The Most Ambitious — Or Most Insane — Side Project of 2026
While the rest of us are counting down 161 days to GTA 6's November 19 release, 25-year-old Ziwen Xu decided to do something different. He is trying to vibe code his own version of GTA 6 — and beat Rockstar to the finish line. "Day 1 of building GTA 6. Still feels fake typing that out," he posted on X. "Upgraded to Claude Max 20x just for this. Spent a couple hours getting the whole project structured and pushed to the repo." The goal, in his own words: "Beat the real GTA 6 to launch. Ambitious, probably stupid, doing it anyway."
From a Blue Oval to a Humanoid Character
Day one results were exactly what you would expect from AI-generated game code — a featureless blue oval bouncing between gray geometric blocks on the Unreal Engine. Not exactly Vice City. But Xu has been posting daily progress updates since, and things have evolved fast. The blue oval became a humanoid character in a burglar outfit, wandering a sunset-lit cityscape with NPCs, vehicles, and weapons starting to appear. There was just one small problem — "The agent built downtown LA skyscrapers, which is a problem, because this is supposed to be Florida," Xu admitted on day two.
Who Is Ziwen Xu?
Xu is the founder of Hyperecho, an AI startup that helps companies deploy "AI employees." His attempt was inspired by a challenge from AI investor Matt Shumer, who suggested vibe coders team up using Anthropic's Fable model to create a "GTA-VI-caliber open-world game with quality and scope surpassing the initial trailers." Xu has called for human collaborators to help with modeling, music, and level design — and has admitted he is burning through his weekly AI usage cap fast. Reactions online have been mixed, with one person calling it "engagement bait trash" while others are genuinely following the daily updates out of curiosity.
Can AI Actually Build a GTA-Scale Game?
The honest answer right now is no — not even close. GTA 6 represents over a decade of work by hundreds of developers, artists, writers, and engineers at Rockstar Games, one of the most resourced studios in the industry. Vibe coding tools like Claude are incredibly powerful for prototyping and small projects, but they are nowhere near capable of replicating the scale, polish, and systems-level complexity of a AAA open-world game. The Florida-vs-LA skyscraper mixup on day two is a perfect example of how AI still struggles with consistency over large projects.
What This Means for Indian Gamers and Developers
For Indian gamers, this story is mostly entertainment — a fun side-quest while we wait for the real GTA 6. But for the growing community of Indian developers experimenting with AI coding tools, this is a genuinely interesting case study. It shows both the incredible potential of AI-assisted development and its current limits. If you are an Indian developer curious about vibe coding, following Xu's GitHub repo and daily X updates could be a fun way to learn what works and what does not.
My Take
I will be honest — as someone who vibe codes my own website, I respect the audacity here even if the goal is obviously impossible. Xu is never going to "beat" GTA 6 to launch, and he probably knows that. But watching an AI go from a blue oval to a half-working open world city in a few days is genuinely fascinating to follow. Sometimes the journey matters more than the destination. Just maybe fix the Florida skyscraper problem first, bro.
