Design the creator timeline

A creator timeline is not a firehose of inputs. It is an ordered set of verified moments that help a viewer or editor understand the story.

Three layers of fact

Packages should emit domain truth, not editorial speculation. The Studio can combine committed facts, Sprint context, and research into a narrative later.

Useful story vocabulary

• beginning: baseline established, goal activated, route chosen;
• progress: milestone cleared, consistency improved, rank gained;
• tension: near miss, regression, lead change, failed finish;
• breakthrough: personal best, first completion, record pace;
• outcome: Sprint finish line reached, match won, attempt abandoned;
• integrity: evidence gap, correction, event retraction, manual fallback.

Payload design

Include bounded facts that explain why the event matters: current/previous value, threshold, target, actor, round, route position, or rank. Avoid formatted sentences as the only source of meaning.

{
  eventType: "rank_gained",
  facts: {
    modeId: "around-the-clock",
    previousRank: "silver",
    currentRank: "gold",
    qualifyingResult: 38
  }
}

Density discipline

If every throw or keypress becomes a high-value Story Event, the timeline is unusable. Preserve granular activity evidence separately and emit story events at meaningful semantic boundaries. Use priorities only to distinguish value, not to make every event urgent.

Correction

When corrected evidence changes the story, emit a retraction for invalidated events and replacement events from exact replay. Preserve the audit trail so an editor never cuts a moment the current result disproves.