SPRITE: From Static Mockups to Engine-Ready Game UI
This addresses a domain-specific problem for game developers by automating tedious UI implementation tasks, though it is incremental as it builds on existing screenshot-to-code tools.
The paper tackles the problem of converting static game UI mockups into engine-ready assets, which is challenging due to irregular geometries and deep hierarchies. The result is SPRITE, a pipeline using Vision-Language Models and YAML that automates this process, improving reconstruction fidelity and prototyping efficiency as validated on a Game UI benchmark and expert reviews.
Game UI implementation requires translating stylized mockups into interactive engine entities. However, current "Screenshot-to-Code" tools often struggle with the irregular geometries and deep visual hierarchies typical of game interfaces. To bridge this gap, we introduce SPRITE, a pipeline that transforms static screenshots into editable engine assets. By integrating Vision-Language Models (VLMs) with a structured YAML intermediate representation, SPRITE explicitly captures complex container relationships and non-rectangular layouts. We evaluated SPRITE against a curated Game UI benchmark and conducted expert reviews with professional developers to assess reconstruction fidelity and prototyping efficiency. Our findings demonstrate that SPRITE streamlines development by automating tedious coding and resolving complex nesting. By facilitating rapid in-engine iteration, SPRITE effectively blurs the boundaries between artistic design and technical implementation in game development. Project page: https://baiyunshu.github.io/sprite.github.io/