Create a pixel art creature with AI: the Creation method

What the Creation method is

The Creation method is the resource LiveGotchi provides for creators. It exists as an illustrated page and as plain text, and states exactly what the workshop accepts, no more, no less:

• the structure of an egg and its stages, hatchings, evolutions and branches;
• evolution conditions and needs;
• animations, their role and the direction they are drawn in;
• images, layers and palette;
• the grid landmarks;
• powers, how stream events are split between states, decorations;
• every limit, the most common mistakes, and a complete egg as an example.

It reads as well as it is given to an AI. A test in the LiveGotchi repository keeps it in line with the code: when a limit changes, the test fails and the method is reviewed. It is only available in French for now; an AI reads it in French without trouble and can answer in the language you write in.

Designing an egg with an AI, step by step

1. Open the Creation method and copy it whole, or download it. An AI without web access reads it best as plain text, pasted into the conversation or imported as a file.
2. Describe the creature: its look, its grid (16, 32 or 64 pixels per side), the number of stages, the branches, the powers. You can attach an existing egg as a model: the AI keeps its grid and style.
3. The AI answers with a single JSON document, and nothing else.
4. Paste that code into the Creation workshop. Every constraint is checked on import: any deviation rejects the whole code, with the reason.
5. Touch up whatever you like in the workshop: images, layers, palette, animations, tree.
6. Set up the sale — number of copies and price in credits — and publish the egg in the Incubator.

In the workshop, a short prompt can also be copied along with an egg as a model: it points to the plain-text Creation method.

What to ask for so the egg holds up

The grid landmarks

A grid is not a floating frame, it is a stage. Three landmarks hold it together:

• the ground line, the bottom row: a creature's feet and the base of an egg touch it;
• the axis, the middle column: the creature is centred on it;
• the sky, the top rows, left empty.

The ground does not move from one frame to the next, nor from one stage to the next: a creature grows upwards. Only flying and the middle of a jump leave the ground. The check fits in one line: if the bottom row of the idle image is empty, the creature is floating.

The animations that matter

• The egg has a single animation, "oeuf". From hatching on, idle ("repos") and walk ("marche") are required.
• Run, jump, fly and climb give the creature the matching abilities on the overlay.
• Attack, spell, hit (up to three variants) and knockout are used in the arena.
• Evolution plays once when the stage is reached; emotions (happy, tired, sick…) play instead of idle.
• Movement, attack and spell are drawn facing right: the overlay mirrors them.

Evolutions that are earned

A stage's conditions are measured during airtime: hours spent in the stage, level of the four states, care faults allowed, and stream counters — messages, follows, subscriptions, raids, hype train, clips. The Creation method asks for at least ten hours of airtime per stage, for stream counters mixed with hours so the audience has a role, and for a fallback branch that can be reached.

The drawing

Flat colours, no gradient or blur; four to eight colours per animation; a dark one-pixel outline. And above all exact rows: a row of 15 or 17 characters on a 16-pixel grid rejects the whole code.

The limits to know

• At most eight hatchings under the egg, ten branches per stage, ten levels deep.
• Forty animations per stage, eight images per animation by default, four layers per image.
• Sixteen powers per egg, eight triggered per image.
• A 16, 32 or 64 pixel grid, the same for every image, fixed when the egg is created.

Creators will find the rest on the Creators page (in French).

Frequently asked questions