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.
Space Corridor
“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?”
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Space Corridor.
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.
“Create the tools you need,” says Spark, trying to move on from this. Theo demands of it, “We need a tool to control lighting presets,” and a tool pops up offering a suite of options, from “Work Lights” (Bright for editing) to “Blackout” (Power failure) and “Shore Leave” (Warm & cozy). By this point, the space soldier dude appears to have learned how to perform a melee takedown, kicking the drone (Theo’s got the drone back!) out of the air above his head.
The trailer then touts your ability to “Direct gameplay,” quickly darting past some flowcharts and showing off screens that are filled with dozens of asset descriptions and taskbars that look an awful lot less like vibe-coding and a lot more like actual hard work, but are fortunately skipped over in seven seconds of rapid cuts.
With this all done, we’re treated to the vision of the future that is Space Corridor, a ghastly-looking third-person shooter in which a generic soldier shoots at a generic drone that doesn’t visibly react to being shot. Apparently it’s good enough, as Mari declares, “I think it’s ready,” and Theo agrees, “Yes!” So they hit the “Share” button, and oh my goodness it’s a breakout success.
It’s been added to 1,000 wishlists today alone! It’s getting money brought in on Co-Fi! (“Two friends made my favorite game of the year. Take my money again,” says the anonymous contributor.) The game, in which you shoot a drone in a corridor, is priced at $7.99 and has five stars from 214 reviews!
My favorite bit in this barrage of images of wishful thinking is a Discord screen in which Theo says,
remember when we said we don’t know how to make a game?
IT’S OUT
And Mari replies, “guys please wishlist it I’m shaking.”
Fortunately Dex is here to say, “NO WAY. buying it rn.”
The spark’s gone out
It’s just so perfect. It’s impossible to parody, given it does everything a good parody of the creatively bankrupt conceit would try. It’s literally called Space Corridor. That’s not a derisive title I’ve made up, but what it’s actually called in the video’s fake store pages. It depicts the creation of the most generic, poorly constructed, horribly animated, non-responsive, blandly designed, badly lit, literal gaming corridor you can imagine. This is the most ambitious, exciting, eye-catching idea Unity had when putting together its promotional material for the forthcoming technology.
But I’ve saved the best for last, a secret surprise for those who read to the end. YOU CAN PLAY SPACE CORRIDOR RIGHT NOW! You can play it in your browser here. It is so spectacularly terrible! It’s not even set in a corridor! You play in three small, sealed rooms, shooting at drones that embarrassingly ping into existence in front of you in “waves” while a timer counts down, and then you get thrown out of an airlock for your troubles. It’s about five minutes long, and it’s worse than you’re already thinking.
Unity Spark is listed as “coming soon,” with a waitlist button for excited future corridor designers to press. What a time to be alive.
