A Russian construction worker named Airat has built a custom city racing video game for his six-year-old son using artificial intelligence tools.
The project, titled Kazan Racing, was reported by the Russian news outlet Mash Iptash on its Telegram channel. Airat decided to develop the software himself after growing frustrated with intrusive advertisements popping up on the mobile telephone his son was using.
Working demanding rotational shifts on construction sites, he spent his free evenings over the course of a single week coding the initial version of the program. With the assistance of neural network utilities, he succeeded in assembling the playable prototype in seven days after completing his daily construction work.
Landmarks across Kazan
The game interface accurately reproduces familiar streets and landmarks for residents of Kazan, the regional capital located in south-west Russia. Players can drive along the roads beneath the white walls of the historic Kazan Kremlin, speed across the Kirov Dam causeway, and navigate the famous Millennium Bridge over the Kazanka River.
In an unusual challenge at the finish of the course, the game requires the player to leave their vehicle behind. The racer must switch from an automobile to a horse and ride past competing drivers across the high slopes of Vysokaya Gora to claim victory.
Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, is one of the oldest cities in Russia. The Millennium Bridge, notable for its towering cable-stayed pylon shaped like the letter M, was constructed to mark the millennium of the city in 2005. The nearby Kremlin fortress dates back centuries and is preserved as an international cultural landmark.
Family entertainment with no commercial release
Airat said that he had no intention of releasing the game in a commercial format or offering it for sale in digital application stores. He explained that the entire project was conceived strictly as personal entertainment for his family, designed to give his child a fun pastime without unwanted interruptions.
The development comes as artificial intelligence systems make programming accessible to amateurs without software engineering backgrounds. While Russian academic specialists at South Ural State University and the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Psychology have researched how neural networks gauge human creativity, independent creators are already putting generative tools to practical use at home.
