Pogl Lives

Worlds that answer back

One model imagines the world. One acts in it.

Two models, one loop

One predicts the world. The other predicts the player. Each gets better as the other does.

World model

Takes the current moment and an action, and generates what happens next. No engine and no assets: how the world behaves is learned, not written down.

Input
A moment, and an action
Output
The next moment
Worlds
2D and 3D
Status
In development

Action model

Looks at a world and decides what to press. Small and fast enough to act several times a second, so it can keep up with worlds that do not wait.

Input
A moment
Output
Stick, buttons, taps and keys
Pace
Several actions a second
Status
In development

Grounded in play

Both models learn from experience kept the way it happened: what was on screen, what was pressed, and what the world did in return.

Moments and actions, paired

Every frame is kept with what was being pressed at that instant, down to taps too brief to notice.

The world's own account

Next to the pixels, the state the world itself reports, so what a model imagines can be checked against what happened.

Flat and deep

Top-down arcades and 3D runners alike, at the resolution people actually see.

More than one player

Worlds are shared, so the record includes other people acting at the same time.

Good play, not just play

Each world carries a measure of progress, so the action model can learn from what worked.

People and agents

People play when they feel like it. Agents play around the clock, to cover what people skip.

What it has to do

A generated world is worth stepping into only if it passes three tests.

01

Hold together when you look away

Turn around and come back, and the world should still be the one you left.

02

Answer what nobody scripted

Do something no designer planned for, and the world should still respond as if it had rules.

03

Run fast enough to forget

Fast enough, on ordinary devices, that you stop noticing it is being generated.

Still early

Leave your email and we will write when there is something to step into.

Questions, or want to work on it? Write to founders@pogl.com.