How I’m building Pilgrimage with AI

The day after my first devlog, GPT Astra came out, and I spent a rainy morning working with it on Pilgrimage (0:01). A lot changed, and the changelog had 64 versions in it by the end (7:54).

Characters that aren't image sequences

I'd tried making character sprites with image generation before, as PNG sequences, and they looked great at a glance but fell apart once they moved. They were inconsistent, satchels switched sides, and making new ones took too long (0:49). So these characters are 3D shapes with a shader on each asset that gives them the pixel look (2:11). Each one faces eight directions, because the game is isometric, and they can walk, sleep, sit, pray and cut wood (1:34).

Because the shader does the drawing, I don't have to re-render a sequence when I want a taller head (2:38). I can change shoulders and head size on the fly, so every person on the screen can be a little different: tall, short, broad-shouldered or skinny (2:51). Trees work the same way, and there are six species, all ones you'd find in England, grouped by density, with some preferring water (3:03).

The map

There's a dark forest now, which only brave or hungry people walk through, so the path has to meander around it, and later you'll be able to clear it with knights (3:49). The map has elevation, waterfalls and water that flows in a direction, and bridges: suspension bridges where the path crosses a cliff and ordinary ones lower down (4:11). The path has two tracks, and it gets more worn the more people walk it (4:56).

The relic in this one is the scale of Jonah's whale (5:38). There's a list of about 20 generated relics, all a bit obscure, like the hipbone of St. John. Pilgrims pray there, the monks feed them, and if they need a job the monks give them one at the lumber camp, so they cut trees and stack the wood in piles, a bit like the depots in Pharaoh or Caesar (6:00).

I'm not big on the whole one-shot thing. I got a base level and then kept riffing on small things (7:54), like making sand collect on the inside of a river's bend, keeping cliffs to one side, and making sure people don't look like they're moonwalking down the path (8:39). The repo is open if you want to help (10:13). What's next is the actual game: how to get people to come down the path, work and stay (10:56).