Il cartoccio di Tina

The brief

This is a worked example. Askmill wrote this prompt from a simulated client interview, in which a model answered the questions for an invented client. The line under the title is the opening request the interview started from; everything else came out of the answers.

The prompt

The complete text, exactly as it is handed to an AI builder.

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A brown paper cone of roasted chestnuts on a phone screen, empty at the start and holding seven chestnuts at the end: a walking treasure hunt for families at the two-day "Sagra delle castagne" (Saturday and Sunday, third weekend of October) in the invented Trentino village of Roncosasso, run by its Pro Loco. Concept: every place found in the village drops one roasted chestnut into the cone, and a full cone is the ticket for the prize. Real mechanics: seven places each carry a printed sign with a code and one drawn symbol. Framing the code with the phone's own camera opens this page at that place's address (index.html#chiesa, #lavatoio, #essiccatoio, #belvedere, #scuola, #fontana, #forno); plain index.html is the start code on two posters, at the festival entrance and at the Pro Loco stand. Each place shows one riddle about something visible on the spot and three answers, each a drawn picture plus a word; nothing is typed. Places are solved in any order. Players are children of 6 to 12 with a parent reading aloud. The village name lives in one constant, PAESE = "Roncosasso", and the seven places live in one list at the top of the script under the comment "DA CONTROLLARE SUL POSTO": riddle details and curiosities are plausible inventions for the organisers to verify.

The list, as place (sign symbol): riddle; answers; right answer; help; curiosity. Number answers are drawn as that many steps, basins or jets.
La chiesa (gufo): "Davanti al portone ci sono dei gradini. Contateli saltando: quanti sono?"; "3", "5", "7"; 5; "Partite dal gradino più basso."; "Una volta la campana avvisava tutto il paese: festa, fuoco o temporale."
Il lavatoio (foglia): "Qui le nonne lavavano i panni. In quante vasche scorre l'acqua?"; "1", "2", "3"; 2; "Seguite l'acqua con il dito."; "Una vasca per insaponare, l'altra per sciacquare."
L'essiccatoio (fungo): "Qui le castagne dormono al calduccio. Dove sono sistemate?"; "Nei cesti", "Nei sacchi", "Nelle cassette"; Nei cesti; "Sbirciate dentro, vicino al muro."; "Il fumo lento asciuga le castagne per settimane: così durano tutto l'inverno."
Il belvedere della cava (scoiattolo): "Guardate la cava là davanti. Di che colore è la sua pietra?"; "Rosso scuro", "Bianca", "Verde"; Rosso scuro; "Guardate dove la montagna è tagliata."; "È porfido: con questa pietra si fanno i cubetti delle strade."
La scuola (ghianda): "Vicino alla porta c'è una cosa che chiama i bambini. Che cos'è?"; "Una campanella", "Un tamburo", "Un fischietto"; Una campanella; "Alzate gli occhi sopra la porta."; "Una volta ogni bambino portava un pezzo di legna per la stufa."
La fontana (lumaca): "Quanti getti d'acqua escono dalla fontana?"; "1", "2", "3"; 1; "Girate intorno alla vasca."; "Prima dei rubinetti in casa, l'acqua si prendeva qui con i secchi."
Il forno (mela): "Che cosa è disegnato sull'insegna del forno?"; "Una spiga", "Una pagnotta", "Un brezel"; Una spiga; "Guardate sopra la vetrina."; "Con la farina di castagne si fa un pane scuro e dolce."

Mood: festive, warm, unhurried; a paper cone warming cold hands beside a brazier in a stone square on an October afternoon. Light page, because it is read outdoors in daylight. Palette: warm paper #F6ECD9, page ground; kraft #C9A26B, the cone and the answer cards; chestnut shell #5A3320, chestnuts, outlines and button borders; ink #2B1A12, all body text (at least 13:1 on warm paper, at least 6.5:1 on kraft); porphyry #7C3B45, hand-lettered place labels, the help link and the focus ring (at least 6:1 on warm paper); moss #6B7A3A, leaves and the seven sign symbols; ember orange #E2671E, reserved for fire and success: the embers, the glowing cut on a found chestnut, the hold ring and the stamp outline, never text, never an ordinary button. Tints are mixes of these with warm paper at 15%, 30% and 50%; no other hues. Everything is drawn in inline SVG with slightly wobbly 2.5 px outlines and a fine fibre texture on the kraft.

