A camera for a game that keeps changing
A scripted Playwright player records every combo on demand, while a browser prototype replaces platform emoji with a smaller, themeable icon language.
A marketing video should not depend on a lucky daily challenge. The game now has a Playwright player that opens a portrait phone viewport, types a planned sequence, pauses for each mechanic to read, and saves the session as video. It can demonstrate all four combo rewards on demand, which turns recording from a performance into a repeatable build task.
Script the demonstration, not the result#
The sequence separates what must be controlled from what should remain real. Palindrome and antonym metadata are supplied by the recorder, so the demonstration does not depend on a particular dictionary. The alphabetical streak still comes from three consecutive words, and the direction-change combo still comes from the letters steering the snake. A dry run traces every letter before the browser opens and fails if the planned route reaches a wall. Mocking everything would produce a stable video of something unlike the game; mocking only the external uncertainty leaves the mechanics themselves visible.
Give the maintenance task a memory#
The recorder is paired with an agent skill that records the word-order constraints, the path-tracing rules, and the two reasons to run it again: the game changed, or a platform needs a fresh asset. A pull-request check notices a major or minor version bump and asks whether the current video still represents the game. It is deliberately a reminder rather than a gate. The author decides whether a visual or mechanic changed enough to justify new footage; the agent gets a tested procedure when the answer is yes.
Icons need their own language#
That distinction mattered the next day. The first icon plan specified a self-hosted Material Symbols font and a shared component for the interface chrome. The agent built the prototype, the author compared it with plain text in the browser, and the font, component, and prototype code were removed before merge. Text was clearer for trophies, buttons, and headings. Fruit could not take the same answer because shape is part of how a collectible is recognized, and Material Symbols did not cover the set. Inline Tabler paths supplied apple, cherry, banana, star, and sparkles without a font request, inheriting the existing theme tokens through their current color.
The right icon system for a button was not the right icon system for a collectible.
The first reminder fires#
Replacing the fruit changed the board, combo notices, help, and word-history chips, and the pull request raised the minor version. The new check responded by asking whether the gameplay video now misrepresented the game. That is the maintenance loop working on its first real input: a visual decision changes the product, the repository notices that its public footage may be stale, and the same scripted player is ready to record it again.