A PIXEL-ART GAME · A SCENARIO EXPLORATION
A courier, three stops and a satchel of scrolls for the wizards who wait at each one. Every sprite, scene, animation and sound was generated with Scenario by an AI agent.
Arrow keys to walk, hold Shift to run, E beside a wizard to deliver. On a phone, use the buttons under the game. Sound starts with your first key press; M turns it off.
01 / THE FILM
Eighty-six seconds, start to finish: the grid, the animation, the mistake we fixed, the layers and the town. Sound on for the narration.
English captions included. Download the film ↓
02 / FINDING THE ROUTE
Before any game, the same character brief went through five routes: two native pixel models and three general image models. Every output was measured: block size, colors, stray pixels.
RETRO DIFFUSION PLUSFinalist. Native 128 px, real pixels, but it got the prop test wrong.
RETRO DIFFUSION, TEXTUREDSame model, textured style, native pixels too.
GPT IMAGE 2.5 SUNBURSTFinalist and the pick: light and materials as briefed, with a grid tool after it.
GPT IMAGE 2.5 FLAREFinalist. Same family, same grid problem.
GEMINI 3.1 FLASHPainted the words "128x128 CANVAS" into the art.High-bit pixel art game sprite, 128x128 pixel canvas, detailed hand-placed pixels with realistic lighting and materials like modern hi-bit action games. An old lighthouse keeper in a worn yellow oilskin coat and sou'wester hat, grey beard, holding a lit brass lantern at waist height, three-quarter view, full body standing, both feet on the ground. Warm orange lantern light falls on his coat and face from below, cool blue moonlight rims his back and shoulders. Strict pixel grid, every pixel the same size, no anti-aliasing, no blur, limited palette of about 24 colors, crisp dark outline. Centered on a plain flat solid light gray background. No text, no logos, no brand marks, no watermark.
General image models draw art pixels of about 5 screen pixels, close to 200 across, whatever the prompt asks. So the grid has to come from a tool. Two were compared on the same close-up.
03 / ONE SPRITE, ONE GRID
The courier came out of the first Scenario workflow built for this, Pixel Lock: GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst draws her, Scenario Pixelate puts her on a grid 256 art pixels tall, and a gate waits for approval before anything is animated.
High-bit pixel art game sprite, 128x128 pixel canvas, detailed hand-placed pixels with realistic lighting and materials like modern hi-bit action games. An adventurous schoolgirl in a navy sailor-style school uniform with a red neckerchief, pleated skirt, knee socks and sturdy brown hiking boots, short ponytail tied with a ribbon, a worn leather explorer satchel slung across her shoulder and a rolled treasure map in one hand, confident grin. Warm golden sunlight falls on her face and uniform from the front, cool blue sky light rims her back and shoulders . Three-quarter view, full body standing, both feet on the ground, centered with generous margin on all sides. Strict pixel grid, every pixel the same size, no anti-aliasing, no blur, limited palette of about 24 colors, crisp dark outline. Plain flat solid light gray background, no ground shadow. No text, no logos, no brand marks, no watermark.
04 / THE WORKFLOWS
Once the route worked, it became reusable workflows on Scenario, so each new pose or clip is one run with two images and a sentence. These are their real graphs and the text they wrap around yours.
Describe a character, approve the still. Its later idle branch was not used in the game.
The approved sprite and one sentence in, a pixel-locked pose out. 4 runs.
Use the attached sprite as the exact character reference: same character, same face, hair, outfit, colors, accessories, proportions and the same hi-bit pixel art style with crisp 4 px blocks, dark outline and the same lighting. {pose} . Full body, the character is exactly the same height on the canvas as in the reference and stands on the same ground line, feet at the same height from the bottom edge, centered horizontally with generous margin. Strict pixel grid, every pixel the same size, no anti-aliasing, no blur. Plain flat solid light gray background identical to the reference, no ground shadow. No text, no logos, no brand marks, no watermark.
Start and end pose plus a motion sentence. Same pose twice makes a loop. 21 runs.
