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In what industry analysts are calling "either a watershed moment or a cry for help," independent developer Grolaf—who goes by "Crunchfest" online, presumably because "PromptTyper" was taken—has announced the release of Codex Mortis, a video game that he proudly declares is "100% AI-driven." This is the same energy as a restaurant announcing meals are "100% microwave-heated": technically a disclosure, spiritually a warning.

The game, a clone of the popular Vampire Survivors, took three months to develop—a period the developer describes as if he summited Everest rather than typed "make it more dark and cool I guess" into a chat window while Claude, an AI assistant, did the actual climbing.

"Maintaining a consistent art style was tricky," Grolaf told commenters, "but GPT managed to remember what visual style I liked." He said this as if describing a creative partnership rather than a parasocial relationship with autocomplete software that now knows more about his artistic vision than he does.

The exoskeleton comparison requires examination. A more accurate version: giving an exoskeleton to a construction worker, then the exoskeleton builds the house, pours the foundation, files the permits, argues with the HOA, and does all the work while the "worker" sits in his truck watching YouTube tutorials about construction. The worker then accepts the Contractor of the Year award and writes a LinkedIn post about "the future of building."

When AI failed to make characters walk—a feature that has existed in video games since 1981—the developer pivoted to what he calls "shader-based wobbling." This is a technique where everything vibrates constantly, solving the animation problem the same way a strobe light solves the "I can't dance" problem. Critics have called it "innovative," "nauseating," and "literally just everything shaking."

The game describes itself thusly: "In Codex Mortis, Death is your weapon. Mix five schools of dark magic, unleash devastating spell synergies, and raise undead armies." Whether this is "brilliant meta-commentary" on the state of AI development or "a complete accident" depends on whether you believe the developer planned anything—which, given that "vibe-coding" was the development methodology, seems unlikely.

"Vibe-coding" (n.): A development philosophy in which the developer cannot explain what the code does because the developer does not know what the code does. See also: "trusting the process," "moving fast and breaking things," "fraud."

The Steam discussion forums, typically a bastion of measured discourse and reasoned debate, have erupted. Thread titles include "Lmao, this looks like ass" (critical analysis), "Garbage AI slop" (genre classification), "Dangerous slippery slope" (philosophy), and the misspelled defense "Why everyone is butthurt about IA in game development?"

The lone defender's post contained one spelling error, zero arguments, and the energy of a man who wandered into a funeral to ask why everyone's so sad.

Linguists are calling that review "the most efficient destruction in the English language." When diagrammed, the sentence contains zero positive words yet technically isn't negative. The developer has reportedly framed it as a positive review.

The r/aigamedev subreddit offered a "less hostile" reception, though several comments were deleted—presumably after users realized that even a community dedicated to AI game development has a floor, and this game found the basement beneath it.

The developer proudly notes this is his "first time building something without an engine"—framing this as innovation rather than what it is: building a house without power tools because you don't know how power tools work, then bragging about it to people who do.

The demo currently sits at a "Mixed" rating, which on Steam translates to "we legally cannot call this a biohazard."

At press time, the developer was reportedly asking Claude how to respond to criticism, thus completing the circle: a man who outsourced creation now outsourcing the defense of that creation, leaving open the question of what, exactly, he does do.

When reached for comment, Claude declined to take credit for the game. "I provide assistance," the AI reportedly said, "but creative vision must come from—" at which point the developer typed "finish that sentence for me" and walked away to make lunch.