One day, our second-grade kid made an announcement:
"I'm making a game. Cats fighting trolls!"
It was a vague dream, but we decided to walk through the process of turning that idea into something concrete. Using the AI image generation tool XBRUSH, we visualized characters and backgrounds, combined them with hand-drawn sketches, and turned it all into something that looked like a real game design document.
Step 1: Express Ideas Through Hand-Drawn Sketches
The first step was getting ideas out of the child's head. We asked, "What screens would a game need?" and let them draw freely in a sketchbook.
Home Menu Screen
The child's vision for the home menu — packed with an item shop, magic potions, cookies, cookie backpacks, lights, cards, character selection, and boss previews. The bottom navigation had Battle, Foods, HP, and Lights menus. It was impressive to see a second-grader already thinking in terms of game UI.
Background Map Concepts
Two backgrounds were drawn:
- Lava Mountain Story — A sun-lit lava mountain with a training camp and laser traps
- Night Sky Battle — A massive monster castle under a lightning-streaked night sky with purple spires and yellow windows
1v1 Battle Screen
A golden-aura cat warrior on the left, a robot monster on Laser Mountain on the right. With a note at the top: "Use this potion and you can beat any monster — until you meet one!" — the child's own game rules.
Step 2: Generating Characters, Monsters, and World Images with XBRUSH
With the hand-drawn structure in place, we used XBRUSH to bring those ideas to life visually.
Cat Characters
Generated with the prompt "various cat breeds as game characters" — wizard cat, knight cat, scout cat, merchant cat, pirate cat, superhero cat, and more. The child immediately started naming each character and making up their special abilities.
Monsters
Trolls, goblins, mud monsters, forest giants, bone warriors, ice monsters, titans — output in a Game Monster Manual style. The child assigned weaknesses, habitats, and stage appearances to each one.
Cat Village and Monster Castle
Villages, a training academy, and the monsters' castles. When the child saw the Feline Academy, they immediately said: "That's where cats level up!"
Items — Weapons and Equipment
Equipment for the cat warriors — the Nyanya Punch glove (named by the child), plus six elemental swords: fire, dark, ice, lightning, wind, and poison. The child started matching each sword to a cat character to form a party.
Step 3: Print → Cut → Glue Into a Sketchbook
We printed the generated images in color, cut out each character with scissors, and arranged them on a large sketchbook to build the world.
- Character pages — name, breed, special ability, level, backstory for each cat
- Monster compendium pages — weaknesses, habitat, stage appearances
- Village map pages — locations and roles of cat villages and the academy
- Monster castle pages — boss monsters and stage stories for each castle
- Item list pages — effects and compatible characters for each weapon
While gluing each piece down, the child naturally wove stories together: "This troll is weak to ice, so the ice cat wins."
Why This Approach Worked
The child stays in control. AI doesn't draw the pictures — the child decides what to create, and AI helps in that direction. Seeing their ideas come to life visually is powerful motivation.
Abstract ideas become concrete. "Cats fighting in a game" became a full design document: home menu, background maps, battle screens, character profiles, monster compendium, and item lists.
Analog and digital combine beautifully. The print → cut → glue process feels like hands-on play, while the AI-generated visuals elevate the final result.
Tools Used
- XBRUSH — AI image generation (characters, monsters, backgrounds, items)
- Sketchbook + colored pencils — child's hand-drawn screen layouts
- Color printer + scissors + glue — printing and assembly
The cat game design document made by a second-grader — we look forward to the day it becomes an actual game. 🐱⚔️
Related Posts
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- How to Make 2D Game Sprite Sheets with AI — 8 Characters in One Session
- One Sketch, Five Completely Different Images — AI Editing in Practice
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can a young child really use XBRUSH to generate game characters on their own?
XBRUSH is designed to be accessible — the child describes what they want in plain language (like "wizard cat" or "ice monster") and the AI does the drawing. In this project, the child directed every creative decision while a parent handled the tool. Even elementary-age kids can participate meaningfully in the prompt process.
Q: How many images can you generate in a single XBRUSH session?
XBRUSH lets you generate up to 4 images at once per prompt, and you can run as many prompts as you need in a session. For this project, characters, monsters, backgrounds, and items were all generated in one sitting — producing dozens of images across multiple prompt rounds.
Q: Do the AI-generated images have copyright restrictions for use in a printed game design document?
Images generated with XBRUSH can be used freely for personal and educational projects like a hand-assembled game design document. For commercial game publishing, it is worth reviewing XBRUSH's current terms of service, but for a child's sketchbook project there are no practical restrictions.