Project: Hamster Friendship – The Lost Alice

I've written the full game, the dist/ export and all the documentation, but I couldn't run, build, test or commit any of it. Every shell command failed with: Sandbox is required but failed to initialize: Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts. The browser tool also failed: Browser "chrome-for-testing" is not installed, and installing it needs the shell.

So no build, check, design probe or play-through happened. I reviewed the code by reading it through once in full, found five bugs and fixed them. All five files in dist/ have the same line counts as src/, but I couldn't confirm they match byte for byte. Nothing is committed, because git needs the shell too. The files are in the working tree.

What's built

• Stack: plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript with no dependencies, instead of the usual Vite + React + TypeScript. Nothing could be installed or built here, and a single classic script runs without a build step. It also works when you open dist/index.html straight from disk.
• The game: Chang the hamster explores a long autumn forest level. You collect chestnut shells (the count shows on screen), throw them, hold one up as a shield, or jump on enemies.
  • Enemies: patrolling beetles, soldier ants that spot you and charge, and larvae that pop out of the ground and spit wood chips.
  • Exploration: three hidden clues, a talking snail, signposts, bushes you can shake, and lanterns that act as checkpoints.
  • Boss: a giant cockroach that charges and hops. Blocking its charge with the shield dazes it.
  • Ending: Chang finds a humming metal fragment, then a stats screen.
  • Screens: start, pause, game over (try again from the last lantern), restart chapter, and on-screen touch buttons for phones.
• Page: the title, a one-line description and the Start chapter button are all on the first screen at 390px wide. It has a title, favicon, description, og:title and og:image, and all asset links are relative.

Docs and scripts

• README.md covers controls, install, preview and rebuild.
• DESIGN.md documents the colours, type, layout and components as they are in the source.
• VALIDATION.md covers all six areas of the design guide, lists the five fixes with file:line, and marks everything that didn't run as not run.
• npm run build copies src/ into dist/. npm run check parses the game code, checks the page metadata and links, and compares dist/ with src/ byte for byte. npm run preview serves the site locally.

Limitations

• There's no TypeScript, so the "typecheck" script is a syntax check.
• The share image is an SVG, because I couldn't create a PNG without a shell. Some link previews won't show an SVG.
• On screens where the game isn't scaled by a whole number, the pixels come out slightly uneven.
• There's no sound, and progress isn't saved between visits.

Next steps, once the shell works: run npm run build && npm run check, then the design probe (node .imd/reads/skills/design-critic/scripts/taste.mjs --out test/scratch/taste), then play through once in a browser and commit. Until then, treat it as an unverified first version.

I couldn't run anything on this machine, so this review is from reading the source only. The shell sandbox failed to start, and Chrome aborted on launch ("Socket path too long"). So taste@1 never ran, I took no screenshots, nothing was tested in Chromium or WebKit, and I never played the game. The layout figures below come from the CSS, not from a browser. Six findings are in .imd-findings.json: three medium, three low, none high.

Requirements

• "Player character: Chang" – met: LINES and drawHamster('chang', …) in src/game.js.
• "Left, right, jump and interact" – met: the KEYS map at src/game.js:461 and the touchpad buttons in src/index.html:113.
• "Collectibles: Chestnut shells" – met: 34 shellSpots at src/game.js:418, plus shells from the basket, bushes, log and defeated enemies.
• "Beautiful pixel-art chestnut forest…" – met: the layered background and world art at src/game.js:1160-1320. I didn't judge the art, since the brief only lists what it should contain.
• "Beetles, soldier ants and wood-boring larvae" – met: addEnemy at src/game.js:428-439.
• "Chestnut shells as simple defensive tools and projectiles" – partly faked. Throwing uses up shells (src/game.js:796), but the shield works with zero shells (src/game.js:759).
• "Hidden clues and interactive objects" – met: the scorch ring, ribbon and log clues, plus bushes, signs, the snail and lanterns (src/game.js:441-452).
• "Giant cockroach guarding the forest exit" – met: updateBoss at src/game.js:931.
• "Short dialogue scenes and narrative messages" – met: the LINES object and the #dialogue box.
• "Ending: metal fragment" – met: LINES.fragment and #screen-end.
• "Warm autumn palette", "Consistent art direction" – met: the bark, amber and cream tokens in src/styles.css:5-15.
• "Charming character animations", "Smooth movement and responsive controls" – likely met: run, blink, throw and shield poses, coyote time and a jump buffer. Not seen running.
• "Cute but mature character proportions" – I didn't judge this; it's art inside the canvas.
• "HTML, CSS and JavaScript", "Keyboard controls" – met.
• "Start screen, instructions, pause and restart" – met: #screen-start, #how-to-play, #screen-pause, #btn-restart.
• "Display collected chestnut shells" – met: #hud-shells.
• "Playable without a crypto wallet" – met: the game has no wallet code.
• "Works on common desktop browsers" – likely met: the code uses no feature Safari lacks. Not tested in Chromium or WebKit.
• "Avoid placeholder buttons and non-functional interactions" – mostly met. Two low findings: the Pause button on the title screen, and "press E" shown on touch screens.
• "Complete playable game", "Source code" – met: src/, dist/.
• "README with instructions" – met: README.md.
• "Publicly accessible website deployment" – after review.

The idea: a single-page browser platformer where the canvas scene is the product, carried by one warm dusk palette that runs from the pixel art into the page around it. No other visual device competes with it.

Findings

1. Medium, fidelity: the shield checks only that the key is held, Chang is on the ground and not hurt. It never checks shell count, yet it still draws a shell, so it works from the very start with 0 shells. Fix: add p.shells > 0 to src/game.js:759.
2. Medium, bug: og:image is ./og-image.svg, which X, Facebook, LinkedIn and iMessage don't render. Fix: export a 1200×630 PNG and point `src/index.h