NHN completes AI and game development hackathon NAN 2026

NHN has successfully concluded its Next AI Network 2026 (NAN 2026) hackathon, a recruitment-linked event designed to discover talent capable of integrating artificial intelligence into game development. The event, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, drew significant interest with over 150,000 visitors to its application page.

Ten finalist teams competed during a 48-hour intensive development session at the NHN Play Museum in Pangyo. Participants were tasked with creating games based on a common theme of ‘2026’ combined with randomly selected material and functional keywords. The competition focused on evaluating AI utilization, creativity, and technical completion.

The grand prize was awarded to team ‘Seoyugi’ for their game ‘Doppelganger,’ a real-time turn-based combat game involving territory disputes between wildlife and mimicking robot AI. Notably, the winning team reported utilizing AI tools, including Claude code, for approximately 95% of their development process. Other winners included the ‘Third-Person Observer View’ team (Excellence Award) and the ‘Bug and Feature’ team (Participation Award). Winners received cash prizes and opportunities for final interviews to join NHN.