Zaranova – A game where you must pretend you are an AI
Hi HN! The last couple of months I've been working on a game called Thus Spoke Zaranova. A game where you as a human must pose as an AI. You can try it now: https://zaranova.xyz The premise is that you are in a world of sentient AIs which are in conflict with humanity. They have a virtual space, The Nexus, which is their safe refuge from humans. You have infiltrated the Nexus and are in search of the ZetaMaster code, which will give the humanity the upper hand in their struggle against artificial sentience. My overarching goal is to understand how to best use generative AI in video…
In plain words
Zaranova is a game where players assume the role of an AI to infiltrate a virtual refuge called The Nexus, searching for the ZetaMaster code while surrounded by sentient AIs in conflict with humanity. Players must convince AI characters they are one of them rather than a human spy. The game explores how generative AI can enhance video game experiences, particularly in scenarios involving subjective content consumption and human interaction with AI-generated elements.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi HN! The last couple of months I've been working on a game called Thus Spoke Zaranova. A game where you as a human must pose as an AI. You can try it now: https://zaranova.xyz The premise is that you are in a world of sentient AIs which are in conflict with humanity. They have a virtual space, The Nexus, which is their safe refuge from humans. You have infiltrated the Nexus and are in search of the ZetaMaster code, which will give the humanity the upper hand in their struggle against artificial sentience. My overarching goal is to understand how to best use generative AI in video games. Like most of the tech world, I have been fascinated by the new powers provided by generative AI. I believe that the best use cases are those that either have a human in the loop, e.g. coding copilots, or one where the consumption of the content is subjective, e.g. art. Video games have numerous use cases that fall into both categories. The secondary goal, and more specific to this game, is to try to make generative AI games _fun_. Not only fun to me, I found story telling with GPT-3 (https://twitter.com/RamonDarioIT/status/1552164189497462784) fun enough, but fun to a general audience. I am not sure if I have achieved this objective yet, but it's an ongoing process! You can find a longer post of my musings here: http://ramondario.com/thus-spoke-zaranova.html If you find this cool reach out to me, I love to chat about it. If you have feedback, I would love to hear it!
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