BUILD A GAME
WITH AI
Three weeks. One game. Ship it.
arkade@arksoft:~$ cat brief.txt
You've got three weeks — until 10 July 2026 — to build a small game. Lean on AI — Claude, Copilot, whatever pairs well — to design, code, and debug it. This is about shipping something playable, not polishing a masterpiece.
When time's up, we gather one Friday after work, plug in, and play every single entry. Then everyone votes. Highest score takes home a R300 Steam voucher.
# keep it small, keep it multiplayer, keep it fun
arkade@arksoft:~$
Three phases to glory.
Build
You get three weeks. Prompt, code, iterate with AI on your own time.
Game Night
One Friday after work the whole ARKADE squad gathers. We boot up every entry and play through the lot — drinks, snacks, friendly chaos.
Vote & Win
Everyone votes for their favourite. The game with the most love wins the R300 Steam voucher and eternal ARKADE bragging rights.
Winner takes the voucher.
Awarded to the single highest-voted game on the night. One winner. Glory included at no extra charge.
Prefer to play on console? The winner can take a PlayStation or Xbox voucher instead.
SCORE
The rules.
Four hard constraints. Break one and the build doesn't count — so read before you prompt.
2D only
Keep it flat. Pixel art, vector, hand-drawn — anything goes as long as it's two-dimensional. No 3D engines.
4+ players, multiplayer / co-op
Your game must support at least 4 players together — competitive or co-op. If we can't all jump in, it can't win.
Hosted & online
The game must be hosted and accessible online on game night — a link we can all open. No "it works on my machine".
Never build it at work
Disqualification awaits anyone caught working on their entry during work hours. This is for after-hours glory only.
Ready, player?
arkade@arksoft:~$ ./enter --name "you" --game "tbd"
“Get Involved”— McSavage, circa 2026