heyitssim
Joined 2 years ago
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34
Member since
Oct 28
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Comment · 7 months ago
I love making games, and I've been building a no-code game engine by extracting reusable components every time I ship a new game. It started as me scratching my own itch, and now it's turning into a real platform.
Each game adds more building blocks to the editor: multiplayer, event systems, NPC behaviors, pathfinding, etc. I build a system once, and then anyone using the editor can use it in a click.
Since my last month, I shipped the asset marketplace and the LLM builder. Artists can now upload tilesets and characters, and unlike itch.io, assets drop directly into the editor. You can preview how they'll actually look in-game before using them [1].
An other problem I kept running into: even with a no-code editor, users don't know where to start. So now I'm extending it with a coding agent. Describe the game you want, and it assembles it — pulling assets from the marketplace, wiring up the event system, and using all the building blocks I've spent the past year extracting. Multiplayer, mobile controls, pathfinding, NPC behaviors — the agent doesn't build any of it, just reaches for what's already there.
Once the LLM assembles it, users will have a game ready to work on, and will still be able jump into the editor and tweak everything [2]. Here's an example of what it can already make [3] (after a lot of prompting), and the goal is to reach games like this one I built with the manual editor[4].
Hoping to release the AI mode in a week or two. The manual editor is live at https://craftmygame.com in the meantime.
[1] https://craftmygame.com/asset/mossy-cavern-JdYWai1
[2] https://youtu.be/6I0-eTmoHwQ
Comment · 8 months ago
you can do definitely! and we export terrain/animation to godot or a bundle to js/html with the whole game. Reach me out if you struggle to start :)
Comment · 8 months ago
As a web dev you're in a better spot than you think — state management, event handling, render loops... you already have the mental models.
Claude Code can genuinely help you with: - Scaffolding a game project (Phaser.js is great for web devs getting into 2D) - Writing boilerplate: input handling, collision detection, basic physics - Debugging weird edge cases in game logic - Generating utility code like sprite sheet parsers, tilemap loaders, etc.
What it can't do (and where most beginners hit a wall): - Game design. Knowing what makes a game actually fun is a skill Claude can't shortcut. You need to playtest, iterate, and develop taste. - Art and assets. This is the #1 blocker for most solo devs. Claude can't draw your sprites or design your tilesets. - Feel and polish. Tweaking jump curves, screen shake timing, hit feedback — that's all manual iteration. AI will give you "technically correct" values that feel lifeless. - Architecture decisions. Claude will happily generate an ECS system or a scene manager, but it doesn't know your game's actual needs. Bad architecture early on will cost you weeks later.
Start with a tiny scope (like a single-screen platformer), use Claude Code to move fast on the code side, but spend most of your energy on the parts AI can't help with — design and feel.
Also, shameless plug, if you want to skip the code entirely and just focus on making the game, that's what CraftMyGame is for. Everything is visual, no coding needed. Might be a good way to prototype ideas fast before deciding if you want to go deeper on the code side ;)
Comment · 8 months ago
My version of OP's roads problem is blob autotiling - how tiles connect to their neighbors. 256 possible neighbor combinations reduce to 47 valid patterns once you realize corners only matter when both adjacent edges are present. You paint a semantic type like "wall", the system resolves the right tile from those 47 patterns - but painting one tile cascades outward, neighbors re-resolve, which triggers their neighbors, and you're tracking stale state to keep it all consistent. Same underlying problem as road segments affecting connected intersections.
I've been trying to make this as easy as possible for non technical people to draw terrain in craftmygame (the game engine I'm building) here's what the terrain painting looks like in the editor so far : https://youtu.be/bFrUYM2t3ZA?si=tw1LqBWR7Uyn08lR&t=37
Comment · 8 months ago
I love making games, and I’ve been building a no-code game engine by extracting reusable components every time I ship a new game. It started as me scratching my own itch, and now it’s turning into a real platform.
Each game adds more building blocks to the editor: multiplayer, event systems, NPC behaviors, pathfinding, etc. I build a system once, and then anyone using the editor can use it in a click. For game logic, I recently added a visual event system I’m really excited about. It’s kind of like Unreal Blueprints, but focused on 2D. You pick a trigger, wire conditions, and chain actions in a node graph [1].
Big challenge right now: most people who want to make games needs assets, and don't know how to get/make them. So I’m building a marketplace where pixel artists can upload tilesets/characters, and unlike itch.io, assets are usable directly inside the engine. No ZIP downloads or import setup, just browse and drop into your game. A preview here[2].
Also, if you want to use the editor but ship elsewhere, you can export terrain, animations, and hitboxes to Godot 4. Nothing is locked in.
The engine/editor is at https://craftmygame.com if anyone wants to poke around! And you can test a games here[3][4], and 1 multiplayer game I've tested IRL in a bar [4]!
[1] https://youtu.be/8fRzC2czGJc
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hScOK_naYnk
[3] https://craftmygame.com/game/e310c6fcd8f4448f9dc67aac/r/play
Comment · 9 months ago
Love the workflow focus in this release. 2D animations/hitboxes and terrain creation was tedious enough that I built a tool around it—draw, animate, export to Godot if anyone needs it. It also now become a full game engine!