Tech founder vibe codes game about shooting 'zombies' in San Francisco's poorest neighborhood
City residents and leaders denounced the free web game, which was taken down.
Pierre-Louis Biojout, the founder of AI startup NanoCorp, faced backlash from San Francisco residents and city officials following the launch of his weekend project: a zombie shooter video game set in the Tenderloin neighborhood. Known for its high levels of homelessness and open drug use, the Tenderloin street-level is where Biojout's game, "Tenderloin Night Shift," was hosted.
In a now-deleted post on X, Biojout expressed that he had monetized the game through in-game advertisements, earning $300. The game featured zombies with various backstories, including a "folded fentanyl addict" and a "Black security guard." Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the SF Coalition on Homelessness, criticized Biojout for monetizing the dehumanization and pretend killing of mostly Black and Brown residents in the poorest neighborhood of San Francisco.
Biojout denied intending to provoke or depict real people being shot and clarified that the game also included tech workers as characters. However, the controversy surrounding the game remains, with some tech founders expressing disapproval of Biojout's portrayal of addiction as a mere zombie shooter. Despite his attempts to distance himself from the message, some users defended the game, arguing that the characters were not human beings.
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