8 Hot Takes on Vibe-Coding Games
Is it a flash-in-the-pan trend, or the start of something bigger?
This week was a16z speedrun Demo Day! Next week we’ll share a deeper look behind the scenes at the event, but today we’re bringing you some hot takes on a spicy topic.
Six weeks ago the former director of AI at Tesla, Andrej Karpathy, posted this off-the-cuff observation about his new approach to programming with support from LLMs:
Within just weeks, @levelsio went viral with a post showing a vibe-coded multiplayer plane game with “All code written almost 100% by AI.” More aspiring game devs quickly followed, showing off simple web games like hotairvibe.com by Josua Sievers. “What I love most about this whole vibe coding games scene is the incredibly supportive community,” Sievers wrote in an email to a16z speedrun.
But jokes about the trend quickly followed. “Vibe-coded this game this morning with 0 code edits,” one shitposter wrote next to an embedded video of a boss fight from Elden Ring.
Over on BlueSky, reactions were a bit more caustic: “You're a vibe coder huh? Weird way of saying ‘f—wit’ but you do you I guess,” wrote one poster.
And of course, no one is likely to get far making games without any coding knowledge. Even the most bullish vibe coders have written about the struggles of debugging AI-written code.
But still, there’s a feeling in the air that we’re at the beginning of something real. Earlier this week, Roblox CEO David Baszucki told Big Technology’s Alex Kantrowitz that his team plans to release “both text generation, as well as 3D object generation in Roblox experiences” this quarter, with the ultimate goal of allowing Roblox players to generate full experiences in games.
“The north star is not just object creation,” Baszucki told Big Technology, but “full on experience creation, where one could imagine someone drawing a few sketches of characters, describing a few fun types of gameplay and generat[ing] their own Roblox experience from that.”
In other words, serious “vibey” tools will soon be in players’ hands on at least one of the biggest games platforms in the world. So is this just a goofy trend, or the start of something more serious?
This week we asked a few founders and folks on the a16z speedrun team for their hot takes on vibe-coding. What follows are 8 of our favorite responses:
1) Coding is entering its social era
Most code will be written (generated?) by the time rich. Thus, most code will be written by kids/students rather than software engineers. This is the same trend as video, photos, and other social media. Of course this seems surprising because today most software is being written by highly trained adults, who are generally time poor but money rich. This will change, and it means that over time, software will become dominated by youth culture the same way that social media is. Are you ready for software memes? Or memes in the form of software? It’s all coming.
—Andrew Chen, General Partner at a16z
2) A lot of vibe-coding is sort of fake
People are acting like they vibe coded a game in two hours as a totally non-technical person, but this is a charade. It still takes quite a bit of prompt engineering and backend set up to get right. You can't just spin up Cursor, input "make flappy birds," and one shot a game... at least not yet.
—Robin Guo, Investment Partner at a16z
3) Text interfaces have their limits
There are so many parts of game development that just aren't expressed well via a text interface. For example, if you're making a 2D map of a Zelda-like dungeon, it would be really hard to explain what the room layout should be, where the keys should be found, and what the theme of the dungeon is via text. I think the next generation of these tools will have to figure out how to work just as well with visual representations, like a map editor or a dialog tree, as they do with code.
—Riley Dutton, Founder and CEO of Kitbash (an a16z speedrun portfolio company)
4) An onslaught of low-effort games will create an opportunity for AAA
Vibe coding is going to create a lot of shitty games. Making "fun" games is not easy. But it will turn up the volume a lot on non-vibe coded shitty games and put a lot of pressure on professional developers to do better.
If 80% of a game can be vibe coded then the 20% remaining becomes incredibly important:
great world building/character design
surprise and delight/polish, building shareable vignettes
mechanics innovation
social/multiplayer
ability to personalize in deep/new ways
Things like hand-painted pieces or a really small but impactful animation will end up being so much more important.
—Josh Lu, Investment Partner at a16z
5) But smaller teams might use it too
I think there’s a chance that some popular multiplayer games get built with 1/100 traditional team sizes.
—Sahil Lavingia, Founder and CEO of Gumroad
6) You might have to learn to vibe code for your next job
Vibe coding is about to be a much bigger part of the interview process—regardless of role type. In the near-term, it's going to be used as a validation technique for creativity/expression as well as problem solving/critical thinking (in the same way Conway's Game of Life is sometimes used for gameplay engineers). No shirt, no shoes, no vibe code, no job.
—Jordan Carver, Talent Partner at a16z
7) You probably won’t learn to do “real” code (and that’s fine)
We reached out to Lisha Li of Rosebud AI and asked for her take on one common criticism of vibe coding: that it prevents people from learning the principles that underlie “real” coding. Her response:
This misses the point about what is most interesting about vibe coding. If the product for vibe coding is designed correctly, you can let the user learn the right principles, not necessarily of coding, but in enabling them to make a great game. Principles of coding are only there because there are issues and limitations in the technical stack. In the AI space, we are even talking about designing new languages that are better suited for the best models. So it is short sighted to want people to learn how current code works. This can also be my bias as a mathematician. Everything is downstream of math.
If we want great games, we want the best storytellers and the best creatives to participate. Does it matter that they don't understand how best to structure their code? The thing that excites me the most is that vibe coding games can level the playing field. Like how YouTube let more creators participate in video creation versus Hollywood. Vibe coding can let more creators participate in game creation. It's like adding A LOT more indie devs! Always a good thing.
—Lisha Li, Founder and CEO of Rosebud.ai (an a16z speedrun portfolio company)
8) App stores will need to adapt
I believe we'll see an explosion of simple apps in the next six months creating an even bigger distribution challenge on mobile in an already crowded market. As the technology improves more and more games will be launched, eventually leading to next-gen platforms where players can prompt their own games and play with their friends. In this later stage, these new distribution platforms will challenge the incumbents.
—Doug McCracken, Head of Marketing at a16z speedrun
and, thinking along similar lines:
As the quality of vibe coded apps increases, the main challenge will shift from creation to figuring out distribution
—Jon Lai, General Partner at a16z
Those are our hottest takes. We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Is it all smoke and mirrors, or the start of something bigger?
💡 More Big Ideas
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The author of https://sottaku.app/ has built his entire app using AI LLM technologies. It's quite good. https://x.com/airkatakana