Torch the Sky
A small sewer rat with a toy torch relights the dead lamps of a dark maze, one floor closer to the sky.
Official site ssang2.itch.io, verified Nov 3, 2026. The developer's own itch.io page (Ssang2), linked from its official AI Browser Game Jam 5 submission page.
Where to play
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- Play free — itch.ioitch.ioReleasedFree
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Torch the Sky
A short top-down maze game drawn in white lines on black. The light has gone out of the world; you are a small sewer rat with a toy torch, and on each floor you walk up to the dead lamps and relight them, and every lamp floods its corner with pastel colour. Lit places stay lit and nothing in the dark can enter them, but something that hates light hunts you from behind: a right-click flash scares it off, a dash is faster but louder, and three cracks break the torch. There are four timed floors, about ten minutes in all (the first two are a tutorial), and six hidden murals to collect in a gallery. The solo developer, Ssang2, says it was made by one person and three AIs in one week: Claude Code wrote all the code in Godot, including the line-art shader, the maze generator, the enemy behaviour, test bots that balanced each floor and the music, Claude (chat) turned playtest notes into specs, and Google Gemini drew the illustrations and murals. Free to play in a desktop browser on itch.io, with mouse and keyboard; it was entered in AI Browser Game Jam 5.
How it was built
Partially verifiedThe itch.io page credits Claude Code with all the code: GDScript, the line-art shader, the light and colour-spread system, the maze generator, the shadow enemy's behaviour, the test bots that balanced each floor, and the Python scripts that rendered the music from free sample libraries. The jam submission adds that Claude Code wrote the music itself (notes, arrangement, instrument choice) and designed the sound effects as code, rendered from CC0 instrument samples and recordings, and says no audio generation model was used. In the developer's loop, Claude Code built each change, ran 89 automated tests and the balance bots, and reported back with screenshots; the loop ran 31 times (73 feedback items, 196 commits, 23 tagged builds).
- DeveloperAI Browser Game Jam 5 submission, AI Tools Used: “Claude Code (Anthropic) — all the code: GDScript, the line-art shader, light and color-spread system, maze generator, shadow AI, tutorial, balance bots.” — itch.io (AI Browser Game Jam 5, hosted by Focaccai)
- DeveloperDevlog (22 Oct 2026): “Claude Code: the programmer. It wrote everything in Godot”, with every change coming back with screenshots and a short report. — itch.io (Ssang2)
Claude (chat) was the planning partner: it turned the developer's playtest notes into written specs and design documents and kept the numbered feedback table, per the itch.io page and the jam submission.
- DeveloperAI Tools Used: “Claude (Anthropic, chat) — rewrote my playtest notes as specs and design documents, and kept the numbered feedback table.” — itch.io (AI Browser Game Jam 5, hosted by Focaccai)
Made in Godot 4.7 in one week for AI Browser Game Jam 5. The developer set every rule and number, directed the art and wrote the prompts and playtest notes; Claude turned the notes into specs, Claude Code built and tested each change, and the cycle repeated 31 times. Google Gemini (Nano Banana) drew the character sheets, the cutscene illustrations and the six murals from the developer's prompts and reference images, upscaled with Real-ESRGAN. The music was written by Claude Code and rendered from CC0 instrument libraries (VSCO-2 Community Edition, VCSL); sound effects use CC0 recordings from freesound.org plus a few synthesized in code. The developer notes what did not work: an AI walk-cycle sprite sheet was replaced by a rat rigged and animated in code.
“This game was made by one person and three AIs, in one week.”- AI Browser Game Jam 5 submission (AI tools used)
- “How Torch the Sky was made in one week” (itch.io devlog)
Verification notes: AI use from the “How this was made” section and credits on the itch.io page and the AI Tools Used answer on the official AI Browser Game Jam 5 submission page, both re-read on 4 Nov 2026. Both credit Claude Code with all the code, so the AI code share is recorded as 100%. Gemini (Nano Banana) made only images, so it is described in the build text rather than listed as a tool. Team size 1 and the one-week development time from the page (“made by one person and three AIs, in one week”). Publication (22 Oct 2026, 13:54 UTC) and last update (29 Oct 2026, 20:28 UTC) from the itch.io page. The page URL uses the slug touch-the-sky while the title is Torch the Sky. The devlog (22 Oct 2026) gives slightly different loop figures from the page (about 70 feedback items and 80+ tests, against 73 items and 89 tests on the later page); the page figures are used. In the devlog the developer says it is their second game and that they are not a professional game developer. The “shadow AI” is scripted enemy behaviour; nothing in the sources describes AI used during play. Jam voting was still open on 4 Nov 2026, so no placement is recorded; itch.io shows no public rating. The game was not played.
Development history
Published on itch.io (13:54 UTC) and submitted to AI Browser Game Jam 5 (theme: Torch).
Devlog “How Torch the Sky was made in one week” describes who did what: the developer's notes, Claude's specs, Claude Code's builds and Gemini's illustrations.
Developeritch.io (Ssang2)Devlog “If you have five minutes, skip to floor 3” (20:19 UTC); the page was last updated the same day (20:28 UTC).
Observeditch.ioAI Browser Game Jam 5 submissions close; voting was still in progress on 4 Nov 2026.
Officialitch.io (Focaccai)
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; plays in a desktop browser (HTML5) with mouse and keyboard.
Not publicly available: itch.io rating, Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Torch the Sky by Ssang2 itch.io | Store page | Oct 22, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Rate Torch the Sky 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 |
| How Torch the Sky was made in one week itch.io (Ssang2) | Devlog | Oct 22, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) Ssang2 | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
