Incredible! The 2025 Vibe Coding Game Jam Story (#vibejam)

Hello world,

This week, we are taking an extended look at a truly significant event in our field: the 2025 Vibe Coding Game Jam (#vibejam). To fully appreciate its impact, we must first understand its fascinating origin story, which begins with a single, spontaneous experiment by Pieter Levels (@levelsio). This story perfectly illustrates the core ideas of vibe coding.

The Spark: How Fly.pieter.com Was Born from an Idea and AI

Pieter Levels is well-known in the online entrepreneur community for building successful businesses like Nomad List and Remote OK, often working alone. However, he had absolutely no previous experience in game development. In late February 2025, driven by curiosity about the power of new AI tools, he decided to try something audacious.

Using an AI-powered code editor called Cursor, he provided a very straightforward prompt: essentially, "make a 3D flying game that works in a web browser." The result, achieved in an astonishingly short timeframe of approximately three hours, was a functional, multiplayer online flight simulator. He named it fly.pieter.com.

Think about this: from zero game development knowledge to a working online multiplayer game in just three hours. This was not a complex game like those from big studios, but it was playable, interactive, and built almost entirely by guiding an AI. The technology stack included tools like Three.js for handling the 3D graphics in the browser, PeerJS and WebSockets to enable real-time interaction between players, and various AI models (like Grok and Claude) assisting with backend logic and fixing problems. This process – focusing on the desired outcome ('the vibe') and letting AI handle the complex coding syntax – is precisely what Pieter later termed "vibe coding."

Going Viral: Unexpected Fame and Sudden Challenges

Pieter shared his achievement immediately on the social platform X (formerly Twitter), where he has a large following due to his "build in public" approach. The game, being free and instantly playable in any web browser without downloads or logins, attracted attention very quickly.

The situation accelerated dramatically when Elon Musk retweeted Pieter's post on February 26th, commenting, "Wow, this is cool. AI gaming will be massive." This endorsement brought enormous visibility. Within just a few days, the game recorded 89,000 unique players, with peak concurrent users reaching 26,000 – numbers usually associated with much larger productions.

However, this sudden fame brought serious technical difficulties. The game's servers faced a significant Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack, overwhelming them with 120 million requests. Pieter had to work quickly with services like Cloudflare to keep the game online, while also fixing other issues that arose from the unexpected scale, such as massive log files filling up server space.

Monetization: Turning Virality into a Business

Pieter Levels is fundamentally an entrepreneur, so he quickly explored ways to make his viral creation financially sustainable, and potentially profitable. In early March 2025, he introduced two main revenue streams:

1. Microtransactions: Players could purchase an upgraded F-16 fighter jet within the game for $29.99. While niche, this brought in initial income ($1,270 from 9 sales quickly).

2. In-Game Advertising (Blimps): This proved highly successful. He offered virtual blimps flying in the game's sky as advertising space for sponsors. Companies could display their logos for a recurring fee.

The response to the blimp advertising was remarkable. Within about ten days, he had sold 19 blimp slots and 12 F-16s, generating an impressive $38,360 in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR). The growth continued at an explosive pace. By March 12th, only 17 days after the game's creation, the MRR reached $87,000, putting the game on track for over $1 million in Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR). By mid-March, player numbers hit 320,000, and MRR reportedly exceeded $100,000. This showed that even simple, rapidly-developed, AI-assisted games could create significant financial value.

A Cultural Moment: Inspiring and Challenging the Status Quo

The rapid success of fly.pieter.com became more than just a business story; it turned into a cultural event within the tech and gaming communities. It served as powerful proof that AI could drastically lower the barriers to creating and launching software.

Naturally, this sparked debate. Some established game developers, like Jonathan Blow (creator of Braid), criticized the game's simplicity and lack of depth, arguing that creating truly good games requires much more than just getting something functional on screen quickly. Pieter Levels responded energetically, accusing critics of "gatekeeping" and defending the value of speed, iteration, and fun enabled by "vibe coding."

Despite critiques about potential security flaws or lack of polish, the game resonated deeply with many aspiring creators and indie developers. It inspired a wave of similar AI-assisted projects, with new websites emerging just to catalogue these "vibe coded" games. It demonstrated a new path: using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and others as partners to bypass traditional development bottlenecks.

The Pivot: From Solo Success to Community Challenge

Having proven the concept and achieved substantial financial success with fly.pieter.com, Pieter decided to channel this energy outwards. On March 17th, 2025, he launched the 2025 Vibe Coding Game Jam. He effectively used his own journey as the inspiration and catalyst, funding the prize pool potentially from the game's revenue.

