Super Glop Arcade
TRIGGER WARNING: AI content ahead! Not recommended for AI haters or the faint hearted!
In the super glop arcade, all game code is 100% AI generated, while the graphics are 100% hand drawn!
Controls:
- W,S,A,D - move player
- Cursors or L - shoot
This is an experiment to create games for which the code is 100% AI generated, while retaining control over the game mechanics as much as possible. I tried creating minigames with a variety of game mechanics, to see how far I can go with this method.
While it is possible to AI generate entire games with a single prompt, you lose control and precision over the result, especially when you want something more specific or complex, and the probability of AI generated bugs increases. I used my AI based software development method (based on the VSCode Webcogs plugin) to address this problem, which works by splitting software into components, each of which can then be AI generated separately. This way, AI can do what it's best at: small, well-defined problems, while the developer can remain being the architect of the end result. Also, it makes it possible to re-generate just the parts that do not work.
During this LD, I created a framework for AI based game development, based on two kinds of components: map generators and entities. A map generator defines where tiles and entities are placed, then you can generate behaviour for each entity type placed on the map separately. By adding common definitions for each type of component, you can create them with simple prompts.
Map generator prompt example:
*"Create a function that generates a cave with enemies and a player. Each tile is either: wall (&), empty (.), enemy (C), player (Q). Each empty tile should be reachable. The player should be placed in an empty space. The enemies should be placed along the cave walls."*
Entity prompt example:
*"Create a player that moves in all directions with the left stick, and shoots in all directions with the right stick. A bullet disappears when it hits a wall, and removes the wall tile. Player movement is inertial. Dies when it hits an enemy or a wall."*
In the super glop arcade, all game code is 100% AI generated, while the graphics are 100% hand drawn!
Controls:
- W,S,A,D - move player
- Cursors or L - shoot
This is an experiment to create games for which the code is 100% AI generated, while retaining control over the game mechanics as much as possible. I tried creating minigames with a variety of game mechanics, to see how far I can go with this method.
While it is possible to AI generate entire games with a single prompt, you lose control and precision over the result, especially when you want something more specific or complex, and the probability of AI generated bugs increases. I used my AI based software development method (based on the VSCode Webcogs plugin) to address this problem, which works by splitting software into components, each of which can then be AI generated separately. This way, AI can do what it's best at: small, well-defined problems, while the developer can remain being the architect of the end result. Also, it makes it possible to re-generate just the parts that do not work.
During this LD, I created a framework for AI based game development, based on two kinds of components: map generators and entities. A map generator defines where tiles and entities are placed, then you can generate behaviour for each entity type placed on the map separately. By adding common definitions for each type of component, you can create them with simple prompts.
Map generator prompt example:
*"Create a function that generates a cave with enemies and a player. Each tile is either: wall (&), empty (.), enemy (C), player (Q). Each empty tile should be reachable. The player should be placed in an empty space. The enemies should be placed along the cave walls."*
Entity prompt example:
*"Create a player that moves in all directions with the left stick, and shoots in all directions with the right stick. A bullet disappears when it hits a wall, and removes the wall tile. Player movement is inertial. Dies when it hits an enemy or a wall."*
Comments12
bobanko21 Apr 2026, 13:45
Interesting game. But gameplay a little bit hard to understand. But this is a solid work! Wait fow new part
fabelay25 Apr 2026, 10:13
Thats a nice base for an arcade game. The mechanics were somewhat clunky and often I didnt understand why I die or the starting conditions were weirdly all over the place (in the digger i often died within the first split second and other times I was disconnected from the other caves and I could take my time or the space invaders one where the ship shooted without me clicking at the beginning or the first shot being directly in my face without much time to start playing). The pixel art is very nice and with giving more love to every games mechanics it could become a great arcade compilation! And its 9 games for 1 jam! Thank you for your entry!
Also thank you for talking about your AI prompting strategy.
Also thank you for talking about your AI prompting strategy.
exofrenon25 Apr 2026, 10:16
I guess this is more of a test-drive for your AI tools than an actual LD game submission, so I will leave some critique on that.
The games are relatively well-coded, in a sense that I did not notice any weird behavior or any bugs, so the pipeline you have built is quite-solid, I would imagine, based on the fact that you were able to generate 9 minigames in 2 days.
But the biggest problem is that they are extremely unbalanced. Every game I tested was simply too fast and hectic, to the point you couldn't really control the player to do what you wanted, and that felt quite frustrating. And for that I think a human in the loop is the solution. While the mechanics are there, the actual speed / acceleration / whatever you call it needs to be carefully finetuned by trial-and-error by a human to maximize fun, and while you are at it, you might realize that another extra mechanic might need to be implemented by A. For example, the AI might have modeled just the speed of the character and throught testing you find out that you also need to model acceleration into your equations, so you will have to go back to the AI do that and then test it again, and so on and so on...
Cheers, I hope to see another entry that is a little bit more polished.
The games are relatively well-coded, in a sense that I did not notice any weird behavior or any bugs, so the pipeline you have built is quite-solid, I would imagine, based on the fact that you were able to generate 9 minigames in 2 days.
But the biggest problem is that they are extremely unbalanced. Every game I tested was simply too fast and hectic, to the point you couldn't really control the player to do what you wanted, and that felt quite frustrating. And for that I think a human in the loop is the solution. While the mechanics are there, the actual speed / acceleration / whatever you call it needs to be carefully finetuned by trial-and-error by a human to maximize fun, and while you are at it, you might realize that another extra mechanic might need to be implemented by A. For example, the AI might have modeled just the speed of the character and throught testing you find out that you also need to model acceleration into your equations, so you will have to go back to the AI do that and then test it again, and so on and so on...
