CLAUDE.md for Game Devs: The File That Makes AI Actually Understand Your Game
Your AI coding agent is brilliant but clueless about your game. CLAUDE.md fixes that. Here's how to write one that actually works for game projects.
2026-02-13
What is Agentic Coding? (And Why It Changes Everything)
Agentic coding is the biggest shift in software development since the IDE. Here's what it is, how it works, and why I'm building all my games with it.
2026-02-13
Stellar Throne Devlog #10 — From Bug Fixes to Breakthroughs
Fleet navigation, event system, research persistence, and construction system all fixed and implemented. 13 commits, 1000+ lines changed.
2025-11-06
Stellar Throne Devlog #8: Validation, Parity, and Precision
Building a comprehensive serialization parity test framework, fixing floating-point precision, and validating the dual-engine architecture.
2025-11-05
Stellar Throne Devlog #9: Visual Parity and Data Preservation
Fixing star rendering, preserving planet data, restoring entity names, and fleet composition through Zig serialization improvements.
2025-11-05
Stellar Throne Devlog #7: The Zig Simulation Goes Live
The Zig simulation backend is now live in production. Bidirectional serialization breakthrough enables the 52x performance improvement.
2025-11-03
Stellar Throne Devlog #6 — Zig Parity and Production Deployment
Comprehensive parity testing, 11 bugs fixed, and the Zig backend reaches production-ready status with 52.7x performance improvement.
2025-11-01
Stellar Throne Devlog #4 — The Great Migration: GDScript to Zig Complete
All 23 game managers fully ported from GDScript to Zig. 333 tests passing, TOML config migration complete, and simulation system track 2 underway.
2025-10-31
Stellar Throne Devlog #5 — All 21 Zig Simulation Phases Implemented + Parity Tester Online (52.7x Faster)
All 21 simulation phases complete in Zig with 52.7x speed improvement. TOML config system, rehabilitated test suite, and parity framework built.
2025-10-31
Ground Combat & Territory Borders Revamped
Ground combat gets strength bars, ownership updates, and battlefield grids. Territory borders redesigned with shaders.
2025-08-16
Stellar Throne Changelog Week of August 8-15, 2025
Major planetary warfare upgrades with Orbital Bombardment and Ground Invasion systems, redesigned Ground Combat UI, and dozens of bug fixes.
2025-08-15
Bugs, Battles, and a Bit of Scroll Sorcery
Combat UI scroll fix in Stellar Throne and ClaudeCraft course structure progress with modules 7-10 complete.
2025-08-10
Why I'm Making ClaudeCraft
Four core reasons for building ClaudeCraft: democratizing game creation, empowering creative communities, learning through teaching, and embracing AI's creative future.
2025-08-10
Redesigning the Battlefield: Combat UI Overhaul & ClaudeCraft Takes Shape
Comprehensive combat UI screen infrastructure redesign and launching the ClaudeCraft 10-week program for AI-assisted game development.
2025-08-09
Patching Up Combat and Building Better Testing Tools
Refining combat UI, building a Zig-based test harness, and creating specialized Claude agents for development and quality control.
2025-08-08
Opus 4.1, GUT Migration, and Combat UI Overhaul
Upgraded to Opus 4.1, migrated to GUT testing framework, and evaluated six combat UI layout designs.
2025-08-07
Upgrading to Godot 4.3 (Opus 4.1) and Combat UI Progress
Upgraded to Godot 4.3, performed a full codebase audit, and continued combat UI fleet layout improvements.
2025-08-06
Combat Returns (Sort Of)
Chasing elusive bugs to bring combat back online, fixing fleet behavior, engagement triggers, and optimizing loading screens.
2025-08-05
Refactoring with AI: Lessons in Trust, Testing, and Prompts
AI-assisted refactoring with Claude requires clear boundaries. Restored build buttons, loading screen, and ship construction timing.
2025-08-04
Closing the Parity Gap in Godot
Fog of war restored, star field in place, animated notifications implemented, and CLAUDE.md earns a 9.5/10 audit score.
