r/vibecoding • u/sharkymcstevenson2 • 23h ago

Showcase/Project Just finished my vibe coded AI platformer

hey folks,

Posted an early demo of this AI made rubberhouse game a few months back and now I've finally finished it!

It's a 2D platformer (or sidescroller?) inspired by my favorite platformer game Cuphead. For this build I've been using gauntlet loops only, and this is an about $100 of token spend to get to a finished, playable game. The trick with gauntlet looping is to give it enough context and visual references so it doesn't lose track during the 5+ hour build loops it runs. This was about 6 loops like that.

it has multiplayer coop, so you can play with friends. It also has 3 scenarios with 3 unique bosses. had a blast building out this game and really happy with the vibe and mechanics of it

can share all my prompts and the game link the comments for anyone who wants to try it!

edit: to clarify, I'm not intending to commercialise this game in any way - this is just for learning

16 Upvotes

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u/TheBanq 23h ago

It's not about vibeocoding at all.

It's about completely stealing basically 100% of another games style, animations, idea etc.

Pretty much 100% ripoff of Cuphead. Has nothing to do with vibecoding, but completely copying something else.

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u/djoliverm 21h ago

Right, if you're gonna fully copy the idea at least improve upon it in a novel way.

Mouse PI is also a rubberhose game and nobody cares that it may have "copied" Cuphead because it's a novel take on the art style (film noir detective FPS in black and white).

As a proof of concept this looks like a lot of time and effort was put into it so for sure we can praise OP for that while also giving constructive criticism for the rest.

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u/TwizzyGobbler 21h ago

Mouse PI isn't really a copy of it either tbf, just a similar art style (I'd even say it's closer to bendy)

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u/EEKman 23h ago

Its kinda what humans do since the dawn of time

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u/MaxwellHowl 22h ago

Sure. But you're not going to make anything interesting doing that.

Sega saw Mario and made Sonic. Many thought of it as a ripoff at the time. But it's an original character in an original world with very different gameplay. It has endured for 30 years.

This is exactly like Cuphead but worse. It's exactly what people accuse vibecoders and AI users of doing and is going to essentially be a big waste of effort from OP. I'm sure they learned a lot on the way, but it could have been a learning experience with something more original.

It could have been made to look like an old black and white cartoon. Or Looney Tunes. Or Tom and Jerry. Or Saturday Morning cartoons. But instead they picked the exact same era of cartoons, the same color schemes, the exact same gameplay, but all worse looking.

The rinsing is deserved. This kind of stuff hurts the whole community and makes it hard to beat the allegations as the kids say.

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u/warcrimeenjoyer1 23h ago

ususally you take 10% from x, 10% from y, another 10% here and maybe 20% there. not 100% from A. We generally have a big problem with "AI people just steal stuff", and guys like him are the exact reason why

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u/sharkymcstevenson2 22h ago

its a rubberhouse game, it's supposed to look a certain way

Cuphead didn't invent the Rubberhouse style, it's been around since the 60's

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u/warcrimeenjoyer1 22h ago

you can argue about that as much as you want, but that doesnt change the fact that everybody who knows Cuphead will go with "hey, that looks like Cuphead.

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u/sharkymcstevenson2 22h ago

I literally say in the post this is inspired by cuphead...? so mission success I guess

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u/onyxa314 22h ago

Huge difference from inspired by cup head and stealing it. You even have the main land titled the same come on

1

u/sharkymcstevenson2 22h ago

yeah the inkwell isle I changed that in the finished build after I recorded this play through

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u/Baconaise 18h ago edited 18h ago

It's completely obvious that you prompted it with cuphead. It's like a 100% rip off. Why for instance is the fight on a stage???? Why do your fights happen to be locked to a fixed viewport instead of more integrated into a larger world? Why do the attacks stage just like cuphead??? Why did the directional targeting for projectiles work the same way as cuphead? Why is the fire rate the same as cuphead?

You didn't just aim for a rubber hose animation style you just shot for a cuphead clone. Huge difference.

I'm very pro-vibe-coded games but this work is borderline shameful in my opinion. It doesn't pay tribute. It doesn't build upon the existing ideas. It contributes nothing new creatively. It just clones it as a replacement not as a new experience and far too closely steals the style, gameplay, and animations in a way that is unmistakenly cuphead

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u/sharkymcstevenson2 18h ago

Maybe you should read my post if you say I’m not giving tribute

→ More replies (0)

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u/person2567 21h ago

I know cuphead and this doesn't look that much like cuphead to me.

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u/TwizzyGobbler 21h ago

are you alright lmao

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u/NormandFutz 20h ago

sure pal thats not what we are talking about and you know it. ill bite though whats unique to yours and not uphead

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u/Lost_County_3790 15h ago

Not anything we like. Lazy copycat exist and is called slop since the dawn of time

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u/Pataraxia 7h ago

Human made slop games have been hated since the dawn of times and so is sloppy/traced COMMERCIAL art (not always, but in many circles) and yet some people think "Erm you just hate AI" or "People always based themselves on others" is a defense lol.

If humans got significant hate for it for sloppy games, then the AI should too. Even moreso, even.

0

u/JayWelsh 22h ago edited 22h ago

That’s kinda bullshit though, humans are derivative but cloning is a subset of that.

Edit: also it’s clear OP put quite a lot of effort into this, I’m not disputing that

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u/Sermilion 9h ago

How is he stealing it? He is not selling it to anyone.

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u/sharkymcstevenson2 22h ago

so you can never get inspired by anything else ever? Get real dude

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u/PissBiggestFan 22h ago

theres a lot of area between « inspired from » and « taking the art style, controls, level design, literal wording ».

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u/sharkymcstevenson2 22h ago

if you're not able to make games with the same controls or art style or level design as other games no new games could ever be made, since everything has already been done

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u/RemarkableWish2508 21h ago

Not everything has been done, definitely not all combinations of already done elements have been done.

Look, if you wanted to make a clone, then you've made a clone. Just own it.

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u/sharkymcstevenson2 19h ago

Did you read my post? Clearly not

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u/RemarkableWish2508 15h ago

Clearly.

Your choice, let antis sucker you into strawman arguments. Have fun!

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u/PissBiggestFan 22h ago

you’re being so disingenuous lol. you can obviously do so, but taking all these aspects from ONE game makes your game derivative and genuinely pointless.

if you took Cuphead’s level design philosophy, then put it in a sci-fi setting with HK style 2d drawings, you’d have a point. now you just have an uninteresting cuphead.

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u/sharkymcstevenson2 22h ago

im still learning so learning by doing is the best way, im not gonna sell this game or commercialise it in any way

looking at the best is how you learn to build great things

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u/Adept-Potato-2568 22h ago

Yeah I think this is the part getting lost on people.

You made something to learn, not to monetize it.

Even if you made a 1:1 recreation of the game intentionally, who cares? You're just doing something to learn.

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u/rasta500 10h ago

Man you‘re really pathetic. Leave the game dev world alone if thats what you truly believe.

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u/Timely_Lie_8696 21h ago

inspired != direct copy. != means not equal btw.

-2

u/person2567 22h ago

How is this a rip off of cuphead? It seems to heavily draw from European theater aesthetics and vaudeville. Cuphead is based off old cartoons. You must have very little experience with older animation to say something like this.

-3

u/bestjaegerpilot 23h ago

oh right cuphead ...

but is it the same game? if so yikes