So, I took part in #vibejam—a challenge to build a game in under two weeks, with the twist that over 80% of the code had to be written using AI.
Here’s the result: galacticsiege.com. It’s very unfinished, but it exists. I’m now rehauling it to be more human dev friendly.
What’s it about, and what did I learn?
The game is a turn-based strategy inspired by Polytopia. Your goal is to take over every star system on the map by competing with other spacefaring civilisations. You gather energy, build infrastructure, and train units. You've got 30 turns to do it!
I actually used AI for nearly 100% of the code. I only edited about five lines myself, added analytics, threw in the required jam button, and went straight to deployment.
It took around 100 “turns” with @v0 (related to the final code), plus about 30 more in separate chats and random prompts to ChatGPT and Gemini.
When did I find the time?
I was prompting almost exclusively in between other things—waiting in line at the supermarket, brewing coffee, or killing time during some endless build process. The rough edges of the final game probably reflect that.
I really tried to polish it more, but the LLMs just weren’t computing tokens in my favour. At one point, I couldn’t figure out why a game with zero assets had a loading screen. Turns out v0 had added simulated loading... because that’s what real games do.
Why I didn’t just fix it myself?
That was the whole point—it was an experiment to see what LLMs can actually do when left to their own devices.
I do want to finish the game eventually. If you check it out, let me know what you think! The gameplay is definitely broken, but the foundation is there.
What’s next?
I’ll be sharing more thoughts on the whole process soon—like how different LLMs perform on various creative tasks (generating 3D models, writing code, debugging, ideation). Maybe I’ll even write a guide on going from AI slop to something actually deployable.
Are you building side projects with AI? Maybe even games? I’d love to hear about it.
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