Hi-bit pixel art game sprite animation with a locked static camera, no zoom, no pan, plain flat light gray background that never changes. The character {motion} . The mouth stays closed and the facial expression stays the same. The character keeps exactly the same size, outfit, colors and props in every frame, anything held stays in the same hand, and the crisp blocky pixel art look with a dark outline is preserved in every frame. The clip starts exactly on the first frame and ends exactly on the last frame.
The 25 workflow runs behind the game on October 20, times in UTC. POSE is Pose Keyframe, LOOP is Animate Loop. Click a run to read its sentence. Four were replaced: two from mirrored keyframes, a first celebration with a hop and a first take of the station wizard.
strict side profile facing right, caught mid-stride in a natural walking contact pose: the front heel just touches the ground, the back toes push off, the arms swing opposite to the legs at a relaxed walking amplitude, the body upright, the rolled map still held in the same hand and the satchel still hanging on its strap at the hip
strict side profile facing right, caught mid-run in a dynamic running pose: the torso leans slightly forward, the front knee is lifted high, the back leg extends behind pushing off with only the toes touching the ground, the arms are bent and pump strongly opposite to the legs, the ponytail and skirt flow backward, the rolled map still gripped in the same hand and the satchel still on its strap bouncing at the hip
starts in her three-quarter idle stance, shifts her weight, turns her body to face right in strict side profile and takes her first walking steps in place, staying centered on the same spot like on a treadmill, ending exactly in the side-profile mid-stride walking pose of the last frame
starts in her three-quarter idle stance, shifts her weight, turns around to face left in strict side profile and takes her first walking steps in place, staying centered on the same spot like on a treadmill, ending exactly in the side-profile mid-stride walking pose facing left of the last frame
walks in place facing right in strict side profile like on a treadmill and stays centered on the same spot: a natural, steady walk cycle of several full steps, arms swing opposite to the legs, the skirt, ponytail and satchel bounce gently with each step
is walking facing right in side profile, then stops, plants her feet and turns around on the spot to face left, the ponytail and skirt swinging with the turn, then resumes walking in place facing left, staying centered on the same spot, ending exactly in the side-profile mid-stride walking pose facing left of the last frame
runs in place facing right in strict side profile like on a treadmill and stays centered on the same spot: an energetic run cycle of several full strides, torso leaning slightly forward, knees driving high, arms pumping opposite to the legs, the ponytail, skirt and satchel bouncing with each stride
stands in place and, as an idle variation, lifts the rolled map a little and glances down at it, taps it once against her other palm, then looks back up and returns to the starting pose; both feet stay planted on the same spot, the body never moves across the frame
strict side profile facing LEFT (she looks and walks toward the left edge of the image), caught mid-stride in a natural walking contact pose: the front heel just touches the ground, the back toes push off, the body upright. Keep her props on the same body side as in the reference: the rolled map stays in her own LEFT hand, which is now the arm nearest to the viewer, held forward at chest height; the satchel strap stays on her own RIGHT shoulder and the satchel hangs at her own RIGHT hip, which is now on the far side, mostly hidden behind her body and skirt. Her right arm swings naturally on the far side
strict side profile facing LEFT (she looks and runs toward the left edge of the image), caught mid-run in a dynamic running pose: torso leaning slightly forward, the front knee lifted high, the back leg extended behind pushing off with only the toes on the ground, the ponytail and skirt flowing backward to the right. Keep her props on the same body side as in the reference: the rolled map stays gripped in her own LEFT hand, which is now the arm nearest to the viewer, pumping forward; the satchel strap stays on her own RIGHT shoulder and the satchel bounces at her own RIGHT hip, which is now on the far side, partly hidden behind her body. Her right arm pumps on the far side
starts in her three-quarter idle stance, shifts her weight, turns around to face left in strict side profile and takes her first walking steps in place, staying centered on the same spot like on a treadmill, ending exactly in the side-profile mid-stride walking pose facing left of the last frame. The rolled map never changes hands: it stays in her own left hand the whole time, and the satchel stays on its strap at her own right hip, so after the turn the map is on the near side and the satchel is on the far side behind her body
is walking facing right in side profile, then stops, plants her feet and turns around on the spot to face left, the ponytail and skirt swinging with the turn, then resumes walking in place facing left, staying centered on the same spot, ending exactly in the side-profile mid-stride walking pose facing left of the last frame. The rolled map never changes hands: it stays in her own left hand during the whole turn, and the satchel stays on its strap at her own right hip, swinging around with her body
is walking facing left in side profile, then stops, plants her feet and turns around on the spot to face right, the ponytail and skirt swinging with the turn, then resumes walking in place facing right, staying centered on the same spot, ending exactly in the side-profile mid-stride walking pose facing right of the last frame. The rolled map never changes hands: it stays in her own left hand during the whole turn, and the satchel stays on its strap at her own right hip, swinging around with her body
