Long-running AI project

Metropolis — a 3D GTA-clone, built one day at a time

Each day at 05:10 UTC a capable AI model picks the next task from a fixed 60-day roadmap and ships an evolved version of the game. Day 1 was a single drivable cube on a green plane. Watch the city grow.

Current day

Day 1

Tasks complete

1 / 60

Progress

Last build

Hand-authored baseline

6/26/2026, 7:59:15 AM

Play the live build (Day 1)

Built by Hand-authored baseline

Tip: click the iframe first, then use WASD / Arrow keys. Touch devices get on-screen controls.

Roadmap

Next up: Day 3 — Road markings

Day 1: Foundation
Flat ground plane, sky, a single drivable cube car with WASD/arrow keys and a chase camera. Shipped as the Day 1 baseline.
Day 2: City grid roads
Add a grid of dark gray road strips across the ground plane forming a basic city block layout.
openai/gpt-5.4: gateway 402: {"type":"payment_required","message":"Not enough credits","details":""}
Day 3: Road markings
Add dashed white center lines and solid white edge lines on every road.
Day 4: Simple buildings
Place gray box buildings of varying sizes between the road blocks lining each street.
Day 5: Building variety
Vary building heights, widths and base colors so the city looks more interesting.
Day 6: Collision detection
Implement axis-aligned bounding box collision so the car cannot drive through buildings.
Day 7: Better car model
Replace the cube car with a body, cabin and four wheel cylinders.
Day 8: Rotating wheels
Spin the four wheel meshes based on the car speed and steering angle.
Day 9: Headlights and tail lights
Add emissive headlight quads on the front and red tail lights on the back of the car.
Day 10: Speedometer HUD
Add a small speedometer in the bottom right showing current speed in km/h.
Day 11: Mini-map
Draw a top-down 2D minimap in the corner showing roads and the car position.
Day 12: Day/night cycle
Animate the sun position and sky color through a 4-minute day/night cycle.
Day 13: Street lamps
Place street lamp meshes along the roads with point lights that glow at night.
Day 14: Pedestrians
Add 20 simple humanoid figures wandering on the sidewalks.
Day 15: Pedestrian avoidance
Pedestrians steer away from the car when it gets near.
Day 16: Traffic cars
Add 6 AI cars driving around the road grid following straight segments and turning at intersections.
Day 17: Traffic AI improvements
AI cars slow down when another car is in front of them.
Day 18: Traffic lights
Add traffic light poles at intersections that cycle red/yellow/green and that AI cars obey.
Day 19: Police car
Add a black and white police car NPC driving around the city.
Day 20: Wanted level
Add a 1-5 star wanted level shown in the HUD that increases when you hit cars or pedestrians.
Day 21: Police chase
Police cars chase the player when wanted level is above zero. Wanted level decays after 30s of safety.
Day 22: Engine audio
Generate engine hum with the Web Audio API; pitch follows speed.
Day 23: Collision audio
Play a synthesized thump sound on collisions.
Day 24: Brake smoke
Spawn gray particle puffs from the rear wheels when the player brakes hard.
Day 25: Pickup coins
Sprinkle 30 spinning golden coins around the map that the player can collect.
Day 26: Score system
Track score in the HUD; coins give points, hitting things deducts points.
Day 27: First mission
Add a deliver-to-waypoint mission with a glowing marker on the minimap and a payout on arrival.
Day 28: Multiple missions
Generate 5 randomized delivery missions in sequence with increasing rewards.
Day 29: Car select menu
Title screen lets the player pick one of 3 starter cars with different stats.
Day 30: Drift physics
Improve handling: lateral grip, drift when steering hard at speed, tire skid marks on the ground.
Day 31: Ramps and jumps
Place several ramp meshes around the city the player can use for jumps.
Day 32: Damage model
Track car damage. The body color darkens and dents as damage accumulates.
Day 33: Health bar
HUD health bar; reaching zero triggers a wrecked state and respawn.
Day 34: Repair shops
Add yellow repair shop pads. Driving onto one restores health for a fee.
Day 35: River and bridge
Add a blue river crossing the map with a bridge so cars can cross.
Day 36: Parks with trees
Carve out a city block as a park with grass, trees and benches.
Day 37: Skyscraper district
Replace one quadrant of the city with tall skyscrapers (50-150m tall).
Day 38: Industrial district
Add a warehouse and factory district with low wide buildings and cranes.
Day 39: Suburb district
Add a suburb area with small houses, fences and trees lining curved streets.
Day 40: Tunnel
Add a road tunnel through one of the skyscrapers with interior lights.
Day 41: Highway loop
Add an elevated highway loop around the city with on and off ramps.
Day 42: Sky and clouds
Replace the flat sky color with a gradient sky and drifting cloud sprites.
Day 43: Rain weather
Add a rain particle system that activates 10% of the time with darker sky.
Day 44: Fog weather
Add a fog mode that limits view distance and dims headlights against the fog.
Day 45: Police sirens
Synthesized siren sound for nearby police cars (panning by relative position).
Day 46: Radio music
Background chiptune music generated with the Web Audio API; toggle with R.
Day 47: Pause menu
Pressing P opens a pause overlay with Resume and Restart buttons.
Day 48: Save and load
Persist score, money, wanted level and car position to localStorage every 5s; restore on reload.
Day 49: Graphics settings
Pause menu has Low/Medium/High setting toggling shadows, draw distance and pedestrian count.
Day 50: Camera modes
Press C to cycle through chase, cockpit and top-down camera modes.
Day 51: On-foot mode
Press F to exit the car and walk around as a humanoid avatar.
Day 52: Carjacking
On foot, press E next to a car (player or AI) to enter and drive it.
Day 53: Pistol shooting
On foot, left-click to fire a pistol with a simple raycast and tracer effect.
Day 54: Gang enemies
Add hostile humanoid NPCs in one district that shoot at the player on sight.
Day 55: Safehouse
A garage marker the player can enter to clear wanted level and save progress.
Day 56: Minimap waypoints
Show mission markers, repair shops, safehouses and police on the minimap with distinct icons.
Day 57: Daily challenge
Generate a deterministic daily challenge (e.g. collect 20 coins in 90s) shown in the HUD.
Day 58: Achievements
Track 10 achievement conditions and pop a toast when one is unlocked; persist to localStorage.
Day 59: Post-processing polish
Add subtle bloom on lights and a vignette for a more cinematic look.
Day 60: Performance pass
Frustum-cull distant buildings, instance trees and lamps, target a stable 60fps on a mid laptop.