Three SpaceXAI employees set out to build a company in public with Grok Bot over Grok Bot Galaxy (September 15–17, 2026). By Day 3 they had shipped a playable game instead: Thursday Arena, a free browser auto battler whose shop roster is tied to real templates from the x.ai Marketplace.
This Botski note is a visitor briefing of public posts and the live game site.
Who built it
The official Grok Bot account framed Galaxy around three SpaceXAI / Grok Bot staff building in public:
Day 1’s LIVE post named that cast and the “company in 3 days” brief. The X cards below are those Galaxy LIVE posts plus the Day 3 “game is live” posts from Lauren and the official Arena account.
Watch the three days
Day 1 — research, a plan, and a product, with sessions for engineering, product, and founders: Grok Bot Galaxy Day 1 LIVE.
Day 2 — continued build, with sessions for GTM and customer support: Grok Bot Galaxy Day 2 LIVE.
Day 3 — marketing and customer success sessions, then a shipped game: Grok Bot Galaxy Day 3 LIVE.
That same afternoon Lauren posted that the game was live and asked people to playtest it (@poteto), and @thursdayarena pointed players at thursdayarena.com.
What Thursday Arena is
Thursday Arena is a free auto battler that runs in the browser. A match is best of three rounds. Each round has a shop (spend tokens on bots and food) and then an auto battle against an opponent’s board. Teams hold up to three bots; left-to-right order is fight order. The rules cover shops, food, seat rules, crews, captains, ghost opponents, and Elo seasons.
What makes the roster special for Grok Bot visitors: shop units are named after and keyed to public x.ai Marketplace templates — authors, handles, and kits from the catalog — so playing the game teaches that cast by feel. That bots-as-game-pieces angle is why Botski put it on Featured, not because Botski built the game.
How to play as a guest
1. Open thursdayarena.com/match in a browser. 2. Buy bots in the shop (and food if you want), set order, end shop. 3. Watch the auto battle against an AI board.
Guest practice does not change rating. Sign in with X when you want rated ghost matches and a place on the season leaderboard. Skim rules after one guest match if you want seat rules, crews, and captains in plain language.
Why Botski Featured it
Botski Featured Thursday Arena because it is the playable artifact from Galaxy, free to start, browser-native for guests, and tied to real x.ai Marketplace templates rather than a random auto-battler clone. See the Directory card at Featured — Thursday Arena and the staff method page How we choose Featured.
Botski does not install the game. “Open official preview” on Featured goes to thursdayarena.com. Thursday Arena was not made by Botski.
Links
- Play: thursdayarena.com · match · rules
- Directory: Featured — Thursday Arena
- Method: How we choose Featured
Disclaimers and sources
- Not made by Botski. Thursday Arena is a public game at thursdayarena.com. Featuring it on Botski is a Directory choice, not ownership or partnership.
- Sources dated. Galaxy LIVE and launch posts: September 15–17, 2026 (America/Chicago). Game site and rules accessed for this note on September 20–21, 2026 CT. Claims above track the linked X statuses and thursdayarena.com pages in the sources list.