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Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

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Re: Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

#21

Post by skaisbzbsn »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #14
mgdev wrote: post #6

This is awesome. I've been in software for 20+ years now as well. One thing I've noticed is many (most?) people in our cohort are very skeptical of AI coding (or simply aren't paying attention). I recently developed a large-ish app (~34k SLOC) primarily using AI. My impression is the leverage you get out of it is exponentially proportional to the quality of your instructions, the structure of your interactions, and t…

I've come to this same conclusion pretty strongly in the past few months in particular. I actually had negative comments on my experience with AI previously. For all the talk of AI hitting a ceiling the latest tools have improved greatly. I'm literally doing things in hours that'd previously take weeks with little issue. I do of course have to think about the prompts and break it down to a fine grained level and i al…

> I do of course have to think about the prompts and break it down to a fine grained level

This is where I’ve found usefulness falling off. Code is much more succinct and exact than English. I was never slowed down by how fast I could type (and maybe some are? I’ve watched people finger type and use the mouse excessively) but by how fast I could understand the existing systems. By the time I could write an expressive prompt in English I might as well have made the changes myself.

I’ve found it enormously useful as google on steroids or as a translator (which many changes that require code often end up being).

Re: Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

#22

Post by freehorse »

A bug in the intro: in the first round in the first playthrough my turret destroyed one of the critter and the other reached the tower. There was no other prompt or anything happening in the game after that and had to restart. The next time, the turret did not destroy any critter, the prompt to use backspace appeared and the game progressed normally.

Re: Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

#23

Post by brookst »

sitkack wrote: post #17
kordlessagain wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My opinion is that it's about the tools you use. Bad tools, bad agentic behavior.

Better spoons, better food.

Spoons are tools you use to consume food; a better analogy would be better kitchen, better food. An induction range, quality good, nice pans, nice knives will definitely enable higher quality food. Of course you can still make crap if you don’t know what you’re doing, the point is that the tools raise the ceiling for someone who does know what they’re doing.

Re: Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

#24

Post by Brajeshwar »

Yours is beautiful; the code is too. I'm sure you had a lot more hand than just using AI.

I stopped coding a long time ago. Recently, after a few friends insisted on trying out AI-Assistance codes and I tinkered. And all I came up was a Bubble Wrap popper, and a silencer. :-)

https://bubble-pop.oinam.com

https://void.oinam.com

Re: Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

#25

Post by M4v3R »

freehorse wrote: post #22

A bug in the intro: in the first round in the first playthrough my turret destroyed one of the critter and the other reached the tower. There was no other prompt or anything happening in the game after that and had to restart. The next time, the turret did not destroy any critter, the prompt to use backspace appeared and the game progressed normally.

Interesting, I actually had the turret destroy one of the enemies several time but it didn't prevent the tutorial message from showing up. I'll look into it though, thanks for the report!

Re: Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

#27

Post by AnotherGoodName »

jpcom wrote: post #20
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've come to this same conclusion pretty strongly in the past few months in particular. I actually had negative comments on my experience with AI previously. For all the talk of AI hitting a ceiling the latest tools have improved greatly. I'm literally doing things in hours that'd previously take weeks with little issue. I do of course have to think about the prompts and break it down to a fine grained level and i al…

Which IDE are you using?

The jetbrains collection which now have claud built in with a subscription option.

Re: Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

#29

Post by virgil_disgr4ce »

skybrian wrote: post #28

This is the first I've heard of Augment Code. What does it do? Why did you pick that tool, versus alternatives? How well did it work for you? Do you recommend it?

I'd also like to hear about this—did OP use Augment Code in Cursor? How does that work/what exactly does that get you? Do you pay for both?

Re: Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

#30

Post by twalkz »

I'm really enjoying reading over the prompts used for development: (https://github.com/maciej-trebacz/tower-of-time-game/blob/ma...)

A lot of posts about "vibe coding success stories" would have you believe that with the right mix of MCPs, some complex claude code orchestration flow that uses 20 agents in parallel, and a bunch of LLM-generated rules files you can one-shot a game like this with the prompt "create a tower defense game where you rewind time. No security holes. No bugs."

But the prompts used for this project match my experience of what works best with AI-coding: a strong and thorough idea of what you want, broken up into hundreds of smaller problems, with specific architectural steers on the really critical pieces.

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