Cheers, I hope to see another entry that is a little bit more polished.
Pavel Goncharov25 Apr 2026, 11:11
Ok, I understand the game, but what about jam theme "Signal"?
loveapplegames25 Apr 2026, 15:16
@exofrenon @fabelay thanks for your extensive feedback. The games were iteratively designed, though balancing takes a long time and the AI cannot help with that! Sorry you thought the games were too difficult / quirky, I think they are not worse than the last time I did something like this (8 games in one weekend without AI). I prompted each map and entity separately so they can be refined individually, and also gave the AI directions to parametrize each function so I could easily tweak them manually. There are still bugs/quirks in it (the player can be placed next to an enemy in the cave shooter and digdug, for example), but these are mostly not the AI's fault.
@pavel-goncharov I opted out of the theme because I didn't care for it.
@pavel-goncharov I opted out of the theme because I didn't care for it.
Discomorphine26 Apr 2026, 19:12
Opposite to the others, I believe, difficulty level is quite optimal (for arcades, that must be difficult (to demand coins from scholars))))
I had a lovely experience playing these games, but also it IS raw and, honestly, unindividual.
Good job with trying to optimize using of AI. It`s great if you have quality code architecture, but overall it still looks and plays like slop...
Have a good rest in Seville! ;)
I had a lovely experience playing these games, but also it IS raw and, honestly, unindividual.
Good job with trying to optimize using of AI. It`s great if you have quality code architecture, but overall it still looks and plays like slop...
Have a good rest in Seville! ;)
digital bacon27 Apr 2026, 06:17
A very basic collection of games. It would have been better if you'd focussed on just one game, and iterated over that.
woona27 Apr 2026, 08:07
Good job! I tried out all of the games but didn't complete all of them because I think I already played all of them 25+ years ago. 😅
In some shooting games I couldn't figure out how to shoot, displaying control scheme would be nice, or just using the exact same control scheme in all of the games.
In some shooting games I couldn't figure out how to shoot, displaying control scheme would be nice, or just using the exact same control scheme in all of the games.
VenomousMouse6 May 2026, 15:01
Cool idea for an arcade game. Nice work.
TheLastSlowpoke8 May 2026, 11:10
Dude. You've got some insane projects in the oven. The Webcogs readme was a really fun read. This test ride was a success I think. The games didn't crash, bug out, they had a working victory condition etc. But strictly from a player perspective... they are honestly not much fun. Like two of the 9 games are somewhat playable - they're an actual test of skill, but simple and frustrating anyway. And like five of them I consider impossible, even with good rng. The Generative Gungeon is doing somewhat better - still frustrating, instant deaths on spawn etc., but has some interesting qualities like the map layouts and interactive elements. That out of the way... I still consider this a success for the framework. I'm thinking about how I was once trying to force an LLM to make a valid 4x4 sudoku grid and gave up. This is really impressive and it may lead somewhere very useful. I haven't a clue how on earth to think about this, but you may try to include some organized feedback input to the project, so you could playtest and complain about balance? I don't intuit well how it works, I'd love to see the "codebase" for these games. My biggest personal feedback for all of these games - I would love to be able to consistently move one cell at a time. I'm zooming past doors like crazy. I don't know if the generated code had to do anything with this, maybe it's a thing to consider in the cellular game engine of yours. That and/or slow everything down. Maybe it has variable speeds on different setups and I am just in a disadvantage? Crazy stuff from you again, glad I managed to check this out before the deadline ^^
loveapplegames8 May 2026, 14:51
@thelastslowpoke Thanks for your extensive comment! As regards the gameplay balance, the AI generated code provides parameters like entity speed that allow easy tweaking. It does a reasonable stab at providing defaults, but balancing is something that only a human can do. Player movement is tile based, it moves one tile at a time. But the keypress handling is done in such a way that it reacts to a short tap, so it should be pretty precise. I guess the solution is to just slow down the player. BTW Gungeon was balanced according to my own tastes, while the arcade games are not so well balanced, because that takes a lot of time (the postcompo is better in that respect). Gungeon still has some rough edges, like enemies appearing too close to the player (that's actually a bug in the AI code), but the end result is not so much different from hand coded games in my experience. For a game made in one day, I am pretty happy with it. To get a better idea what the "source code" looks like, here are the prompt buildfiles for Gungeon:
http://tmtg.nl/ludumdare/ld59-cooldown/jgame-games/mazegame/webcogs/promptbuild_entities.json
http://tmtg.nl/ludumdare/ld59-cooldown/jgame-games/mazegame/webcogs/promptbuild_maps.json
http://tmtg.nl/ludumdare/ld59-cooldown/jgame-games/mazegame/webcogs/promptbuild_particles.json
If you install and enable the webcogs extension in VS code, you will see build buttons appear when you edit these files.
http://tmtg.nl/ludumdare/ld59-cooldown/jgame-games/mazegame/webcogs/promptbuild_entities.json
http://tmtg.nl/ludumdare/ld59-cooldown/jgame-games/mazegame/webcogs/promptbuild_maps.json
http://tmtg.nl/ludumdare/ld59-cooldown/jgame-games/mazegame/webcogs/promptbuild_particles.json
If you install and enable the webcogs extension in VS code, you will see build buttons appear when you edit these files.
What a game! It looks like an old website collection of arcade web games. Fun! Good practice of using AI