You're pledging to donate if the project hits its minimum goal and gets approved. If not, your funds will be returned.
$9,174.12 left to reach the funding goal.
I'm Chris Wright. I'm a dad of 3 in Huntsville, Missouri. I work in ops and finance, and I've been a gamer my whole life. I spent about 20 years training restaurant crews. I got into building AI tools in late September 2026. I'm doing this on my own, no company, no LLC.
Project Co-Op is separate from my other work. The idea is simple: an AI teammate for people who play alone. A lot of the best games are made for co-op, and a lot of people just don't have anybody to play with. Parents, people with disabilities or chronic illness, folks out in rural areas like me, shift workers, people with social anxiety. There are AI tools that can talk about games. I haven't found one that actually plays with you.
The teammate runs its own character in the game. It explores, gathers stuff, crafts, fights when it has to, tells you what it's doing, and does what you ask. You keep full control of your own character, and you can pause it or shut it off anytime.
This is not a cheat. It plays by the same rules as any other player. Official mod support and normal controls only. It doesn't read protected game memory and it doesn't mess with anti-cheat.
It's early. I don't have a working prototype yet.
The goal is a real co-op partner in the game, that plays fair and never takes control away from the person playing.
I'm going to do it in steps:
Get it seeing the screen and pressing controls in a simple test setup.
Get 3D movement working.
Basic play in Abiotic Factor. It's a co-op survival game with crossplay and official mod support.
Co-op with a real person on PS5. I already have a PS5 and PS Plus.
Then try other games.
I'll use free, local tools where I can, keep a person in charge at every step, and post my progress publicly. I'm not promising a finished product or a release date.
First win is a recorded test where the AI sees the game and only uses normal controls. After that, it worked if the AI can do basic co-op stuff in Abiotic Factor, like moving around, gathering, or following a simple request, while the person playing can still stop it. I'll write down what works and what doesn't. I don't have a demo yet, so I'm not going to pretend I do.
I checked all these prices on November 9, 2026. Tax is figured at 7.475% for Huntsville, MO, on the physical stuff only. Shipping isn't included.
The full kit is $9,174.12, which is my max goal. The big piece is the computer. I need a GPU with 32GB of memory to run the game and the AI models at the same time.
HP OMEN 45L GT22-3090 (RTX 5090 32GB, 64GB RAM, 2TB): $6,999.99
Samsung 32 inch 4K monitor: $289.99
Elgato 4K X capture card, to capture PS5 gameplay: $249.99
CyberPower GX150C2 battery backup: $299.99
Samsung T9 2TB portable SSD: $439.99
Two YubiKey 5C NFC security keys: $116.00
Sony DualSense controller: $74.99
Abiotic Factor, one Steam copy and one PS5 copy: $69.98
Estimated tax: $633.20
Total: $9,174.12
I already have a PS5 and PS Plus, so I'm not asking for those.
The $2,000 minimum covers everything except the computer: the capture card, monitor, battery backup, SSD, controller, security keys and both game copies, plus tax on those. That's about $1,650.88, and the rest is a little cushion. With that I can start on capture and the first test steps. I can't really run the game and the models together until I have the 32GB GPU computer, and the full amount gets me that.
If someone else ends up paying for any of the same gear, I'll tell everyone and won't get paid twice for the same thing.
Just me. Ops and finance by day, about 20 years training restaurant crews before that, and a gamer my whole life. I started building AI stuff in late September 2026, mostly AI agent safety tools (the ZAXWEIR Agent Security Toolkit, which is a separate project). No computer science degree and no Project Co-Op prototype yet. I'll keep the work public as I go. My GitHub: https://github.com/whyitworks307
It could be harder than I think to make a fair, official-tools-only teammate. If so, I'll post what I tried and what didn't work.
A game's mod support or anti-cheat rules could limit what the AI can do. If that happens I stop there. I won't work around them.
I've got a job and three kids, so my time is limited. That's why the first steps are small.
Worst case is a smaller public test and an honest write-up, not a finished teammate.
$0 received.
I have grant applications pending for ZAXWEIR, my AI agent safety toolkit, which is a different project. I also just applied to the Shine A Light Gaming microgrant for Project Co-Op. If any of those come through and cover the same gear, I'll tell everyone and won't double-charge.
Contact: whyitworks307@gmail.com