While Codex or Claude is thinking or using tools, the game rains balls. As soon as the agent yields, new balls stop falling. I built it because I was bored of waiting during coding sessions—and I didn’t want to spend that time doomscrolling.
The idea was inspired by a trip to Tokyo, where I saw people staring almost hypnotically at pachinko machines after work. I found it fascinating: something visually stimulating, interactive, and strangely relaxing, but with clear limitations.
At first, the project was just a simple pachinko machine. Balls would drop whenever the game detected changes to the agent’s token file.
Then I started adding more things to watch and interact with. Around the same time, I kept seeing news about layoffs related to AI. That gave me the idea for a satirical company-management game: AI agents work and generate balls, the balls hit workers, the workers lose bowls, and the company collects them.Utimately, the company only wants the bowls, the employees are just haversting machine. You can also promote an employee. Once promoted 4 times, they're converted into a permanent company gear, boosting the machine forever.
The concept slowly grew from there and eventually became this project.
Tools used: Codex, and Suno for the music. I created the original melody myself.
Give it a try—especially during your next long coding session!
Comments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49275479](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49275479)
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