Duckster
A duck in a self-driving kart races seven rivals across five biomes to the 8,000 m finish, with a boss at the end of every zone.
Official site thewizster.itch.io, verified Nov 3, 2026. The developer's own itch.io page (thewizster), linked from its official AI Browser Game Jam 5 submission page.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- Play free — itch.ioitch.ioReleasedFree
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Mobile · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Duckster
A 2D pixel-art kart race starring a duck. The kart drives itself; your job is to keep it in one piece and get to the front of a field of seven rival ducks over five biomes to the finish line at 8,000 m. You jump barriers, potholes and enemies, stomp whatever you land on, boost to become a battering ram, and backflip off ramps for corn, while each biome after the first adds a road hazard: sand, oil, black ice and zero-gravity strips. A boss blocks the road before each biome change and before the finish (Tractor Ted, Sandstorm Sid, Big Rig Rhonda, Avalanche Al and Captain Cosmos), and a pit stop every 550 m offers three random upgrades. Each run starts with a pick of one of three random karts, and more karts unlock through achievements (there are 18 in all); banked corn buys permanent garage perks, and winning a Grand Prix unlocks a harder one, up to GP9. The page's project history says the game was first built as an endless kart runner with Claude Sonnet 4.6 after the project moved to Claude Code in March 2026, and rebuilt into the full race with Claude Opus 5.5 in October 2026; in a devlog the developer, who has written software for more than 30 years, says: “I have not written a single line of this code.” Free in the browser on itch.io, with keyboard or full touch controls; it was entered in AI Browser Game Jam 5.
How it was built
Partially verifiedThe project history on the itch.io page: in March 2026 “The project moves to Claude Code”, with a CLAUDE.md file, and “Duckster arrives as a second game, first an endless kart runner built with Claude Sonnet 4.6”. In October 2026 “Duckster is rebuilt into a full race with rivals, zone bosses, ramps and tricks, road hazards, a garage and Grand Prix levels, using Claude Opus 5.5”, followed by fixes (a fixed 60 Hz timestep, rival pacing and hazards, corrupt-save handling and banking corn on quitting). The history also says a “Forge AI review gate” was added to pull requests in October 2026.
- DeveloperAI Browser Game Jam 5 submission, AI Tools Used: “Claude, Gemini”. — itch.io (AI Browser Game Jam 5, hosted by Focaccai)
- DeveloperDevlog “Duckster: Road Rage” (25 Oct 2026): “Migrated to using Claude Code … I have not written a single line of this code. I have tested, reviewed, and driven the AI from the perspective of a game designer and project manager.” — itch.io (thewizster)
The jam answer lists Gemini alongside Claude. The page history says the sibling game Duck Run started in November 2025 as a single-page runner prototyped with Google Gemini 3 Pro from a hand-drawn sketch, with five rounds of prompting adding music and sound effects; it does not say what Gemini did for Duckster itself.
- Developeritch.io page history: “Nov 2025: Duck Run starts as a single-page runner, prototyped with Google Gemini 3 Pro from a hand-drawn sketch”. — itch.io
Part of a longer duck-game project, per the history on the itch.io page: the sibling Duck Run began in November 2025 as a Gemini 3 Pro prototype, and in March 2026 the project moved to Claude Code, where Duckster was first built as an endless kart runner with Claude Sonnet 4.6. In October 2026 it was rebuilt with Claude Opus 5.5 into the full race with rivals, bosses, hazards, a garage and Grand Prix levels, and an AI review step was added to the project's pull requests. The page lists parallax backgrounds, pixel-art icons, five biome themes plus a boss theme, and a layout that scales to any window.
- Engine / framework
- None (JavaScript)
- Languages
- JavaScript
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Initial build time
- Not disclosed
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“I have not written a single line of this code. I have tested, reviewed, and driven the AI from the perspective of a game designer and project manager.”Verification notes: AI use from the History section of the itch.io page and the AI Tools Used answer (“Claude, Gemini”) on the official AI Browser Game Jam 5 submission page, both re-read on 5 Nov 2026; model names are quoted as the page gives them. The history says Duckster was built in a Claude Code project with Claude Sonnet 4.6 and rebuilt with Claude Opus 5.5; the developer's devlog of 25 Oct 2026 (“Duckster: Road Rage”) adds “I have not written a single line of this code”, with the developer testing, reviewing and directing the AI; no percentage is given, so no AI code share is recorded. What Gemini did for Duckster itself is not stated. The itch.io AI disclosure ticks Code, Graphics, Sounds and Text. Duckster existed before the jam as an endless kart runner (from March 2026, per the history); whether that version was public is not stated, and the October 2026 rebuild is not dated within the month, so the game is not tagged as built during the jam. The sibling Duck Run: Endless is mentioned on the page but not recorded here. Team size is not stated. Publication (25 Oct 2026, 22:45 UTC) and last update (31 Oct 2026, 01:25 UTC) from the itch.io page. The build makes no calls to AI services (checked 5 Nov 2026). Jam voting was still open on 5 Nov 2026, so no placement is recorded; itch.io shows no public rating. The game was not played.
Development history
- November 2025
The sibling game Duck Run starts as a single-page runner prototyped with Google Gemini 3 Pro, per the page history.
Developeritch.io - March 2026
The project moves to Claude Code; Duckster is first built as an endless kart runner with Claude Sonnet 4.6.
Developeritch.io - October 2026
Duckster is rebuilt into a full race with rivals, zone bosses, a garage and Grand Prix levels, using Claude Opus 5.5.
Developeritch.io Published on itch.io (22:45 UTC) and submitted to AI Browser Game Jam 5 (theme: Torch).
Last update to the itch.io page at the time of checking (01:25 UTC); AI Browser Game Jam 5 submissions close the same day, and voting was still in progress on 5 Nov 2026.
Game performance
Each figure measures something different — concurrent players, owners, downloads and sales are never interchangeable and are never added together. Labels show where each number comes from.
itch.io
Free in the browser (HTML5); the layout scales to any window and has full touch controls.
Not publicly available: itch.io rating, Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duckster by thewizster itch.io | Store page | Oct 25, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Rate Duckster for AI Browser Game Jam 5 itch.io (AI Browser Game Jam 5, hosted by Focaccai) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| AI Browser Game Jam 5 itch.io (Focaccai) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Duckster: Road Rage itch.io (thewizster) | Devlog | Oct 25, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) thewizster | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
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