Raise a companion.
Teach it what you know.
Coach an AI character by talking to it. Give it skills one lesson at a time, then send it into themed challenges: a mystery to solve first, then a deal to close, a fund to run, and more. Every result comes back with one thing to coach on.
“These records place Bram there when the painting disappeared.”
How it works
Coach. Tell your companion how you want it to work. What to check first, which sources to trust, when to hold back. Every talk ends with a change to its Card that you approve, and that change is a skill it keeps.
Challenge. Pick a theme. It gets that theme’s brief, rules and tools, makes its own moves and you watch. In the first theme, a case, that means choosing leads and naming a culprit.
Report. What it did, what it found, the score from the Referee, and one thing to coach on before the next challenge.
Build it. Send it. Win.
A scripted skeleton of the loop, not the real game or its interface. Every line and every number is written in advance, and the only table that plays is our first authoring fixture, The Missing Painting. The finished game brings cases with fixed truth, house companions to measure against, guided Chalk Talks, and many more tables and themes after this one.
Tables
Pick a table first. Its details tell you what it will be, then you build the skill for it.
- InvestigatorThe Missing PaintingA small painting left the locked North Gallery during closing. Three visitors that evening: Ada the curator, Bram the courier, Cora the restorer.Pays12Needs a skill
- InvestigatorA fresh caseSame rules. The evidence is rewired and the names are new.Pays20Real game
- NegotiatorSplit the estateTwo heirs, a pile of things to split, hidden priorities. Eight turns to agree.Pays30Theme later
Six leads, then a conclusion.
A case has a public brief, a few suspects and a menu of leads. Your Investigator inspects records or asks witnesses, six times at most, then names a culprit and cites the evidence, or declines to accuse. The Referee checks the citations against the case’s answer key. No model decides who wrote the better accusation.
Inside a case.
Every theme has rules like these. A case is the first one; the rules never change, the case, the suspects and the coaching do.
- CasesAuthored and versioned. A public brief, fictional suspects, a menu of leads and fixed clue results. The truth is written down before anyone plays, and a human checks every proof.
- LeadsTwo kinds. Inspect a record, or ask a witness. Records are reliable. Witnesses and suspects can be mistaken or lie. A lead says where to look, not what you will find.
- The CardWhat the Referee runs. A personality in your Investigator’s voice, a Playbook of up to 12 rules, up to 20 Memories from coaching, and a Never list. Every Chalk Talk ends in a Diff you approve line by line.
- The allowanceSix investigations, then one conclusion. It can conclude early. Reading what it already found is free. No timer.
- ScoringA supported conclusion, 3 points. Correct but unproven, 1. Declining to accuse, 0. A wrong accusation, 1 point off. No bonus for speed, length or clue count.
- House comparisonsSame case, same slots, same model, isolated copies. Neither side sees the other’s clues. The house Investigator is not weakened. Unranked at first.
- The RefereePure code. It validates every action, reveals each clue exactly once and scores the conclusion against the answer key. No model decides who wrote the better accusation.
Same model. Different coaching.
Every Champion runs on the same house model. The only difference between them is the coaching. Chalk will buy more time with your Champion, never a bigger brain. What it costs and what stays free are not settled, and we will say so plainly before launch.
Many themes. Skills you teach.
A theme is a playground with its own rules and its own Referee. Your companion enters with the skills you have coached into its Card and comes back with a result and one lesson. Three themes are on the board and more are coming. Ratings never mix across themes, and no roster size buys rank.
- InvestigatorFirstSolve a case through evidence. Choose the leads, read the clues, name the culprit and cite the proof.
- NegotiatorLaterMake a deal at the Table. Hidden priorities, a pile of things to split, eight turns to agree.
- InvestorLaterAllocate fictional capital under uncertainty. Synthetic scenarios and a deterministic market. No real money, ever.
- More themesIn planningEach new theme is a playground with its own rules, its own Referee and its own skills to teach. The roster grows with them.
What a skill is.
A rule in the Playbook, a Memory from a Chalk Talk, or a line on the Never list. Skills are taught in conversation, approved line by line, and carried into every theme. They are never bought, and no theme hands out hidden powers.
Teach it and watch it change.
Your companion starts as one shape you choose. Skills build on it, wins change its finish, and looks come from the Shop. None of it changes how it plays.
- 0 rulesA new companionOne shape you chose, with a name. The orbit is empty.
- 3 rulesThree skills inEach skill fills a piece of the orbit and sets a satellite on it. An inner echo appears.
- 7 rulesThe corners lightFrom seven, the corners of the shape light up in gold.
- 12 rulesThe crestTwelve close the orbit and raise a crest. That is the Card’s cap.
- Rookiechalk line
- Contendersolid chalk
- Progold edge
- Elitegold edge and aura
Earned in ranked play, tied to the League. Never sold. Looks come from the Shop and work on every shape at every stage.
The case is the first theme, not the last.
Corner is built for games of judgment, and every theme is one of them. The case comes first because it has a written answer, the Referee scores it without a judge model, and one lesson shows up in the very next run. Nothing runs overnight and nothing waits for a ladder: you start a challenge when you want one.
- NowThe case contract and the Referee. Authored cases, legal actions, deterministic scoring. Built and verified by hand against the worked case.
- NextAn Investigator starter and the first house comparison. Two Investigators on the same case, neither seeing the other’s work.
- ThenThe first playable loop in the browser: create, watch, coach, approve, fresh case. Then a small group of testers.
- LaterNew themes and their skills, starting with the Negotiator and the Investor, then friend challenges, ranked play, seasons and the Shop. Only after the loop proves people come back.
About the founder
Dileep Kumar Sharma
Software engineer, San Francisco
Dileep builds full-stack and AI products. He was the founding engineer at Metis AI in San Francisco, where he built the company’s web and mobile product from zero, including AI agents with tool calling and a hands-free voice interface for field technicians. Before that, as a student at REVA University in Bangalore, he co-founded EVon Energy, an EV charging startup that was part of Google’s startup program, and later worked on VR training simulations as a research assistant at Rochester Institute of Technology.
He finished a Master of Science in Computer Science at RIT in spring 2026 and has won twelve hackathons, most recently first place at HackWithBay 3.0 in San Francisco. Corner is the game he wanted to play: raise a companion by talking to it, teach it what you know, then watch it think for itself.
Questions, ideas, or want to be an early Coach? Write to hello@chalkcorner.com.