Turn-based tactical RPG meets character collector on an alien frontier

Tactical RPG

Web Browser

Command crash survivors, ley-powered mechs, and explore five biomes on a naturally magical planet. Build your squad, master three combat philosophies, and chart humanity's path to the stars.

A fully agentic AI-built game

Developer

3 Weeks

Start to finish

100%

AI-generated art

500+

Unique assets

Built with Claude Code + Layer APIs & Workflows

Key Features

⚔️

Turn-Based Combat System

Turn-Based combat where every unit's speed determines turn order. Position your squad across front and back rows, unleash skills, and chain ultimates for devastating combos.

🎰

Character Collection

Recruit from over 50 unique pilots and equip them with over 60 "frames," giant mechs - plus hundreds of weapons, cores, drives, and relics. Every pull expands your tactical possibilities.

🌍

Five Explorable Biomes

Traverse grasslands, deserts, swamps, jungles, and tundra — each with unique terrain modifiers, enemy types, and environmental hazards that reshape your strategy.

🔮

Three Combat Philosophies

Mecha, Magic, or Cyber — each path offers distinct equipment, mechanics, and an affinity triangle that rewards smart team composition.

🔧

Deep Equipment System

Fuse cores, find relics, and swap out equipment across characters. Experiment with different equipment across frames and pilots to create builds that match your playstyle.

🗺️

World Exploration

Navigate node-based world maps, complete star objectives, unlock boss encounters, and uncover the lore of a planet where magic is natural law.

Built with Layer

How Layer Powers This Game

The Hypothesis

What if one developer, armed with Claude Code and Layer's full platform, could ship a content-heavy tactical RPG from scratch -- not a tech demo with placeholder art, but a real game with hundreds of unique visual assets, server-authoritative multiplayer, and the depth of a commercial title? We set out to prove it.

The Agentic Process

One developer split the work between two AI systems. Claude Code wrote every line of game code: a Svelte 5 frontend, a server-authoritative Node.js backend with Postgres, a deterministic combat engine, gacha progression systems, and a custom dev editor for managing all game data visually. Layer's APIs and workflows generated every visual asset: character portraits, mech illustrations, idle animations, cosmetic variants, enemy sprites, encounter backgrounds, and equipment icons. Custom styles trained on a handful of reference images locked the anime-tactical aesthetic, and Layer's batch workflows produced 100+ asset variants per run. The two systems worked in concert -- Claude built the data-driven architecture, Layer filled it with production art, and the developer directed the creative vision across 200+ pages of design documentation that served as long-term memory for the agents.

The Outcome

Three weeks. One developer. 500+ unique production assets. Foster shipped as a fully playable tactical RPG hosted on Railway with a live Postgres backend -- not a localhost demo. The game includes gacha pulls with mercy systems, five explorable biomes, cosmetic variants, doctrine trees, and a CTB turn-based combat system. The art pipeline that would traditionally require a team of artists over months was replaced by a system that compounds: once a style and workflow are set, scaling from 50 assets to 500 is a matter of hours, not headcount.

100+ Pilot Portraits

Every playable character's portrait and icon was generated using Layer's image models, creating a consistent anime-tactical art style across the entire roster.

80+ Frame Illustrations

Unique mech body artwork for all frames produced via Layer, including animated sprites for battle.

100+ Enemy Sprites

All enemy visuals (animations and static assets) were batch-generated through Layer's API, enabling rapid iteration on creature designs across five biomes.

48+ Encounter Backgrounds

Battle backgrounds for every encounter zone created with Layer, providing atmospheric variety from wind-carved grasslands to cybernetic tundra.

100+ Cosmetic Variants

Unique liveries for every frame, each with its own idle animation, generated through Layer workflows with detailed descriptions guiding the visual output.

Pilot Portraits: Unique Characters

Every pilot in Foster has a distinct portrait reflecting their personality, faction alignment, and combat role. A unique workflow and visual model produced the entire roster with a consistent anime-tactical art style, from hardened veterans to enigmatic scouts.

80+ Mech Frames

From light scout units to heavy artillery platforms, every frame was generated through Layer's workflows and a custom style model with consistent mechanical design language -- the "frontier military instrumentation" aesthetic that defines Foster's visual identity.

100+ Frame Cosmetics

A full cosmetic variant system lets players purchase or discover unique liveries for every frame in their hangar. Each cosmetic was generated through Layer with detailed descriptions guiding the visual output, from bone-painted war trophies to ceremonial gold refit patterns. Each cosmetic variant comes with its own unique idle animation.

Enemy Creatures - 100+ Biome-Specific Sprites

All enemy visuals were batch-generated through Layer's API, workflows, and custom models, enabling rapid iteration on creature designs. Each enemy's visual design telegraphs its combat behavior and biome origin: Crystalline beasts in the tundra, venomous flora in the jungle, armored drakes in the desert.

Screenshots

Watch & Learn

Making Foster: Generating Assets Entirely with Layer & ‪@claude‬ (Part 1)

Making Foster: Generate Animated Sprites/ Mecha Assets with Layer & ‪@claude‬ (Part 2)

Making Foster: How to use Layer APIs & ‪@claude‬ for Game Production (Part 3)

Making Foster: How to use Layer & @claude for Production (Part 4)

Making Foster: A Full Game in Three Weeks with @claude and Layer (Part 5)

Why We Built This

A proof of concept for what Layer unlocks

Foster exists to demonstrate what's possible when generative AI is treated as a production system, not just a sketching tool. Every character, mech, enemy, environment, and item in this game was produced through Layer's platform — the same models, workflows, and APIs available to every Layer customer.

Studios like Ace Games, Bunch, and LBC Studios are already using Layer to achieve 3-8x production capacity gains with consistent art styles across hundreds of assets. Foster is the proof that these tools work end-to-end — from first concept to playable product.

Start building with Layer Talk to our team