For immediate release
CURSOR VIBE JAM 2026: THE WORLD'S BIGGEST AI-MADE GAME JAM RETURNS WITH $35,000 IN PRIZES
Sponsored by Cursor, Bolt.new, and Glif. Runs April 1 – May 1, 2026. Deadline 1 May 2026 @ 13:37 UTC.
The Vibe Jam is a yearly, open benchmark for how fast AI coding is improving. Every edition measures what a solo developer with an AI copilot can ship in a single month — and every year the games get noticeably better. 2026 is the second run.
The story so far
Independent maker and entrepreneur Pieter Levels (@levelsio) is hosting the second edition of the Vibe Jam, an annual game jam where every entry is built primarily with AI coding tools. The 2026 edition — officially branded the Cursor Vibe Jam 2026 — launched on April 1, 2026 and runs for 30 days.
The inaugural Vibe Jam 2025 became a viral moment in the AI-coding community: it drew over 1,000 submissions in its first month and was judged by Andrej Karpathy (former Director of AI at Tesla, co-founder of OpenAI), alongside @levelsio and a panel of game developers. The term "vibe coding" — the practice of building working software by iterating in natural language with an AI assistant rather than hand-writing every line of code — was coined and popularized by Karpathy earlier in 2025; the Vibe Jam is the first dedicated competition around that idea and demonstrated that the approach was production-ready for interactive, browser-playable games. The archive of 2025 submissions is still live at vibej.am/2025.
What's new in 2026
The 2026 edition scales up significantly on the back of last year's momentum:
- $35,000 cash prize pool — $20,000 Gold, $10,000 Silver, $5,000 Bronze. All prizes doubled from the 2025 edition ($10,000 / $5,000 / $2,500), taking the total prize pool from $17,500 to $35,000.
- Three confirmed sponsors:
- Cursor (Diamond) — the AI code editor.
- Bolt.new (Gold) — the in-browser AI dev environment from StackBlitz.
- Glif (Silver) — the visual AI workflow platform.
- Most Popular sub-prizes awarded to the top game built with each sponsor's tool.
- A portal webring — optional exit portals in each game that teleport players directly from one jam entry to the next, tracked by a live portal-transfer leaderboard.
- A real-time widget and portal stats system so every game on the site reports live player counts.
- 120 games already submitted as of this release.
Rules
- Anyone can enter with their game.
- At least 90% of the code has to be written by AI.
- The game must be started on or after April 1, 2026 — don't submit old games.
- One entry per person. Focus on making one really good game.
- The game must be playable on the web with no login, no signup, and free-to-play — preferably on its own domain or subdomain.
- No loading screens and no heavy downloads. Players should be in the game almost instantly (asking for a username is fine).
- Any engine is allowed, but Three.js is recommended for browser-first 3D.
- Multiplayer games are preferred but not required.
What to build with
Entrants can use any AI coding tool. The organizer specifically recommends Cursor's Composer 3 and Bolt.new — both are fast, affordable, and work well with Three.js for building browser games.
Who it's for
Vibe Jam is open to anyone, anywhere — solo hobbyists, AI tool makers, professional game developers, students, and first-time coders alike. The only requirement is that the game is built primarily with AI coding assistance and is submitted through the form at vibej.am/2026 before the deadline. Last year's submissions came from more than 50 countries.
The jury
Judging is led by Pieter Levels (@levelsio) and @s13k_, with additional game developers and AI practitioners joining the panel — to be announced. Sponsor and jury suggestions are still welcome; DM @levelsio on X.
A yearly benchmark for AI coding
Vibe Jam's core purpose is to act as an annual, public benchmark for AI coding progress. By running the jam every year with the same 30-day window, the same "solo dev + AI copilot" constraint, and the same free-to-play-in-browser requirement, each edition becomes a direct, year-over-year snapshot of what AI-assisted development can produce.
The 2025 jam showed that vibe coding could ship thousands of playable browser games in a month. The 2026 jam is expected to show how much closer those games now sit to real commercial titles — and subsequent editions will keep tracking that curve. The submissions themselves are the benchmark: the gap between an AI-written jam entry and a studio game shrinks visibly every year.
Key dates
- Jam opened: April 1, 2026
- Submission deadline: May 1, 2026 @ 13:37 UTC
- Judging and winners announced: shortly after the deadline
Quote from the organizer
"It will be interesting to see the difference in quality with last year, and the Vibe Jam can be kind of like a fun benchmark for AI coding seeing it close in on real commercial games I think."
— Pieter Levels, organizer
About the organizer
Pieter Levels (@levelsio) is a Dutch serial entrepreneur, best known for running profitable one-person internet businesses including Nomads.com and Remote OK, and more recently the viral browser game fly.pieter.com. He is an outspoken advocate of AI-assisted development and has been publishing real-time build logs of his own vibe-coded startups for years on X.
Assets & contact
- Jam homepage: vibej.am
- Last year's archive: vibej.am/2025
- Open Graph image: vibej.am/2026/og.jpg
- Sponsors: cursor.com · bolt.new · glif.app
- Press contact: DM @levelsio on X.
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