Verse8 Concludes BuidlHack 2026 as Non-Developer Solo Creator Wins

Suehyeon Lee

Summary

Verse8 said BuidlHack 2026, built around its AI-based game creation platform, produced multiple prototypes in less than a month.
Verse8 said it has reached 3.5 million monthly active users (MAU) and more than 25,000 games created since its July 2025 launch.
The company said the hackathon reaffirmed the potential of the Casual Degen game model, along with crypto-based monetization and links to YGG Play publishing.

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Verse8, an AI-based game creation platform, said Tuesday it had wrapped up BuidlHack 2026, a hackathon held with YGG Play.

The event was held in Seoul during Korea BUIDL Week. A total of 120 teams submitted games built with Verse8’s AI creation tools, and multiple projects advanced from concept to prototype in less than a month.

First place went to Bank or Plank, a pirate-themed 3D multiplayer game. A solo creator with no development experience completed and tested the project in about a month. The game was recognized for combining a simple structure with a progression system designed for longer-term play.

Dungeon Raising took second place. Gas Wars, Black Hole Survivor and Attack on Idol tied for third.

Participants built their projects by generating game logic, assets and environments with natural-language prompts. The hackathon was marked by a rapid production cycle in which teams repeated concept creation, testing and improvements on a daily basis.

Since its launch in July 2025, Verse8 has recorded 3.5 million monthly active users. More than 5,000 creators have made over 25,000 games on the platform. Some prototypes produced during the hackathon have already led to actual user play and on-chain interactions, the company said.

The event also reaffirmed the potential of the Casual Degen game model, which emphasizes speed, simplicity and crypto-based monetization, according to Verse8. YGG Play has generated more than $9 million in cumulative revenue through publishing in that category.

Winning teams will receive a total of $5,000 in prize money and follow-up support through the Verse8 ecosystem. Some projects will also be considered for publishing by YGG Play.

“We set up BuidlHack to test how quickly commercially viable games can be made once traditional development bottlenecks are removed,” Verse8 Chief Executive Officer Kevin Lee said. “The way teams tested and refined multiple ideas in parallel points to a shift in how games are developed.”

“We’ve seen that demand for casual degen games is real,” YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon said. “The results from this hackathon show the scalability and sustainability of that model.”