Reviewing thumbnail outputs

Run this on every batch before anything is uploaded. Generate a contact sheet first so you judge images side by side at real size:

python3 tools/contact_sheet.py out/ -o sheet.jpg            # overview, filenames labelled
python3 tools/contact_sheet.py out/ -o squint.jpg --squint  # 256 px wide, slightly blurred

Contents

• Hard fails
• Readability
• Style
• Honesty
• Picking winners

Hard fails

Reject these outright, or send an edit request to fix them.

• Title spelling. Read every letter: "EMPIRE" not "EMPRIE", "1,000,000" with the right number of zeros, the arrow kept. Why: garbled text is the first thing that looks cheap at tile size, and lighter models garble long titles.
• Real-world flags. Check every flag, banner and patch. Watch especially for red-and-white flags with an eagle, plain tricolours, stars in a canton, and crescents. Why: in our batch, prompts that named "fictional" flags still produced a flag resembling a real national one, and a "flags of every nation" idea filled a row with recognisable ones.
• Real landmarks. No real capitols, arches, towers or skylines.
• Real logos or another game's characters. Check this hardest when references were scraped.
• Aspect ratio exactly 16:9 (for example 1376×768, 1024×576, 1920×1080). Not square, and no black bars. Check with python3 -c "from PIL import Image; print(Image.open('x.png').size)" or the sheet script's warning.
• No LEGO. No raised studs, minifigure heads, or squat bodies with stubby arms.
• No real humans. Every character is a Roblox avatar, including people in the background.
• Nothing unsafe for kids. No gore, and nothing that reads as a real-world conflict or political symbol.

Readability

• At 256 px, the subject and action read in one second (the squint sheet)
• One focal point. Not a row of equal-sized characters
• Title still readable at 256 px. If not, fewer words, bigger
• Subject brighter or more saturated than the background
• Silhouettes separate. No limbs merging into the crowd
• Faces show a clear emotion
• At most one title and one badge or price tag

Style

• Glossy 3D Roblox render, not a flat illustration or a photo
• Avatars are tall and slim with a small block head
• Consistent with the winning style if this is a variation round
• Effects don't cover faces, the title or the key prop

Honesty

• Everything shown exists in the game: units, bosses, maps, rewards. Why: Roblox demotes experiences whose thumbnails and metadata don't match the game, and misled players bounce in seconds. That hurts more than a lower click rate.
• No fake UI promising free items, Robux or money
• Title matches the game's actual hook

Picking winners

1. Score each image 1–3 on the squint sheet alone, without looking at the full-size image.
2. Keep the top 3. For each, write one line on why it won (for example "low angle, endless crowd, giant flag frame").
3. Spin round 2 off those reasons (prompt-system.md).
4. Fix small defects with edit requests (the thumbnail prompt's 95% rule), not regeneration.
5. Upload 2–3 finalists to Roblox's thumbnail A/B test and let it run long enough to reach significance. Keep the game title unchanged during the test so the result reflects the image alone.