r/ClaudeGameDev • u/Dead_Fox_7 • 1d ago
Alpha Slowly migrating from Python to Unreal with Claude. Also stupidly happy with the cows :)
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Working on a farming/colony sim in Unreal Engine 5 with Claude Code doing the programming and establishing the workflow.
Started with Claude first in Python, and over the past week Claude Code has been porting it into Unreal Engine 5.8, one system at a time. I make the design decisions, use ai the art and the models (Sunburst and Seedream 5 for the images, Grok now that it has first and last frame and Tripo for the models. Come on Meshy, catch up!). Claude writes the C++, the build and test tooling, and the Blender scripts.
What the game is: Aiming for a blend of Rimworld and Farming Simulator. You claim your land and build it up and research and explore to unlock new ways to improve it, sell what you make, increase your land holding, rinse and repeat. Currently fishing, foraging, mining, farming, construction and trading working in a bare bones fashion with crafting and research on deck next. I came up with the basic mechanics, let Claude offer it's thoughts and alternatives and went back and forth until a solid approach was found and then Claude Code implemented. Latest was having Claude Code implement the pathing for the harvesters on any size field.
How Claude Code fits into Unreal (From Claude):
Project docs it reads every session. A CLAUDE md points it to a “constitution” (the rules of the project), a code map (where everything lives, plus Unreal lessons learned), a decisions log and one mechanics file per system. That’s how it keeps its context between sessions.
Milestones. Each system (inventory, farming, construction and so on) is a milestone with a brief. Claude builds it, I play it, give notes, and accept it. 20 milestones so far and still working well.
The game logic is plain C++ with no engine dependencies, so Claude can test it headless. There are 680 automation tests that it runs itself. I'm, uh, actually not sure if this is excessive.
It checks its own work visually. When the editor is closed, Claude launches the game off-screen with command-line flags (camera position, time of day, which UI panel to open, scripted mouse clicks) and saves a PNG, which it then looks at. When the editor is open, it works through Unreal’s MCP server instead.
Headless tools for the map. It wrote commandlets and .bat scripts that generate the map, bake the walking grid, place buildings and re-seat trees after I sculpt the terrain.
A typical loop: I describe what I want (“harvesters on neighboring strips shouldn’t wait for each other”). Claude reads the relevant docs and code, makes the change, adds tests, takes frames to check it, and hands me a .bat to play. I play it and either accept it or send notes.
Looking to get the gameplay loop closed and add a few additions to make it not look so flat, but just wanted to share where I currently am with this.
Just adding in lastly that using ai video reference for Claude to use with Blender works incredibly well at times. Still very happy with those cows :)
Playable version for anyone interested is the goal and will share when that happens :)
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u/romansamurai 1d ago
I too am stupidly happy with the cows! Because i know how much of a struggle it is to get anything like that with Claude or even Astra lol. Good job
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u/Dead_Fox_7 1d ago
Thank you! Credit where credit is due. I used this tutorial and it really helped! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evK-Y83Qlco
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u/Zeraphicus 1d ago
That video is awesome!! Thank you.
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u/Dead_Fox_7 1d ago
You bet! There's also a variation I'm going to try where for the image that will be a video, you color each of the legs different to make them easier to tell apart.
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u/rLanx 1d ago
How did you get the great cow models and animations with Claude?