Announcing the Winners of the 2nd Player2 AI NPC Jam!
TL;DR: Congratulations to The Daily Ledger, our overall winner! We awarded $20,500 across category prizes, runner‑ups, and tiered awards.
We started this jam to push AI‑driven characters beyond the gimmick—toward living NPCs that think, react, and evolve in ways that shape the entire game. The submissions were wildly creative, technically ambitious, and often heart‑on‑sleeve. As always, there were more worthy games than prize slots, and we know any decision will disappoint some. That’s exactly why we introduced the $100 encouragement awards—to spotlight teams we believe have something special brewing and deserve a nudge to keep going.
A few words from one of the judges:
“In general, it would be how much care the developers put into it. And we can see the best games are made with a lot of love, which is really cool to see.”
🏆 Overall Winner — $5,000
The Daily Ledger - AI shapes items, customers and haggling. The game is also polished, with rarer items and customers as you progress, making it replayable.
🥇 Category Winners — $2,000 each
First Place AI NPC Mod: Fallout: Echo Protocol - turns Fallout 4’s Automatron into a fully conversational
First Place AI Social Game: AI ShowDown - A party game where you outwit friends by asking free‑form questions and guessing AI‑picked characters.
Most Creative Game: Shift Protocol - A trust‑dilemma escape where you talk with three AI characters as puzzles and choices branch outcomes in a re-zero fashion.
🎖 Runner‑ups — $1,000 each
Exile Life - PSX‑style survival horror where bartering meds and building trust with an AI companion matter as much as scavenging.
Word Alchemy - Combine words and let AI forge/score your creations for leaderboards. Surprisingly fun and novel.
Oio/Ois..u - A watercolour-gothic puzzle tale where you chat with a snarky magic mirror and untangle glitched fairytale logic. We loved the art style.
Eli’s Yard Sale - Haggle with a hyper 10‑year‑old. I don’t know why it is so fun. Bought Mona Lisa for $50.
💵 Awards — $500
Love Finder - A dating “bossfight” where improvisation and tone carry you through distinct AI personalities.
Gentle or Brutal - Time‑pressured interrogations with procedurally generated suspects. Shake them up a little?
Bar Talk: Neural Nights - Make friends at bars and clubs; NPCs rate your vibe in real time—be charming or get bounced.
Tales of Luanda: Rise of Magere - A Kenyan folklore adventure of duels and diplomacy where choices, rivals and crises are AI‑driven.
Investigation Session - Every case is new—study the secret file, grill the suspect and pull a confession from an AI‑generated criminal.
💵 Awards — $250
Please Hire Me!!! - A conversational job‑interview gauntlet that turns small talk into high stakes.
Date AI - A minimalist dating sim where your charm versus her code decides the outcome.
False Haven - A metroidvania of illusions and discovery framed by a parent’s desperate search for their daughter.
The Greatest Quizshow! - Intellect‑themed minigames scored by NPC observers.
The Watcher - Tactical FPS infiltration guided by an Overwatch‑style AI operator.
Who Killed My Sister - First‑day‑on‑the‑force detective roleplay that leans into conversational sleuthing.
Eastshore- Colony‑builder where villagers banter as they gather, build and struggle to survive in a strange land.
Who Killed The Guy Who Died? - A tongue‑in‑cheek whodunnit in a grand mansion—interrogate everyone and embrace the absurd.
A Village Tales - Investigate a missing‑person case across an AI‑driven village where every villager talks back.
Crown and Counsel - Rule by typing anything—an AI “game master” generates crises, interprets commands and narrates consequences.
💵 Encouragement Awards — $100
Take Out - Serve orders at a haunted kiosk across five unnerving nights while mastering recipes and surviving the shift.
Loot of the Living Dead - An AI‑powered game show staged in a graveyard. Did I say it is a show?
Chocolates for Mother - Hustle chocolates door‑to‑door to save your mom—simple premise, earnest heart.
WillYouBeMine - A cheeky, meta micro‑entry that leans into self‑aware humour.
Crystal Bound - Command chess pieces with natural‑language instructions in a puzzle‑forward twist on tactics.
How we judged (fair & transparent)
As in our first jam’s announcement, we combined human judging with player behaviour:
Multiple judges submitted ranked lists.
We included player‑metrics rankings (DAU, time spent, retention) as two votes alongside judge ballots.
We aggregated results using Condorcet methods on head‑to‑head matchups.
Category awards were informed by the data and judge discussion to celebrate standout achievements across different design goals.
What’s next
We will reach out to the winners through Itch.io to arrange the prizes, so please keep an eye out.
The games are live at https://player2.game/ —jump in to play the winners, try the experiments, and leave feedback that helps teams grow. If your game didn’t place, don’t stop: the community—and the future of AI‑driven characters—moves forward with every iteration. Join our next jam at https://itch.io/jam/player2-ai-npc-3.
Thanks again to everyone who built, tested, judged, streamed, and cheered. We’re excited to keep prototyping the future of intelligent NPCs—together.