2 models · 2 fresh Linux desktops · 1 prompt
Same prompt on two fresh Linux desktops — "build the best browser game you can, your choice." No hints, no fixes from me. GLM-5.2 spent 291 seconds on a maximalist survival shooter; Kimi K2.7 shipped a leaner one in 71 — about 4× faster, about half the code. Both landed on a neon survive the swarm void shooter.
Both games side by side — main menus, then live play, then each full screen. Real build times 291s and 71s, both on my Synthetic sub.
ASTRAL // Void Protocol · Synthetic · pi · 1,554 LOC
The maximalist. Nearly five minutes and 1,554 lines for a keyboard survival shooter — WASD thrust, 8-way arrow fire, a chromatic-glow title screen with a full control legend and a best-score tracker.
It built the whole arcade cabinet: menu, controls, HUD, waves. It took the time and it shows.
Neon Void Drifter · Synthetic · pi · 779 LOC
The speedrunner. 71 seconds — ~4× faster, about half the code — for a mouse-aim twin-stick drifter: mouse to aim, WASD to fly, survive the swarm.
Lean, focused, and it ran first try. Fast did not mean flimsy here.
Same open prompt, two very different scopes. GLM built the maximalist's game — more time, twice the code, a full menu and control legend. Kimi built the speedrunner's — a lean mouse-aim drifter in a quarter of the time that ran first try. Both landed on a neon "survive the swarm" shooter; the difference was how much they built to get there.
I run little races like this most weeks. The club is where they get shared first.
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