Three months. June is prep - ZAO teachers + Vibe Coding instructors run recorded sessions on tools, context, and the ecosystem. July is the open build-a-thon - anyone with a vibe-coding harness ships a build for the ZAO ecosystem publicly. August is the Finals - a cohort curated from July, each builder paired with a ZAO mentor for the main event + winner reveal.
Use whatever harness you want (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Aider, Bolt, v0, Lovable). ZAO mentors pick their champions from July ships - the mentor roster is open and recruiting now. All chosen builders win. You bring the build, we bring the team + distribution.
Three months instead of one. Born from the working session with Jordan (Empire Builder) - the original "all-in-June" plan compressed too much. The new shape gives builders a month to absorb context, a month to ship, and a month for the Finals to breathe.
Recorded sessions, Far-Hack style. ZAO teachers cover governance, Respect, ZOLs, fractals. Vibe coding instructors walk through Claude Code, Cursor, MCP, and agent harnesses. Tool specialists drop tutorials on Empire Builder V3 (with Jordan), zlank.online, POIDH bounties, Juke, and Songjam. Watch live or after. The ZABAL/ZAO/WaveWarZ context skill goes live so any agent can load full ecosystem context with one drop.
Anyone with the chops ships a build aligned with ZABAL, ZAO, or WaveWarZ. Live URL + open-source GitHub repo + 60-second demo + cast on /zabal. Builders can open a tokenless Empire on Empire Builder as a public build home (leaderboard + treasury surface) - encouraged, not required. Mentors watch rolling and claim champions as builds drop - first-come-first-served per mentor.
The mentor-champion pairs lock. Same Finals prompt for the whole cohort. 24h build with mentor embedded as teammate + 24h promote + 24h ZAO governance vote + live reveal stream. Finalists who want to launch a token Ascend their Empire via Clanker + airdrop with vesting to their contribution leaderboard. Those who do not keep running the tokenless Empire indefinitely.
The application is the build (July). The Finals (August) are a collaboration among the cohort. All chosen finalists get paid + the participation collectible + earn Respect in ZAO governance during the event.
ZABAL Games is not a generic hackathon. It is a Farcaster-creator onboarding event for the ZAO ecosystem - a structured way to bring hungry, Farcaster-active vibe-coders into ZAO by having them build something real, in public, with a ZAO mentor in their corner.
Bring talented Farcaster builders together. Give them deep context on everything ZAO is building (ZAO OS, WaveWarZ, ZAO Festivals, and the rest). Let them create something that helps the community, with a ZAO mentor as their embedded teammate. Earn governance in the community during the event itself. If they want to keep building with ZAO after - great. If not, they still walked away with a real artifact, a real relationship, and a real onchain credential.
New builders who understand ZAO from the inside. Real artifacts shipped for the ecosystem. A recurring format (this is Season 1) that compounds. The competition is in getting selected through Phase 1 - once you are a Finalist, the Finals are a collaboration, and all finalists win.
The builds matter, but the people matter more. This is about who you are as a builder, how you work in public, how you collaborate with a mentor - not just whether the demo is polished. That is why the application is itself a build (Phase 1): we want to see how you actually ship.
ZABAL Games is run by ZAO - music infrastructure for independent artists using decentralized tools. When you build for the Games, you build for this ecosystem. Here is the map.
The full context bundle (everything above plus the rails, SDKs, brand guidelines, and research docs) drops to all Finalists as the Phase 2 prompt. Phase 1 builders get a lighter version when the build-a-thon opens.
Most challenges are zero-sum. ZABAL Games is built so every party gets something real out of the weekend - the players, the ZAO ecosystem, and the viewers tuning in.
Two ways to lend your time to ZABAL Games. Mentors claim a champion from July submissions and embed as their teammate during the August Finals. Workshop leads record one June bootcamp session on their specialty (Empire Builder, Snaps, agents, tokens, music infra, fractal governance - your call).
Two things on this page: the live calendar of June workshops (RSVP to attend any session), and a slot-picker for new workshop leads (book your June date directly). If neither is wired yet, use the form above or DM @bettercallzaal.
How it works: Lu.ma shows what is scheduled (audience RSVPs). Cal.com lets workshop leads book a slot from open availability. Both feed the same calendar - one place, one view. If you do not have a Lu.ma or Cal.com account, the form above + a Farcaster DM works just as well.
Most hackathons make you apply with a paragraph + a vibe. ZABAL Games makes the application itself the work - prove yourself by shipping, not by selling. June seasons you with context; July is when you ship; the most interesting builds advance to the August Finals, each paired with a ZAO mentor as embedded teammate.
