Year of the ZABAL - Day 223
The board closes Sunday, August 16. There is no vote - six finalists get picked, two per track, and all six present at the end of the month.
zm
Welcome to the ZABAL Gamez Finalz.
Year of the ZABAL, day 223.
What this is
A three month build-a-thon run by The ZAO. Free, open to anyone, and not a generic hackathon: you build something real, in public, with a ZAO mentor alongside you the whole way.
June was the workshops - governance, Respect, fractals, and hands-on sessions on Claude Code, Cursor, MCP and agent harnesses. All recorded, all still up. July was the open build, where anyone could submit a project. August is the finals, and that is where we are now.
15 people entered across three tracks: artist, builder and creator. Everyone who entered is on the board. Six get picked as finalists, two from each track, and they present in the last week of August. Three win, one from each track.
The board closes Sunday, August 16
That is the deadline. Until then nothing is decided, and everything can still move.
When it closes, I pick the six. All six present in three separate finals in the last week of August, and the six of you agree the dates between yourselves.
Tonight at 5pm EST
On the zm stream I go through the board for the first time, live, and there is a special guest on after. Come and see where you stand.
How the six get chosen
I choose them. It is not a tally that decides it for me.
There is no vote. A ballot ran back in month two, just to see what people thought of the projects. It did its job and it is closed now. It was never how the six get chosen.
What counts is showing up. Points go on the board at zabalgamez.com/leaderboard for the things that actually move this forward: showing up to the zm stream at 5pm EST, taking on this week's challenge, shipping an update on your project. Everyone starts on a point for entering, and every score is public.
Who is in it
15 builders. 30 projects. Three tracks.
Artist: ladyrynnemesis, gesd01.
Builder: kayonfire, uniquebeing404, ghostmintops, jdwalka, branth.
Creator: ladyrynnemesis, iman afrikah, taydexfun.
Also building: pascaline, breadcoop, mettodo, presdency.eth, dee-13, pyrofirezerox.
Where each project is at
Every entry is somewhere different and that is fine. Some are shipped, some are mid build, some are still an idea with a name. None of that is a mark against you - it is just where you are.
The one thing worth doing this week is making sure I can actually see yours. If it is not showing on the projects page, say so in /zabal and I will sort it out with you.
What every finalist gets
500 USDC, split between the six finalists.
One optional challenge this week
Open to everyone, and it counts toward how I read your season.
Find ways to help get our musicians out to Maine. Funding the last few of them to get there is the hardest thing in front of us right now, and any idea that moves it is worth hearing.
Post it in /zabal, or bring it to me directly.
The season on the record
32 sessions. 31 different people teaching. 25 organisations. Only one person presented twice.
32 recordings from Season 1 are up. Go and watch them.
Find us in /zabal on Farcaster, or reach me at @zaal and @bettercallzaal on X.
- BetterCallZaal on behalf of the ZABAL Team