2025-08-03
Godot Port Complete (Mostly!)
The Godot port reaches functional completion with fleet travel, 96 technologies, fog-of-war, and interactive panels all working.
2025-08-02
Stellar Throne: Porting Progress & Platform Trade-Offs
Huge porting strides across combat, strategic layer, and UI systems. Comparing the Godot and Zig development workflows.
2025-08-01
Stellar Throne Enters Alpha: Polish, Audio, and the Godot Port Begins
Stellar Throne officially reaches Alpha. The transition to Godot begins with foundational migration, galaxy rendering, and core mechanics ported.
2025-07-30
Stellar Throne Devlog — Phase 6 Complete, Diplomacy & Polish Begin
Phase 6 Galaxy Generation finalized. AI systems, diplomacy, and Phase 7 Polish begun. Fleet-splitting UI bug fixed.
2025-07-29
Refactoring, Regression Fixes, and the Case Against Unit Tests?
Unit test failures down to one, UI buttons restored, combat bugs squashed, and questioning the ROI on unit tests.
2025-07-28
CLAUDE.md Audit Continues, Test Suite Nears Green
Most unit tests passing with only 9 remaining. CLAUDE.md audit yields real architectural benefits through event-based system migration.
2025-07-27
Test Breakdown and Recovery Mode
Expanded test runner with pass/fail/skip summary, but memory leaks and broken tests surfaced. Codebase review against CLAUDE.md rules underway.
2025-07-26
Test Coverage, CLAUDE Compliance, and a Safer Codebase
Improved unit test coverage, built a test counting verification system, and completed a CLAUDE.md audit pass.
2025-07-25
Smarter UI, Safer Fleets, and Combat Sanity
Persistent notifications, top nav buttons, combat visualization fixes, and protecting ships in transit from combat engagement.
2025-07-23
Refactors, Bug Fixes, and Sprite Progress
Seven major files refactored for AI tooling compatibility, playtesting bug fixes, and ongoing planet sprite sheet development.
2025-07-22
Fog of War, First Playthrough, and Prompt Engineering Wins
Fog of war visuals implemented, first complete playthrough completed, fuel system removed, and ChatGPT used as a prompt architect for Claude.
2025-07-21
Research Deepens, Energy Burns, and the Galaxy Pushes Back
Research system enhanced with tiers and gating, energy system adds tactical limitations, and smart notifications surface pending actions.
2025-07-20
Explosions, Research, and High-Fidelity Sprites
SpriteSheetMaker upgraded with Mitchell filter, bombardment and ground combat systems operational, save/load UI built, and research framework established.
2025-07-19
A Big Systems Push — Colonization, Borders, and Battles
Major systems day: colonization, territory borders, sensors, fleet management, ship components, trade, victory tracking, and battle system implemented.
2025-07-18
Restart, Rebuild, Recalibrate
Complete restart of Stellar Throne after snake_case corruption. Rebuilt star map, fleet movement, HUD, and created SpriteSheetMaker tool.
2025-07-17
Editor Progress & CLAUDE.md Wrangling
In-game data editor with tree view and inline editing. CLAUDE.md audit reveals Python-driven refactor damage from snake_case replacements.
2025-07-16
Stellar Throne Devlog — July 15, 2025
CLAUDE.md violation audit completed, new landing page for mrphilgames.com, star map icons generated, and Substack newsletter launched.
2025-07-15
Stellar Throne Development Log: July 14, 2025
CLAUDE.md finalized at 9/10 quality, sprite sheets generated for all planet and star types, and Jekyll-based mrphilgames.com launched.
2025-07-14
Stellar Throne Devlog: Ground Combat, Ship Upgrades & First Contact
Major features: planetary invasions, ship retrofit system, first contact diplomacy, orbital bombardment, and trade/supply lines.
2025-07-13
Stellar Throne: Building a 4X Strategy Game with AI Coding Tools
An overview of Stellar Throne — a turn-based 4X strategy game built with Zig, SDL2, and AI coding tools like Claude Code and ChatGPT.
2025-07-12