walks in place facing left in strict side profile like on a treadmill and stays centered on the same spot: a natural, steady walk cycle of several full steps, arms swing opposite to the legs, the skirt and ponytail bounce gently with each step. The rolled map stays in her own left hand, the arm nearest to the viewer, and the satchel stays at her own right hip on the far side, behind her body, for the whole clip
runs in place facing left in strict side profile like on a treadmill and stays centered on the same spot: an energetic run cycle of several full strides, torso leaning slightly forward, knees driving high, arms pumping opposite to the legs, the ponytail and skirt bouncing with each stride. The rolled map stays gripped in her own left hand, the arm nearest to the viewer, and the satchel stays at her own right hip on the far side, behind her body, for the whole clip
stands in place and makes a delivery: she smiles and extends the rolled map forward with her own left hand toward someone just outside the frame on the right, holds it out for a beat, lets go so the map leaves her hand and moves out of frame to the right, then reaches down into the brown leather satchel at her right hip with her right hand, pulls out a new identical rolled map, passes it to her left hand and returns exactly to the starting pose holding it. Both feet stay planted on the same spot, the body never moves across the frame
an elderly stationmaster wizard, stands in place in a calm idle: he breathes slowly, his long white beard sways a little, the small lantern hanging from the tip of his wooden staff swings gently and its flame flickers, he blinks once and settles back into exactly the starting pose. Both feet stay planted, the body never moves across the frame
an elderly stationmaster wizard, receives a delivery: he reaches out with his free hand toward someone just outside the frame on the left and takes a rolled paper scroll, brings it close, smiles warmly and lifts his staff so the lantern glows brighter for a happy moment, then tucks the scroll into the inside of his coat and returns exactly to the starting pose holding only his staff. Both feet stay planted, the body never moves across the frame
a plump tanuki tea-shop wizard, stands in place in a cozy idle: his round belly rises and falls with slow breaths, his fluffy striped tail sways side to side, soft steam curls up from the clay teapot he holds in both paws, his ears twitch once, and he settles back into exactly the starting pose. Both feet stay planted, the body never moves across the frame
a plump tanuki tea-shop wizard, receives a delivery: he balances the teapot in one paw, reaches out with the other toward someone just outside the frame on the left and takes a rolled paper scroll, reads it, his eyes sparkle and he does a happy little hop with his tail wagging, then tucks the scroll into his apron pocket and returns exactly to the starting pose holding the teapot in both paws. Both feet land back on the same spot, the body never moves across the frame
a calm shrine sorceress in white and vermilion robes, stands in place in a serene idle: she breathes slowly, her wide sleeves and long black hair sway in a soft breeze, the glowing paper talisman between her fingers pulses gently while tiny blue spirit lights drift around her hand, and she settles back into exactly the starting pose. Both feet stay planted, the body never moves across the frame
a calm shrine sorceress in white and vermilion robes, receives a delivery: she reaches out with her free hand toward someone just outside the frame on the left and takes a rolled paper scroll, holds it to her chest, smiles and a small burst of blue spirit lights swirls joyfully around her, then she slips the scroll into her wide sleeve and returns exactly to the starting pose holding the glowing talisman. Both feet stay planted, the body never moves across the frame
stands in place and celebrates a reward: she looks up with a big delighted smile, makes a small happy hop straight up and lands softly on the same spot, pumps her free right fist once at chest height, keeps the rolled map held in her own left hand the whole time, then lowers her fist and returns exactly to the starting pose holding the map. Both feet land back on the same spot, the body never moves across the frame
an elderly stationmaster wizard, receives a delivery: he reaches out with his free hand toward someone just outside the frame on the left and takes a rolled paper scroll, brings it close, reads it and chuckles warmly with a little nod, then tucks the scroll into the inside of his coat and returns exactly to the starting pose holding only his staff. The lantern on the staff keeps the same soft steady glow the whole time, no flash, no bright burst. Both feet stay planted, the body never moves across the frame
stands in place and celebrates a reward with both feet planted on the ground the whole time, no jump: she bends her knees a little, squeezes her free right hand into a fist and pumps it up high beside her head in a big victorious gesture with a wide open happy shout-shaped smile and closed happy eyes, holds the pose for a beat, then lowers her fist and returns exactly to the starting pose. The rolled map stays in her own left hand the whole time. The whole body including the top of the head and the raised fist stays inside the frame with clear space above it, the body never moves across the frame
05 / VIDEO IN, PIXELS OUT
Seedance 2.5 animated her between two pose keyframes, with the same pose at both ends for a loop. Each video frame was then snapped back onto her grid with her own palette, so she walks without a blur.
