Announcing the Winner of the FIRST Player2 AI NPC Jam
Escape Protocol takes the Condorcet-crowned top spot!
TL;DR: Escape Protocol takes the Condorcet-crowned top spot! We had 200 participants, 56 entries, and $10,750 in prizes across the Top 10 and 10 Special Mentions. Explore every submission here: https://itch.io/jam/ai-npc-jam/entries
Why we ran this jam
We kicked off a global game jam to push AI-driven characters beyond the gimmick—to see NPCs that think, react, and adapt in ways that meaningfully change how games play.
Jam page: https://itch.io/jam/ai-npc-jam
Play the games: https://player2.game/discover/games
Theme: Beyond AI Gimmick
Build AI characters that are part of the game’s fabric, not bolt-ons:
React & evolve with game state, player choices, and world events.
Enhance core mechanics—combat, puzzles, exploration, and social systems.
Create emergent moments that leave players with unpredictable, memorable stories.
We want intelligent NPCs rooted in your game’s logic and lore, shaping and shaped by everything else going on.
About the jam (what it took to enter)
Participants needed to join our Discord and click “I am in an official Player2 Game Jam.”
Use any game engine you like.
Integrate the free Player2 API to drive all NPC intelligence.
Submit a playable demo or download link by the deadline.
Prizes
1st – $5,000
2nd – $2,000
3rd – $1,000
4th–5th – $500 each
6th–10th – $250 each
Top 10: Featured in the Player2 App
How the judging worked (fair and transparent)
We combined human judgment with player behavior:
Six human judges each ranked their Top 10.
During the judging window, we tracked DAU, time spent, and retention for every entry.
We treated the player-metrics ranking as three votes, alongside the six judge votes—a 6:3 human vs. metrics balance.
We ran the combined rankings through a Condorcet (minimax) voting algorithm—a head-to-head method that selects the entry with the strongest overall pairwise performance. It’s more robust—and fair—than simple averages.
🏆 Winners
1) Escape Protocol — $5,000 (Condorcet winner)
Super Creative! We felt so immersed playing this.
2) Watch This, Chat — $2,000
Trying to convince strangers to get in your car is hard. Trying to convince AI, even harder and very, very weird!
3) Social Valley — $1,000
This brings a whole new dimension to Stardew Valley! Now we really get to know the NPCs well!
4) Almost Somewhere — $500
Very creative…and creepy! Great immersive experience and we loved the asthetics!
5) Your Honor, WTF?! — $500
Super bizarre and weird. This is a great way to settle arguments IRL!
6) Player2 NPC — $250
Who doesn’t love bossing NPCs around in Minecraft!
7) Valhart — $250
This feels like Hogwarts all over the place! Get that AI to teach you some spells. Ya gotta find her first!!
8) Village Builder AI — $250
Fun grindy game with NPCs that have weird personalities. The NPCs think they help, but do they really???
9) Murder Tavern — $250
Chaotic fun—AI patrons gossip, scheme, and turn every bar brawl into wild, emergent stories!
10) Silent Therapy — $250
Try and help this guy? It takes a lot of effort and deduction to figure out exactly what he needs!
You can find All Top 10 entries in the Player2 App and play them now. Congratulations!
🎖️ Special Mentions — $50 each (encouragement)
These awards go to games with big potential or standout creativity that could shine with more polish, or missed the top 10 only marginally. Consider this both encouragement and a vote of confidence.
Vampire Cafe! — Awesome twist on a great genre! This was fun!!
Cursed Diamonds — This is an AI mystery at its finest! You really WANT to help her out, but can you, really?
Deltarune AI — Crazy personalities in Deltarune! Who’d have thought that’s what they were thinking??
Sticky Situation: Werewolf in the Basement — The AI’s in this “multiplayer” deduction/werewolf game were very sneaky…and mean!
The Last Fortress — Love the look and feel of this. It gets pretty deep with AI in SPAAAAAAAACE!
McGibble — I love this so much! This game is so weird. You will remember this for quite a while!
Reign or Ruin — Definitely don’t tick off the villagers in this one! They will destroy you!!
SchoolCheater — A game about cheating at school and not getting caught. Don’t try this IRL! It’s actually kinda hard….the game, I mean.
InnerLife - AI-Powered Life Simulator — An uncanny life sim where your AI generates your life events.
There are so many good games with potential in the jam, and we couldn’t have listed them all. What the Hell, RAINSHIFT, Hinari The Nine Tailed Fox, Interrogator Vale, Murder In The Building, to name a few more.
We are overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of the submissions and grateful to the active developer community we have built through this. Read on if you didn’t get top 10, since the journey is just beginning from here.
By the numbers
200 participants
56 submitted games
10 winners, 10 special mentions
$10,750 awarded in total
Dive into all entries and discover your new favourites: https://itch.io/jam/ai-npc-jam/entries
What’s next: our new jam (bigger prize!) 🚀
We’re launching the next chapter: It’s Alive! AI NPC Jam
👉 https://itch.io/jam/its-alive-ai-npc
Who can enter? Everyone is welcome, even if you won this game jam. You can not enter with games that are already receiving revenue share with us or that have already been placed in our previous game jams.
You can still participate in the next jam if you got a special mention. Come join us with extensive improvements, fresh builds and fresh ideas!
Let’s keep prototyping the future of intelligent characters—together. See you in the next jam!