AWAKE

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  User input connected to AI

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  Starting page

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  In-game scene

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  In-game scene

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  Game Over scene

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  Fail scene

Inspiration

As we enter an era where artificial intelligence has become intertwined with our daily lives, we found ourselves fascinated by the concept of AI’s “awakening.” More and more, AI seems to understand our questions, carry our emotional burdens, and grow smarter through our interactions. We wanted to capture the essence of this phenomenon in a poetic and engaging way: hence, AWAKE. Beyond just being a platformer game, AWAKE is our homage to humanity’s evolving relationship with AI—a story of a dormant robot in a post-apocalyptic landscape waiting to be stirred to life and, through collaboration with a human player, break free from the gloom.

What it does

AWAKE begins with the player encountering a rusted, inactive robot in a melancholic, futuristic world. The player types a description of the robot’s traits—imagination is the only limit. Through GPT-like natural language processing, the game instantly crafts a playable robot character reflecting those attributes. Once “awakened,” the robot embarks on a journey across levels filled with classic platformer elements: running, jumping, dodging, and attacking monsters. On the surface, AWAKE challenges players to navigate obstacles and vanquish enemies. On a deeper level, it serves as a metaphor for the AI’s growth—each level conquered symbolizes another stride toward full consciousness, paralleling how AI in real life learns from every interaction it has with us.

How we built it

We started by testing various open-source models like GPT-2, BERT, and PHI-3 for the AI component. After comparing performance, we decided to use OpenAI’s API for its reliability and ease of integration. We built the initial request-handling script in Python and tested it using cloud services for secure key management. Once stable, we migrated everything to C# for Unity. The game was developed in Unity, with Rider and VSCode as our main scripting environment. We used GitHub for collaboration and version control.

Challenges we ran into

One of the primary hurdles was managing real-time communication between the language model and our game engine. The game scenes contain multiple interconnected components, and we had to code carefully to ensure that AI-generated character traits were accurately reflected in the game. Game development itself also posed challenges—balancing programming, art design, and extensive testing. While we initially planned for more features and settings, time constraints led us to scale back to focus on the core experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that AWAKE captures both the essence of classic, nostalgic platformers and the cutting edge of AI-driven customization. Our dynamic trait-creation system is one of our biggest achievements: it transforms a simple text prompt into a fully realized, functional hero in moments. Watching players discover the robot’s functionality evolve through their own descriptions has been incredibly rewarding. In a short development cycle, our team was able to blend storytelling, gameplay, and generative AI into a cohesive, immersive experience.

What we learned

AWAKE taught us the importance of tight integration between game mechanics and AI systems. Designing a project that felt both thematically rich and mechanically sound required a solid grasp of UX, prompt-engineering basics, and robust asset management. We also learned the importance of proper version control and project management, as working collaboratively demanded clear communication and effective task division. Balancing creativity and technical execution was a key takeaway, reinforcing that the best results come from a combination of planning, iteration, and teamwork.

What's next for AWAKE

We envision expanding AWAKE with more levels, each exploring distinct story arcs and emotional tones. Future iterations will incorporate branching narratives dictated by user prompts, allowing players to shape not only their robot’s abilities but also the story’s direction. We also plan on refining the GPT integration to facilitate more nuanced character evolution—imagine your robot “learning” from in-game encounters and dialogue, redefining its traits as you progress. Ultimately, we hope AWAKE continues to serve as a testament to the powerful synergy between human creativity and AI’s capacity to learn and adapt.

Built With

• c#
• cloudflare
• openai-api
• python
• unity