Vibe-code something - anything - using the ZAO context from June. Ship it publicly with a live URL, an open-source GitHub repo, a 60-second demo, and a cast on /zabal. Use whatever harness fits you (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Aider, Bolt, v0, Lovable). Open to everyone with the chops to ship. Opening a tokenless Empire on Empire Builder as your public build home is encouraged but not required.
As July builds ship, ZAO mentors watch rolling. Each mentor claims one champion - the builder whose work + style fits their search. First-come-first-served by mentor, so build early + build well. The mentor-champion pairs lock the August Finals roster. The mentor roster is open - we are recruiting mentors now.
Same Finals prompt for the whole cohort. 24h to build with your mentor embedded as teammate (Discord/Meet, live with you). 24h to promote. ZAO members with earned Respect vote onchain. Live reveal stream. Finalists who want to launch a token Ascend their Empire through Clanker with an airdrop + vesting to their leaderboard. All selected finalists win - cash + collectible + Respect earned during the event.
The competition is the July ship (getting selected). The August Finals are a collaboration among the cohort. All chosen finalists get paid + receive the participation collectible + earn Respect in the ZAO governance during the event itself.
The competition is in getting selected (Phase 1). Once you're in the Finals, you're already a winner - the cohort collaborates, not competes. The $500 USDC pool is tiered to recognize standout work, but every finalist walks home paid + with the participation collectible + Respect earned during the event. The DAO vote orders the recognition, doesn't pick winners-vs-losers.
ZAO members who have earned Respect by contributing through fractals are the judging body. Not whoever holds the most tokens. Not a closed panel. The community that's been showing up + earning peer-validated reputation gets to pick which builds serve the ecosystem best.
Eligible voters = ZAO members with Respect above a threshold. Respect is ZAO's soulbound peer-validated reputation - it's earned in weekly fractals over time. So the voter set naturally skews toward long-tenure contributors without needing a separate tenure rule. Voter eligibility is snapshotted at T+0 so the set is locked before the Games start. 1-person-1-vote mechanism for Season 1. Placement by total votes. Reveal stream at T+72h announces placements + distributes USDC + mints collectibles live onchain.
We don't care if you use Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Aider, Cline, Bolt, v0, Lovable, or hand-roll your own pipeline. What we care about is that you build in public. Pick at least one primary visibility mode below. Mix and match welcome.
ZABAL Games is Season 1. It is designed to be recurring infrastructure for ZAO, not a one-off event. Here is the longer arc.
This is Season 1 and it is being designed in the open. Here is exactly where things stand - what is decided, and what is still being figured out. If you are reading this to decide whether to get involved, you should know both.
Full working spec lives in the ZAO research library (Doc 630 + the canonical-state Doc 701). This page is the shareable summary - the docs are the source of truth + the running log of every decision.
The July build prompt is a single machine-readable file at zabalgames.com/llms.txt. Point your AI tool at it and load the full ZAO ecosystem context in one fetch - what every brand is, the tech stack and rails, the two build paths, the brand guidelines (no emojis, no em dashes, naming glossary), the submission bar, and where the deeper docs live.
Two build paths. Adopt a started ZAO project from the list in the context file, or build from scratch. Either way you tie it to real ZAO rails (Empire Builder, Farcaster mini apps, Hats, Bonfire, EAS, Hypersub, Coinflow) and ship within 24h with your AI tool of choice.
The August Finals get an additional sealed prompt drop at T+0 - identical for every finalist so the build window starts on equal footing. The July base context (this file) stays public the whole way through.
You do not have to build from scratch. These are real, in-progress ZAO projects that need a builder to ship them forward. Adopt one in your July submission - or build from scratch with the context file. Both paths count.
Want one of these? DM @bettercallzaal with the number. List is curated; status updates as builders claim slots. Full curated list lives in llms.txt.
Phase 1 is open to anyone. Build something with the ZAO context prompt (released when applications open) using your vibe-coding harness of choice. Ship publicly. ZAO mentors watch rolling - each claims one champion to bring to the Finals. Build early + build well.
Note: applications are public by default. Your submission is a Farcaster cast - shareable, visible, indexable. If you'd prefer to apply privately, this isn't the right Games for you.
Don't want to start from a blank repo? These are seeded starting points - fork one, make it yours, ship it as your Phase 1 build. Building on a starter is just as valid as building from scratch. Note which one you extended on your submission.
Every Phase 1 build, public. This is what the ZAO mentors review to claim their champions. Ship early, ship well - the board is live.