Points: 6

So there’s a banana, and more banana, and no money… And a pig?
I still don’t understand, what is it you were trying to make here? Regardless of the prompt, in normal human language?

Points: 6

He looks so happy to be flying!

Points: 6

For some reason I keep hearing the Skippy theme song :)

Points: 8

I don’t understand why Cheshire Cat is not allowed, since I’m sure the first illustrations should be in the public domain by now. It’s not like you specifically asked for the Disney version. Anyway, this is still a good likeness.

Points: 8

That looks adorable, and definitely a better use for SD3 than humans sitting at a bench :)

Points: 9

I really love the idea of mixing an animal with a microscopic organism.
You got to (shared) 3rd place! Here’s a Bronze Syringe trophy :)

Points: 9

No points but still, I like your animal! Is that a sloth penguin in the background? :)

Points: 9

That looks seriously terrifying, very nice choice of animals!
Oops, almost forgot. You get a trophy for reaching (shared) 3rd place!

Points: 10

Though a felt puppet can hardly be called “some other organism”, I will let it slide since the result is so good :)

Points: 10

Definitely one of the more unexpected combinations, and it turned out so well! I love his two little front legs.

Points: 10

Pigs are always cute, turpigs included :)

Points: 10

It’s looks very cute :) And the inpainting is a clever way of doing this.

Points: 11

You got (shared) 3rd place! Such a gorgeous animal!
For you the Bronze Syringe:

Points: 11

You made it to (shared) 3rd place! It’s a very nice hybrid, I like the horns.
You have won the Bronze Syringe!

Points: 13

You made it to (shared) 2nd place! This one is really impressive, it looks so lifelike!
Here’s your Silver Zygote trophy!

Points: 14

You got a (shared) 2nd place! I love the way the cat blends with the flower, really nice work!
For 2nd place, you get the Silver Zygote trophy!

Points: 13

Congratulations! You win this challenge and get to choose the next challenge!
You are hereby awarded the golden helix :)

Thank you!

It’s going to get better! The kids just left for a 5 day beach vacation with grandma.
And now me and my partner are off for our own mini holiday 💕

Speaking as a story-heavy RPG enthusiast, so my focus is more on story-telling and exploration. I don’t think it’s the graphics that’s holding back the exploration potential, but rather the complexity of actually creating huge game worlds. You tend to end up with either a procedural generated world without a lot of cohesion, or one that’s a mile wide but an inch deep in interactivity.
Just look at Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a hugely complex and reactive game world, but it’s locations and the way you are allowed to explore them are reduced to three linear chapters. Even if you switched to, say Baldur’s Gate 2 era graphics, it would still not be possible to create a game in a single huge explorable world with the same level of complexity and story telling.

Though I’m definitely with you on scaling down the graphics in exchange for richer and more interactive worlds, I do think there’s a hard limit on how much better those worlds would get.