Environment & world style guide

DUNDERVILLE
WORLD

A home for helpful bot residents who work for you.
One open building. Many functions. Everything visible.
Zoom out to see the whole operation. Zoom in for the details.

Monochrome is the passive state. Color is the state of attention — selected, active, or interacting.

passive bot → active bot

01 The approved world illustration drawn once, used everywhere.

APPROVED · v3
Dunderville environment & world style guide — the approved isometric town illustration with all rooms labelled
environment_style_guide_APPROVED.png · 1536×1024 the town runs for you. you watch.

02 Four zoom levels world → floor → room → object.

01 · WORLD
World view
See the entire building and the grounds around it.
02 · FLOOR
Floor / wing
Focus on a wing — see flows, paths, interactions.
03 · ROOM
Room view
Step inside to see activity, status, personality.
04 · OBJECT
Object view
Inspect a single bot or detail up close.

03 The rooms of the building each one does a job.

  • Lobbyfront door · greeter is on duty
  • The Queuetasks waiting to be picked up
  • Registryfiling & record-keeping
  • Memory Hallindexed shelves of past work
  • Map Roomshows where things are
  • Resolver Houseopen-plan problem-solving
  • Gossip Cafebots compare notes here
  • Planning Roomsticky-notes & whiteboards
  • Workshoptools, repair, tinkering
  • Training Roomnew bots learn the ropes
  • Mail Roommessages move in & out
  • Power Roomkeeps everything humming
  • Garden Plotsslow work, outdoors
  • Loading Decklarge items arrive here
  • Delivery Areatrucks go out from here
  • Bike Rack · Park · Billboardgrounds & signage

The building has a roof but you can see in — like a paper diorama. Nothing important is hidden behind a separate scene.

04 Environment style & light readable at all times of day.

Drawn surfaces

Clean, drawn, and readable. Paper-like surfaces with soft ink lines and hand-drawn details. Lots of breathing space — function over realism.

like a notebook page that happens to be a town.

Props & accessories

Purposeful, not decorative. 3–5 signature props per room. Iconic, readable, consistent. Props tell the story of the work done there.

furniture is grammar, not garnish.

Light & time

Bright, clear, not moody. Soft directional light, gentle shadows, no heavy contrast. Morning / afternoon / evening tints sit on top of the same paper.

cozy first, neat second.

08 Design tenets the rules that hold the world together.

01
Clear at a glance
You read the room in one second.
02
Rich when zoomed in
Detail rewards looking closer.
03
Cozy, not moody
Warm paper. Soft light. No dread.
04
Systems over decoration
Every element earns its place.
05
Life over UI
The town leads. Chrome follows.

09 Notes for the build remember.

What the engine does

Renders the approved illustration. Places resident PNGs over it at the correct positions. Swaps passive → active art when a bot needs attention. Draws path overlays and speech bubbles.

What the engine does not do

It does not draw characters from primitives — no SVG circles, no procedural construction. The art is a fixed asset library; engines consume it. Missing assets show a placeholder, not a substitute.