Machine Yearning vs Large Language Murder

Machine Yearning is a word and memory game where you create your own language and test your ability to remember it. Premise: You're a human masquerading as a robot to land a job meant only for mechanical minds. Your challenge? Solve captchas like never before—by inventing definitions on the fly! But remember: consistency is key, as you'll need to recall your invented words to prove your robotic authenticity. Accolades: Proud winner of the Ludum Dare game jam's "#1 Most Fun" and "#1 Most Innovative"! Game Modes: Dive into three thrilling modes: * Campaign: Follow the story, from simple beginnings to complex linguistic challenges. * Timed: Race against the clock for high scores. * Endless: Keep playing and see how far your memory can take you! Features: * Cute, Retro-Style Pixel Art: Immerse yourself in charming visuals that transport you to a playful digital world. * Unlockables Galore: Earn stylish hats, helpful power-ups, and delightful themes as you advance. * Mind-Sharpening Fun: This game not only tests your memory but also enhances your cognitive skills. * Free to Play: Jump right in—no ads, no junkware, and no annoying push notifications. * Support the Developer: Love the game? Consider unlocking extra hats to both style your gameplay and support the developer (me, Daniel)! * Challenge Yourself: Starting easy, the game intensifies as you progress, perfect for fans of language, word, memory, and puzzle games. Step into the world of "Machine Yearning," where your mind's agility and creativity meet endless fun and challenges. Ready to prove you're the smartest "robot" around? Download now and let the games begin! Special thanks to Wildan Rahmat R for logo, powerup, and hat designs. Fonts used: early gameboy, pixel operator, retro computer, dogica, pressstart2p, and aseprite (https://github.com/aseprite/aseprite/blob/fea3f5fceeab027ee3f5402272b94569c7a0daa9/data/fonts/LICENSE.txt).

One phone goes round the table. Everybody answers the same one-word prompt. So does an AI. Do you like AI? You will love this game. Do you hate AI? You will love this game. The rule is what makes it work: one to six words, none longer than six letters. Small enough that clever writing stops being a giveaway, big enough to be funny. COFFEE. MIDNIGHT. DENTIST. SOCK. Everybody writes, nobody sees anybody else's answer, and the cards come out shuffled. Now vote. Which one of these did a person not write? SCORING IS THE ARGUMENT Every vote your answer collects is a point — being mistaken for the AI pays. Catching it pays more, and pays only you. So the table splits between blending in and hunting, and one answer can do both. First past the line wins, and you have to get there alone. ONE TO SIXTEEN PLAYERS, ONE DEVICE No accounts, no sign-in, nothing to set up. The phone goes hand to hand and everybody types on the same keyboard. Up to eight AIs can sit at the table. OR EVERYBODY ON THEIR OWN PHONE One screen is the stage, the phones are the controllers, and on the same Wi-Fi it needs no internet. If your players are somewhere else, open the game over the internet and they join by typing four letters. TWO HUNTS, AND THEY ARE OPPOSITES SEEK is the game above: the humans vote, hunting the card no person wrote. HIDE turns it round — you are the only person in the room, the AIs are the jury, and they are hunting you. Every juror that names you costs a hit point; when they run out, so do you. BLIND is the fair one: whoever is hunted answers cold, and nobody reads anybody. PEEK always favours the hunted — in SEEK the AI reads the table first, in HIDE you read every AI answer first. Chosen on the title screen, in front of everybody. HIDE and PEEK need a live AI. Every new install gets three games of HIDE on us; after that they come with a subscription, or with an AI engine of your own. WORD GROUPS Fifteen of them, and you can tick more than one. EVERYDAY is the house deck. NATURE, SPORTS, GHOSTS, HUMOR, FAMOUS, SPACE and AMERICANA bring their own words, seven more come from the Haunted Space Hotel universe, and RANDOM deals from all fifteen at once. WHAT IS FREE AND WHAT IS NOT EVERYDAY is free forever, and it is a complete game, not a demo that stops: eighty-two prompt words, every player and AI count, and joining somebody else's game. SEEKER, a subscription, unlocks the other fourteen word groups, RANDOM, hosting a game on everybody's phones, and a live AI to play against: $4.99 a month for 5,000 AI prompts, up to 41 games of HIDE and far more of SEEK. SEEKER+ is $14.99 a month for 15,000. A DAY PASS is $1.99 for 24 hours. One person at the table subscribing is enough: everybody else joins on the free app and plays whatever that table plays. Bringing your own AI instead -- an Anthropic key, an OpenRouter key, or your own Ollama -- is ENGINEER, $0.99 a month, or $11.99 once for good. It includes no AI from us; it is for people who would rather pay their own provider. MADE WITH AI, ON PURPOSE, AND ONLY HERE Every other game we make is signed "100% Designed by Humans". Not this one: the opponent here is a real language model. The words it plays offline were written by one, chosen by us. The artwork on this page was made with AI. Being shy about that would be a strange way to sell a game about catching an AI. You need nothing to play: offline, the AI answers from thousands of lines inside the app. No adverts, ever, and we collect nothing that says who you are. A live AI is sent the prompt word and the answers on the table, nothing else. On a subscription or a day pass that passes through our server, which keeps none of it and counts only what you have used; on your own engine it never touches us. Internet play passes through a relay we run that keeps nothing. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Made by humans and machines, together, at Haunted Space Hotel Studios.