Guide

◆How Spark Works: Fuelling Your World

Creation OS is powered by an immensely complex, highly reactive intelligence. To maintain the speed, memory, and quality required to run your worlds, the system uses a premium resource called Spark.

Spark is the fuel that drives the narrator, the Creation Engine, and the Art Forge. Every time you ask the system to create, calculate, or illustrate, a small amount of Spark is consumed.

›1. Transparent, Proportional Costs

Every action in Creation OS has a fixed Spark cost that reflects the actual compute used:

  • Play Turn - Casual RP (3 Spark): Exploration, dialogue, rest, travel. Handled with lightweight processing.
  • Play Turn - Combat/Craft (8 Spark): Combat, crafting, forge actions, dice rolls. Handled with deep mechanical reasoning.
  • World Creation (30 Spark): Generating a complete new world with locations, factions, history, characters, and quests. Your first world is free.
  • Art Forge - Portraits (10 Spark): Forging a portrait for a character, location, faction, or ability. All accounts receive 2 free generations on signup. Pro subscribers receive 10 free per month.
  • Art Forge - Items (5 Spark): Forging an icon for an inventory item or piece of equipment.
  • Stat Reforge (8 Spark): Editing ability scores, HP, AC, or level on an existing character. Limited to 3 per character. Cosmetic edits are always free.

Your actions are automatically routed to the right processing depth - you never have to choose. Casual exploration is cheap, combat is heavier. This keeps costs fair and proportional.

Complete Transparency

You will always see the exact cost of your upcoming action displayed next to the Spark pill before you hit send. After each play turn, the Spark pill flashes to show exactly how much was deducted.

›2. The Nature of the Narrator

The narrator is an interpretive, creative storyteller. When you provide a prompt, you are collaborating with a living narrative voice, not inputting code into a calculator.

Because of this, there will be times when the narrator's interpretation of your prompt does not perfectly match the exact vision you had in your head. It might give a tavern a slightly different vibe, or equip an enemy with a weapon you didn't expect.

Managing Expectations

Spark is consumed the moment the work is performed, regardless of whether the creative output perfectly aligns with your initial expectation.

To avoid frustration and ensure you always get the most value out of your Spark, we have built several systems to protect your balance.

›3. How to Protect and Maximise Your Spark

Casual roleplay turns cost only 3 Spark compared to 8 for combat. If you are exploring a town, talking to characters, or planning your next move, you are burning Spark at the lowest rate. Save combat for when the narrative calls for it. Your wallet (and your story) will thank you.

›4. Your Global Balance

You can always track your remaining Spark by looking at the glowing amber pill at the top of your workspace (e.g., +1,250).

When your balance runs low, the Spark Merchant overlay appears, offering three instant top-up packs (Ember, Flare, Blaze) so you never have to interrupt a session. You can also open the Spark Merchant anytime by clicking the Spark pill.