Solo dev builds gothic autobattler with Claude Code: AI handles testing, balance, art and trailer
Dreamt_Up_Games · reddit · 2026-11-08
A middle-aged solo dev shares how Claude Code powers almost everything in his gothic card autobattler Midnight Bell (Steam, Q2 2027):
- Unity wiring: Claude runs Cinside the open Editor via Unity CLI — it starts test fights, runs the test suite, and screenshots the game itself instead of asking what the dev sees.
- Balance: every card lives in one spreadsheet; bots play full runs against each other and Claude reruns them after each change, keeping each faction's win rate between 45–55%.
- Art pipeline: local ComfyUI via MCP — Claude writes per-card prompts, generates two takes, and builds a picker page; icons are cleaned up in GIMP via MCP to match the palette and ink outline.
- Trailer: Claude recorded real fights, cut them with Python + ffmpeg, and mixed audio across eleven iterations.
Hard-won lessons: Claude was confidently wrong — claiming fixes worked without running them, insisting layouts were centered when visibly off — so he now forces it to build/run and measure before reporting. Art quirks included lanterns in every scene, characters on lakeside piers, and bandaged animal legs; he keeps a banned-motifs list in Claude's memory and blocks its urge to templatize all card prompts. He still owns game design, final say on every card, and most playtesting.
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