A child’s drawings became a 12-stage, four-player arcade game

A child’s drawings became characters in the browser beat ’em up Aiden’s Revenge. Creator Lex Toumbourou reports 12 stages and 18 characters. The accessible artifact has a story sequence, fighter selection and a 1–4-player entry screen. Game: https://aidens-revenge.pages.dev/

The child supplied designs while Toumbourou directed revisions using Claude Code with Fable 5.2, ChatGPT Images 2.5 and ElevenLabs. His tally is roughly two days and 600 requests, not an untouched result from one prompt. His biography identifies him as a Staff Machine Learning Engineer at Canva, and his account discloses early model access.

On Hacker News, he said Claude tokens were free during testing. At then-current API prices, he estimated that portion at about $300. This was not an actual bill or a complete budget including image and audio generation. Free testing made experimentation easier, but does not establish that anyone could reproduce the project at no cost.

At approximately November 13, 2026, 16:15 Beijing time, Hacker News data showed 504 points and 451 comments: discussion figures, not player counts. Turning children’s designs into an accessible, multi-character game illustrates what an individual can assemble with AI tools. Controls and balance still need scrutiny. The creator acknowledged limited keyboard testing after mostly using PS4 controllers, and checking the interface is not independent validation of every stage.

Source times: creator article, verified through RSS, November 10, 2026, 04:50 Beijing / November 9, 3:50 PM EST; Hacker News discussion, November 10, 07:08:13 Beijing / November 9, 6:08:13 PM EST. The game and biography give no exact publication time; the November 10 creator article and contemporary discussion establish the work’s timing. Artifact accessed approximately November 13, 16:18 Beijing / 3:18 AM EST.