Reach the Relay
A turn-based escort RPG: lead a crew through the ruins of an AI apocalypse and keep the scientist alive.
Official site reach-the-relay.pages.dev, verified Nov 3, 2026. Linked from the official Vibe Jam 2026 games data as the entry URL submitted under the X handle nomadhothouse; the game page's author metadata reads “Tom Donohue”. No developer-owned page links the game: that X profile (display name Tom D) is protected and has no bio or website.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- Play free — official siteBrowserReleasedFree
Runs in a desktop or mobile browser. No download.
Browser (no download) · Mobile · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Reach the Relay
A single-player turn-based escort RPG in the browser, set in the ruins of an AI apocalypse. Your job is to escort Dr. Vey, a scientist carrying two months of research on AI patrol patterns, from the Greenhouse to the Relay broadcast tower. You pick a leader and recruit two companions from five classes (Vanguard, Medic, Netrunner, Cybermonk and Scavenger), then choose one of three routes: The Long Highway, the Hollow Atrium Mall or the Dead Substation. Fights use SNES-style active-time-battle (ATB) combat against drones, spider-bots, nanite swarms, wired-in former humans and a boss called the Wreckwarden, with heat, electric and coolant attacks that different enemies resist or fear; some enemies go straight for Dr. Vey. The run ends if Dr. Vey's HP reaches zero or all three party members fall, and finished runs can be submitted to an online leaderboard. The entrant names Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Old School RuneScape's Temple Trekking as inspiration. It was made for the Cursor Vibe Jam 2026, whose rules required at least 90% of each game's code to be written by AI; the official submission lists Claude Code as the tool. It finished 65th of 945 entries. Free, on desktop and mobile browsers.
How it was built
Partially verifiedIn the official Vibe Jam 2026 submission the entrant lists Claude Code as the tool and answers Yes to the AI-written field. No devlog describes how Claude Code was used or which model ran it, and the submission covers the jam version only.
- OfficialJam rule 3: at least 90% of the code has to be written by AI. — Vibe Jam (Pieter Levels)
Built for the Cursor Vibe Jam 2026 on Phaser, with Claude Code named as the tool. The game is a Vite build with pixel-art scenes and a self-hosted pixel font; the online leaderboard runs on a small Cloudflare Workers service, and the game falls back to local scores when it is offline.
- Engine / framework
- Phaser
- Languages
- Not disclosed
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
Verification notes: Tool (Claude Code), engine, genre, pitch, inspiration and the multiplayer (No), mobile and portal flags from the entrant's answers in the official Vibe Jam 2026 games data (submitted 1 May 2026, 03:57 UTC; final rank 65 of 945 entries, no award); rule 3 on the jam page requires at least 90% AI-written code. Developer: the jam data gives the X handle nomadhothouse (display name Tom D; the account is protected), and the game page's author metadata reads “Tom Donohue”, so the record uses that name; team size is not stated. Story, classes, routes, enemies, the boss and the loss rule come from the game page's metadata and the text in its script. The script also contains a developer boss-test encounter, which is not presented as a player feature. We fetched the main script and its Phaser chunk: the network calls go only to the game's own files, its leaderboard service (reach-relay-leaderboard on workers.dev) and the jam widget and portal; no calls to AI services were found. The “AI apocalypse” is the story setting, not a game feature. The jam page's widget counters showed 328 plays and 958 portal transfers for reach-the-relay.pages.dev on 4 Nov 2026 (observed; sessions, not players or downloads, so not recorded as metrics). The release date is not stated; the jam submission is dated 1 May 2026.
Development history
Entered in the Cursor Vibe Jam 2026 (submission date in the official games data); the jam required at least 90% AI-written code. Final rank 65 of 945 entries, no award.
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.
Browser (official site)
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: Concurrent players (site), Monthly revenue, Gross revenue.
Sales & revenue (all platforms)
Browser game — there are no downloads to count.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor Vibe Jam 2026 — rules, prizes and game stats Vibe Jam (Pieter Levels) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Vibe Jam 2026 games data (entrant submissions, final rank, awards) Vibe Jam | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Reach the Relay (game page and script) Tom Donohue | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Tom D (@nomadhothouse) — X profile X | Social post | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) Tom Donohue | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
