Cybie's Code in the Cosmos

Project Story

Inspiration

I wanted to create a new kind of incremental simulation experience inspired by our modern world, which is increasingly becoming more sci-fi by the day. The rapid advancement of AI feels both thrilling and unsettling, so I wanted to capture that tension. The game tells a story about computing/AI progress with lessons about safety, asking players to balance ambition with responsibility.

What it does

Cybie's Code in the Cosmos is an incremental clicker about building an AI compute empire while managing ethical alignment. Players tap to generate compute and purchase hardware that scales compute and intelligence exponentially. The twist: automation decreases human alignment with the tech, and alignment falling too low has some dire consequences.

How we built it

A lot of brainstorming to find a unique game idea and tons of Typescript. I heavily leveraged the GenAI tools in the editor. All my SFX are public assets or GenAI made. Also, I used Skybox, Mesh and Ambient Audio GenAI in the project. A non-embodied AI NPC provides breaking news based on player decisions.

Challenges we ran into

Optimizing the CustomUI that houses my core game was pretty challenging, there was a lot I learned about the limitations and best practices.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The core game is in one CustomUI in the world which I think is pretty cool. Also, a mathematical planet rotation system that automatically spins the globe to perfectly frame each hardware purchase in the camera view, creating nice cinematic reveal moments.

What we learned

I discovered Horizon Worlds at the beginning of the month and had no prior experience with Typescript. So the past few weeks have been a heavy nosedive into the documentation, experimentation, and lots of trial and error.