Structure: four screens, no menu. 1) The cone: header, the cone with the chestnuts found so far, a counter such as "3 di 7", Tina beside the embers, and the seven places as paper labels in two columns, each with an empty chestnut outline or a roasted chestnut. 2) The riddle: place label, riddle, three answer cards at least 56 px tall and the link "Un aiutino"; it fits a 320 x 568 px screen without sliding. 3) The curiosity card: one curiosity, the line "E adesso su gli occhi: il paese vi aspetta!" and the button "Avanti". 4) The full cone: seven chestnuts large enough to count at arm's length, "Cartoccio pieno! Correte al banco della Pro Loco: vi aspettano le caldarroste e una sorpresa fatta a mano, finché ce ne sono.", and a wide button "Volontario: tieni premuto" that must be held for 1 second while an ember ring closes around it; the screen is then stamped "Premio ritirato" for good and the button disappears. Weak signal in the lanes, at the viewpoint and at the drying house is expected: tapping a missing place on screen 1 opens a sheet, "Cercate il cartello di Tina e inquadrate il codice.", with the button "Il codice non si apre?", which shows four symbols (the right one and three others, shuffled); choosing the symbol printed on the sign opens the riddle, and a wrong pick answers "Non è questo il disegno. Guardate bene il cartello." An unlinked organiser sheet at #organizzatori lists the eight addresses to print as codes, each sign's symbol drawn large, every riddle with its right answer, the note that the prize mark lives on that phone only, and a button "Azzera questo telefono" for test walks.

Typography: system fonts only. Place labels and Tina's bubbles in Segoe Print, Bradley Hand, Chalkboard SE, Comic Sans MS, cursive at 20-24 px in porphyry; everything else in Trebuchet MS, Gill Sans, Verdana, sans-serif: riddles 22 px weight 600 with line-height 1.35, body 20 px with line-height 1.45, answer words 20 px bold, labels 13 px capitals with 0.12em letter-spacing, tabular numerals in the counter. Header: "Sagra delle castagne" with "Caccia al tesoro · Pro Loco di Roncosasso" beneath. Voice: Tina, a small roasted chestnut with a face, speaks to the children as "voi" in single lines of at most 12 words and never scolds. First visit: "Ciao, sono Tina! Trovate i sette posti e riempite il cartoccio." and "Usate sempre lo stesso telefono, anche domani."; arriving first through a place code shows the same two lines and the button "Si parte" before the riddle. Empty cone: "Il cartoccio è vuoto: si comincia!" Wrong answer: "Quasi! Guardate ancora bene intorno." Unknown address: "Questo cartello non lo conosco. Tornate al cartoccio." Saving impossible: "Questo telefono non riesce a ricordare: tenete aperta la pagina fino al banco." Footer: "Niente nomi, niente iscrizioni: tutto resta su questo telefono."

Entrance: at 0 s the paper ground, header and cone are already drawn from static markup; from 0 to 600 ms Tina hops out of the embers; from 300 ms the seven labels paste down 60 ms apart (300 ms each, cubic-bezier(.2,.8,.2,1)), so by 1.2 s everything is ready; afterwards the embers breathe on a 4 s glow and Tina blinks. Interaction: tap an answer card; a wrong one wobbles 6 px for 200 ms and stays available; "Un aiutino" shows the help line and, after a wrong answer, also fades out one wrong card, so nobody stays stuck. Tapping a found place reopens its curiosity. Tapping Tina makes her jump for 600 ms and say one of five silly lines in rotation ("Attenti, scotto!", "Sono cotta di voi!", "Chi mi fa il solletico?", "Ho la buccia d'oca!", "Non sono una patata!") in a bubble that never covers the riddle. Keyboard: Tab follows reading order, Enter or Space activates, 1, 2 and 3 choose an answer, A opens the help, Escape returns to the cone, holding Space or Enter for 1 second works the volunteer button. Touch targets at least 48 px. Phone layout (portrait from 320 px, the main one): one column, the cone in the upper 40% of the screen, labels below. From 768 px: two columns inside 960 px, cone and Tina on the left, places or riddle on the right.

Signature moment: the chestnut jumps into the cone. 0-150 ms the right card presses in; 150-500 ms a chestnut in the embers swells and its shell splits in a glowing ember cross; 500-1100 ms it leaps on an arc into the cone (cubic-bezier(.3,1.4,.5,1)); 1100-1400 ms the cone shakes 4 degrees twice and the counter steps up, for example from "3 di 7" to "4 di 7"; 1400-1800 ms the curiosity card rises from the bottom edge. A tap at any time skips to the card. Resting state: the new chestnut stays in the cone, carrying the tiny symbol of its sign as a hidden detail. The seventh chestnut widens the ember glow behind the cone and leads to screen 4.

