Largest Cash Prize ($10k) on Itch Right now.
Theme: Beyond AI Gimmick
At its heart, Beyond AI Gimmick challenges you to weave AI-powered NPCs into the very fabric of your game’s systems, narrative, and player experience, rather than treating them as flashy stand-alone features. We want AI characters that…
- React and evolve with game state, player choices, and world events
- Enhance core mechanics, from combat and puzzles to exploration and social systems
- Contribute to emergent moments, leaving players with unpredictable, memorable stories
We want intelligent NPCs that feel rooted in your game’s logic and lore, shaping and shaped by everything else going on.
Inspiration & Example Categories
Feel free to draw on these broad ideas—or invent your own twist—to explore how AI NPCs can truly belong:
- AI Mods for Classics Retrofit popular games (Clair_Obscur_Expedition_33, Undertale, Terraria, GMod, Lethal Company, etc.) with smart companions or adversaries that respect—and expand—the original mechanics.
- Co-op & Party Experiences Play with friends alongside an AI narrator or storyteller who dynamically injects plot beats (à la Death by AI or PEAK) and adapts to your group’s playstyle.
- Original Worlds Build entirely new settings where AI characters hold jobs, relationships, or agendas that intersect with player goals—creating social ecosystems you’d never predict.
- Desktop AI Assistants
Turn your desktop into part of the game:
- Build your own “Neuro Sama.” A personal AI companion that learns your habits, offers tips or challenges based on your playstyle, and even chats outside the game window.
- Make “Bengo Cat” truly come alive. Transform a cute on-screen pet into an intelligent feline NPC—reacting to your achievements, offering hints with purrs and meows, or changing its mood based on events.
Judging Criteria
We’ll be looking for entries that:
- Integrate AI as a pillar, not an ornament—NPCs should drive or deeply influence your core gameplay loop.
- Demonstrate clear guardrails, using LLMs or other AI tools as the “cherry on top” of solid systems (situational logic, memory management, deterministic behaviors).
- Push boundaries of creativity, whether through emergent narratives, surprising interactions, or novel UI/UX approaches.
- Maintain polish & stability—AI features should feel smooth and reliable, with fallback behaviors when LLM calls fail or misinterpret.
Technical & Design Reminders
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.