Competition · Summer 2026
☀️ Summer Into AI 2026
The second AI competition gets its own home: launch planning, participant signals, public proof-of-work, and the build receipts that belong to the summer sprint.
New competition, new section: Summer Into AI 2026 is separate from the Spring Into AI archive. Current and future summer competition writing should live here under /summer-into-ai-2026/.
Issue 01 · The Build Issue
95 source rows, 91 unique projects, kept in context.
A 68-page source-attributed magazine follows the season from 8-Bit America through Built on Yesterday, using the competitors’ public work, local screenshots, original editorial art, and links back to every ledger row.
The four prompts
Four weeks of small, public experiments.
Each prompt asks for a different kind of useful weirdness. These visuals are the competition's editorial index; the original project imagery stays with each participant's submission.
Summer Submission Trackers
Week 1 Submissions
CSV-backed tracker with local copies of each Substack submission, demo links, code reference links, and mirrored screenshots/videos when available.
Open tracker ->Week 2 Submissions
CSV-backed tracker with local copies of each Substack submission, demo links, code reference links, and mirrored screenshots/videos when available.
Open tracker ->Week 3 Submissions
CSV-backed tracker with local copies of each Substack submission, demo links, code reference links, and mirrored screenshots/videos when available.
Open tracker ->Week 4 Submissions
CSV-backed tracker with local copies of each Substack submission, demo links, code reference links, and mirrored screenshots/videos when available.
Open tracker ->Eric’s build journal
The trackers are the official record of submissions and scores. The journal keeps the surrounding work visible: prototypes, visual studies, late-night competition signals, and the small discoveries that shaped the season.
Summer Into AI: Build Journal
All of Eric’s public Advisory Hour build records, preserved locally and grouped as part of this season rather than scattered across a generic writing feed.
Open build journal →Summer Into AI 2026: Recap
The four-week challenge closed with 91 applications, a music video, a documentary, public-data projects, and a few ideas for whatever comes next.
Read season recap →Arcade gallery of Week 1 and Week 2
A public checkpoint from the experiment that pulled the season’s playable work into one classic-arcade frame.
Open field record →Chicago Public Arts: Segmentation Examples
Source material and technical context for the Week 3 public-data experiment.
Open field record →Season Standings
Cross-week totals computed from the weekly submission CSVs with the published scoring model: every submitted Substack post earns +15 publishing points even without a separate app or repository; proof-backed submissions can add +25 demo & code or +10 single proof, +10 weekly theme, +15 builds-on-others, +5 bonus channel, and +10 first proof-backed submission each week. Eric's points stay visible as the host's pace-setting benchmark, but he is not eligible for a medal. Competition ranks skip his row. Regenerate with node scripts/season-standings.mjs --write.
| Rank | Participant | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jake | 195 | 775 | 200 | 595 | 1765 |
| 2 | Myles | 210 | 515 | 230 | 195 | 1150 |
| Pace setter | Eric | 135 | 345 | 210 | 100 | 790 |
| 3 | Adam | 160 | 440 | 0 | 0 | 600 |
| 4 | Kyle | 50 | 50 | 150 | 50 | 300 |
| 5 | Heather | 35 | 50 | 35 | 15 | 135 |
| 6 | Kady | 40 | 50 | 0 | 35 | 125 |
| 7 | Evan | 35 | 35 | 35 | 0 | 105 |
📰 Week 4 — Built on Yesterday
📰 Week 3 — Data.Punk
Summer into AI: WEEK 3 THEME: Data.Punk
The Week 3 theme brief: turn data.gov and civic datasets into useful, rebellious public-facing apps with a Data.Punk edge.
Read more →Preparing for Summer Into AI Week3: Themes and a detour into Space Weather
A Week 3 setup note exploring how public datasets, data.gov, and a space-weather MMS4 demo can turn the next Summer sprint into a data story.
Read more →Summer into AI: Eric's Week3 Submission: Chicago Art Dataset
Eric's Week 3 Data.Punk submission turns Chicago public-art data into a cyberpunk GameLab prototype with portal rooms, train traversal, and locally mirrored screenshots.
Read more →Summer into AI- Eric Week3 Submission: Motor Fuel
Eric's Week 3 Data.Punk submission turns motor-fuel tax data into a TV-reactive GameLab prototype, with local screenshots, dataset context, and demo links.
Read more →Rise of the Scooters and Bikes
Eric's Week 3 Data.Punk submission turns bikeshare and e-scooter data into a loud public-data explorer with local screenshots, dataset notes, and demo links.
Read more →Summer into AI- Eric Week3 Submission: Long live the beat
Eric's Week 3 Data.Punk submission turns NCHS life-expectancy data into a Little Richard-inspired GameLab demo, with screenshots mirrored locally.
Read more →Believe I’ve conquered the current highscore on this. 😎
A compact competition receipt preserving the Pike Bay Hero highscore screenshot, score stats, and public build energy around Summer Into AI prototypes.
Read more →This has to be some sort of record. Competition posted 8am. First app over lunch 😂
A short note capturing how quickly the Week 3 public-data challenge produced its first app-sized response.
Read more →📰 Week 2 — Red, White, Boom!
Summer into AI 2026: Week 2 Theme - Red, White, Boom!
The Week 2 theme brief: Independence Engines, where independence becomes a practical mechanic for games, tools, simulations, songs, stories, or agentic workflows.
