HEKTIC LABS
Bird's-eye view of a small felt island in a turquoise sea, with a meadow of round thatched shelters, a forest, a rocky cave and tiny creatures scattered across it.

The island on day 40.

A Hektic Labs series

Grown

A world grown inside a computer, filmed like a terrarium.

What it is

Grown is a faceless video series in which every episode is a sealed world grown inside a computer. The first episode, I Grew a World Inside a Computer for 100 Days, follows a small island of soft, toy-like creatures from day one to day one hundred.

Nothing in it is scripted by hand. The creatures are artificial minds living in a real simulation. Each one is given a want and a secret, and then left to decide for itself what to do: forage, share, build, ask for help, or keep quiet. Berries are scarce, storms come on days picked by chance, and every creature needs one berry a day to survive.

Day 13: Ash gives Bryn a berry. Event e172 from the run.

What they say, and what they write

Some of the creatures keep a private diary. Out loud they can say anything. In the diary they are asked to write what they really think. The drama of the series lives in the gap between the two.

Out loudA creature tells its neighbour that food is scarce everywhere.
In the diaryIts diary says to keep its own stores hidden.

The film shows both side by side, so the viewer always knows more than the creatures do.

Close-up of a soft lilac creature with floppy ears, a knitted pale-blue scarf and a small leather satchel, looking sideways with a wary expression.
Jem, a creature with a secret.

Real logs, honest stakes

Every event in the film comes from the simulation's own log. The counts on screen (the day, who is alive, who has food) are real numbers from that run.

When we change the world by adding a new arrival, a danger or a stranger from the sea, the narrator says so. What happens next is up to the creatures and to chance.

Three creatures stand in a row beside stacks of white berries labelled 7, 2 and 1, under the word FOOD.
Day 40: who has the food. Every number is from the run.

How it's made

  • The worldA custom simulation of an island with meadows, a forest, a cave, shoreline and low ground that floods. It tracks food, hunger, shelters, births, old age and danger day by day.
  • The mindsEach diary-keeping creature is an AI agent that sees its surroundings, chooses an action, says something out loud and writes a private diary line. Simpler creatures follow fixed rules.
  • The lookThe island and its creatures are built and rendered in-house with Unity and Blender, in a handmade, felt-and-wool diorama style. The pictures are drawn from the simulation's real state, not generated by AI video.
  • The storyA small team of specialist AI agents (writer, world designer, red team, visual director) turn a 100-day run into a ten-minute film. Every claim in the script is checked against the log before it's locked.
Two views of the island side by side: nearly empty on the left, filled with shelters and creatures on the right.
Day 1 and day 40 of the same run.

The islanders

Seven plush creatures in a row on dark felt ground, each in a different coloured knitted scarf: rabbit- and bear-like shapes in cream, brown, blue, plum, lilac, grey and gold.
The diary keepers. A scarf means a creature keeps a diary.
Six plush creatures without scarves on dark felt ground, in brown, gold, cream, charcoal, sage and orange.
The small ones: simpler creatures that follow fixed rules.
The same island as on day 40, almost empty: open sand and meadows, one small shelter and three tiny creatures.
Day 1: three creatures on an almost empty island.
The island at night in deep blue light, with clusters of shelters glowing warm amber.
The island at night.

In production

The pilot episode's simulation is complete, the script is in final viewer testing, and the creature designs and animation have been signed off. The images on this page are working renders from the production.