Every Drop Counts

The prompt

Where I live in France, 2026 was a drought summer: water restrictions, and rumours about the taps running dry in October. Saturday, 11:24, one brief:

Let’s make a new game. Based on the water crisis in France, I’d like a game where I need to catch water drops from the sky with a recipient but avoid bird drops for example or leaf from a tree. A system of temporary bonus or malus could be nice (larger/smaller recipient, speed,…). I’d like the design to be nice with water. Maybe a water drop could spill on the screen to obscure vision…

It came back playable, with one idea I hadn’t asked for: the bucket holds ten drops, so you have to tap to pour. Keep catching, or pour now? That is the whole game. Working title: Bucket List, which I didn’t love.

The iterations

Seven versions. My messages, in order:

1. First playable, straight from the brief.
2. “I don’t understand why I lose, we would need visual feedback on the ground I think. I don’t like the splash effect, I was imagining something blurry.” Six things in one message: a red MISSED count where each drop lands, a puddle the ground drinks, a fresh crack.
3. “The Blur effet is still not what I was imagining. I was imagining a splash on the screen.” Big drops now splash the lens.
4. “The Blur now makes the game slow, at least as a Claude artefact. Any idea why?” It was. A two-sentence diagnosis, then another technique: same look, full speed.
5. “I’d like to change the introduction text to something like: water is precious, save as much as you can.” Same message: I didn’t like Bucket List. Five puns came back.
6. My whole reply: “Every drop counts”. The old best score, filed under the old name, reset to zero.
7. “Just add simple sounds, as realistic as you can.” The plink drops in pitch as the bucket fills; thunder arrives a second after the flash.

What I learned

Describing what I saw beat prescribing a fix: “I don’t understand why I lose” got me the counter, the puddle and the cracks, none of which I’d have asked for. Two rounds taught me that “blurry” and “splash” are not the same word. And pick the name last: the game tells you what it is.