Six games made by AI, one request at a time

01

The question

02

The six games

• 2D arcade

  Neon Escape

  A neon ship dodging asteroids and drones, with triple shot from level 3, three difficulty levels and a saved high score.

  • Claude Opus 5.5
  • 654 lines
  • Canvas 2D

  See the game’s prompt

  Build a complete, playable game called Neon Escape in a single HTML file with CSS and JavaScript, no external libraries. Synthwave look: purple sky, striped sun on the horizon, a grid floor scrolling in perspective, stars and a CRT screen effect. The player steers a neon ship with the arrow keys or WASD and fires with Space or Z; on a phone, dragging moves the ship and firing is automatic. Asteroids of three sizes fall (the large one splits in two) and, from level 2, drones that sway and later shoot. Blue orbs give points and the pink one gives an extra life. The level goes up every 1,000 points, and at level 3 the shot becomes triple. Title screen with Easy, Normal and Hard, pause, game over, particle explosions, screen shake, synthesized sound and a high score saved in the browser.

  Written from the game’s code. The model did not produce an intermediate prompt: this is what it built, written as a detailed request.

  Play Neon Escape (opens in a new tab)
• Racing

  Rio-Santos Turbo

  From Santos to Paraty along Brazil’s BR-101 coastal highway. Six cities with checkpoints, traffic, nitro, mountain tunnels, speed cameras and day turning to night, headlights on for the final stretch.

  • Claude Opus 5.5
  • 1,240 lines
  • Pseudo-3D on Canvas

  See the game’s prompt

  Build a pseudo-3D racing game in the style of OutRun, in a single HTML file, no libraries. The race runs from Santos to Paraty along Brazil’s BR-101 in six stages: Guarujá, Bertioga, São Sebastião, Caraguatatuba, Ubatuba and Paraty. Each stage has its own scenery (beach with sea, umbrellas and palm trees, mangrove, Atlantic forest and mountains with rocks), curves, climbs and descents, green highway signs and a checkpoint arch. The day goes from morning to sunset and ends at night, with stars, the car’s headlights lighting the road and taillights glowing in traffic. Two mountain tunnels with walls, a lit ceiling and an entrance portal; scraping the wall costs speed. Speed cameras with a warning sign and a camera post: above 100 km/h, a flash, a fine and 3 seconds off the clock. Traffic with cars, trucks and buses; crashing spins the car with smoke, and leaving the asphalt kicks up dust. Nitro that recharges by passing close to other cars. Arcade mode (against the clock, each city adds time) and Cruise mode. Five car colors, an engine sound that follows the gears, a synthesized soundtrack that speeds up with nitro, a dashboard shaped like road signs, touch controls and a saved best time.

  Written from the game’s code. The model did not produce an intermediate prompt: this is what it built, written as a detailed request.

  Play Rio-Santos Turbo (opens in a new tab)
• Platformer

  Inverso

  Three levels where flipping gravity turns the world inside out, with a wave of color spreading from the character.

  • Claude Haiku 5.5
  • 820 lines
  • Canvas 2D

  See the game’s prompt

  Build a 2D platformer called Inverso in a single HTML file with Canvas, no libraries. The core mechanic is flipping gravity with the F key: the character walks on the ceiling, and a circular wave spreads from it and inverts the world’s colors. Include variable-height jumps with ledge forgiveness, a dash on Shift, spikes on floors and ceilings, moving platforms, gems, checkpoints and an exit portal. Three levels: First Steps (tutorial), Inverted Gravity (use the ceiling to cross gaps) and Vortex (moving platforms over a pit). Each level has its own palette, a striped sun and geometric shapes in parallax in the background, a light trail behind the character, particles and synthesized sound. Menu with continue, level select and new game, progress saved in the browser and touch buttons on phones.

  Written from the game’s code. The model did not produce an intermediate prompt: this is what it built, written as a detailed request.

  Play Inverso (opens in a new tab)
• 3D flight

  Aurora

  A glider in a Tierra del Fuego canyon under the southern lights. Four zones (gorge, lake, ice rift and heart of the aurora), arches to fly under, flocks of birds, wind gusts, a leaderboard and unlockable colors.

