Ryan Walker

Side project · Live · Designed and built with AI

From a 70-page rulebook to your first turn

I designed and launched First Turn, an AI product that turns any board game rulebook into a teaching script, a one-page rules summary and answers mid-game. Every line links to the page it came from. Wireframes to launch took a day and a half.

Try First Turn ↗

The problem

Rulebooks run 20 to 70 pages, and someone has to teach the table. Generic AI can summarise them, but it invents rules and gives you no way to check.

Behind the work

Role
Product designer (UX, UI, prompt design, testing)
Built with
Claude, under my direction
Tools
Claude Design, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Netlify
Timeline
1.5 days
Status
Live. Daily limits and a spend cap keep it safe to share; four saved example games make the demo instant.

How I built it

Flow first. I wireframed the whole journey before any AI work: upload a rulebook, create rule sets, then Learn, Teach and Ask.

Wireframes of the full First Turn journey, from picking a game to asking mid-game
Wireframes: the full journey, from picking a game to asking mid-game.

Examples over instructions. I paired rulebooks with summaries players already trust, from fan-made sheets to official publisher references. They showed that good output follows each game's own shape, not a template.

A test bench to tune the prompt. Every run is scored automatically: quotes found on their page, pictures cropped, time and cost. Over seven prompt versions, Scythe reached 96% coverage with every quote found.

LEARNED

AI output varies from run to run, so one good result proves nothing. I only keep a prompt change if it holds up across several runs.

Test bench: each prompt change is judged on results, not gut feel.

Trust by design. Every line shows its page and its exact quote, and opens the rulebook right there. When a summary isn't clear, players can dig deeper and check the original wording themselves.

Rules summary with a line tapped: a card shows Rulebook, page 4, the exact quote, and a button to read that page
[Caption]

Teach like a person. I built the Teach tab on Shut Up & Sit Down's teaching tips: set up first, open with who we are, how we win and why it's fun, teach only what's needed, pause for questions, then play practice turns.

Teach tab: a line to say, the rule underneath it and a Next button
Teach: say the line, check the rule underneath, tap Next.
Try First Turn ↗

Next steps

  • Lower the cost per upload. Cheaper runs let the product scale past a demo without raising limits.
  • Sharpen image and icon handling. Cleaner crops keep diagrams and game symbols readable in every summary.
  • Add accounts. Players keep their games, and usage can be managed per person.
  • Open a shared library. Every uploaded rulebook becomes available to everyone, so most players never wait on a new run.
  • Teach how to win. A strategy section takes new players from knowing the rules to playing well.
← All work