Content Audit

Audit GDD-specified content counts against implemented content. Identifies what's planned vs built

Category: development Source: Donchitos/Claude-Code-Game-Studios

Content Audit

What Is This?

The Content Audit skill is a specialized utility designed for the Happycapy Skills platform, focused on verifying and auditing game content as specified in a Game Design Document (GDD) against the content that has actually been implemented. This audit process is crucial for identifying discrepancies between planned and built content, particularly in projects that follow a system-driven or feature-driven design approach.

By leveraging this skill, developers, producers, and QA engineers can quickly determine whether the number of planned enemies, levels, items, abilities, or other game elements matches what has been delivered in the codebase or content repositories. The Content Audit skill operates through a combination of file scanning, pattern matching, and structured parsing to provide actionable insights or summary reports.

Why Use It?

Game development projects often rely on detailed GDDs to outline the scope and specifics of each system or feature. However, as implementation progresses, it is easy for teams to lose track of planned content versus what has been completed, especially in complex or distributed teams. Manual audits are time-consuming and prone to human error.

Content Audit addresses these challenges by automating the process:

• Ensures alignment between GDD plans and actual implementation
• Reduces risk of missing or over-delivered content
• Saves time by eliminating manual tracking and spreadsheet management
• Improves accountability for feature completeness and milestone tracking

This skill is particularly useful for producers and leads who need to report on project progress, as well as anyone responsible for content compliance and quality.

How to Use It

The Content Audit skill is user-invocable and can be tailored to specific auditing needs by passing arguments. It operates by reading and parsing specific files within a project directory, particularly focusing on the structure and keywords commonly found in GDDs.

Invocation Patterns

• Full Audit (No Argument)

  • Performs a comprehensive audit across all systems referenced in design/gdd/systems-index.md.
  • Example usage:

    content-audit
    

• Single-System Audit

  • Audits a specific system by name.
  • Example usage:

    content-audit combat-system
    

• Summary Only

  • Outputs a summary table without writing detailed audit files.
  • Example usage:

    content-audit --summary
    

Under the Hood

1. Context Gathering

   • The skill starts by reading design/gdd/systems-index.md to identify all systems, their categories, and priority tiers.
   • For a full audit, it performs an L0 pre-scan using grep to search for summary sections and common content-count language in all GDD markdown files:

     grep -E "(## Summary|N enemies|N levels|N items|N abilities|enemy types|item types)" design/gdd/*.md
     

     Only GDDs with matching patterns are selected for a full read, while those without are marked as having "No auditable content counts".

2. GDD Parsing

   • For each in-scope GDD (either all matched, or the single system specified), the skill reads through the file and extracts explicit content counts or lists. Patterns include:
     • "N enemies", "enemy types:", or direct enumeration of content (e.g., a list of enemy names)
     • "N levels", "N areas", "N maps"
     • "N items", "item types:", and similar constructs

3. Comparison and Reporting

   • The extracted counts from the GDD are compared with the implemented content counts (implementation-side checks are assumed to be handled by other tools or by direct inspection of the content repository).
   • The report includes discrepancies, missing or extra content, and systems with no auditable counts.

Example: Basic Content Audit Command

content-audit --summary

Sample Output Table:

System	Planned Enemies	Built Enemies	Planned Levels	Built Levels	Notes
combat-system	5	4	N/A	N/A	1 enemy missing
level-system	N/A	N/A	10	10	All levels matched
inventory	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	No auditable content counts

When to Use It

• Milestone Reviews: Before major project milestones, to ensure all planned content is present and accounted for.
• Feature Lock: At feature freeze, to verify that all GDD-specified content is implemented.
• Content Regression: After major refactors or content updates, to spot accidental removals or additions.
• QA Preparation: Prior to formal QA passes, to provide testers with accurate feature lists.

Important Notes

• Content Audit only checks for explicit content-count language in GDD markdown files. Systems described purely in mechanics or without quantifiable content will be marked as "No auditable content counts".
• The skill relies on the structure and naming conventions of GDD files and may require maintenance if the file format evolves.
• This tool does not validate the correctness or quality of implemented content, only the existence and count as specified.
• The comparison between GDD counts and implemented counts assumes that implementation-side enumeration is available or can be generated by other compatible tools.
• The skill is agent-based and operates with read, glob, grep, and write permissions on the content directories, ensuring it can scan widely but respecting project boundaries.

By integrating Content Audit into your workflow, you can maintain tight alignment between design intent and delivered product with minimal overhead.