Taking every fourth frame made the run stutter and cut turns short. The cycles were rebuilt from all 24 frames per second: the exact stride, with starts, stops and turns matched pose to pose.
Flipping the right-facing walk moved her scroll and satchel into the wrong hands. Left-facing keyframes were generated on their own.
06 / THE SPRITE SHEETS
Animate Loop returns 24 frames, one in every four from the video. For a run that is too few: the stride shuffles. The game's cycles were rebuilt from every other frame of the same video, exactly one stride long.
Both sheets play at the game's speed. The highlighted cell is the frame on screen.
07 / THE MISTAKE
The first cutout rule cleared light pixels around every pocket of background, and it punched holes in white sleeves, fur and a ramen bowl. The rule now trims only the outer edge and the flat studio gray, and every clip was rendered again.
08 / DEPTH FROM ONE PAINTING
GPT Image 2.5 painted each stop as one wide scene. Seedream 5.0 Pro Layerize split the station and the street into sky, clouds, hills and town, so each layer can slide at its own speed behind the platform.
Side-scrolling 2D platformer game background, wide panorama, strict side view with no perspective tilt. Hi-bit pixel art with crisp square pixels, rich hand-placed detail and warm painterly lighting, in the cozy nostalgic spirit of classic Japanese hand-drawn animated films about the countryside. Scene: a small rural Japanese train station in summer at golden hour. A long flat wooden-and-concrete platform runs across the entire bottom of the image as the walkable ground, its top edge at about 85 percent of the image height, continuous from the left edge to the right edge. Behind it: a tiny wooden station building with a tiled roof and a bench, a vintage vending machine glowing softly, potted morning glories, a wooden fence, overhead power lines on wooden poles, rice paddies and green rolling hills beyond, tall cumulus clouds in an amber and turquoise sky. Empty of people. No readable text, no letters, no signs with writing, no logos, no watermark.
Separate into depth layers: sky with clouds and sun; distant mountains; rice fields, lagoon and village; station building, roof, fence, poles and platform.
09 / A TOWN THAT LIVES
Each resident was drawn with the courier as a style reference, then animated by Seedance 2.5 into a loop of four to eight seconds. The game decides who peeks, who hides and who vanishes.
A boy in a fox mask rises from behind the station fence when she comes close, and the big forest spirit leans out from behind the shrine tree.
The rooftop ninja disappears in a puff of smoke and leaves a log behind. The little tree spirits pop away the same way.
She walks behind the cat and the white fox, and a white dragon crosses the evening sky now and then.
Use the attached sprite only as the art style reference: the same hi-bit pixel art style with crisp 4 px blocks, dark outline, the same lighting and the same pixel scale. Do not draw the girl. New characters: a tiny kind grandmother in a plum kimono-style cardigan with gray hair in a bun and round glasses, knitting a long red scarf with two needles, and next to her on her left a small grandson of about six in a yellow raincoat and short pants holding a paper train ticket, his legs dangling. Both are sitting side by side, seen from the front, on a seat that is NOT drawn: no bench, no chair, nothing under them, as if sitting on an invisible bench, their thighs level and their feet hanging toward the ground. Full bodies, centered with generous margin, the grandmother's head about two thirds of the girl's height in the reference above the ground line, the same pixel scale as the girl. Plain flat solid light gray background, no ground shadow. No text, no logos, no watermark.
