Spears of Exekias
Free · play online in your browser, no download
Two Greek vases, two heroes and one very personal argument: throw spears as Ajax, turn your vase to block, and restore a 2,500-year-old painting.
Official site ans106.itch.io, verified Nov 3, 2026. The developer's own itch.io page (ans106, display name Santo), linked from its official Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3 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.ioReleased · itch.io status: In developmentFree
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Mobile · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Spears of Exekias
A turn-based artillery duel between two Greek vases. You are Ajax: pull back and release to throw a spear like a slingshot, and turn your vase at the last moment to block the reply. Each vase has four faces with four powers: the hoplite strikes hard, the shield blocks, the chariot sends two spears and the lyre spends a note to mend a cracked face. You can turn once while an enemy spear is in the air, and a perfectly timed turn sends it back. Three rivals wait: a low drinking cup, a broad krater and a vase with a bilingual twist; every stone you win restores another fragment of the painting behind you, and a tougher rematch follows. The painting is Exekias's black-figure amphora of Ajax and Achilles playing a board game (Vatican Museums), redrawn in code. The game teaches through gestures, pictures and sound, and its only written text is the logo, as the jam's No Text restriction required; English narration tells the story and the heroes count their stones aloud in Ancient Greek. The developer, Santi (Santo on itch.io), credits Claude Code and OpenAI Codex with the code and the procedural art, directed by the developer, and ElevenLabs with the recorded music, voices and narration. Made for Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3. Free in the browser on itch.io with a mouse, or on a phone held sideways.
Content note: The page warns of brief high-contrast impact frames, flashes, screen shake, slow motion and camera zooms. (itch.io)
How it was built
Partially verifiedThe itch.io credits read: “Code, procedural art, technical work and page production: Claude Code and OpenAI Codex, directed by Santi.” The developer's jam answer says “Claude Code and OpenAI Codex helped write the code and the procedural artwork, which is drawn in code at runtime”, while Santo did the design, art direction, playtesting and all final decisions. Neither source gives a split between the two tools, a share of the code or a model.
- DeveloperJamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3 submission, “How did you use AI?”: “The game was made with AI tools, directed by Santo. Claude Code and OpenAI Codex helped write the code and the procedural artwork ... There is no AI running inside the gameplay.” — itch.io (Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3, hosted by dg)
Credited with Claude Code for the code, procedural art, technical work and page production (“Claude Code and OpenAI Codex, directed by Santi”); no split between the two is given.
Made for Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3 (submissions 30 Oct to 6 Nov 2026; theme Great Works of Art, restriction No Text). The developer did the design, art direction, playtesting and final choices; Claude Code and OpenAI Codex wrote the code and the procedural artwork, which is drawn in code at runtime after Exekias's amphora. ElevenLabs made the recorded music, the character voices and the English narration during development; the game also uses procedural music and synthesised sound, and its musical reference is the Seikilos epitaph in an original arrangement. No AI runs in the game.
- Engine / framework
- Not disclosed (HTML5)
- Languages
- Not disclosed
- Team size
- 1 (solo)Developer Reporteditch.io (Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3, hosted by dg)
- Initial build time
- Not disclosed
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“Code, procedural art, technical work and page production: Claude Code and OpenAI Codex, directed by Santi.”Verification notes: AI use from the itch.io credits and the developer's answer to “How did you use AI?” on the official Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3 submission page; gameplay, controls, the flashing warning, the art and music references, publication (6 Nov 2026, 04:56 UTC), status In development, genre (Fighting on itch.io) and the AI disclosure (AI Assisted, Code, Graphics, Sounds, Text) from the itch.io page; all read on 7 Nov 2026. The code evidence is the credit line, which attributes the code to Claude Code and Codex, and the jam answer, which says they “helped write the code”; neither gives a share or a split, so no AI code share is recorded, and Claude Code is listed first because the developer names it first. Developer: the same itch.io account (ans106, display name Santo) that made Barely Rocket Science, so the existing developer entry is used; the credits on this page use the name Santi, the jam answer and team list use Santo, and only one person is listed, so team size is recorded as one. The submission page says it was submitted 3 hours and 40 minutes before the 6 Nov deadline. Rating week was in progress on 7 Nov 2026 (4 ratings so far), so no placement exists. The jam's rule that AI must be part of the build is not code-specific. The amphora is an ancient work (6th century BC); the game's artwork is redrawn in code. The game file is a single HTML page that loads only itch.io's script; no calls to AI services were found. itch.io shows no public rating or download count. The game was not played.
Development history
Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3 opens (theme Great Works of Art, restriction No Text); submissions close on 6 Nov 2026.
Officialitch.io (dg)Published on itch.io and submitted to the jam a few hours before the deadline.
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) with a mouse on a desktop, or on a phone held sideways. A Support This Game button takes optional payments.
Not publicly available: itch.io rating, Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spears of Exekias by Santo itch.io | Store page | Nov 6, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Spears of Exekias by Santo for Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3 itch.io (Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3, hosted by dg) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 3 itch.io (dg) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) Santo | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
Get your badge
Made this game? Add a “Featured on VibeGameDB” badge to your site, GitHub README or itch.io page.
<a href="https://vibegamedb.com/en/games/spears-of-exekias" target="_blank" rel="noopener" title="View Spears of Exekias on VibeGameDB – the database of AI-built games">
<img src="https://vibegamedb.com/badges/featured-light.svg" width="250" height="54" alt="Featured on VibeGameDB – Spears of Exekias, an AI-built game" />
</a>Similar games
