Cloud Punks | Devpost

Iron node concept
Ship Base concept
Placeable bed concept
Crafting machine concept
Wood resource concept
Sky Island base concept
Building block concept
Craft components concept
Players starting island resource tree concept
Floor Concept
Wall concept
Game thumbnail
Market island concept
Currency concept
Player Cosmetics concept

Inspiration

What inspired you to create this world? What other worlds or media influenced your creative direction?
I’ve always loved the pirate genre and immersive sandbox games, especially on mobile. Titles like Sea of Thieves, Ark, Minecraft, and Space Engineers showed me the power of world exploration, base building, and PvP. I wanted to bring that complete package—building, flying, and fighting—to mobile, so the idea of sky-pirates crafting their own ships and islands with friends became the spark for Cloud Punks.

How We Built It

What were the key tools and processes you used to create the world? If this is a team world, who contributed and how did they contribute?
I dove head-first into generative AI to accelerate development: learning Horizon Worlds Desktop in weeks, using GitHub Copilot for scripting, Mesh.AI and the built-in Meta AI asset generator for models, plus ChatGPT and Sora for planning and dialogue. For assets and code, I turned to free tools—VS Code for scripts, Blender for modeling, and GIMP for textures—stitching everything together in Horizon’s visual editor.

Challenges

What were the biggest difficulties you encountered, and how did you overcome or work around them?
Horizon’s editor had quirks and bugs that slowed me down, and balancing family, work, and development stretched my schedule thin. I tackled both by carving out focused “sprint” days off at the end of the contest and leaning heavily on AI tools to speed up art, code, and testing. That work/life balance push made all the difference in delivering a working prototype.

Accomplishments

Which parts of your world, or your building process, are you most proud of?
I’m proudest of the build-able flying ship and the player-driven island save/load system. Crafting a vessel that players can upgrade mid-flight and an island base that persists between sessions hits right at the core loop of progress and replayability.

Next Steps

How are you going to keep improving the world? What would you like to add if you have more time?
I have a roadmap full of features—PvP arenas, ship-to-ship combat, distant island exploration, PvE quests, deeper resource crafting, and co-op island builds. Next, I’ll tighten up the core loop, polish the multiplayer sync, and lean into AI-assisted world generation to make Cloud Punks a truly immersive sky-pirate experience.