Epic announces game jam where you have to use AI

Unreal Engine maker Epic Games is running a game jam in November with thousands of dollars in prizes up for grabs. Contrary to so many art contests which ban the use of AI, participants in Epic’s event aren’t allowed to make their games without AI.

The theme of the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam will be revealed on November 11, and participating individuals and teams will then have from November 12–15 to produce their games with the help of AI tools (or else!).

Some will work in-person at a San Francisco event space, and there will be daily livestreams with progress updates. The winners in three categories will each receive $7,500, with smaller cash prizes for second and third place winners, as well as additional categories like “best team.”

Epic extended the invitation with a reference to The Matrix’s ‘red pill’ scene, presenting red-pilled AI-driven development as an opportunity to “ship awesome games in a weekend,” while old-fashioned blue-pilled development would have you “wait months to prototype.” The hand offering the red pill features an extra finger, a reference to the common mistake made by AI image generators.

The choice follows a recent pattern from Epic of aloofness and defiance directed at AI critics. Last week, the company referred to its new Epic Games Store launcher as “vibe coded,” sending the message that it’s not ashamed to rely heavily on AI for software development.

Following a report that Epic directed a team working on a Star Wars and Marvel crossover to pivot to “AI first” development, Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said that the company is “moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration.”

The CEO is bullish on AI not just for coding, but for other fields as well, saying that he expects creative work to become more about “direction” than manual creation.

“Developers who are getting value from AI should speak up,” Sweeney posted recently. “There’s safety in numbers. MOST developers are doing it and loving it—and if they’re not talking about it it’s mostly out of fear for haters attacking them, their product, and their company.”

Sweeney and Epic have received support for their AI positivity on X, but despite the platform’s concentration of Grok users and aspiring AI entrepreneurs, substantial resistance also shows up in the replies.

“So do yall think you invented the concept of a game jam or what?” said one poster in response to the AI MegaJam announcement. “The ludum dare game jam was only 24 hours in 2002, so like, a quarter of the time as your game jam. but you want to make it look like its only possible with AI with this ‘wait months to prototype.'”