Creating Content
You can shape your world after creating it — place buildings, draw settlements, lay roads and rivers, build walls, paint terrain, and populate everything with NPCs and enemies.
Open Build mode from the right-side panel to access the toolbar.
The Build Toolbar
The toolbar is a floating bar with 12 tools organized into groups.
Building
Place structures on the map. Click to place, then customize:
- Shape — choose from 7 presets: Rectangle, L-Shape, T-Shape, U-Shape, Cross, Octagon, or Round.
- Roof — 5 types: Peaked, Hip, Pyramid, Shed, Dome. Available options depend on the building shape.
- Size — adjust width and height independently. Add floors to increase height.
- Rotate — use the rotation buttons or scroll wheel (desktop).
- Copy — copies the building as a blueprint. Click anywhere to stamp additional copies with the same shape, size, and roof.
On mobile, drag the center to move, corners to resize, and the ring to rotate.
After placing, edit the building's name, type, interior image, and more from the Atlas Locations tab. Buildings can also contain rooms and floors — see Rooms & Floors.
While worldbuilding, every building carries a small status dot — amber while it's still an empty shell, green once it has content (a real name, description, owner, interior, or someone living or working there). No more clicking through a neighborhood to find the three you missed. Click an amber building and the Location Wizard opens straight on the description prompt, ready to fill in — this works for buildings staged empty long before the dots existed, too.
Custom
Draw a building in any shape. Plot the footprint point by point on the map, close the shape, and it becomes a building — an angled storefront hugging a bend in the road, a great hall with a wing, whatever the block needs.
Custom shapes stay fully editable afterward: in edit mode, drag any corner point to move it, click an edge midpoint to add a new point, or right-click a point to remove it — sculpt the footprint after placement instead of redrawing it. (Custom buildings move by dragging; the rotate controls apply to preset shapes.)
Cluster
Place a whole neighborhood at once. Pick the Cluster tool, set the controls, and click a spot inside a settlement:
- Count — 2 to 40 buildings.
- Layout — Auto, Village, Town, Courtyard, Roadside, or Freeform.
- Radius, Scatter, and Size variety shape how tightly and evenly the buildings sit.
The cluster appears as a numbered preview first — adjust the controls or hit Reroll until the arrangement feels right, then Lock cluster. If part of the layout doesn't fit the terrain, only the fitting buildings are placed and the fit count tells you what made it.
Locked cluster buildings show their numbered badges while worldbuilding (they're hidden during normal play), and clicking one opens it straight in the building editor. Each starts as an empty shell — the amber status dots below are how you track which ones still need content.
Landmark
Place outdoor landmarks — points of interest that NPCs can visit as social destinations but don't have interiors. Click to place, then adjust size.
Settlement
Define a named area by drawing its boundary. The tool has two modes:
- Hexes — tap hexes to claim them, then hit Finish. Selected hexes light up and the outline previews as you go; tap a hex again to drop it. Hexes must touch, and a gap fully ringed by your selection is filled in for you. The boundary snaps to hex edges, but stays editable like any other — drag its corners afterward to pull an edge off the grid where it meets a river. This is the way to build a city that spans several hexes.
- Draw — free-hand: click 3 or more points on the map, then finish by clicking near the starting point or pressing Enter.
After the boundary is closed, choose what type of area you're creating:
| Type | Subtypes | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Settlement | Village, Town, City | A named area with buildings and NPCs |
| Region | Kingdom, Country, Province, Territory | A large area containing settlements |
| District | Quarter, Ward, District, Zone | A zone within a settlement |
Districts must be drawn inside a settlement — the parent is detected automatically. After naming, you can fill in the profile using Quick Start (AI-generated) or write it manually.
Road
Draw paths by clicking waypoints. Choose a road type (Main, Path, or Trail) and a shape mode:
- Curve — smooth, organic roads that follow waypoints
- Straight — angular roads with straight segments between waypoints
- Ellipse — click a center point, then click an edge to draw a circular road
Press Enter or click Finish to complete. Roads snap to connect when placed near existing road endpoints.
River
Draw waterways by clicking waypoints. Adjust the width with Ctrl+Scroll (desktop) or the +/− buttons (mobile). Press Enter or Finish to complete.
Wall
Draw walls with control over shape, thickness, height, and color.
- Shape modes — curve, straight, or ellipse (same as roads)
- Thickness — adjustable from 0.5 to 4.0
- Height — adjustable from 1 to 10
- Color — 6 preset stone/material colors plus a custom color picker
Stamp
Place decorative elements — trees, rocks, bushes, landmarks, and icons from a searchable library. After selecting an icon:
- Adjust size with the +/− buttons
- Set a color from 10 presets or a custom picker, or leave at default
- Click to place individually, or drag to paint
- Scroll to rotate, Shift+Scroll to resize (desktop)
Fill
Paint filled polygon areas — water bodies, colored zones, terrain features. Choose a shape mode (curve, straight, or ellipse), pick a color, and draw.
Enemy
Opens the enemy template editor where you can create and manage enemy types with stats, loot tables, and spawn biomes.
Eraser
Click on any stamp, road, river, or wall to delete it. Buildings require an additional confirmation step.
Deleting Hexes
In build mode, each hex (except the starting hex) shows a small × button. Clicking it opens a preview showing everything that will be affected — settlements, buildings, roads, rivers, walls, stamps, and NPCs. NPCs are archived (not deleted), but everything else is permanently removed.
Undo and Redo
While building, use Ctrl+Z to undo and Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Ctrl+Y) to redo.
Creating NPCs
Location Wizard
The Location Wizard generates NPCs alongside new locations. You see a preview of each generated NPC before saving, with the total credit cost shown.
Whether a location comes with people is up to you: the Generate characters at this location checkbox controls it. Want an abandoned warehouse, a quiet shrine, or a park with nobody in it? Untick it and you get the place, its art, and its music — no residents. Buildings default to generating people; landmarks default to empty.
Manual Creation
From the Atlas NPCs tab, create NPCs in two ways:
- Generate — write a short description and the AI fills in personality, appearance, communication, backstory, and relationships. No credit cost.
- Manual entry — fill in each field yourself.
Every character has a gender field, right next to name and age — generated characters come with it filled in, and it keeps your wording when you specified one.
Avatar generation costs 1 credit per NPC.
Generating Art
Image generation costs credits. You can generate images for:
- NPC avatars (1 credit)
- Building interiors (1 credit)
- Settlement exteriors (1 credit)
- Enemy portraits (1 credit)
- Player avatars (1 credit)
- Portrait states (4 credits, Hero plan)
- Expression sheets (10 credits for a full sheet, Hero plan)
See Account & Billing for credit details and Prompt Reference for tips on writing effective image prompts.