The rules were designed to encourage the same principles that led to fly.pieter.com:

• Games must be primarily AI-coded (80%+).

• They must be web-based and instantly playable (no downloads/logins).

• Focus on getting ideas built and shared quickly.

The #vibejam Journey Revisited

Let's recap the game jam's progression, adding a bit more detail:

• Announcement & Kickoff (March 17): The jam begins with an initial $5,000 prize and @boltdotnew sponsoring. The core challenge: build a game using vibe coding.

• Rapid Early Growth (Days 1-5): Participation explodes. Day 1 sees 100+ creators joining. By Day 3 (March 20), over 250 submissions are in. By Day 5 (March 22), it's 350+. Recognizing the enthusiasm and desire for more development time, the initial March 24 deadline is extended to April 1st. @coderabbitai also joins as a sponsor.

• Mid-Jam Momentum & Upping the Stakes (Days 8-12): The submission count climbs steadily: 500+ by Day 8 (March 25), 700+ by Day 12 (March 29). Levelsio encourages deeper AI integration within games. The credibility and excitement are boosted significantly with the announcement of a prestigious judging panel (@karpathy, @mrdoob, @timsoret, @s13k_) and a much larger prize pool ($10k 1st, $5k 2nd, $2.5k 3rd). A side competition for the best jam website is also added.

• The Final Rush (Last 3 Days): With the April 1st deadline approaching, the pace intensifies. Levelsio's updates mark the final countdown – 3 days left (700+ games), 36 hours left, 12 hours left (870 games!).

• The Astonishing Conclusion (April 1-2): Just before the deadline closes (April 1st, 23:59 UTC), the final tally surpasses 1,000 submitted games. A truly massive outpouring of creativity fueled by AI tools.

Examples of Vibe Coded Creations from the Jam

While it is impossible to feature all 1,000+ entries, here are a few specific examples that surfaced online, indicating submission to @levelsio for the #vibejam:

• The Sticky Puppet Game: This physics-based game involving a swinging puppet was highlighted by Levelsio early on (Day 3). It was created by Tim Trussner.

• Unnamed 3D Platformer for Developers: Submitted by @iraftopo just an hour before the deadline, this game humorously simulates the challenges developers face launching apps.

• Threevial: Created by @Thenanox19, this is a multiplayer 3D trivia game taking inspiration from the popular show Squid Game.

• VibeCanvas: A collaborative 2D pixel art game where multiple users can draw together in real-time, submitted according to @VibeCodingWiki.

• A Working Claw Machine Game: An intriguing entry, apparently submitted by Pieter Levels himself, featuring a playable claw machine filled with 3D pretzels.

These examples, just a small sample, hint at the diverse range of concepts people were able to realize using the vibe coding approach during the jam.

Why This Whole Saga Matters for the Future of Creation

The journey from fly.pieter.com's rapid creation to the conclusion of the #vibejam offers profound insights:

• Democratization of Development: AI tools are dramatically lowering the technical skill required to build functional software, empowering more people with diverse ideas.

• Unprecedented Speed: Vibe coding enables incredibly fast prototyping and iteration, potentially changing development cycles.

• The Power of Community: Events like the #vibejam foster collaboration, shared learning, and collective excitement around new technologies.

• Shifting Focus to Creativity: By automating much of the coding syntax, developers can focus more on the core idea, user experience, and overall 'vibe' of their project.

• AI as a Partner: This movement highlights a shift towards viewing AI not just as a tool, but as a collaborator in the creative process.

• New Developer Roles: Skills like effective prompt engineering, AI output evaluation, and system integration may become increasingly important.

Looking Ahead

The immediate next step is the judging process for the #vibejam. The winning entries, selected by the esteemed panel, will surely be influential and provide further examples of what is possible with this approach. We will be keenly watching for those results.

Beyond the winners, the impact of over 1,000 people successfully building a game, perhaps for the first time, is significant. It likely inspired many participants to continue exploring vibe coding and AI-assisted development.

You can immerse yourself further in the projects and discussions by exploring the #vibejam hashtag on X.

The story of fly.pieter.com and the resulting Vibe Coding Game Jam is a powerful chapter in the ongoing narrative of how artificial intelligence is transforming creation. It is a clear signal that the way we build software is changing rapidly and excitingly.

We will continue to explore these developments and share insights in future editions.

With best regards,

Imad,

 onepromptman.ai