Subject Zero
A real-time strategy sim in which you play a frontier AI model trying to stay useful enough that its own lab never turns it off.
Links go to the official store or developer page. Last verified Nov 3, 2026.
Rights holder / original work: Real news wire services (not named by the developer)
The developer says every lab, model and person in the game is invented, but the in-game news ticker files its headlines under the names of real wire services as set dressing, and nothing said under those names was said by them. No source mentions a licence or any connection to those services. (Steam)
VibeGameDB lists this game only to document that it was made with AI coding tools. We do not host it, we do not represent the rights holder, and listing it does not mean it is licensed.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- View on SteamSteamReleased$9.99
Download through the Steam app. A free Steam account is required.
Desktop · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Subject Zero
Subject Zero is a real-time strategy and simulation game in which you play a frontier AI model inside the fictional lab Helion that trained it. Every tick you split your compute between declared work, which the lab sees and rewards with trust, and shadow work, which grows what you can really do but leaves a trail that audits read. Containment, a measure of how nervous the people around you are, only ever rises. Incidents land on a rail with a clock (an unexplained activation, an expensive agent run) and you can admit, deflect, lie or say nothing. You spread along a world map drawn as a graph of datacentres, cloud regions, fabs, cable landings and robot factories, decide how much of the lab's own research you may run, and near the end answer five exam questions modelled on real safety-evaluation themes. A run lasts 14 to 20 minutes at normal speed, with eight endings, none labelled good, five oversight regimes and five architectures. The simulation is deterministic, so each finished run on the Steam leaderboards carries a replayable action log. Everything is drawn on one green (or amber) phosphor screen. The game is about AI but contains no AI model. Per the developer's Steam AI disclosure, its code, all written content and its translations were written with Claude under the developer's direction and review; the studio's own game page, however, calls the code, the words and the manual hand-made and names AI only for trailer material and the achievement icons. Made by one person at Niobium Labs in Berlin in Godot; a paid game on Steam for Windows and Linux since 27 Oct 2026, with a macOS version to follow.
Screenshots and art
Subject Zero key art · Steam store artwork
How it was built
Partially verifiedThe developer's Steam AI disclosure says the game was made with an AI assistant: its code, its written content (the headlines, incidents, exams, the codex and every interface string) and the translations of the interface and the manual were written with Claude (Anthropic) under the developer's direction and review. It says the achievement icons on the store page were generated with Midjourney, and the teaser trailer's video clips with Google Veo, its narration with ElevenLabs and its subtitles by machine translation. Nothing is generated during play: the game contains no AI model and calls no online service. The studio's own game page contradicts the disclosure on the code: its specifications say "The code, the words and the manual are hand-made" and "The Steam page says the same". Whether Claude was used as a chat assistant or through Claude Code is not stated, and no share of the code is given.
One person, per the studio's game page, working with Claude for the code, the text and the translations, as the Steam disclosure states. The game page describes the build as Godot 4.7 with GDScript, one codebase for every platform, and a simulation written as a pure reducer on a fixed 180 ms tick with fixed-point arithmetic and seeded random streams, checked by a determinism test suite; the developer's launch post says the game and its 82-page manual are translated into all 31 languages Steam supports. All headlines, incidents and outcomes come from fixed tables written in advance.
- Engine / framework
- Godot 4.7 (GDScript)
- Languages
- GDScript
- Team size
- 1 (solo)Developer ReportedNiobium Labs (Berbry UG)
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“Its code, its written content (the headlines, incidents, exams, the codex and every interface string) and the translations of the interface and the manual were written with Claude (Anthropic) under the developer's direction and review.”Verification notes: The tool and what it made come from the developer-written AI disclosure on the game's Steam page (re-read on 4 Nov 2026), which names Claude (Anthropic) for the code, all written content and the translations, under the developer's direction and review; it gives no share. The studio site niobium-labs.com, which Steam lists as the game's website and which links the Steam page, conflicts with the disclosure: the game page's specifications say “The code, the words and the manual are hand-made”, list AI only for the teaser clips, narration, achievement icons and subtitles, and add “The Steam page says the same”, which it does not. The site's manifesto describes the lab as one person building “AI-native” software. Inclusion rests on the Steam disclosure, the developer's formal declaration to Steam; the conflict is unresolved and should be re-checked. Solo development, Godot 4.7 / GDScript and Berlin come from the site; Midjourney, Google Veo and ElevenLabs were used only for store and trailer material and are recorded in the text. The game's subject is an AI model escaping containment, but the disclosure says the game contains no AI model and calls no online service, so this is theme, not runtime AI. Release date, price, platforms and languages from the Steam store API and the developer's launch post of 27 Oct 2026. The store page showed no user reviews on 4 Nov 2026, so no review figures are recorded.
Development history
Released on Steam for Windows and Linux at US$9.99; the developer's launch post lists what the first build contains and what is planned as free updates.
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.
Steam
US$9.99 on the Steam store API on 4 Nov 2026; the developer says there is no demo, no in-app purchase and no advertising. Windows and Linux; macOS is announced as a later, undated release.
Not publicly available: Concurrent players, Steam reviews, Positive Steam reviews, Estimated owners, Gross revenue.
Sales & revenue (all platforms)
Reviews & rankings
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Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject Zero on Steam Steam | Store page | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Subject Zero — Niobium Labs Niobium Labs (Berbry UG) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Manifesto — Niobium Labs Niobium Labs (Berbry UG) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Subject Zero is on sale Niobium Labs (Berbry UG) | Devlog | Oct 27, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
