Emberwick by @simonw
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RPG, Adventure · Claude

Emberwick

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Best on a computer

On the eve of the harvest festival you walk the village of Emberwick with two companions, a dwarf axe-for-hire and an elven mage, and the wall between you and the camera turns see-through when you step inside a house. You talk to villagers, take on quests and cast spells on your way through a story the creator says takes about 15 minutes to finish. There's also an experimental editor for placing your own houses and furniture. The game needs a keyboard, so it's best on a computer.

How the creator made it

The creator began in regular Claude chat with a Three.js prototype of a fantasy village, then asked for a larger map, a plot with twists and a magic system. They let Claude make the art, characters, dialogue and music. The creator kept playtesting and prompting Claude to fix story problems, such as a character moving away before the player could finish a quest with them.

From their page on simonwillison.net ↗ and a page on claude.ai ↗.

The prompt

Build a demo game engine three.js which is a top down (but at an angle) RPG - the player gets to move through the world with one or two companions. Create a fantasy village setting that demonstrates walking around outside and then shows how when the player enters a building the wall between the player and the camera goes transparent so the user can see what is happening

Add some NPCs and plenty of furniture and different types of building some with an upstairs - be creative, make it look great

Make it not so flat - the buildings are great but the landscape itself is completely flat at the moment, fix that

Add basements to two of the buildings with a tunnel system joining them below the village

Add the start of a rocky mountain on one side of the village containing a cave with a sleeping troll

Now turn this into an actual game - quadruple the size of the playable area, introduce fun game mechanics, add a plot that isn't too cliche, some twists, a magic system, make it really good

Where the prompt was shared ↗

The game and its prompt belong to @simonw. Preview recorded by us. Made this game? Here's how we list it.