  • Claude Opus 5.5
  • 1,021 lines
  • WebGL · Three.js

  See the game’s prompt

  Build a 3D flight game called Aurora with Three.js and WebGL, in a single HTML file. The player pilots a glider through an endless canyon in Tierra del Fuego, at night, under the southern lights. The canyon changes across four named zones: Stone Gorge, Mirror Lake (wide and flooded), Ice Rift (narrow, blue walls) and Heart of the Aurora; then the cycle restarts narrower. Procedurally generated low-poly terrain with rock walls, snow on the peaks and fog that shifts to blue in the ice. A shader sky with a gradient, the sun on the horizon, stars and an animated aurora that grows stronger with the hit streak; water with waves and sun reflections. Rings of light give points, streak and boost recharge; crystals and walls cost shields, three in total, but a near miss past a crystal scores points. Stone and ice arches span the canyon: flying under earns points and boost, hitting the pillars costs a shield. Flocks of birds cross the lake, and in the rift lateral wind gusts are announced on screen. Milestones every 1,000 m, a local top-five leaderboard and three glider colors unlocked by distance. Post-processing with bloom, ACES tone mapping, vignette, film grain and chromatic aberration while boosting. Light trails on the wings, speed dust and a camera that banks into turns. A synthesized ambient score in which each ring plays a note. Mouse, keyboard or touch.

  Written from the game’s code. The model did not produce an intermediate prompt: this is what it built, written as a detailed request.

  Play Aurora (opens in a new tab)
• 3D RPG

  Vésper

  An island with day and night, quests, dialogue, combo combat, magic and a Shockwave, a shop with gear, crabs on the beach, an island map, a multi-phase boss and saved progress.

  • Claude Opus 5.5
  • 1,790 lines
  • WebGL · Three.js

  See the game’s prompt

  Build a 3D action RPG called Vésper with Three.js, in a single HTML file. An island with a village, forest, beaches, shrines and ruins, a day and night cycle, real-time shadows, grass that sways in the wind and parts as the hero walks through, water with foam along the shore, fireflies, windows that light up at night, birds flying in flocks and butterflies over the meadow. Villagers who wander the village and chat when approached. A story in three quests from Elder Maru: clear the forest of slimes, recover three crystal shards from shrines guarded by will-o’-the-wisps, and defeat the Guardian of the Ruins, a golem with an area slam marked on the ground, projectile barrages and a rage phase at 50% health. Combat with a three-hit combo, dodge roll, fireball and potions; enemies crouch and glow before they strike, and rolling at the right moment gives a perfect dodge in slow motion. At level 3, the Shockwave: a ring that pushes and hurts everything around. Crabs that sidestep and lunge on the beaches. A merchant’s shop with potions, a steel sword and a cloak. XP, levels, gold, damage numbers, a minimap and a full island map, typewriter dialogue, synthesized music, touch controls and progress saved in the browser, with the option to continue the journey.

  Written from the game’s code. The model did not produce an intermediate prompt: this is what it built, written as a detailed request.

  Play Vésper (opens in a new tab)
• Echolocation

  Eco

  In total darkness, each echo paints the cave with light and gives you away to predators that hunt by sound. Best with headphones: the echo returns from the side it came from.

  • Opus 5.5 + Fable 5.1
  • 794 lines
  • Canvas 2D · Web Audio

  See the game’s prompt

  Build an exploration game in total darkness called Eco, in a single HTML file with Canvas and Web Audio, no libraries. The player is a luminous creature at the bottom of an abyss and cannot see anything. Emitting an echo (Space or click; holding gives a stronger, longer echo) sends a circular wave out that paints the walls with points of light where it hits, with second-order reflections, and the sound returns from the side it came from, with cave reverb. Serpentine predators cannot see but hear the echoes and hunt by sound: they wander, follow the last echo and chase when close; as they approach, the heartbeat quickens and a low growl comes from their side. Procedurally generated caves with curved walls, four levels rising from 3,000 m to the surface, pulsing jellyfish that light their surroundings, golden lumes to collect, a sonic call and an arrow at the screen edge pointing to the next goal, marine snow that only appears as the wave passes, and a memory map that fades. A title screen with the name drawn by the echoes themselves, three lives, pause and touch controls.

  Written from the game’s code. The model did not produce an intermediate prompt: this is what it built, written as a detailed request.

  Play Eco (opens in a new tab)

03

How we tested

• 01

  Stacked menus

  In Neon Escape, the menu, pause and game-over screens showed at the same time, because the panel style overrode the attribute that hides a screen.

• 02

  Buttons over the scoreboard

  In Rio-Santos Turbo, on narrow screens, the sound and pause buttons covered the route sign.

• 03

  Falling into the sky

  In Inverso, flipping gravity away from a ceiling sent the character up forever, without dying or coming back.

• 04

  Cropped title

  In Aurora, the game’s name did not fit on the opening screen.

• 05

  Trail through the camera

  In Aurora, the light trail from the wings grew until it passed through the camera and became a streak in the corner of the screen.

• 06

  Overlapping bars

  In Vésper, on narrow screens, the skill bar covered the health bar.

04

What we don’t know yet

05

What this changes