Vibe Coding is enabling an entirely new generation of game developers
If you’ve been scrolling around X much lately, you’ll likely see more and more posts from people who are now vibe coding their way to a fully functional game. And while yes, you could have started doing this last year, the tipping point was Levels creating a game, and hitting over $50k in MRR less than a month after launching it.
While the game certainly isn’t a AAA title, it is a really good example of how quickly, and easily, people can build games today, and vibe coding is the key, coupled with ThreeJS, a Javascript library that plays particularly nicely with AI coding tools.
What makes ThreeJS so interesting is that it’s a Javascript library that can create 3D scenes quickly and easily, all in code, and code that AI coding tools like Cursor, Windsurf and Bolt play very nicely with.
In many ways, vibe coding is enabling an entirely new generation of game designers, and the bar for entry is low, as you can see from the tweet above, some people are even just using tools like Grok and Sonnet directly to build.
Of course, we live in a world with a lot of angry people, and yes — if someone succeeds, and shares their success online, especially at the level that Levels is seeing, the haters come out. And come out they did on Reddit…
This one was so toxic I had to edit out the scathing insult in this post because I think if I published anything with these words in it, my article would get taken down from Medium. Safe to say, nefD is one angry and bitter person, but he doesn’t represent everyone on Reddit. People quickly came to defend what Levels is doing and how vibe coding is changing the game, literally.
I think the point SgathTriallair makesin the post above hits the nail on the head with these two sentences which I’m pulling out as a quote because they’re just so good:
No longer will a business, or even a single person with an idea, need to spend years learning how to code, or spend a hundred thousand hiring coders to build somethign to sell. Just this alone, the ability to imagine an app and then have it come into existence, will be a huge game changer.
There is a transformational shift taking place here, and the end result is something that I find hard to see as anything but absolutely wonderful. Vibe coding is unlocking an entirely new path for creativity, and enabling the next generation of game developers, that can start with an idea, and then jump in and start building.
This is such a massive shift from how the game development world has worked in the past. Rewind ten years ago and most people were going to school for game design. Fast-forward to today, and now major Universities like MIT are now offering accelerated paths to becoming a game designer…but accelerated means six months, $5000+, and 15–20 hours a week…to learn how to make games.
Now I know what a lot of people from the gaming world will say right now. People who are vibe coding games aren’t building games at the same level as professional game developers. And yes, that’s true, but that’s today. AI tools aren’t getting incrementally better, they are getting exponentially better, and not by the month, but by the week. It’s happening fast and I wouldn’t be surprised if a hit XBox or Playstation game over the next year, and I mean something bringing in millions of dollars, isn’t built by a vibe coder.
What Levels did the last couple of weeks, I think in many ways represents a tipping point, not just for vibe coding, but for game development. He inspired an entirely new generation of builders that saw what he did, and that gave them both the inspiration, and the courage to dive in and start making games. Here’s just a handful of examples, none of these games existed a month ago and I don’t think any of these people even thought about building a game until a few weeks ago ⬇️
These are just a handful of examples, I would honestly guess that hundreds of people are now vibe coding games, of which zero percent were doing this just one month ago. It’s happening fast and it’s only going to get better. And yes, as you can probably tell, I’m insanely excited about this both as a developer and a gamer.
When I lived in San Francisco I would go to GDC every year, not because I was building a game, but because I love to talk to people who are. I would head over to the indy game section of the conference and just go booth-to-booth talking to devs about their game, the inspiration behind it, challenges they hit, etc.
What I found was, so many truly inspired people who were incredibly creative, and using their creativity to build something that brings them, and other people joy.
And let’s be honest, we need more of that in the world today, and if vibe coding is enabling so many more people to create games, that bring even more people joy — how can you not see that as something truly incredible?
Okay, so maybe after reading this you want to get started vibe coding games, I don’t blame you, and yes — this is something you can learn to do over the weekend and have a fully functional game faster than you’d think.
There are a ton of free tutorials out there that you can get started with, one of my favorites is this one from Matthew Berman on You Tube.
In this tutorial Matthew walks you through how to build a strategy game (my favorite genre) from scratch and no, you don’t need to have any previous coding experience.
Oh and last but not least, I’m so excited about what’s happening at the intersection of vibe coding and gaming that I decided to launch a little blog this weekend on VibeCoding.games. My goal here is simple — I just want to highlight the awesome games people are making and share some resources to help others learn how to dive in and start making their own games.
So if you’re vibe coding away and building something cool, shoot me a note, I will never, ever, charge a game developer to be featured on the site. If you’re building something that brings other people joy, I want to amplify that.
And…last but not least, if you liked this article and want to see more like it, please clap, clap, and clap some more. Did you know you can give up to 50 claps on an article, try it 👏 👀
