diff --git a/src/game/engine/scenes/tests/auto_play.gd b/src/game/engine/scenes/tests/auto_play.gd
index 364d6873..4d48c930 100644
--- a/src/game/engine/scenes/tests/auto_play.gd
+++ b/src/game/engine/scenes/tests/auto_play.gd
@@ -100,7 +100,12 @@ func _ready() -> void:
 			now["year"], now["month"], now["day"],
 			now["hour"], now["minute"], now["second"],
 		]
-		_game_dir = _output_dir.path_join("game_%s_seed%d" % [_start_stamp, _seed])
+		# Use AUTO_PLAY_DIR directly as the game output dir. Callers
+		# (autoplay-batch.sh, run_ap3.sh) are responsible for passing a unique
+		# per-seed directory — auto_play does not further nest, otherwise the
+		# batch wrapper's scp would double-nest
+		# (e.g. `.local/.../game_stamp_seed1/game_stamp_seed1/turn_stats.jsonl`).
+		_game_dir = _output_dir
 		DirAccess.make_dir_recursive_absolute(_game_dir.path_join("saves"))
 		print("AutoPlay: seed=%d stamp=%s dir=%s" % [_seed, _start_stamp, _game_dir])
 		_write_meta()