NPC & Enemy Design

Generate character variants for NPCs and enemies — faction color schemes, size variations, and equipment loadouts.

Overview

A game world needs more than one character template repeated endlessly. NPCs need visual variety — different clothing, colors, and proportions — while enemies need to be clearly readable as threats. The goal is maximum visual variety from minimal generation effort by reusing base templates and varying specific attributes.

Step 1: Create a Base NPC Template

Generate a neutral villager as your template:

curl -X POST https://api.spritesynth.com/v1/characters \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
"prompt": "pixel art villager, simple tunic, friendly face, medieval fantasy",
    "direction_count": 4,
    "width": 32,
    "height": 32
  }'

Save this as a template for generating variants.

Step 2: Generate Enemy Variants by Faction

Create distinct visual identities for each enemy faction:

# Goblin faction — green skin, ragged cloth
curl -X POST https://api.spritesynth.com/v1/characters \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
"prompt": "pixel art goblin warrior, green skin, leather armor, rusty sword, hostile",
    "direction_count": 4,
    "width": 32,
    "height": 32
  }'

# Skeleton faction — bone white, dark armor
curl -X POST https://api.spritesynth.com/v1/characters \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
"prompt": "pixel art skeleton warrior, bone white, black armor, glowing red eyes",
    "direction_count": 4,
    "width": 32,
    "height": 32
  }'

Step 3: Create Size Variants

Generate larger versions for bosses and mini-bosses by increasing the canvas size:

curl -X POST https://api.spritesynth.com/v1/characters \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
"prompt": "pixel art giant goblin chieftain, oversized weapon, tribal armor, boss enemy",
    "direction_count": 4,
    "width": 64,
    "height": 64
  }'

Tips

Faction palette rules — Assign a signature color per faction (red for goblins, blue for knights, purple for cultists) and include it in every prompt.
Silhouette readability — Ensure enemies are distinguishable from NPCs at a glance. Different body shapes are more effective than different colors.
Equipment tells — Give stronger enemies visibly better equipment (glowing weapons, fuller armor) so players can assess threat level visually.

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