I Built a Maze Runner Simulation Where Teenage Sam Altman Survives the Glade December 25, 2025

The Concept in One Sentence ## Why This Even Exists ## Core Architecture (surprisingly clean for such a silly idea) ## Personality Really Matters (more than you'd expect) ## LLM Usage — Extremely Paranoid Edition ## Console Output Porn (because we all love pretty terminals) ## How to Run It Right Now ## Future Evil Plans (if I don't get bored) ## Final Thoughts What happens when you drop a teenage version of Sam Altman into James Dashner's The Maze Runner universe? Apparently, you get a surprisingly addictive little personality-driven simulation that combines: And yes — it is as weird and fun as it sounds. A 16-year-old Sam Altman wakes up in the Box. His survival odds depend (mostly) on how curious, agreeable, and emotionally stable you decide he is. Everything is in one gloriously self-contained file right now (MVP life): The simulation loop is brutally simple: And then it prints a nice table + health plot at the end. Here's what happens when you run the exact same events with slightly different OCEAN profiles: The high-Openness version is dramatically more entertaining (and painful) to watch. I wanted narrative flavor without spending $12 on one funny run. Total cost for 50 full runs ≈ $0.04–0.07 (December 2025 pricing) Followed by a clean summary table and this little guy at the end: (matplotlib line chart of health going up and down like teenage mood swings) Takes ~20–40 seconds per run (mostly waiting for OpenAI). This was one of those projects that started as a dumb joke and somehow became genuinely interesting to watch unfold. The combination of fixed personality traits + randomness + tiny LLM injections creates emergent stories that feel surprisingly alive for <300 lines of code. Sometimes the silliest ideas teach you the most about agency, personality modeling, and how little prompting an LLM actually needs to be entertaining. Give it a spin. Change the OCEAN values. Laugh at teenage Sam getting mauled by a Griever because he was "too curious". And if you make an even worse version with Elon or Vitalik — please tag me. Merry Christmas 2025, and may your maze always have an exit. 🌀 Repo: https://github.com/ilyarah/Maze_Runner_Sam_Altman_Sim_MVP License: MIT What weird simulation should I build next? 👇 Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Are you sure you want to ? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. as well , this person and/or COMMAND_BLOCK: @dataclass class Character: name: str age: int ocean: Dict[str, float] health: float = 100.0 relationships: Dict[str, float] = None def make_decision(self, event_type: str) -> str: if event_type == "danger": return "explore" if random.random() < self.ocean["O"] else "hide" # ... etc COMMAND_BLOCK: @dataclass class Character: name: str age: int ocean: Dict[str, float] health: float = 100.0 relationships: Dict[str, float] = None def make_decision(self, event_type: str) -> str: if event_type == "danger": return "explore" if random.random() < self.ocean["O"] else "hide" # ... etc COMMAND_BLOCK: @dataclass class Character: name: str age: int ocean: Dict[str, float] health: float = 100.0 relationships: Dict[str, float] = None def make_decision(self, event_type: str) -> str: if event_type == "danger": return "explore" if random.random() < self.ocean["O"] else "hide" # ... etc CODE_BLOCK: def generate_narrative(...): try: response = openai.ChatCompletion.create( model="gpt-3.5-turbo", max_tokens=85, temperature=0.7, ... ) except: return "Fallback: Sam did a thing. It was probably fine." CODE_BLOCK: def generate_narrative(...): try: response = openai.ChatCompletion.create( model="gpt-3.5-turbo", max_tokens=85, temperature=0.7, ... ) except: return "Fallback: Sam did a thing. It was probably fine." CODE_BLOCK: def generate_narrative(...): try: response = openai.ChatCompletion.create( model="gpt-3.5-turbo", max_tokens=85, temperature=0.7, ... ) except: return "Fallback: Sam did a thing. It was probably fine." CODE_BLOCK: while sim.run_day(): pass CODE_BLOCK: while sim.run_day(): pass CODE_BLOCK: while sim.run_day(): pass CODE_BLOCK: Day 4 | Sam is offered a chance to run the Maze with the Runners. → Decision: explore → Outcome: positive Sam sprinted into the twisting corridors, eyes wide with that terrifying mix of terror and fascination only a true puzzle addict could feel. Health: 100 | Relationships: Newt:0.68 Thomas:0.62 Chuck:0.58 CODE_BLOCK: Day 4 | Sam is offered a chance to run the Maze with the Runners. → Decision: explore → Outcome: positive Sam sprinted into the twisting corridors, eyes wide with that terrifying mix of terror and fascination only a true puzzle addict could feel. Health: 100 | Relationships: Newt:0.68 Thomas:0.62 Chuck:0.58 CODE_BLOCK: Day 4 | Sam is offered a chance to run the Maze with the Runners. → Decision: explore → Outcome: positive Sam sprinted into the twisting corridors, eyes wide with that terrifying mix of terror and fascination only a true puzzle addict could feel. Health: 100 | Relationships: Newt:0.68 Thomas:0.62 Chuck:0.58 COMMAND_BLOCK: git clone https://github.com/ilyarah/Maze_Runner_Sam_Altman_Sim_MVP.git cd Maze_Runner_Sam_Altman_Sim_MVP pip install openai matplotlib export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..." python simulation/main.py COMMAND_BLOCK: git clone https://github.com/ilyarah/Maze_Runner_Sam_Altman_Sim_MVP.git cd Maze_Runner_Sam_Altman_Sim_MVP pip install openai matplotlib export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..." python simulation/main.py COMMAND_BLOCK: git clone https://github.com/ilyarah/Maze_Runner_Sam_Altman_Sim_MVP.git cd Maze_Runner_Sam_Altman_Sim_MVP pip install openai matplotlib export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..." python simulation/main.py - Big Five (OCEAN) personality modeling - Probabilistic decision making - Token-efficient LLM narrative generation - Health + relationship tracking - Beautiful console output + matplotlib health graphs - Play with OCEAN personality traits as actual gameplay mechanics - Use very light LLM calls for flavor text without burning money - Create something that feels like interactive fan-fiction but runs in ~200 lines - Have an excuse to think about teenage Sam Altman solving mazes (don't ask) - Max 85 tokens per generation - Temperature 0.7 (chaotic but not insane) - Perfect fallback text that still makes sense - Only one call per day - Branching events based on current health/relationships - Multiple endings (escape / become Keeper / get eaten by Griever) - GUI with pygame (because why not) - Sensitivity analysis: how much Openness is too much Openness? - Replace Sam with other public figures (you know you want to)