The video game industry's new cheat code: AI prompts
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A shot from a created video game. Photo credit: Matt Shumer/X
The reality of building your own video game is here, and just like so many other AI-driven changes, it threatens to permanently disrupt a $300 billion industry.
Why it matters: While there are limitations to what AI can build today, that's changing by the week, and gamers are optimistic this is only the beginning.
- "If something is kind of possible today, in a year, it's going to be nailed," Matt Shumer, an AI investor and video game builder, told Axios.
Driving the news: Gamers on X are posting videos of playable game demos built using LLMs, many of them resembling popular shooters like "Call of Duty" and "Counter-Strike."
- Many creators say they prompted Claude Opus 5 or DeepSeek to build these games, which often have tongue-in-cheek titles like "Modern Claudefare" or "Claude of Duty."
- There are also more wholesome games — like snowboarding, boat racing, dungeon exploration and "Animal Crossing"-style games. There's even a Spider-Man demo.
How it works: Many of these AI games are tied to the "Gauntlet Loop" — a prompting workflow developed in recent weeks by Shumer, who hosts many of these playable games on his website.
Reality check: AI-built games come with limitations. Current models can really only create remakes of games that already exist, because they rely on past data (like YouTube clips of old games) to construct levels and maps.
- It can take a lot of (expensive) prompting and many, many turns with AI models to craft something that looks new or original.
This is much different than how games are normally made. A modern AAA game can take hundreds of developers and years to build, and it requires millions of dollars to maintain.
- AI creators don't have the resources that big studios have, which is why the AI-built games aren't as expansive as, say, "Grand Theft Auto VI" from Take-Two Interactive's label Rockstar Games.
Zoom out: The rise of "one-shot" AI game prompting comes as the industry faces an existential crisis that threatens workflows and development.
- A hiring boom during the pandemic has led to scores of recent layoffs.
- Many gaming studios are looking for ways to cut costs, which has led to companies selling off smaller studios and cutting corners where they can.
What we're watching: Shumer predicts AI will eventually create full games just as quickly as it builds a website.
- And in that future, a small team of independent creators could build something as massive as "GTA VI" by directing their own agents.
- That's why companies might eventually turn to creators for the next big hit.
- "In a couple of years, you can imagine somebody with an incredible game idea can go to Rockstar and be like, 'Would you fund the development of this? Here's my idea.' And then Rockstar funds them with the tokens to go and do it," he said.
The bottom line: AI can generate a jumping Italian plumber hitting boxes. It cannot build and sustain the next "Super Mario Bros."
- Yet.
