Turn a Codex session into a structured, local-first game studio.
50 agents. 90 skills. 61 workflows. One Git-reviewable studio template.
🇺🇸 English | 🇨🇳 简体中文 | 🇯🇵 日本語 | 🇰🇷 한국어 | 🇩🇪 Deutsch | 🇫🇷 Français | 🇪🇸 Español | 🇧🇷 Português | 🇷🇺 Русский | 🇸🇦 العربية | 🇮🇹 Italiano | 🇵🇱 Polski | 🇹🇷 Türkçe | 🇻🇳 Tiếng Việt | 🇮🇩 Bahasa Indonesia | 🇬🇷 Ελληνικά
A blank AI coding chat is flexible, but game development needs repeatable studio structure. Someone has to protect the vision, keep milestones visible, review technical choices, validate gameplay changes, check accessibility, prepare release notes, and make sure decisions are not trapped in chat history.
Codex Game Studio gives a Codex session the shape of a game studio without turning it into a hosted project manager or game engine. You get tracked agents, skills, workflows, project state, and validation in ordinary files that humans can inspect in Git.
The template is deliberately clone-first: the visible AGENTS.md, .codex/agents/*.toml, .codex/workflows/*.md, and .agents/skills/*/SKILL.md files are the studio surface. init records project state; it does not regenerate or overwrite the studio template.
- What's Included
- Studio Hierarchy
- Skills
- Workflows
- Getting Started
- Project Structure
- How It Works
- Model Routing
- Documentation
- Project Status
- License
| Category | Count | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Agents | 50 | Codex custom agents across production, design, programming, art, audio, narrative, QA, localization, live ops, release, and engine support |
| Skills | 90 | Reusable studio actions under .agents/skills/*/SKILL.md, from onboarding and design through QA, release, team orchestration, and standards |
| Workflows | 61 | Tracked prompt workflows for market review, specs, stories, sprints, QA, security, release, hotfixes, vertical slices, and handoffs |
| Engine Tracks | 3 | Godot, Unity, and Unreal specialist context with engine references and validation checks |
| Templates | 57 | Packaged document templates for GDDs, ADRs, technical designs, playtests, releases, postmortems, risk registers, pitch docs, and more |
| Validation | built in | Hard-failing checks for package assets, template surfaces, project state, metadata, engine references, and future-only CLI drift |
Agents are organized like a small game studio: directors own vision and technical coherence, leads own domain direction, and specialists handle focused execution.
Tier 1 — Direction
creative-director technical-director producer
studio-orchestrator
Tier 2 — Department Leads
game-designer senior-game-designer senior-game-artist
audio-director localization-lead release-manager
market-analyst narrative-designer
Tier 3 — Specialists
gameplay-programmer engine-programmer ai-programmer
network-programmer tools-programmer ui-programmer
systems-designer level-designer economy-designer
game-feel-designer technical-artist sound-designer
writer world-builder ui-ux-designer
qa-playtester accessibility-specialist performance-analyst
devops-engineer security-engineer data-scientist
community-manager live-ops-designer
| Engine | Lead Agent | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Godot 4 | godot-specialist |
GDScript, scenes, nodes, resources, signals, plugins, and Godot-specific validation |
| Unity | unity-specialist |
C#, packages, scenes, prefabs, UI Toolkit, Addressables, Cinemachine, and DOTS/ECS context |
| Unreal Engine 5 | unreal-specialist |
C++, Blueprints, GAS, replication, UMG/CommonUI, plugins, and Unreal project conventions |
Skills are tracked under .agents/skills/*/SKILL.md. They are the reusable studio actions Codex can apply while working inside the template.
Onboarding & Navigation
cgs-start cgs-help cgs-project-stage-detect cgs-setup-engine cgs-adopt cgs-onboard
Game Design
cgs-brainstorm cgs-map-systems cgs-design-system cgs-quick-design cgs-review-all-gdds cgs-propagate-design-change cgs-balance-check
Art & Assets
cgs-art-bible cgs-asset-spec cgs-asset-audit
UX & Interface
cgs-ux-design cgs-ux-review cgs-ui-ux-review
Architecture & Technical Planning
cgs-create-architecture cgs-architecture-decision cgs-architecture-review cgs-create-control-manifest
Stories & Sprints
cgs-create-epics cgs-create-stories cgs-dev-story cgs-sprint-plan cgs-sprint-status cgs-story-readiness cgs-story-done cgs-estimate cgs-vertical-slice
Reviews & Analysis
cgs-design-review cgs-code-review cgs-scope-check cgs-perf-profile cgs-tech-debt cgs-gate-check cgs-consistency-check cgs-security-audit cgs-content-audit
QA & Testing
cgs-qa-plan cgs-smoke-check cgs-soak-test cgs-regression-suite cgs-test-setup cgs-test-helpers cgs-test-evidence-review cgs-test-flakiness cgs-skill-test cgs-skill-improve
Production
cgs-milestone-review cgs-retrospective cgs-bug-report cgs-bug-triage cgs-bugfix cgs-reverse-document cgs-playtest-report
Release
cgs-release-checklist cgs-launch-checklist cgs-changelog cgs-patch-notes cgs-hotfix cgs-day-one-patch
Creative & Content
cgs-prototype cgs-localize
Team Orchestration
cgs-team-combat cgs-team-narrative cgs-team-ui cgs-team-release cgs-team-polish cgs-team-audio cgs-team-level cgs-team-live-ops cgs-team-qa
Path Standards
cgs-standards-ai-code cgs-standards-data-files cgs-standards-design-docs cgs-standards-engine-code cgs-standards-gameplay cgs-standards-gameplay-code cgs-standards-narrative cgs-standards-network-code cgs-standards-prototype cgs-standards-prototype-code cgs-standards-shader-code cgs-standards-test-standards cgs-standards-tests cgs-standards-ui cgs-standards-ui-code
Workflow prompts live under .codex/workflows/*.md. They are inspection-friendly prompt surfaces; shortcut commands render prompts and do not launch Codex unless you explicitly run a role or task.
