Bring NPCs to life in already existing games. Give them memory, voice, personality, and a purpose within the world.
Design social gameplay that revolves around AI-powered NPCs. Make them party guests, suspects, saboteurs, or unpredictable allies.
Use your creativity to surprise us with brand-new game formats that AI NPCs can unlock.
Whether you are modding Skyrim or building the next viral social game, the rule is simple: Your NPCs must feel alive, and they must drive the gameplay.
This is your chance to shape the future of games, not with AI alone, but with your imagination and design.
Join us to prototype the future of intelligent characters and showcase your creativity – let’s bring NPCs to life!
Feel free to draw on these broad ideas—or invent your own twist—to explore how AI NPCs can truly belong:
We’ll be looking for entries that:
Don’t rely on LLMs alone. Use them to augment your NPCs’ dialogue, memory, or decision-making—but underpin everything with explicit game logic and consistent state.
General rules:
Submission rules
Your game must use the Player2 web API correctly (https://player2.game/docs/api-reference), where you authenticate the player through the authentication flow with your own game client ID and send a health signal once every 60 seconds.
To use the web API, you need to create a draft game under https://player2.game/profile/developer. Then you can find your game client ID in your developer dashboard next to your game’s name.
If you are using our Unity / Godot / Defold AI NPC engine, the health check will be sent for your game automatically.
Tutorials on how to use the web api, Unity, Godot and Defold engine can be found in the doc/README of each engine’s repository.
When you finish building, use the following steps to submit the game:
1, Publish your game anywhere you want to publish, this can be Steam, Nexus, CurseForge, Itch, app store, etc.
2, Submit the game through the player2 developer portal https://player2.game/profile/developer.
3, Submit the game through itch to this game jam with links/reference to where you published the game and what your player2 game page/name is.
Need some inspiration on what to make? We've got you covered. Check out the link below!
Our judging panel will evaluate each entry using these five categories. Think of them as friendly guidelines—build the best game you can without overthinking it.
NPC AI integration: How seamlessly does your game leverage the Player2 API? Do your NPCs behave, react and adapt in engaging and intelligent ways? Is AI driving the core gameplay rather than feeling tacked on?
Gameplay and stability: Is your build smooth, responsive and free of major bugs? Do core systems feel polished and intuitive? Does the game simply “just work” when it’s played?
Creativity and innovation: Did you introduce fresh mechanics, narrative twists or unexpected AI uses that surprise and delight? Does your entry push boundaries instead of rehashing familiar ideas?
Visual and audio design: Do your art style and soundscape strengthen the overall experience?
Judges’ spotlight: Each judge can single out a personal favorite. Recognizes standout charm, emotional resonance or special x-factor moments.
These categories are here to guide you, not to box you in. Focus on making something you’re proud of, and let the AI magic shine!
Wenzhe - Co-founder of Player2 and game designer. He has amassed 100+ publications and 25k+ citations.
Aaron Shaw - Game Developer, Playroom community manager and Boss Rush Game Jam Co-founder.
Alaina - Producer for Marauder Tech Games on the mobile game Price of Glory.
Mark Soderwall - 30 years experience in art direction on games such as StarWars, CloneWars, LEGO, etc. The Founder of IndieGameU.online.
Remy - Data annotator for Player2, studying Unreal Engine and character concept art.
INDIE - 10 year Twitch partner focusing on indie games, community engagement at Marauder Tech Games, and co-host and producer for IndieGameBusiness.
No submissions match your filter