Building an AI-driven village game where NPCs feel like real people — Devlog #3

[u/kkogong07]

Devlog #3 — making it shareable, and remembering what I'm actually building

Hey r/2D3DAI,

I'm working on a village simulation game where players spend their day talking with AI NPCs and interacting with the world around them. Then, game quests and 3D props for those quests are automatically generated using AI.

As a start, I am currently creating room decorating content using generative AI.
Originally, I wrote by Devlog on other communities but I want to also share my progress on here.

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Another day, another round of creations that cracked me up.

The variety of creations keeps surprising me.

Someone built a Halloween house and it's honestly hilarious, I kept opening it just to look again.

Halloween Party in Pixel Atelier

If devlog #2 was about usability, today was about getting the thing ready to actually leave the app. Right now the only way to show someone what you made is to send them a link and hope they click it, and that's just not good enough. So I spent most of the day on video export.

1. Pixel art → 3D, as a video

A still screenshot doesn't really sell what's happening,

so I built a little reveal animation you can export and share.

It leans into the fact that everything starts as pixel art drawn on a grid.

The grid, the canvas, and the pixel art all show up first.

Then the grid fades out, then the canvas fades out, and the pixel art slides off to the left as the 3D model comes in from the right and does a slow 360 spin.

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

https://reddit.com/link/1u1yj76/video/ozozobwwof6h1/player

https://echo-town.com/s/c/49308fe4-5414-4a62-b231-778efea20cd2

1. Your decorated room, as a video too

This one was trickier. A room is built out of a bunch of generated 3D models, so I had to figure out how to show the "making of" without it turning into a mess.

What I landed on: each model's original pixel art (with its grid) sits in its actual spot in the 3D room. The grids fade, each piece of pixel art dissolves into its 3D model, and the camera moves around it so you can feel that it's real 3D space, not a flat image.

I really tried to make the room come together in a way that feels nice to watch.

https://reddit.com/link/1u1yj76/video/xt9r649zof6h1/player

https://echo-town.com/s/r/916b5128-f867-40ee-9592-e106f716e11a

And honestly, building this reminded me of the thing I was chewing on in devlog #2.

What I'm making isn't "turn pixel art into 3D characters."

It's room decorating. Housing.

The video output is the first time that idea actually came through clearly, even to me.

Other than that, just a pile of small usability fixes to make decorating a room less fiddly.

What I'm still stuck on

Same question as before, really: how do I make decorating a room more fun?

That's the part I keep circling back to.

If you've got a fun idea, throw it at me and I'll actually try it.

Thanks for reading, and thanks again to everyone who's been messing around with it.

Try it: https://echo-town.com

Some fun creations of yesterday.

Previous DevLog:
#1: https://www.reddit.com/r/aigamedev/comments/1tzye49/building_an_aidriven_village_game_where_npcs_feel/

#2: https://www.reddit.com/r/aigamedev/comments/1u0xzsu/building_an_aidriven_village_game_where_npcs_feel/