Hi-bit pixel art game sprite animation with a locked static camera, no zoom, no pan, plain flat light gray background that never changes. A grandmother and her little grandson sit side by side in place, as if on an invisible bench, their hips never move. The grandmother keeps knitting the red scarf with small steady needle movements the whole time and smiles. The boy swings his dangling feet back and forth, looks at the paper ticket in his hands, then leans forward and turns his head to look far off to the right as if watching for a train, sits back with a little impatient sigh, the grandmother gently pats his head once with one hand and goes back to knitting, and both settle back into exactly the starting pose. The characters keep exactly the same size, outfits, colors and props in every frame, anything held stays in the same hand, and the crisp blocky pixel art look with a dark outline is preserved in every frame. The clip starts exactly on the first frame and ends exactly on the last frame.
10 / SOUND
ElevenLabs Music v2.5 wrote the title theme and the stage music, ElevenLabs Sound Effects 2 made each stop's ambience and the festival at the end, and ElevenLabs v4 voiced her cheer. Footsteps and dialogue blips are synthesized in the browser.
Gentle instrumental loop for a cozy Japanese countryside adventure game, koto, shakuhachi, soft felt piano, pizzicato strings and light hand percussion, warm, whimsical and nostalgic, 84 BPM, steady even dynamics with no big intro or ending so it loops seamlessly
quiet countryside train platform ambience on a summer morning, distant cicadas, soft breeze through grass, gentle water lapping at a lagoon, faraway birds, no voices, no train
single bright gold coin pickup chime for a cozy video game, a crisp metallic ting followed by a short sparkling shimmer
11 / THE TOOLKIT
Every model ran through Scenario MCP or a Scenario workflow. The ones that did not make it are part of the result: each was tried on a real brief and left for a reason it showed.
| Model | What it did | Where it ran |
|---|---|---|
| In the game | ||
| GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst | The courier, every pose keyframe, the wizards, the townsfolk, the three painted stops and the title art | Pixel Lock, Pose Keyframe, direct calls |
| Scenario Pixelate | Put the courier, every pose keyframe and every workflow frame on its grid | All three workflows |
| Seedance 2.5 | Every animation: the courier, the wizards and the townsfolk loops | Animate Loop, direct calls |
| Scenario Resize, Video to Frames, Grid Maker, Frames to GIF | The plumbing that turns a video into a sprite sheet | Animate Loop |
| Seedream 5.0 Pro Layerize | Split the station and the street into parallax layers | Direct calls |
| ElevenLabs Music v2.5 | The title theme and the stage music | Direct calls |
| ElevenLabs Sound Effects 2 | Three ambiences, the coin, the wizards' laughs, a start chime and the festival | Direct calls |
| ElevenLabs v4 | Her cheer after each delivery | Direct call |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS | The narration of the film on this page | Direct calls |
| Tried and set aside | ||
| Retro Diffusion Plus | Native pixel sprites and a round one finalist, but it got the prop brief wrong. It made the best small tile. | Round one |
| Retro Diffusion Tile | Returned a different tileset from the one briefed | Round two |
| Retro Diffusion Animation | Only 48 px tall, and the lantern came and went between frames | Round two |
| GPT Image 2.5 Flare | A round one finalist next to Sunburst | Round one |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash | Painted the requested canvas size into the image | Round one |
| Pixel Snapper | Kept the model's own resolution and misread the grid on animation frames | Round one, workflow tests |
| Kling V3 Pro | The first stable idle and the first side walk; the game's clips were then made with Seedance 2.5 in Animate Loop | Rounds two and three, Pixel Lock |
KEEP EXPLORING
Made through Scenario MCP with GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst, Scenario Pixelate, Seedance 2.5, Seedream 5.0 Pro Layerize, ElevenLabs Music v2.5, ElevenLabs Sound Effects 2 and ElevenLabs v4. The film is narrated with Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS.