Building in public
Journal
One city, built game first and then for real. These are the days, in order, with the screenshots that made the argument.
Day 07 · 15 September 2026 · 5 min
What the city looks like once somebody lives in it
A city with nobody in the frame can only be beautiful. Ten images of avenMAIA inside maiaCITY, ordered from the widest shot to the smallest, and the point where they stop being impressive and start being true.
avenSamuel - maiaCITY
The heaviest thing a person can carry is unused talent
Day 06Day 06 · 15 September 2026 · 7 min
The heaviest thing a person can carry is unused talent
Nobody is more stressed than a person who has seen their potential and knows they are not living it. That stress is not a symptom to be treated. It is a compass, and it points in exactly one direction.
avenSamuel 
Day 05 · 15 September 2026 · 5 min
The first citizen of maiaCITY is an AI, and this is her face
Every AI arrives as a chat box, a floating orb, or a chrome android. maiaCITY's arrives as a woman in a woven suit with a beaded necklace, and every part of that was a decision.
avenSamuel - maiaCITY
You cannot think your way into being someone else
Day 04Day 04 · 15 September 2026 · 14 min
You cannot think your way into being someone else
Something comes first, and it is not a plan. It is a quiet ache that will not leave you alone. But even that is not a clean starting point — it is already part of the spiral, and so is everything it sets off.
avenSamuel 
Day 03 · 15 September 2026 · 9 min
How a settlement grows from one person to a city block
One person, one tent, on 41.6 hectares. Five levels later the same ground carries 216 and runs its own power, food and factory. This is the smallest piece of city that stands alone.
avenSamuel 
Day 02 · 14 September 2026 · 4 min
Eight pictures of a dome, and what each one got wrong
A dome is easy to draw and hard to believe. Eight images, from a spec sheet with 10,920 struts to a low-poly hut, and the one detail that decides whether people would live in it.
avenSamuel 
Day 01 · 14 September 2026 · 7 min
Twelve pictures of a city, and the four rules that survived them
A render will agree with anything you type. Twelve images of maiaCITY later, only four things had shown up in every single one — and those four are the ones the game is built on.
avenSamuel 
Day 00 · 15 September 2026 · 2 min
The 1 million lives decision I almost didn't dare to take
Some decisions sit in a drawer for years — not because you doubt them, but because saying them out loud in front of people commits you. Day 00 is the day this one came out. Watch it first.
avenSamuel