// KOTAKU — GAMING
Unity Spark Promises To Let You Vibe Code Your ‘Dream Game’ In The Most Embarrassing Video Imaginable
It likely won’t surprise anyone that Unity’s just-announced AI vibe-coding game creator, Spark, is being met with derision at Kotaku. We’re not exactly enamored with genAI, it’s fair to say. But even the most generous response to the trailer that Unity has put out to promote this new tech would have to be partly made of curse words and poop emojis. It’s so bad, it could be used as a warning against the use of AI in games development.
Unity Spark is a “new way for people to come together to make and share games right in their browser,” explains Unity, boasting “no prior Unity or game development experience required.” But this isn’t “one-shotting,” the post insists. “Asking AI to regurgitate an already-invented game does not make you the next Hideo Kojima, any more than re-typing the first paragraph of War and Peace in your word processor makes you Tolstoy.” But you know what does make you both Kojima and Tolstoy? Asking an AI to make you a game using pre-made Unity assets instead. Boom.
And how? Well, it’s time to explore the extraordinary trailer.
“You know that game you always wanted to make?” asks Theo in the video’s opening depiction of a text chat. “Of course…?” replies Mari. “Have you tried Unity Spark?”
Oh boy, this is Mari’s moment. She’s been planning this game for so long, but it’s not until now that she could possibly have the tools to create it. And what is Mari’s big vision? What will be realized by Spark’s promise to let her “direct your dream game?”
And how does Mari thoughtfully craft the unique vision for the game she’s imagined making all these years? By typing six words into Spark!
A corridor shooter set in space. Way to dream big, Mari!
“These artist-created assets look perfect for your game,” replies Spark, offering “Assets for the Station K-7 holdout corridor: environment, player character, cover props,” which our floating cursor chooses to “add to project.” That results in a large, blue corridor, with a generic Mass Effect-ish soldier standing in the middle, and the title Space Corridor on screen. The walking animation is abysmal, but we’ll get past that as Theo and Mari start to brainstorm within Spark to add their unique twists to the project.
“Let’s add drones!!” says Theo, overcome with inventiveness, and dropping in a generic drone-shaped asset. But Mari is having none of it. She’s not willing to resort to something so obvious.
The drone vanishes as she suggests, “What about Aliens?” Capital-A Aliens. “Yes!!!” replies Theo, a whole other exclamation point added to his excitement. A grey-like alien appears and after clicking a play icon, staggers toward our hero. “Make it explode!!!” says the ever-jubilant Theo. Our soldier seemingly already knows how to shoot, and shoots, and the alien poofs out of existence with no explosion at all.