gallery showing the art pipeline
- — Mailing list with a launch-notification promise
- — Team page with roles and contact for press
- — Accounts, sign-in and password reset
- — Empty, loading and error states everywhere
Phase 3 — Polish and launch
- — Performance, accessibility and SEO pass
- — Legal pages, contact route and 404 handling
- — Wire up: Email marketing provider
- — Wire up: Store platform links
Phase 4 — Grow
- — Press kit generator
- — Community Discord integration
- — Merchandise
12
Challenges and solutions
Risk — Devlog cadence collapses during crunch
Solution — Short-format posts are acceptable — one GIF and two sentences counts.
Risk — Demo builds are large
Solution — Compress assets, stream levels, and show a proper loading state with progress.
Risk — Mailing list ignored at launch
Solution — Segment by interest and send progress mails so launch day is not the first contact.
13
Future expansion
- Publisher partnerships
- Modding tools
- Studio-run game jam
14
Page list (13 pages)
- 01 PUBLIC Games — Titles, trailers and store links.
- 02 PUBLIC Devlog — Ongoing development posts.
- 03 PUBLIC Sprites — Art gallery and pipeline.
- 04 PUBLIC Demos — Playable browser builds.
- 05 PUBLIC Team — Who makes it, plus press contact.
- 06 AUTH Sign up — Create an account with email or a social provider.
- 07 AUTH Log in — Return to the account, with error and lockout states.
- 08 AUTH Reset password — Request a reset link and set a new password.
- 09 APP (signed in) Account settings — Profile, email, password, language and delete account.
- 10 PUBLIC Contact — Contact form plus real address, phone and email.
- 11 LEGAL & SYSTEM Privacy policy — What data is collected, why, and how to remove it.
- 12 LEGAL & SYSTEM Terms of service — Rules of use, liability and account termination.
- 13 LEGAL & SYSTEM 404 not found — Friendly dead end with search and links back.
15
Page map
PUBLIC AUTH APP (signed in) LEGAL & SYSTEM ────────── ───────────────── ─────────────────── ─────────────────── ├─ Games ├─ Sign up └─ Account settings ├─ Privacy policy ├─ Devlog ├─ Log in ├─ Terms of service ├─ Sprites └─ Reset password └─ 404 not found ├─ Demos ├─ Team └─ Contact key flows: Games ──▶ Demos Devlog ──▶ Sprites Demos ──▶ Games Team ──▶ Devlog