Qwen 3.6 27B vs Gemma 4 31B - making Packman game!

Gemma just crushed Qwen in a local LLM gamedev contest!

Device: MacBook Pro M5 Max, 64GB RAM

Qwen 3.6 27B: 32 tokens/sec · 18m 04s · 33,946 tokens.
Gemma 4 31B: 27 tokens/sec · 3m 51s · 6,209 tokens.

So what is more important: tokens per second, or the quality of the final answer?

Qwen made a very long response and showed more creativity and visual style. But Gemma gave a shorter, clearer, and more logical answer in much less time. In this one-shot Pac-Man gamedev contest, Gemma 4 31B was the clear winner. Its game logic was stronger: click reactions were smoother, and it handled interactions with elements like walls, ghosts, and particle effects better.

Open Source Local AI Models Server: atomic.chat

Basic Prompt:

Create a single standalone HTML file for a complete playable Pac-Man–style neon arcade game.

Use only HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and one full-page canvas. No external libraries or assets—everything must be procedurally drawn and run immediately in the browser.

Generate a compact (~21×21) symmetrical maze programmatically (no ASCII). It must be fully connected, playable, and use tile types (wall, path, pellet, power pellet, ghost spawn, Pac-Man spawn, fruit spawn). Ensure no unreachable pellets or invalid spawns.

Canvas must fill the window. Center and scale the maze dynamically using available space (no fixed tile size). Reserve space for a HUD.

Game states: title, playing, paused, life lost, level complete, game over. Include controls (keyboard + mobile). Title and game over screens must show instructions.

Pac-Man: smooth tile movement, queued turns, no diagonal movement, no clipping, wraps through side tunnels, resets after life loss.

Ghosts (4): simple pathfinding with distinct behaviors, spawn in a central house, exit with delays, move only on valid paths, never freeze.

Gameplay:

• Pellets (+10), power pellets (+50), fruit (+500), ghost chain scoring (200→1600)
• Power mode (~8s, min 3s): ghosts become edible and return to spawn when eaten
• Combo multiplier for quick pellet collection
• 3 lives, level progression increases difficulty
• Store high score in localStorage

Extras:

• Fruit spawns near center temporarily
• Visual polish: neon maze, glowing elements, animations, particles, screen effects
• HUD: score, high score, lives, level, combo, power timer

Technical:

• Use requestAnimationFrame with delta time
• Keep performance stable (limit particles)
• No bugs: avoid invalid movement, stuck entities, unreachable areas, or crashes

Final output: only the complete HTML code.