Read more →Competitors, get your last submissions for Week2 in before the day closes
A short competition signal closing the Week 2 submission window and teasing the Week 3 theme drop at 8:00 CST.
Read more →Myles is gunning for top spot in Week2!
A short Advisory Hour signal: Myles is pushing for the Week 2 lead, with Jake Strait and Adam called into the challenge loop.
Read more →Summer into AI: 3 Saturday Plays of Week2 Submissions
A Saturday review pass through Week 2 builds, studying how competitor ideas stack, remix, and expose what the Summer sprint is really producing.
Read more →Summer into AI: Week2 Submission: Independence Engines in Space
An Independence Engines image-playground experiment using local generation tooling and painterly references to explore what the Week 2 theme can look like.
Read more →Summer into AI: Week2 Submission: Eric's Summer Job Finder for Kids
Eric's First Job Finder turns real seasonal-job research into a kid-friendly, ad-free prototype with local screenshots, related build links, and the playable First Job Radar demo.
Read more →Summer into AI: Week2 Submission: Eric's FANS of Independence Engines
Eric's Week 2 submission turns the Independence Engines prompt toward rural-access DIY: a ceiling-fan field lab that shows how AI could build interactive tutorials for practical projects.
Read more →Timestorm Baseball: Captivating Flaws and Exhibition Mode
A short build note on Timestorm Baseball's rough edges, its odd charm, and the hidden full-exhibition mode behind the backtick key.
Read more →Timestorm Baseball: Early Builds
A build note on Timestorm Baseball's early visual soup: sprite coherence, animation-set failures, and Wrigley Field as an AI game-world benchmark.
Read more →Timestorm Baseball: Founding Father Revamp 1
A visual build note on cleaning up generated baseball sprites and Founding Father card art for Timestorm Baseball, including the discarded ideas that still look useful.
Read more →📰 Week 1 — 8-Bit America
Summer into AI: Theme 1
Theme 1 launches the America 250 AI Build Challenge with an 8-bit prompt: build a tiny retro-styled tool that feels like it booted from a cartridge.
Read more →Summer into AI 2026: Week1 - Midnight Submissions
A week-one midnight submission roundup capturing the projects that landed at the deadline and the energy of the first Summer Into AI build sprint.
Read more →Summer into AI: Merlin Forge's Game of Liberty
Merlin Forge's Game of Liberty crosses Conway-style territory rules with Helldivers pressure, preserving the source write-up and playable-build context in the Summer competition archive.
Read more →Summer into AI 2026" RevereBike or "Horse ExciteBike"
RevereBike / Horse ExciteBike pulls together week-one ideas into a tiny playable historical racing riff, with links back to the related public builds and submissions.
Read more →Summer into AI: Timestorm Baseball
Eric's weekend build turns a time rift at Wrigley Field into a playable baseball game with pitching, batting, secrets, 2.5D sprites, and a locally linked GameLab build.
Read more →Summer into AI 2026: Parade Candy Chaos
A family-team submission spotlight for Parade Candy Chaos, an 8-bit Fourth of July candy-throwing simulator built with a young competitor and playable on itch.io.
Read more →Summer Into AI 2026: AI Video of a Pixelated British Kraken
A failed-but-fascinating video-generation riff that fuses Paul Revere, Sky King, John’s World, Danny, Sabrina, Vivienne, and a British Kraken into one pixelated scene.
Read more →Megaman 1776
A retro boss-rush build note for Founderman / Megaman 1776, with Founding Father characters, special weapons, boss mechanics, controls, known issues, music samples, and cheat codes.
Read more →Summer into AI: Why Teams Are OK
A practical competition note explaining why teams are allowed, how to keep proof-of-work visible, and why collaboration should still produce individual learning.
Read more →Building on Paul Revere
Eric's first Theme 1 submission follows the universe engine from an overnight 8-bit Paul Revere side-scroller into music, sprite-art upgrades, and Adam's original arcade-game inspiration.
Read more →Third summer into ai submission flies in
The third week-one submission spotlights Sky King: Heather's nest-building bird game with multiple loops, 8-bit callbacks, and playable public proof.
Read more →Projects Are Underway: Just Jump to Building
A short competition signal: several builders are already moving, and the real curriculum is opening the tool and making something public.
Read more →@Kyle Sebeysten @Evan Rhea @Myles @Jake Strait
A short Advisory Hour note marking new competitors entering the Summer Into AI 2026 fold, with a linked competitor build receipt.
Read more →📰 Launch & Preplanning
☀️ Summer Into AI: Are you ready to cook?
The second competition opens with updated mechanics: visible proof, Substack writing, multiple submissions, prizes, weekly themes, and a clearer submission path.
Read more →Summer into AI: Travel & Access Tips
Travel, grace periods, phone-friendly submission options, automation ideas, and Tailscale remote-access notes for competitors trying to keep building while life happens.
Read more →Spring into AI Competition: Rules
The competition rules and invitation note that define how the AI build challenge works: visible proof, public updates, lightweight constraints, and follow-along context.
Read more →🚀 Summer 2026 AI Competition #2: Preplanning
The next competition starts taking shape: bigger participant interest, more proof-of-work energy, and plans to amplify builders beyond the first Spring Into AI sprint.
Read more →