| Phase | Workflows |
|---|---|
| Tracked Prompts (61) | accessibility-doc, analytics-setup, architecture-decision, architecture-review, art-bible, art-direction, asset-audit, asset-spec, balance-check, brainstorm, bug-report, bugfix, changelog, code-review, consistency-check, control-manifest, create-architecture, create-epics, create-stories, design-review, design-review-concept, design-spec, design-system, engine-setup, entity-inventory, game-concept, game-feel-tuning, handoff, hotfix, implement, launch-checklist, localization-plan, map-systems, market-analysis, onboard, patch-notes, perf-profile, playtest, playtest-polish, production-milestone, prototype, qa-plan, regression-suite, release-checklist, retrospective, review, review-all-gdds, scope-check, security-audit, ship-check, sprint-plan, sprint-status, story-done, story-readiness, team-feature, team-polish, test-setup, ui-ux-review, ux-design, ux-review, vertical-slice |
- Git
- Node.js 24 or newer
- Codex CLI on
PATHforrun <role>and full validation
-
Clone the template repository:
git clone git@github.com:merlinhu1/codex-game-studio.git signal-cartographer cd signal-cartographer -
Install and build the CLI:
npm install npm run build
-
Initialize project state:
./codex-game-studio init --name "Signal Cartographer" --engine godot --mode prototype --non-interactive \ --concept "A compact puzzle game about routing trains through haunted switchyards"
initturns the checkout into a game workspace: it keeps the game-facing agents, workflows, skills, templates, engine references, and CLI runtime, then prunes maintainer-only template-authoring artifacts such aseval-framework/, OpenSpec/research/reference scratch files, TypeScript source files, and repository validation tests. Template maintainers can pass--keep-template-authoringwhen intentionally working on this repository itself. -
Inspect and validate:
./codex-game-studio status ./codex-game-studio validate ./codex-game-studio run producer \ "Create the initial market overview." --print-prompt
AGENTS.md # Game-facing Codex instructions
codex-game-studio # Source-checkout CLI wrapper
.codex/
agents/ # 50 Codex custom agents
workflows/ # 61 tracked workflow prompts
studio.json # Project state written by init
tasks.json # File-backed task state
runs/ # Runtime metadata for role/task runs
locks/ # Local orchestration locks
.agents/
skills/ # 90 reusable studio skills
engine_configs/ # Engine setup metadata
engine_reference/ # Godot, Unity, Unreal reference packs
templates/ # Document templates used by workflows
production/ # Timeline, milestones, session state
docs/ # Small user/docs support surface
src/ # Game engine source root; maintainer TypeScript files are pruned by init
tests/ # Game tests; repository validation tests are pruned by init
The clone is the studio. Agents, workflows, skills, and instruction files are committed template surfaces, not hidden generated output. init records project state and engine choices without copying the studio back into itself.
run <role> assembles a bounded prompt packet from the selected role, task, project state, tracked templates, and relevant context. Use --dry-run or --print-prompt to inspect before execution.
Tasks, approvals, locks, context manifests, and run metadata live under .codex/**. The workflow favors ordinary Git review over opaque chat memory.
./codex-game-studio validate checks package assets, template surfaces, role/workflow metadata, project state, engine references, and hidden future-only surfaces before readiness claims.
Prompt surfaces declare concrete Codex model and reasoning-effort policy in tracked files:
| Routing dimension | Policy |
|---|---|
| Model family | Use gpt-5.6-sol for difficult/high-risk architecture, security, release, or cross-system decisions; gpt-5.6-terra for bounded implementation, QA, docs, bugfix, and production work; gpt-5.6-luna for simple, repetitive, mechanical, checklist, status, and objectively verifiable work. |
| Reasoning effort | Choose low, medium, or high per surface independently from the model family. A prompt may use Luna/medium, Terra/low, Terra/high, Sol/medium, or Sol/high when that case warrants it. |
| Fallback model | Sol falls back to gpt-5.5, Terra to gpt-5.4, and Luna to gpt-5.4-mini while preserving the selected surface effort. |
Runtime dry-runs and run metadata expose the selected model and reasoning effort. Codex execution receives both values explicitly instead of a generic tier name.
| Need | Start Here |
|---|---|
| Install, commands, workflows, validation | User Guide |
| Realistic usage scenarios | Examples |
| Full documentation map | Docs Index |
| Product boundaries and non-goals | Product Boundary |
Codex Game Studio currently supports template-repository setup, Codex role execution, workflow prompt rendering, file-backed task orchestration, and repository/project validation.
It deliberately does not expose a planner or next command, telemetry, hosted orchestration, unbounded parallelism, hard output-ownership enforcement, or generated CODEX.md / project_orchestrator.md surfaces.
Codex Game Studio is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE.