Programme application

Why we need the Claude for Startups programme

Octobar is a game we are making as a small team. Below is what the Anthropic programme provides, how we plan to use Claude in the game, and what is already in place on the site for the application.

What the programme provides

According to the official programme page claude.com/programs/startups:

$1,000 in API credits for each approved company. The credits are valid for six months.
One free year of Claude Team for up to five seats. The offer is only for organisations that have not used Team before.
Higher API rate limits for participants who receive programme credits. Specific figures are not published.
Applied AI consultations: 45 minutes, once every two weeks.
For founders backed by VCs from Anthropic's partner network: up to $100K in additional API credits, received through their venture fund.
Claude Startup Stack: offers from partners worth up to $45K. These offers are made by independent third parties, not by Anthropic.

Credits apply only to the direct Claude API (through Claude Console). They do not apply to AWS Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI or other third-party platforms.

Programme terms may change, and acceptance decisions are made by Anthropic. Before applying, check the current programme page and terms, not this description.

How we plan to use Claude in Octobar

Status: in development — the current public build uses hand-written dialogue. The Claude API is the core of the next version of Octobar. Nothing in this section is in the released game yet.

1. Living patrons

Coming to Octobar: players will talk to the bar's patrons in free text, and Claude will answer in character. Each reply is grounded in that patron's own lore and backstory, so Evelin, Furry, Gombik, Mr Krys, Lady Moth, Worm, Sun, Big Talk and Guy each keep a distinct voice across the nine campaign guests.

The conversation will affect the shift. A good exchange can change the order, the tip and how patient the guest stays; a poor one can make them leave early.

2. World integration

We are building a link between Claude and the game state. Claude will be given the day number, the drinks served and missed, which patrons the player has already met, and what was said in earlier conversations, including on previous days. The setting rules of the alternative 1920s will be part of the same context. The aim is for stories to evolve differently in each playthrough, with patrons referring to each other and to events in the bar.

3. Guardrails

Authored character sheets and a world bible are used as system prompts, so every patron stays within an established personality and the setting.
Structured outputs: each reply is returned as JSON (reply text, mood change, order), which the Godot game parses and checks before acting on it.
Content moderation on player input and on model output.
Fallback to authored lines when the API is offline or unavailable, so the game still plays with the hand-written dialogue.

4. Why API credits matter

Every conversation turn is a real-time model call, so development and playtesting need many of them. Credits would cover per-turn dialogue calls during development and playtesting, prompt iteration on the character sheets and world bible, and comparing models for latency and cost before we choose one.

5. Claude Code for development

We will also use Claude Code in day-to-day development of the game.

Why credits matter for a small team

Dialogue, balancing and localisation are tasks a small team usually does by hand, and slowly. Starting API credits would let us try these tasks in the first months without budgeting separately for the API, and decide whether to continue.

Team

Servooshka — Software Engineer
I'm Zomino — Game Designer & Artist
Fayenowo — Game Designer & Artist