Evolving Bonds

Cinevva's analyzer read this game's design doc and its source, then wrote the brief below. "Make your own" hands it to the game creator as your opening message, so you start from a real spec rather than a one-line idea.

Create a browser-based creature-raising game titled “Evolving Bonds,” presented as a simple 3D diorama with a translucent dark glass HUD over a Three.js scene. The core loop is to select one of up to three creatures, care for it through actions, observe how its needs and personality change, switch environments, and raise its level until it evolves. There is no hard fail state: exhausted creatures become sleepy and stressed creatures can become avoidant, but the player can continue caring for them.

Scene and camera: Use an orbitable perspective camera looking at a small circular ground island from an elevated, slightly front-facing angle. Allow mouse orbit with damping, no panning, a limited zoom range, and keep the camera aimed around the creature. Use soft shadows, a hemisphere light, a directional key light, and a subtle blue fill. The circular ground is scattered with roughly 18 small low-poly gray-blue decorative stones. The creature stands centered on the island. The background, fog, ground color, lighting intensity, and floating stimulus particles change with the current environment. Environments cycle in this order: Meadow (bright blue sky, green ground, pale glowing particles), Forest (dark blue-green atmosphere and ground, mint particles), Cave (near-black sky/fog and gray ground, blue particles), and Storm (dark slate sky/ground with many faster blue particles). Particle counts are approximately 120, 160, 90, and 220 respectively.

Creature visuals: Represent the active creature as a soft low-poly blob made from an icosahedron, with a simple dark face consisting of two eyes and a small mouth. It idly bobs, wobbles, blinks, and subtly squashes after actions; its pose tilts according to internal intent (rest, hide, play, train, seek food, or observe). The starting stage is an Egg, visually a small pale shell over the body. At level 1 it becomes a larger Hatchling; at level 3 it becomes a Teen; at level 6 it becomes an Elder, with increasing body size and smoother geometry. Creature color begins from one of three archetypes and continuously shifts toward a blend based on learned traits. Add personality-dependent accessories: bravery can produce one or two cone horns, aggression produces low-poly spikes around the body, and combined empathy/sociability can produce side ears/antennae. The three archetypes are Sprout (mint green, social and curious), Ember (orange, energetic/assertive), and Gloom (periwinkle blue, cautious/sensitive). Give creatures randomized names from a pool such as Miso, Kip, Velo, Nim, Rook, Piko, Luma, Taffy, Sable, Jun, Fenn, and Wisp, with a displayed quirk such as collecting shiny pebbles, racing the wind, or hiding behind the player’s legs.

Creature data and AI: Each creature has Energy, Hunger, and Stress needs, plus Trust and Affection relationship values. Hunger rises and energy slowly falls over time; stress is influenced by the environment and low energy, while empathy reduces stress growth. Affection slowly decays if ignored. Track six 0–1 traits: Curiosity, Bravery, Aggression, Empathy, Discipline, and Sociability. Maintain a short memory of the last eight player actions, exposure time to each environment, current mood, and current internal intent. Every few seconds choose an intent using weighted random selection: Rest, Seek Food, Play, Train, Hide, or Observe. Weight Rest from low energy/stress, Seek Food from hunger, Play from sociability/affection/low stress, Train from discipline/trust/energy, Hide from environmental danger and low bravery/stress, and Observe from curiosity/novelty/energy. Strong trust and affection should boost social intents. Intent effects should be visible in the HUD and subtly affect the blob’s pose. Ambient thought messages should appear periodically based on mood and environment, such as being hungry, sleepy, overstimulated, wanting to poke forest leaves, watching cave shadows, or checking on the player during storms.

Actions: Provide clickable action buttons for Feed, Train, Play, Comfort, Scold, Observe, and Explore. Feed lowers Hunger, slightly restores Energy, increases Trust/Affection and Empathy, and awards 2 XP. Train lowers Energy, raises Stress slightly, increases Discipline and a little Bravery, and awards 4 XP. Play lowers Energy, reduces Stress, increases Affection/Trust, Sociability, and Curiosity, and awards 3 XP. Comfort reduces Stress according to Empathy, raises Trust/Affection and Empathy, slightly lowers Aggression, and awards 2 XP. Scold raises Stress, increases Discipline, can increase Aggression for defiant creatures, and reduces Trust; award 1 XP. Observe changes Curiosity, Bravery, and Sociability in response to environmental stimuli, may raise Stress in harsh environments, and awards 3 XP. Explore cycles to the next environment, updates the scene, records a thought that the new environment surrounds the creature, and plays a small sound. Include a keyboard hint: keys 1/2/3 switch creatures, E explores, Space performs a quick train, and R adds a new egg. Clicking or pressing a key should initialize simple synthesized audio; use soft tonal blips for actions/leveling and a puff/noise effect for scolding/evolution.

Progression and evolving behavior: Award passive XP slowly as creatures live and learn. Level equals XP divided by 10, floored. Evolve at level 1, 3, and 6, changing stage, silhouette size/accessories, color presentation, and behavior bias. On evolution, slightly increase the dominant trait and reduce Stress. Generate clear thought-log messages for level-ups and evolution, explaining that choices reshaped instincts. Derive a readable personality label from the two dominant traits, using labels such as Curious, Brave, Fiery, Gentle, Focused, and Social, with optional descriptors like Kind-hearted, Chaotic, Stoic, or Adventurous. Mood labels include Wary, Interested, Affectionate, Sleepy, Hungry, Irritable, Overwhelmed, and Avoidant.

HUD/layout: Build a fixed full-screen HUD with a three-column desktop layout: a left panel about 320px wide, the 3D scene in the center, and a right panel about 360px wide. Use dark navy/black translucent panels with rounded corners, subtle blue borders, shadows, and backdrop blur. On narrow screens stack the panels vertically. The left panel contains a “Creatures” section with tabs labeled “1: name,” “2: name,” and “3: name”; a “Status” section showing Stage, Level/XP, and horizontal bars for Energy, Hunger, Stress, Trust, and Affection; then text for current Intent, Mood, and Quirk. Add a “Personality” section showing the personality label, the top three traits as numeric percentages, and a collapsible “All traits” list. Add an “Environment” section showing the current environment name, its numeric Warmth, Danger, Novelty, and Social stimuli, and this creature’s exposure time in seconds. Include a small keyboard-help hint.

The right panel contains an “Actions” section with a two-column grid of rounded buttons, making Train visually primary, followed by a “Creature Thoughts” section with a scrollable log. Log entries include a timestamp, creature name, optional “ambient” marker, and narrative reaction text. Use reactions that reflect the action and personality: eating carefully, practicing determinedly, getting the zoomies, leaning in for comfort, freezing after a scold, or studying the environment. Cap the log at around 50 entries. Start with three creatures, one from each archetype, and allow R to add a randomly named/archetyped egg; keep the visible roster capped at three by removing the least-bonded creature if necessary. Ensure all UI controls visibly update the active creature, while all creatures continue simulating in the background.