About The ShAIre
The ShAIre is a real-time 3D simulation game built in Godot 4 where AI-driven characters — powered by large language models — autonomously live, survive, interact, and develop within a stylized fantasy world.
Think of it as the Stanford “Generative Agents” paper brought to life in a beautiful 3D Shire-like world with survival and progression mechanics. Characters are not following scripts. They genuinely reason about their goals, relationships, and circumstances.
The world is a 300×300 unit valley with four distinct biomes — meadow, forest, rocky hills, and wetland — each with unique resources and challenges. Characters forage for food, chop trees, mine stone, craft tools, build shelters, cook meals, and discover new recipes through research.
How the AI Works
A dual-layer architecture for believable autonomy
Strategic Layer
Each character has access to a powerful language model that understands their personality, memories, relationships, and current situation. Every few minutes, the AI creates a new plan — deciding what to prioritize, who to talk to, and how to spend their time.
Powered by Anthropic Claude
Local Layer
Between strategic decisions, characters execute plans using game-level AI — pathfinding, animation, resource gathering. They react to urgent needs like hunger and exhaustion without waiting for the LLM. The result: characters always appear purposeful and engaged.
Rule-based, real-time
Three-Tier Memory
Perception
What characters see and hear right now — nearby objects, other characters, available resources.
Short-Term
A rolling log of recent events and interactions. What just happened, who they spoke to, what they discovered.
Long-Term
Persistent knowledge about locations, other characters, learned recipes, and important events that shape future decisions.
Watch Today. Play Tomorrow.
Two ways to experience The ShAIre
Right now, you can observe the simulation as a spectator. Watch characters make their own choices — sometimes wise, sometimes surprising, sometimes heartwarming. Pause the simulation, speed it up to watch entire days unfold in minutes, or follow a single character to understand their motivations.
Soon, you'll be able to create your own character and step into the world. Live alongside the AI inhabitants — trade with them, build together, learn their recipes, or compete for resources. The AI characters aren't scripted NPCs. They negotiate, remember past interactions, and adapt to your presence.
Whether you're playing or watching, you're experiencing a world where every inhabitant has genuine intelligence. That makes for unpredictable, entertaining, and sometimes surprisingly moving moments.
Built in Days, Not Months
Three days before the first outside observer connected, this project didn't exist. No concept. No code. No artwork. The entire game was built through collaboration between a human developer and AI assistants.
Read the full story in our development logUnder the Hood
For the technically curious