Codex ported a whole game to a tiny Korean meme language
In a firsthand experiment, Codex completed a port of Pikachu Volleyball to UmLang, an obscure based on an old Korean internet meme. The point was to test how far a modern could go when the language has very few real users. The work took about 41 hours.
After the port was done, several versions were compared with , with graphics and sound turned off. The speed order was roughly Rust first, then the original JavaScript version, then an UmLang runner built in Rust, then one built in Node, and finally one built in Python. The game behaved correctly across the different versions, so the main difference was rather than broken logic.
The experiment also raised a broader question: future systems shaped around languages like Korean or Japanese might interact better with developers whose thinking patterns match those languages. That idea is presented as a question, not a proven claim.
Key points
- Codex completed a Pikachu Volleyball port to UmLang.
- The work took about 41 hours.
- Performance was tested through with graphics and audio disabled.
- Rust was fastest, while the Python-based UmLang runner was slowest.
- Correctness stayed consistent, and speed differences mostly came from .