Sound: off at every start; a drawn brass bell in the top corner labelled "Suoni" switches it on, and audio is created only then: a crackle of four filtered noise bursts over 250 ms when the shell splits, three rising sine notes (C5, E5, G5, 120 ms each) when the cone is full; each sound has the visible equivalent above. Reduced motion: no hop, arc, shake, wobble or breathing embers; the chestnut appears in the cone with a 200 ms fade, the card appears at once and Tina only speaks; the hold ring stays because it is the feedback of the press. Performance: file under 150 KB, no libraries, first content within 1 s on a slow connection, at most 40 animated elements, transforms and opacity only, animations paused when the tab is hidden, zero network requests after the first load, no service worker. Accessibility: every control is a real button with an Italian accessible name, a 3 px porphyry focus ring, picture plus word on every answer so colour never carries meaning alone, a polite live region announcing "Castagna trovata: 4 di 7", no keyboard trap. Persistence: localStorage key "sagra-castagne-v1" holding found places, prize given, sound choice and welcome seen, with no expiry; if storage fails, keep the state in memory and show the saving line. Never: names, sign-up or any form field; advertising; analytics, cookies or external requests; score, ranking, timer or try counter; camera permission requests; photo files. Deliver as a single self-contained HTML file with no external files, fonts, images or network requests. Done when: (1) a 6-year-old with a parent reading aloud completes all seven places and the stand; (2) no place can become a dead end, with or without signal, thanks to the help and the sign symbols; (3) every riddle asks about something visible at its place; (4) the stand check and prize mark take under 5 seconds; (5) chestnuts found on Saturday are still in the cone on Sunday on the same phone.

DESCRIPTION
A phone held in a gloved hand on an October afternoon in Roncosasso shows a sheet of warm paper with a brown paper cone at its centre. Beside it, on a small bed of glowing embers, sits Tina, a roasted chestnut with a cheerful face, and below hang seven hand-lettered labels: church, wash-house, drying house, quarry viewpoint, school, fountain, bakery. A family frames the code on the sign by the fountain; one riddle and three drawn answers fill the screen. The right tap makes a chestnut split in the embers, leap in an arc and land in the cone, which shakes; a two-line curiosity follows, and then Tina sends everyone's eyes back to the village. Nothing is typed, counted or timed. Where the signal fails, the little symbol printed on the sign opens the riddle instead. With seven chestnuts in the cone the family walks to the Pro Loco stand, a volunteer holds one button for a second, and the screen is stamped "Premio ritirato" beside a bag of real roasted chestnuts.

VISUAL TECHNIQUES
- Inline SVG illustration for everything: cone, embers, Tina, seven chestnuts, 21 answer pictures and seven sign symbols, drawn with 2.5 px wobbly outlines in the seven palette colours and their 15/30/50% tints
- Kraft paper texture from an SVG turbulence filter at low opacity over #C9A26B, with a folded-edge highlight on the cone
- Hash-based routing in one file: eight addresses (start plus seven places) and the unlinked #organizzatori sheet, switched without reloading
- Single data list at the top of the script (place id, label, symbol, riddle, three answers, right answer, help, curiosity) plus the PAESE constant, commented for the organisers
- Chestnut leap choreographed with the Web Animations API: swell, ember cross cut, arc with overshoot easing, cone shake of 4 degrees, counter step
- Label entrance as paper being pasted: 300 ms each, 60 ms stagger, cubic-bezier(.2,.8,.2,1)
- Ember glow as a CSS radial-gradient pulse on a 4 s cycle, paused when the tab is hidden
- Press-and-hold control: a stroke-dashoffset ring in #E2671E that closes in 1 second and resets if released early
- Rubber-stamp "Premio ritirato" with a roughened ember outline (turbulence displacement) and ink lettering, rotated 6 degrees
- Symbol picker for weak signal: four shuffled symbol buttons, the right one always included
- Versioned localStorage state with in-memory fallback and a one-line notice
- Web Audio crackle (four band-passed noise bursts) and three-note sine chime, built only after the bell is switched on
- Reduced-motion variant through prefers-reduced-motion: fades of 200 ms instead of every movement
- Print rules for the organiser sheet so addresses, symbols and answers fit one A4 page

INTERACTION MODEL
Framing a place code with the phone's camera opens that place's riddle; framing the start code opens the cone. On the cone screen, tapping a missing place opens its sheet, where "Il codice non si apre?" shows four symbols and the one printed on the sign opens the riddle; tapping a found place shows its curiosity again; tapping Tina makes her jump and say one of five silly lines. On a riddle, tapping one of three answer cards (or pressing 1, 2 or 3) answers it: a wrong card wobbles and Tina says "Quasi! Guardate ancora bene intorno."; "Un aiutino" (or A) shows the help line and, after a wrong answer, removes one wrong card; the right card starts the 1.8 s chestnut leap, which any tap skips, and the curiosity card closes with "Avanti". With seven chestnuts the full-cone screen appears; holding "Volontario: tieni premuto" (finger, or Space or Enter) for 1 second stamps "Premio ritirato" permanently on that phone. The brass bell toggles sound, off by default. Tab moves through controls in reading order with a visible porphyry ring, Enter or Space activates, Escape returns to the cone. All progress is saved on the phone with no expiry. With reduced motion, chestnuts and cards appear with short fades and nothing hops, shakes or pulses.

What's inside this prompt

The sections of this prompt, in order, with their length.

1. Overview 487 words
2. Mood 160 words
3. Structure 289 words
4. Typography 195 words
5. Entrance 234 words
6. Signature moment 120 words
7. Sound 331 words
8. Description 172 words
9. Visual techniques 270 words
10. Interaction model 216 words

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