Notice: This article was created with AI.
What’s It About?
In a post dated 28 October 2026, Simon Willison describes an inflection point in the development of computer games. He calls the approach “vibe coding”: you formulate short, loosely worded instructions, and an AI model takes over large parts of the implementation. According to the author, the results are by now no longer merely technical gimmicks but look appealing and can actually be played.
As the driver of this development Willison names progress in models such as Claude Opus 5.5 (model designation as of October 2026). He sees improvements in 3D modelling, music generation and game design, among other things. These are areas that have to come together for a coherent game.
Background & Context
Willison presents several projects that came about in the weeks before his post. Tree Appreciator is a quiet game in which you are supposed to find differences between algorithmically generated trees. By his description it came about in a single run. Emberwick is an ambitious fantasy role-playing game. Several iterations were needed for the story and the game mechanics.
Battle Drones, a real-time strategy game, was first implemented in 2D. Through further prompts to the AI it gained in playability and complexity. Pumpkin Farmer (Quarter Sun Cove) is a relaxed farming simulator about growing pumpkins, with animal characters and a feel of its own. The author also recounts that working with the AI can trigger emotional reactions, for instance when a game has in the end been created entirely by the AI.
The assessment comes from the author himself and rests on his own projects. An independent evaluation of quality or playability is not available in the material at hand. His remarks on the future role of AI-supported tools in game design were also only incompletely available and are therefore not pursued further here.
What Does This Mean?
- By Willison’s account the barrier to entry is falling: anyone with game ideas can try them out in dialogue with an AI model without deep programming knowledge.
- Simple concepts such as Tree Appreciator succeeded in a single run according to the author. More complex undertakings such as Emberwick, by contrast, needed several rounds.
- The progress named in 3D, music and game design rests on the author’s assessment. How well it transfers to other projects remains open.
Sources
The October inflection point for vibe game development (Simon Willison)
The October inflection point for vibe game development – Newsletter-Fassung (Substack)
Simon Willison: Beiträge zum Thema Games (Simon Willison)
Simon Willison: Beiträge zum Thema Claude Code (Simon Willison)
This article was created with AI and is based on the listed sources as well as the language model’s training data.
Further Reading: AI & APQC Benchmark with Microsoft Copilot