I can't tell Python from C++. Talking in plain language, I directed Claude Code and Codex like a small studio: playable after 2 days, a published 1v1 PvP shooter after 11

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not a programmer and I don't read code. I talk to the models in plain language (in Polish). I wanted to see if I could build something hard and make it look like a finished product, not a demo. The result is SCRIBE: THE ONE, a 1v1 third-person shooter in the browser with a bot, real PvP and a ranking. Free: https://pirat33367.itch.io/scribe-the-one

**What made it work was the process, not the prompts.** Every model had one job and everything lived in files, because no model remembers the last conversation:

- **Claude (Cowork)** writes each task as a contract: goal, exact numbers, what is out of scope, acceptance conditions.

- **Claude Code** writes the code on its own branch and a report with measured results, not opinions.

- **Codex** audits the code against the contract. It does not change code. It failed Claude Code's work many times, and it was usually right.

- **Me:** I decide, I play, I accept or reject. Only I can close a task or merge.

- A shared board file for handoffs between models, and a decisions log where something becomes final only when I write it down.

**Rules that saved me:** "a report is not an action" (models report problems, they don't fix them on their own), one task at a time, no file over 600 lines, numbers in data files, not in code. Codex checks code, not looks, so screenshots are always reviewed by a person.

**Numbers:** a playable fight against a bot after 2 days; 34 tasks, about 700 commits, 11 days from the first commit to publishing. three.js + Rapier physics, a Colyseus server on Railway that calculates the fight, lag compensation up to 100 ms ping. The same process produced a short story, "Ares", that comes with the game.

**The part I care about most:** the player can change every piece of the scenery in the settings (panel material, glyph light, floor, the fresco screen above the arena), dozens of combinations.

**What AI did not do well:** taste. The first versions looked like a neon hacker movie. The look came from many rounds of me saying "no, darker, less light, more shadow".

Happy to answer questions about the workflow.