Appeal Engagement Review

Evaluate the user's game design for both appeal and engagement. Read references/framework.md for the full evaluation model, and check references/gotchas.md for common analysis mistakes to avoid.

Appeal is why someone clicks, wishlists, or watches the trailer. Engagement is why they keep playing. Both are required, and they fail independently. A beautiful world with nothing to do fails just as hard as a mechanically deep game nobody notices.

Before evaluating appeal, confirm the engagement foundation is sound. Flow (skill-challenge balance, sense of control, clear feedback) is a prerequisite. Appeal layered on a broken core produces a game that attracts players and immediately loses them.

These are different skillsets. Programmers tend to be strong at engagement and weak at appeal. Creatively-driven devs often have the opposite gap. Identify which side the design is weaker on and focus there.

Use the "I want to..." appeal taxonomy and the "but" tests from the framework to ground your evaluation in specific dimensions. Be direct. End with the 1-2 highest-leverage changes. Judge the design on its own terms.