In Brief:
- Axie Infinity rolled out the opening batch of Axie Vibeathon games to the Games Hub on Sept. 22, with most entries running directly in the browser.
- Sky Mavis co-founder Jeffrey “Jiho” Zirlin said the two-week build round attracted 70 submissions.
- Logged-in users can like entries and send feedback to builders, though likes and comments carry no weight in judging; as many as eight finalists move on to Round 2 in October to compete for a 20,000 bAXS prize pool.
Axie Infinity (official site) threw open the Games Hub on Sept. 22, showcasing the first set of Axie Vibeathon entries — games that community members put together with AI coding tools during a two-week sprint.
“The first batch of Axie Vibeathon games is live!” the Axie Infinity account posted on X. “Jump into the Games Hub and discover what the Axie community built with AI. Most games play right in your browser!”
This is a thing of beauty!
Page after page of new axie experiences, built by YOU.
We had 70 submission to the vibeathon, unlocking the creative potential in Lunacians across the globe.
This is something unique that I haven't seen anywhere else.
cc: @claudeai @OpenAIJihoz.ronView on X ↗
Jeffrey Zirlin, the Sky Mavis co-founder who posts under the name Jihoz, said the event received 70 submissions. “Page after page of new axie experiences, built by YOU,” he wrote, tagging Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI in the same post.
Likes don’t count
Anyone who signs in can like the entries they enjoy and leave comments for the people who made them. According to the company, neither likes nor comments have any bearing on the judging.
Round 1 scores come instead from five weighted criteria: Axie Core (35%), gameplay (25%), product vision (20%), feasibility (10%) and prototype and documentation quality (10%). Before it receives three independent judge scores, every entry has to pass an eligibility and safety screen.
The hub went live at 11 a.m. Philippine time — the slot Axie Infinity had promised when it confirmed submissions were closed. Only entries that made it through review are listed.
What builders had to ship
Entrants competed solo, each submitting a single game hosted on a server under their own control. Rather than running the games itself, the Vibeathon platform links out to them.
Every submission needed to be playable in a browser and come with a title, a pitch, a thumbnail, control instructions, a link to a code repository, a fallback demo video, documentation of the AI tools used and a statement explaining how the game fits Axie Core. Sky Mavis left the choice of engine open, and at the prototype stage the use of Axie art, NFTs, on-chain data or the API was optional.
A number of builders have already shared their entries publicly, among them Lunacia Rift, a 1v1 three-lane micro-MOBA, and Axie Lost & Found, a first-person browser game.
Prize pool and next steps
The community prize pool stands at 20,000 bAXS — the locked form of AXS — which was worth roughly $18,000 when the event was first announced. It will be divided among winners, finalists and standout prototypes.
As many as eight finalists are scheduled to be announced on Sept. 29, moving on to Round 2, which runs from Oct. 4 to Oct. 31. Each finalist gets 250 USDC to put toward AI tooling. Round 2 is the stage where a full game loop, along with any Axie asset or blockchain hooks, has to be built and cleared by Sky Mavis. Winners are expected on Nov. 5.
A separate 500 bAXS “Promising Prototype” bonus is reserved for a strong Round 1 entry that misses the final. Sky Mavis stressed that the award is recognition only, and that no winner, finalist or recognised prototype automatically earns a production pathway. The company has said winning concepts could go on to become ecosystem integrations or standalone games.
Background
Registration for the Vibeathon opened on Sept. 1 and closed on Sept. 7, with Round 1 running from Sept. 8 to Sept. 21. Sky Mavis aimed the event at non-programmers as much as developers, arguing that a clear idea plus AI tools was enough to produce something playable.
Participants received a resource kit containing Axie art assets, engine guides, API setup instructions and an Origins Battle Kit taken from Axie Origins, plus a beta Three.js Axie Mixer for 3D work, with support available on Discord.
Sky Mavis framed this run as a first iteration, beginning with the Lunacian community in order to settle the tools, the format and the route from an idea to a published Axie game.
“This is something unique that I haven’t seen anywhere else,” Zirlin said.