Bringing back the VCR board game with Kiro — a spec-driven build from the command line

This post describes the creation of a VCR Party Host web game, a resurrection of an early 90s board game format that came with a videotape. The game runs on a TV screen, with an on-screen host running a four-player murder mystery at Quillmoor Manor, displaying clues and interrupting players on a timer. The project was part of the Kiroween 2026 hackathon and was built using the Kiro platform.

The development process began with a one-page brief (BRIEF.md) outlining the idea, requirements, and constraints. Using Kiro CLI, the brief was turned into a feature spec under .kiro/specs/vcr-party-host/, generating requirements.md, design.md, and tasks.md files. The spec influenced the structure of subsequent prompts, which focused on tasks, acceptance criteria, and tests.

Kiro also generated three steering files: product.md, tech.md, and structure.md. These files defined the target audience, tone, runtime constraints, and module ownership. After writing the spec and steering files, Kiro generated a one-page brief, a prompt for every task, and a bug fix prompt for an AI coding agent to implement. The process was performed on the Kiro Free plan, costing 43.13 credits for the entire project.

During development, Kiro ran tests between runs and used hooks to ensure tasks were completed according to acceptance criteria. It identified bugs only visible in a real browser, such as missing content after the PLAY screen and timing issues. These issues were then documented in tasks.md and fixed.