TORCHDEEP
An idle-incremental cave game: point a torch into total darkness, and whatever it lights stays lit for good.
Official site kqmigqkqri.itch.io, verified Nov 3, 2026. The developer's own itch.io page (kqmigqkqri), linked from its official AI Browser Game Jam 5 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.ioReleasedFree
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About TORCHDEEP
An idle-incremental game about light, played in a desktop browser with the mouse. You hold a torch in total darkness, and wherever you point it the cave appears and stays revealed; every lit patch pays a little ember, and ore pays more. Walls block the light, so pillars and corners cast real shadows, and half-lit ground slowly fades back if you leave it. The torch starts with only seconds of fuel; when it gutters out, the run ends and you spend your ember and ore on an upgrade tree of 39 upgrades and 325 levels before lighting it again. There are eight caves, each bigger and with its own rule: glowing moss that lights its neighbours, cobwebs that eat light, pools that throw it further, crystals that fire beams, wind that shrinks it, ember-stone that refuels the torch and, last, a huge sleeping thing made of light. A cave opens the next once it is 98% lit, and from 94% the remaining dark pockets are marked. One upgrade lets you place up to 12 torches, which keep lighting the cave between runs and even while the page is closed (up to 8 hours' worth), and progress saves in the browser. The developer says a full playthrough takes an hour or more. The developer, kqmigqkqri, says the game was made almost entirely by AI, using Claude (Anthropic) for everything: all of the game logic and screens, every picture (drawn live in code on a canvas), the music and sound (synthesized with Web Audio) and all of the text, with no image or audio files and no image or music generators. It was made for AI Browser Game Jam 5 (theme: Torch) and is free to play in the browser on itch.io.
How it was built
Partially verifiedThe itch.io page says TORCHDEEP “was made almost entirely by AI” and that the developer used Claude (Anthropic) for all of the game logic (cave generation, how light spreads, the upgrade tree, saving), every screen and the whole page, all of the graphics (drawn live in code on a canvas), all music and sound (synthesized with the Web Audio API) and every word of text. The work was split into specialist jobs (rules and balance, light and pictures, sound, screens and saving, browser testing, the page), each a separate Claude session working from a shared written spec; a lead Claude session wrote the spec, handed out the jobs and sent work back with fixes, and also came up with the game idea. A bot that plays the real game code was used to tune each cave's difficulty, and the page cites 2,337 automated engine checks in Node and 123 browser checks in headless Chrome. The developer chose to enter the jam, set the ground rules and approves what is published. Which Claude product or model was used is not stated.
- DeveloperJam submission, AI Tools Used: “Claude (Anthropic) for everything: code, graphics (all drawn by code on a canvas), sound and music (synthesised live with the Web Audio API) and text. No image or audio files and no image or music generators.” — itch.io (AI Browser Game Jam 5, hosted by Focaccai)
- OfficialJam rules: development must be heavily AI-assisted, with the majority of the game AI-generated. — itch.io (Focaccai)
Built by several Claude sessions, each handling one specialist job (rules and balance, light and pictures, sound, screens and saving, then browser testing and the page) from a shared written spec and API notes, with a lead Claude session writing the spec, assigning the jobs and checking the results; the game idea also came from the lead session. Difficulty was tuned with a bot that plays the real game code and a calibration script. The developer set the ground rules (free tools only, no image or audio files, honest AI disclosure) and approves releases. The game is a single HTML file of about 330 KB that draws everything on a canvas and synthesizes all sound with Web Audio; the developer says it makes no network requests.
- Engine / framework
- None (vanilla JavaScript)
- Languages
- JavaScript
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“TORCHDEEP was made almost entirely by AI. I used Claude (Anthropic) for everything you see and hear.”Verification notes: Gameplay, controls, build process and AI use from the developer's itch.io page (published 24 Oct 2026, 16:08 UTC; updated 31 Oct 2026, 11:28 UTC; status Released; HTML5) and the AI Tools Used answer on the official AI Browser Game Jam 5 submission page, both re-read on 5 Nov 2026. The developer writes as a human (“My part as the human”) under the itch.io name kqmigqkqri; no real name is given. Claude is recorded as the developer names it; whether the sessions ran in the Claude apps or another Claude product, and which model, is not stated. The page says “almost entirely by AI” but gives no code percentage, so no AI code share is recorded. The playthrough time of 71 to 80 minutes is the developer's bot measurement on four cave seeds, not player data. In a reply to a comment on the submission page the developer said the fuel gauge was changed to count real seconds and that the page now gives about 50 real seconds for a fully upgraded torch; the balance was said to be unchanged. Voting was still in progress on 5 Nov 2026 (it ends on 7 Nov, 04:00 UTC), so no placement is recorded. On 5 Nov the submission page showed 3 jam ratings (observed; jam votes, not players or reviews, so not recorded as a metric); the itch.io rating of 2.0 is a separate store rating from 1 rating. The web build was checked for calls to AI services and none were found. Team size and location are not stated. itch.io shows no download count. We did not play the game.
Development history
Published on itch.io (16:08 UTC) and submitted to AI Browser Game Jam 5 (theme: Torch), 6 days and 10 hours before the deadline.
itch.io page updated (11:28 UTC). AI Browser Game Jam 5 submissions had closed at 03:00 UTC; voting was still in progress on 5 Nov 2026.
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 a desktop browser (HTML5) with a mouse. The page accepts optional tips.
Not publicly available: Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| TORCHDEEP by kqmigqkqri itch.io | Store page | Oct 24, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Rate TORCHDEEP 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 |
| Official game page (language check) kqmigqkqri | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
