Pixel Island Summoner

Browser-only prototype for a shared pixel-art island.

Run

Open index.html in a modern browser. No build step or third-party dependency is required.

Current prototype scope

• Draw pixel assets in the in-browser editor.
• Save assets to the local library.
• Place static assets and summon dynamic assets onto the island.
• Dynamic assets default to right-facing on spawn; left-facing is rendered by mirroring during movement only.
• Local voting, hiding, remix/copy edit, and import/export tools are included.

Phase 1 changes

• Asset data is normalized to schema 2+ compatible shape.
• Dynamic left-facing pixels are not stored; faces.left is represented as mirror.
• Empty depth/light metadata is omitted or normalized.
• Editor tools include Draw, Erase, Fill, Pick, Undo, and Redo.

Phase 2 changes

• Local save uses a compact Phase 2 envelope in localStorage.
• Pixel planes are bbox-cropped and RLE-compressed when this is smaller than raw cropped data.
• Compact asset bundles can be exported separately from world snapshots.
• World snapshots contain placements, dynamic summons, and an asset manifest rather than full asset blobs.
• Local object/asset mutations append small sync events to eventLog.
• IndexedDB asset/snapshot cache helpers are included for future server-backed missing-asset fetches.

Phase 3 changes

• Terrain rendering is chunk-cached instead of using one large terrain canvas.
• Only terrain chunks intersecting the current viewport are drawn.
• Static and dynamic objects outside the viewport margin are culled before sprite generation/sorting.
• Dynamic runtime updates are stepped at 15 Hz and capped per frame to avoid spiral-of-death on slow devices.
• Rendering pauses while the browser tab is hidden and resumes on visibility change.
• Tile/object lookups use a small spatial index for inspect, erase, and nearby-target searches.
• Data tab reports visible terrain chunks for quick performance inspection.

Phase 4 changes

• Editor schema is now 5.
• Added Line and Rect tools. Rect supports filled rectangles with Shift; right-click erases line/rect cells.
• Added Select tool. Drag to select a rectangular area, then drag the selection or use arrow keys/buttons to move it.
• Nudge buttons move the active selection; without a selection they shift the whole drawing.
• Added horizontal/vertical flip, palette-colored outline generation, and clear selection.
• Added editor PNG export/import. PNG import quantizes the image to the current island palette and current canvas size.
• Added keyboard shortcuts: B/E/F/I/L/R/S for tools, Ctrl/Cmd+Z/Y for history, arrows for moving selected pixels, Escape to clear selection.

Export formats

• Export full JSON: human-readable full local state.
• Export compact: compact local state suitable for saving/transferring.
• Export snapshot: placement state plus asset manifest; requires asset bundles or cache to render fully.
• Export asset bundle: compact asset blob list for missing-asset transfer.

Phase 4 follow-up adjustments

• PNG import now chooses the editor canvas size from the image size. Square 8/16/32/64 PNGs import at their native size; other sizes are fit into the nearest supported square canvas.
• Depth is now three-state: high, normal, and low. High brightens sprite pixels; low darkens them.
• Right-clicking the world canvas clears the current map selection instead of moving or placing the selected asset.
• Dynamic sprites now pause intermittently instead of walking continuously.
• Night rendering is darker.
• Object picking now uses sprite-sized, per-opaque-pixel hit testing, so transparent pixels are not clickable.
• The CSS font stack now tries 3x5 MT Pixel Font first. The font file itself is not bundled.

Phase 5 changes

• Editor schema is now 7.
• Fixed the Advanced Draw depth controls so Depth / High / Low / Clear wrap inside the drawer instead of overflowing to the right.
• Added Phase 5 guardrails in the Data tab:
  • local asset/object volume counters,
  • duplicate-content count,
  • orphan placement checks,
  • terrain compatibility checks,
  • hidden/report counters.
• Added Validate world export for pre-server integrity checks.
• Added local object reporting from the selection bubble. Reported objects are hidden locally and stored in a local moderation report log.
• Added Export moderation report for review/debug data.
• Added Clear reports to clear local report logs without un-hiding already hidden objects.
• Added soft local guardrail limits: 160 assets and 220 world objects. Existing objects can still be moved; new saves/placements are blocked when the local cap is reached.

