Docs
How to make the best AI game
You have two days. The winning move is to let AI do the parts you are slow at and spend your own time on the one thing that makes the game fun. Pick one tool per job from the list below, keep the scope tiny, build in portrait from the first minute and test in a browser before you polish anything. Sponsored tools support the jam and are listed first in their category.
Writing code
Ziva Sponsored
AI agent that lives inside the Godot editor. It writes GDScript, builds scenes and nodes, and fixes errors in place, so a solo dev can ship a full game in a weekend. First prize includes a month of Ziva Ultra.
Cursor
AI-first code editor. Excellent for any engine whose project is plain text: Godot, Phaser, Unity C# scripts.
Claude Code
Terminal coding agent that reads your whole project, edits many files at once and runs your build and tests.
Codex
OpenAI’s coding agent, in the cloud and in your terminal, for larger tasks you can hand off and review.
Ludus AI
AI toolkit for Unreal Engine: C++ and Blueprints, scenes, sound, models and VFX from inside the editor.
Bezi
AI assistant for Unity projects. It indexes scenes, prefabs and scripts, and its agent mode applies reviewable changes.
Summer Engine
Prompt-to-game engine built on Godot 4. Describe the game, get a real project, export to web.
Music
Suno
Full songs and loops from a text prompt. Ask for a loopable instrumental in your game’s mood and export a few variations.
Udio
Another strong music generator, good for stingers, menus and short themes.
Voice and sound effects
ElevenLabs
Character voices, narration and a text-to-sound-effects model for jumps, hits, coins and UI clicks.
Images and pixel art
Retro Diffusion
Pixel-art model that outputs clean sprites, tiles and animations at real pixel sizes. The fastest path to a consistent 2D look.
ChatGPT
Image generation and editing for concept art, backgrounds, icons and store art, with good text rendering.
Claude
Art direction, colour palettes, prompt writing, and it produces SVG icons and UI elements directly.
Midjourney
Painterly key art and mood boards. Great for your itch.io cover and social posts.
3D models
Meshy
Text and image to 3D with textures and rigging. Exports GLB that drops straight into Godot or Unity.
Tripo
Fast text-to-3D and image-to-3D with clean topology options for game-ready meshes.
Rodin
High-detail image-to-3D generation for hero props and characters.
Hunyuan3D
Tencent’s open 3D generation models, usable online or self-hosted.
Luma Genie
Quick, stylised text-to-3D for props you need in bulk.
Engines
Godot
Our recommendation. Free, small web builds, portrait projects in two settings, and the best AI tooling support. See the export walkthrough.
Unity
Web export works; expect larger builds and longer load times on phones.
Phaser
JavaScript 2D framework. If your coding agent is strongest at web code, this is the shortest path to a browser game.
Tips that win jams
- One mechanic. A single verb that feels good beats five that feel fine.
- Portrait from minute one. Set the viewport before you build anything; retrofitting layouts eats hours.
- Export early. Upload a build to itch.io on day one so the last hour is polish, not panic.
- Consistent assets. Pick one image model and one style prompt and reuse it for everything.
- Say what you used. Judges and players love seeing the toolchain on your submission page.