PETRI
A short deep-space science-fiction game on TapTap: steer microscopic life in a petri dish with beams of light over eight days; a backend programmer made it alone with AI for TapTap's 聚光灯 2026 challenge.
Links go to the official store or developer page. Last verified Nov 4, 2026.
Where to play
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- View demo on TapTapTapTapDemo · Store page title reads "PETRI测试" ("test") and offers a trial ("试玩 DEMO"); the developer calls it a rushed spare-time experimentFree
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Mobile · Desktop · TapTap
About PETRI
A Chinese-language science-fiction game about microscopic evolution, released as a test build on TapTap. You are shut inside the 7th biological research station, sealed off for 192 hours with its AI deadlocked and no contact with the outside, with only an optical workbench, a neural eyepiece and the last culture sample. You have eight days: you set the starting parameters and then guide microscopic particles with beams of light as they organise themselves, to see what kind of microscopic world the emergence (涌现) effect produces. In the creator note the developer, who works as a game-server backend programmer, says they entered the jam alone "with a group of AIs". AI typed the code very fast, they write, but the faster it wrote, the faster the problems piled up, such as an invisible wall that swallowed every click on the workbench and cells that burnt out from overexposure in the dish, and they spent evenings after work cleaning up after it. Two days before the deadline there were too many branches and states to test by hand, so they had AI write more than a hundred headless automated regression test scripts that simulated mouse clicks and checked the results, and finished Windows and Android builds just in time. The developer describes it as a short, focused 30-to-60-minute experience inspired by optogenetics and the Game of Life. TapTap marks it as an entry in its 聚光灯 (Spotlight) 2026 21-day game-creation challenge. It is a free trial (试玩 DEMO) on Android, iOS and PC.
Screenshots and art
PETRI key art · TapTap store artwork
How it was built
Partially verifiedIn the creator note on the TapTap page the developer writes that they entered the jam alone with a group of AIs ("我一个人带着一群 AI，“组团”勇闯 Game Jam"), that AI typed code very fast ("AI 敲代码速度确实起飞") but left bugs they had to fix in the evenings, and that near the deadline they had AI write more than a hundred headless automated regression test scripts ("让 AI 帮我写了一百多个无头自动化回归测试脚本"). The developer had hoped AI would also draw textures and tune materials; the note does not say whether it did. It does not name a tool or model, or say how much of the code AI wrote.
- OfficialTapTap files the game under its "聚光灯GameJam" tag and shows the 聚光灯 2026 21-day challenge banner. Neither names the tool used for this game. — TapTap
One developer, a professional game-server backend programmer, working with several AIs in evenings after work, per the creator note: AI wrote code quickly and the developer fixed the bugs it introduced. Near the deadline AI wrote over a hundred headless automated regression tests that simulated mouse clicks and asserted results, which let the developer finish Windows and Android builds in time. The developer says the idea comes from optogenetics, where light of specific wavelengths controls cells, and from the Game of Life, where simple rules produce complex systems.
Verification notes: AI use and team size come from the developer's creator note on the TapTap page, which says the developer entered the jam alone with a group of AIs and that AI typed the code; team size is recorded as one on that basis (the note later jokes about "我们这群人机杂牌军", a ragtag team of human and machines). The developer is a professional programmer who fixed the AI's bugs, and the note does not say how much of the code AI wrote, so the game is recorded as AI-assisted rather than vibe-coded; the tool is recorded as undisclosed because the note only says "AI". Developer windfun, producer account 海崴 (the page does not say whether they are the same person), supplier (wuzhuojun), tags (聚光灯GameJam, 休闲), the 聚光灯 2026 21-day challenge banner, the game description, first-publication time (21 Oct 2026, 10:19 China time, page data), followers and platforms from the TapTap page. The note mentions Windows and Android builds; the page also lists iOS. The page is not in the 创意工坊 section and does not carry the TapTap制造 tag. The page shows no reviews or score yet. The "AI deadlock" in the description is part of the story, not AI used during play; nothing on the page describes AI-generated content during play. Challenge results were not checked. The page's 热度 (heat) figure is not recorded because it is not confirmed to be downloads. No source outside TapTap was found.
Development history
First published on TapTap (10:19 China time, page data) as an entry in TapTap's 21-day 聚光灯 2026 game-creation challenge.
OfficialTapTap
Game performance
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TapTap
TapTap's structured data lists a price of 0 (CNY). Whether the game has ads or paid features is not stated on the page.
Not publicly available: TapTap rating.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| PETRI on TapTap TapTap · Chinese (Simplified) | Store page | Oct 21, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) TapTap | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