Phase 5 follow-up changes

• Static sprites now anchor closer to the center of their tile instead of the front corner.
• Object selection is pixel-accurate: transparent sprite cells no longer select the object, and tile inspection does not select hidden/transparent areas.
• Right-clicking the map clears selection silently.
• Hidden panel now lists both hidden library assets and hidden map objects. Objects hidden by Report appear there and can be restored with Show again.
• Report now opens a reason dialog with Cancel and Report + Hide actions.
• Library cards include Place/Move, which makes dynamic human assets easier to reposition.
• Default bundled pixel art was replaced with a new set: Hill Cottage, Pine Cluster, Shell Rock, Wave Skiff, Fisher Kid, Moss Cat, Koi Fish, and Cloud Gull.
• Added a static Ship role/subtype. Ships can be placed on water, float subtly, and periodically emit ring ripples.
• Local storage key was bumped to load the new default set in this prototype build.

Phase 5 polish

• Night lights now draw after the darkness overlay and use fixed bright cores/halos, so lamp pixels visually ignore the night darkening pass.
• The sky color now transitions quickly around dawn and dusk. Day and night remain mostly stable instead of drifting continuously.

Phase 5 Effects

• Nearby objects receive a faint surface glow from adjacent light sources.
• Light cores are less dazzling, while night ambient darkness is lifted slightly.
• Land-moving dynamic sprites emit small terrain-colored step particles.

Visual FX follow-up

• Step particles now vary in hue / saturation / lightness around the terrain color.
• Nature assets shed tiny drifting leaf/petal dots.
• Coast foam uses two slow-rotating porous bluish-white layers.
• Depth now affects phase-aware sprite shading for sun/moon exposure.
• Added toggles for lights, particles, and the day-night cycle.

Phase 5 UI / particle follow-up

• Coastal foam no longer uses cut-out holes.
• Walking particles are less frequent and use more visibly varied colors.
• Remix always creates a new derivative asset; Edit updates the user's own original asset.
• Advanced Draw now includes configurable particle emitter cells for any asset.
• PNG export/import moved to the Data tab.
• Nudge arrow buttons under the canvas were removed; keyboard arrow nudging remains.
• UI text is larger overall, while palette color-code labels keep their small size.

Rotation policy build

This build adds count-based island rotation.

• Default island display cap: 250 objects.
• The local display cap is adjustable from Data > Visual settings.
• Objects are not deleted when the cap is exceeded; the effective oldest objects are omitted from the island display.
• Upvotes delay rotation-out by slot adjustment. Downvotes advance rotation-out.
• Local publish / republish quota: 5 objects per author per rolling hour.
• Replacing or republishing a rotation-hidden object updates its publishedAt and consumes one quota slot.

Server-side periodic rotation code is in server/rotation_worker.py.

Example:

python server/rotation_worker.py world.json --write

It performs:

1. Permanent-hide marking for extremely downvoted objects.
2. Randomly samples 50 hidden historical objects.
3. Republishes the top 20 by upvote count.
4. Reapplies the active display cap.
5. Adds permanent-hidden objects to adminReviewQueue for deletion checks.

Local-only rotation note

This build does not call a server from the browser. The island display cap is applied client-side, and objects over the cap are kept in local save but not drawn. Server recirculation / permanent hiding only happens when server/rotation_worker.py is run against exported world JSON.

Exhibition Policy Revision

This build separates Asset and PlacementObject more explicitly.

• Asset: a durable library work. Remix only copies pixels and lineage into the canvas.
• PlacementObject: a temporary island exhibition object. It can rotate out while the Asset remains in Library.
• Edit has been removed. To revise a work, remix/copy it, save a new Asset, then delete the old one if desired.
• Publishing requires a prototype local account. The first 24 hours allow 5 public placements/hour; day 2+ allows 10/hour.
• The island exhibition has 250 visible slots: 150 newest slots and 100 random revival slots.
• Upvote rank effect is capped at +50 votes.
• Capacity rotation and extreme downvote rotation use the same user-facing explanation: the island exhibition is full, but the work remains in Library.
• Server moderation can mark permanent_hidden / violation_hidden; these are hidden from authors and viewers. Admins can restore them with the Python worker.
• Particles are disabled offscreen/when zoomed out and capped at 200 active particles.

Server worker

python server/rotation_worker.py world.json --write
python server/rotation_worker.py world.json --restore object123 --write
python server/rotation_worker.py world.json --hide-violation object123 --write

The Python worker is the authoritative production policy. The browser mirrors it only for local prototype use.

Compression lab

python server/compression_lab.py exported_world.json

Use this to compare minified JSON, gzip, zlib, and Brotli when available. Production should use the compact asset codec plus HTTP gzip/Brotli rather than hand-rolled custom compression first.