# Drowned cathedral courtyard at night

> An isometric dark-fantasy courtyard with braziers, a fountain, and rain-wet reflective stone, where you click to move a character. GPT-6 Astra built it in Codex in an hour with the creator's Dream Loop skill, which loops toward a generated target image.

- Kind: Game
- Live game: https://dream-loop-demo.anshu.dev
- Page: https://meetreference.com/v/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/
- Ready-to-use agent handoff: https://meetreference.com/v/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/agent.txt
- Exact prompt as plain text: https://meetreference.com/v/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/prompt.txt
- Authorship: Not stated
- Made with: Codex
- Model: GPT-6 Astra
- Built with: Three.js
- Services: Codex image generation
- Skills or plugins: dream-loop
- Style: 3D worlds; isometric, dark fantasy, three.js, voxel, wet reflections, atmospheric, click to move
- Shared by @anshuc in X, Sep 7, 2026: https://x.com/anshuc/status/2097001438736166960
- Prompt fidelity: Verbatim. This is the complete prompt exactly as the creator published it.

## Before you start

Guidance from Reference, separate from the creator's instructions.

1. Read the reference and inspect the project, installed libraries, and available agent skills before writing code. Reuse suitable tools already present.
2. Prefer the creator-reported libraries and skills when they fit the task. Explain what useful additions help with, and install missing project dependencies or relevant skills from official sources when the environment and the user's existing permissions allow it. Respect the project's package manager and setup rules; do not ask again for routine setup already authorized.
3. Distinguish tools used by the creator from your own recommendations. A listed tool is not automatically required, and an empty tools or requirements list means the setup is unknown, not that nothing is needed.
4. Ask concise questions when missing inputs or choices materially affect the result: paid services, credentials, the user's assets, or a different production approach. Use existing answers and permissions; continue independent work while waiting.
5. If a useful library, skill, or service cannot be installed or used, explain an available alternative and its expected effect on quality, features, or effort. Get the user's choice before a material compromise; otherwise state the fallback and continue. Never silently simplify the result or claim to have used a tool you did not use.

Requirements reported by the source: The dream-loop skill (npx skills add achimala/dream-loop), started by typing /dream-loop before the prompt; An agent with image generation and vision (built into Codex), ideally with sub-agents.

## Recreating this game

These are the creator's published instructions, unedited.

To adapt it: Change the look ("voxel-ish art style with realistic shading and reflective wet floors") and the setting ("Fantasy setting (think Elden Ring, Diablo)"), and keep the controls sentence and "No need to confirm the art with me or ask questions, just go!"

## Prompt

```text
Build me a graphics demo: isometric camera, voxel-ish art style with realistic shading and reflective wet floors, a character in an interesting scene. Fantasy setting (think Elden Ring, Diablo). Three.js in browser, >60fps. Don't download assets. Time limit of 1 hour. Controls: click to move the character, camera lazy-follows; drag to rotate camera; scroll to zoom in/out. No gameplay for now. World should feel alive: motion, animations, subtle environmental behaviors. Area around player should look expansive, but only allow movement in a limited space. No need to confirm the art with me or ask questions, just go!
```

## What it looks like

Written by Reference from the video frames, not by the creator.

An isometric night courtyard of a ruined cathedral: a glowing teal arch, braziers on stone steps, an octagonal fountain, candles, and rain over wet stone, with a small cloaked figure moved by clicking.

- Color: Deep blue-black night, warm orange fire and candlelight, teal-cyan glow in the arch and fountain, and dark brown stone with wet highlights.
- Type: A serif title in the top left (VESPER, with "The Drowned Cathedral" in italic and "A REALTIME STUDY" above), a place name in the bottom left ("Sanctuary of the Last Light"), and small control hints along the bottom right.
- Framing: 16:9 from a high three-quarter camera. The arch and steps sit top center with braziers on either side and the fountain lower left; later frames rotate and pull back to show the walls and towers.
- Structure: Close views of the arch, braziers, and fountain as the hand cursor moves the figure across the courtyard, wider views from other angles of the outer walls in the rain, and a return close to the steps.

Storyboard, nine frames spread across the video: https://meetreference.com/media/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/storyboard.webp

- Frame 1 at 0.9s: https://meetreference.com/media/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/f1.webp
- Frame 2 at 2.6s: https://meetreference.com/media/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/f2.webp
- Frame 3 at 4.4s: https://meetreference.com/media/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/f3.webp
- Frame 4 at 6.2s: https://meetreference.com/media/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/f4.webp
- Frame 5 at 7.9s: https://meetreference.com/media/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/f5.webp
- Frame 6 at 9.7s: https://meetreference.com/media/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/f6.webp
- Frame 7 at 11.4s: https://meetreference.com/media/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/f7.webp
- Frame 8 at 13.2s: https://meetreference.com/media/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/f8.webp
- Frame 9 at 15.0s: https://meetreference.com/media/drowned-cathedral-courtyard-at-night/f9.webp

## How it was made, per the creator

- One-shot: yes, a single prompt with no follow-ups
- Agent time: 1 hour (the time limit set in the prompt)
- Reported spend: 2% of a weekly quota on a 20x plan: it started at 89% and ended at 87%.
- Notes: Run on GPT-6 Astra at high effort in Codex. The skill loops: image generation "dreams" a target screenshot, the agent builds toward it, and a separate critic compares the live screenshot with the target until it's satisfied. The creator stopped at the hour to stay true to the prompt and calls it a demo, not a full game. No external assets. He credits Matt Shumer's Gauntlet Loop as the inspiration.

> Here's a demo I one-shot in 1 hour, 2% weekly quota, no external assets.
> (@anshuc)

## Links

- Play game: https://dream-loop-demo.anshu.dev
- Watch: https://x.com/anshuc/status/2097001438736166960
- Original post: https://x.com/anshuc/status/2097001438736166960
- The dream-loop skill: https://github.com/achimala/dream-loop
- Reply with the prompt and quota: https://x.com/anshuc/status/2097001450941587889