[Edaily Reporter An Yu-ri ] “When I created ‘The Land of the Wind’ 30 years ago, I wrote 30,000 lines of code over the course of a year. Now, working alone on ‘Open MMO’ for eight months, I’ve written 160,000 lines. I’m doing about eight times as much work. Codex handles the coding seamlessly on its own.”

Song Jae-kyung, a first-generation game developer who created *The Land of the Wind* and *Lineage* and former CEO of XL Games, shared his experience with game development using artificial intelligence (AI). He explained that AI coding agents are significantly boosting game developers’ productivity, fundamentally changing the way games are made.

Former CEO Song took the stage as a speaker at “OpenAI Game Builders Seoul,” held on the 31st at Graphene in Wirye, Seoul, where he shared his experience developing games using the coding agent “Codex.”

This marks the first time OpenAI has hosted a hackathon focused on game development using Codex. At the event, 40 teams selected from online qualifiers participated in the finals and developed games using Codex.

Song explained that while implementing game technologies used to require a significant amount of time, AI now makes it possible to experiment with them quickly.

“In the past, to create the ‘Gerstner Wave ocean shader,’ which captures the feel of ocean waves, or a physics-based ‘cape simulation,’ one would have had to spend months learning these techniques and building prototypes,” he said. “Now, all you have to do is tell the AI what you want, and it creates it for you.”

Codex is a coding agent released by OpenAI in May of last year. It performs software development tasks—such as writing and modifying code—when a user describes the desired functionality in natural language. As of August of this year, the combined weekly active user base for ChatGPT Work and Codex exceeded 20 million.

Oliver Jay, Managing Director at OpenAI, also expressed interest in the Korean gaming industry. He said, “Few places have advanced gaming to the extent that Korea has—from online games to esports and virtual worlds.”

Developed with Codex and Launched with HYBE

This hackathon went beyond simply creating games; participants implemented features necessary for actual service operation.

Participants developed games using Codex and then integrated them with Com2uS Holdings’ backend service, “HYBE,” to implement features necessary for game operations, such as login, payment, user analytics, and security.

Com2uS Corporation also introduced “HYBE Axyl,” a new platform scheduled for release in the third quarter of this year. It is a platform that supports Software Development Kit (SDK) integration using Codex and the setup of game servers. Projects created as plugins include the basic structure required for server development, as well as development, build, and deployment environments.

Com2uS Corporation Chairman Song Byung-jun said, “If Codex expands the freedom to create games, then HYBE must expand the freedom to bring those games to the world.”

Game Developers Also Say, “AI Gives Us Wings”

Leading developers in the domestic game industry also shared their experiences and outlook on game development using

AI

.

Kim Yong-ha, Executive Producer at NEXON Games, emphasized the role of human developers, noting that AI has limitations when it comes to independently judging a game’s fun factor and user experience. “Since AI cannot actually experience the game firsthand, it doesn’t know how the finished product will feel to humans,” he said. “The difference in the final outcome lies in the synergy humans can create and how they convey their own sense of the game’s appeal to AI.”

Kim Dae-hwan, CEO of Aiberton, assessed that AI will contribute to reducing the costs and development time of games. He remarked, “There have been criticisms that the gaming industry does not yield a high return on investment (ROI),” adding, “Despite low profitability, development took a long time and cost a lot. AI has given game development a boost.”

The event featured former CEO Song, along with Kim Yong-ha, Executive Producer at NEXON Games; Kim Dae-hwan, CEO of Averton; Park Beom-jin, CEO of Aquatree; Ban Seung-cheol, CEO of Second Dive; Lee Jeong-woong, former CEO of SundayToz; Lim Hyun-soo, former CTO of SundayToz; Kim Dong-kyu, founder of Highidea; Go Jeong-hwan, co-CEO of Supervillain Labs; Hong Seong-jin, former CTO of Devsisters corporation; Lee Jun-hee, CTO of Arto; and Park Sang-jun, Director of Com2uS Corporation AX HUB, among other figures from the domestic gaming industry, participated as speakers.

The event drew attention as YouTuber Kim Gye-ran participated as both a hackathon participant and a host. She unveiled “Only Squat,” a fitness game that recognizes users’ movements via a webcam.

“I started this because I wanted to create a game that lets people exercise naturally,” she said. “I chose the ‘squat’ as the core exercise because it’s simple and effective, and movements can be easily recognized by a webcam.”