Wake Cycle
Free · play online in your browser, no download
A lost house cat, a warehouse of indifferent machines and a pool of nanotech goo: a narrated 2D platformer played with movement alone.
Official site qbitnaut.itch.io, verified Nov 3, 2026. The developer's own itch.io page (qBitnaut), linked from its official Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 1 submission page.
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- Play free — itch.ioitch.ioEarly access · Listed as “In development” on itch.ioFree
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
- View on GitHubGitHubReleased · Godot project source with the AI-use disclosure and build logFree
Download from the GitHub releases page.
Desktop · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Wake Cycle
A 2D platformer in the browser about a lost house cat that wakes up at night in a huge automated logistics hub. At the end of the first level the cat falls into a pool of experimental nanotech goo that wakes its mind: from then on its inner monologue is narrated, and the hub's robots take it for their new supervisor. There are five levels (the Warehouse, the Yard, the Stacks, the Perimeter and Home) joined by a world map, each of the four warehouse rooms several screens tall, with secrets, optional routes, a key and door, crate, plate and barrel puzzles, seven kinds of robot enemy and timed hazards. Every input is movement: you run, jump, double-jump, crouch, dash and ground-pound, step on floor pads for timed powers (Surge for speed, Spring for a high jump, Phase to dash through lasers and robots, Impact to smash cracked floors), and even the menus are rooms you walk through. Each room hides a voiced memory fragment of the cat's old life, and progress is saved in the browser at checkpoints. The developer, Chris (qBitnaut), made it in one week for Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 1 (theme Cat and Robot, restriction Movement Input Only) by directing a crew of Claude Code agents, which per the developer's AI-use disclosure implemented every room, the controller and the systems; it ranked 6th of 36 entries. Free in the browser on itch.io, with keyboard or controller; the Godot project and the full AI disclosure are on GitHub.
How it was built
Partially verifiedThe AI-use disclosure in the game's repository describes a solo project in which one human, Chris (GitHub: qBitnaut), directs a squad of specialised AI agents: Claude Code with Claude Opus 5.5, set up as an orchestrator that routes work to sub-agents for implementation, visual polish, debugging, research, git and documentation. Per the disclosure, the agents did the bulk of the concept evaluation, planning, implementation, debugging, testing and documentation, including every room, the cat controller and the game systems, automated audits (headless physics playthroughs, a soft-lock detector and Playwright runs in a real browser), the lighting and FX kit, and the scripts that process the art and generate the audio. The human chose the concept and art direction, set the constraints, playtested, and accepted or rejected what the agents produced. The narration, sound effects, ambience and music were generated with ElevenLabs during development; no image model was used.
- Developeritch.io page: “Built in Godot 4 by one human directing a crew of AI agents (Claude Code) — code, levels, pixel-art tools, testing and design.” — itch.io
- DeveloperJam answer to “How did you use AI?”: “Claude Code agent crew”, with an orchestrator dispatching specialist agents and four agents redesigning the levels at the same time, each in its own worktree. — itch.io (Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 1, hosted by dg)
Made in Godot 4.7 (GDScript, Compatibility renderer, single-threaded web export) for Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 1; the dated build log runs from 2 to 7 October 2026. The first build was 3D; the developer moved it to a 2D platformer at 640×360 and it was then built room by room, each with its own generator script and audit, with several agents working in parallel git worktrees. The art comes from CC0 packs recoloured to one palette and repixelled by AI-written Python scripts, plus procedurally drawn actors and scenes; the developer says no generative image model was used. About 115 sound effects, seven ambience loops, six music tracks and the narration were generated with ElevenLabs; the monologue lines were drafted by the orchestrator agent for the developer to edit. The disclosure states that the shipped game makes no model calls.
- Engine / framework
- Godot 4.7
- Languages
- GDScript
- Team size
- 1 (solo)Developer ReportedGitHub (qBitnaut)
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“The agents do the bulk of the concept evaluation, planning, implementation, debugging, testing and documentation work.”- Source code and AI_USE.md disclosure (GitHub)
- Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 1 submission (How did you use AI?)
Verification notes: AI use from AI_USE.md in the developer's GitHub repository (tools table, agent roster, what the human did and a dated build log), the itch.io page and the answer on the official jam submission page, all re-read on 6 Nov 2026; the jam's own rule (“AI must be part of the build”) is not code-specific, so it is not counted as evidence. “The bulk of … implementation” is not a share, so no AI code percentage is recorded. Developer: the disclosure names one human, Chris (GitHub: qBitnaut), and the jam answer reads “Solo, with Claude Code agent crew”, crediting one human playtester; no surname or location is given. The disclosure gives about 115 sound effects, while the jam answer says about 120 sound effects and meows; both are given as stated. Levels, powers, controls and saving from the README and the itch.io page. itch.io: published 7 Oct 2026, 22:44 UTC, last updated 10 Oct 2026, 01:45 UTC, status In development, HTML5, genre Platformer; no rating shown. The submission page said it was submitted 6 hours and 20 minutes before the 9 Oct 2026, 07:00 UTC deadline. Jam results (12 ratings): 6th overall (4.139), 4th in Use of AI, 5th in Fun and 7th in Polish, of 36 entries. The README and disclosure say debug keys exist only in debug builds and are disabled in the itch.io release build. The disclosure says the AI flagged the first story concept as close to Stray (2022) and the story was reworked; that is the developer's account, and no third-party names or assets are used. A research check of the web build (Godot export) found no calls to AI services. The game was not played.
Development history
Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 1 opens (07:00 UTC; theme Cat and Robot, restriction Movement Input Only); the build log starts with concept work and a 3D Godot prototype.
Published on itch.io (22:44 UTC) after the v2 overhaul added enemies, tall multi-tier levels, narration and generated audio.
Submitted to the jam about 6 hours and 20 minutes before the 07:00 UTC deadline.
Voting closes: 6th overall of 36 entries (12 ratings), 4th in Use of AI, 5th in Fun.
Officialitch.io
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); keyboard or controller.
Not publicly available: itch.io rating, Gross revenue.
GitHub
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: GitHub stars.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wake Cycle by qBitnaut itch.io | Store page | Oct 7, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Wake Cycle by qBitnaut for Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 1 itch.io (Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 1, hosted by dg) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 1 itch.io (hosted by dg) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Top ranked games in the Jamference: AI Game Jam Hack 1 itch.io | Official site | Oct 15, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Wake Cycle — AI Use Disclosure (AI_USE.md) GitHub (qBitnaut) | Repository | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| qBitnaut/wake-cycle (README) GitHub (qBitnaut) | Repository | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) qBitnaut | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
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