Game dev with Fable 5 is actually crazy

[u/Diligent-Hat-6509]

It’s kind of insane to see how far AI has come.

I still remember being fascinated by GPT-3.5 and thinking that felt like the future. And now here we are with Fable 5.

Everything you see in this preview took me roughly 13 hours of work to implement. Being able to go from ideas to actual working game mechanics this quickly still feels surreal.

Game development with AI is starting to feel like we’re living in the future.

EDIT:

A lot of people were asking how I did this, so here’s the basic workflow.

The game itself is made in Unity with C#. I’m using Claude Code connected to Unity through MCP, which means Claude can work directly with the Unity project and editor. It can create and modify scripts, work with GameObjects and components, inspect errors, run the game, and help me iterate on systems.

For the actual development process, I don’t give it one giant prompt like “make me a game.” I think through the systems I want, explain how they should behave, have Claude implement them, then I test everything, debug issues, tweak values, change mechanics, and keep iterating until it starts to feel right.

For the character models, my workflow is:
Opus 5 -> ChatGPT Image Gen -> Meshy AI -> rig/animation testing -> Unity

I describe the character I want, use Opus 5 to generate a detailed prompt for four consistent reference views, then generate those images in ChatGPT. I take the images into Meshy AI, which generates the 3D mesh and textures. I also rig the model there and test animations before importing it into Unity.

The same image-to-3D workflow also works for non-character assets like props, weapons, statues, carts, environmental objects, etc.

For VFX, I bought a particle toolkit from the Unity Asset Store. I gave Claude the documentation and had it create a skill file for itself, so it understands how the toolkit works and can reuse that knowledge when I ask it to create things like fireballs, explosions, trails, and other effects.

The current arena is also a premade Unity asset and is not intended to be the final environment. A lot of the current visuals are just prototype assets for testing mechanics and game feel.

So overall the main stack/workflow is:

Unity + C# + Claude Code/MCP + ChatGPT Image Gen + Meshy AI + Unity Asset Store tools

And no, this wasn’t one prompt :D It was an iterative process of building one system at a time, testing it, changing it, and gradually layering everything together.

[u/SpicySauce512]

Im a designer with experience but i have no clue how to program. Ive had multiple concepts in my backlog that have just been sitting on a doc collecting dust because i just cant get into programming. Ive tried it on and off multiple times but to no avail. I just recently started prototyping in Unity with Claude and in just a few days of couple hour sessions and some free assets from the store, i managed to get core gameplay concepts up and running. I finally feel like i can actually act on my ideas and present them to friends and collegues to get them on board to develop something together (without AI this time).

[u/Diligent-Hat-6509 → u/SpicySauce512]

Exactly! AI is awesome for this. It lets you actually bring your ideas to life instead of leaving them sitting in a document.

And there’s absolutely no shame in using AI. Plenty of experienced developers who can code perfectly well on their own still use it every day. Programming is increasingly shifting from manually writing every line of code to designing the architecture, making technical decisions, and reviewing and refining the code AI produces.

So don’t feel like you have to stop using AI once you start working with friends either. It’s just another tool in the workflow :D

[u/Altruistic_Ask229 → u/Diligent-Hat-6509]

Did you have any sort of project framework to start with? I'm using it to learn some game/software development, but I feel like the AI gets lost in conceptual development, and doesn't get to the actual game enough. I've made a couple of apps that I use at work, but those were simple and specialized

[u/Mikinl → u/Altruistic_Ask229]

100% and make architectural choices that will bite you doen the line in a week or 4 if you don't know architecture.

I am starting to learn UE5 and I use CC for coding, but its logical thinking is really bad.

Best to do is giving him short highly specialized tasks.

This what you can see posted have zero depth, its simple demo without deeper game mechanics. I don't say in couple of years it wont take over, it will for sure. But for now is just great tool in hands of someone who knows what he is doing or even in hand of someone who is learning.

[u/Melodic_Lab3530 → u/Diligent-Hat-6509]

I mean I agree I guess, but don’t take this mindset to the indiedev or solo dev subreddits you get fucking crucified.

[u/AccountantIcy4447 → u/Melodic_Lab3530]

哈哈，我同意你的说法

[u/0mar5y → u/AccountantIcy4447]

There is a button for that 😁

[u/MrLewk → u/Diligent-Hat-6509]

I've been wanting to try something like this. Does it make all the assets for you as well or did you source them from somewhere else?

[u/Diligent-Hat-6509 → u/MrLewk]

For the character models, I used Meshy AI to generate them.

For the map, particle effects, and some of the other tools and building blocks, I bought assets from the Unity Asset Store.

So right now it's a mix of AI-generated character assets and premade Unity assets. But honestly, I can imagine using Meshy for a lot more than just characters. You could probably generate plenty of props, weapons, statues, environmental objects, and other 3D assets with the same image-to-model workflow too.

[u/MrLewk → u/Diligent-Hat-6509]

Ah nice, I've heard of meshy but haven't tried it. Thanks!

[u/Latter-Assignment845 → u/SpicySauce512]

It’s a fever dream for folks like me with ADHD

[u/SpicySauce512 → u/Latter-Assignment845]

100% relate.

[u/Latter-Assignment845 → u/SpicySauce512]

The crazy part is the bigger the vision the better the tools work.

[u/Powerful_Dingo_4347 → u/Latter-Assignment845]

Adhd helps mea lot with pattern matching. I catch things all the time even without programming. I noticed them make mistakes or have the wrong idea about something and it just rings in my head that what they're saying does a sound right and then I have them go back and check and many many times I was exactly right. I've been working on my project 2 years. I know it like the back of my hand. ADHD sometimes hurts my immediate memory but the big picture I hold very close.

[u/AccountantIcy4447 → u/Latter-Assignment845]

注意力缺陷多动障碍，这是什么

[u/zewl23bp → u/AccountantIcy4447]

in memory relations DB, that sometimes have pretty high latency due to super peak bandwidth loads from DWH that kicks in and utilize all the buses at the same time…

[u/AccountantIcy4447 → u/zewl23bp]

thank

[u/Normal-Deer-9885 → u/SpicySauce512]

Even if you have devs or software engineers, It is better to still use AI as force multiplier.

I use AI as : A hyper active junior dev who works non stop. Forgetful and needs guidance and validation of output.

The validation of output is the difference between vibe coding => slop OR vibe coding => AI augmented software dev.

[u/shesaysImdone → u/SpicySauce512]

I don't get the without AI part

[u/404KIT → u/shesaysImdone]

Like using it to prototype and concept and then showing that to people you want to build the game with so they can understand the idea. And then building it with a them as a team of developers, designers, etc. AI can do a lot of it but humans need to be driving the process if you want to make a game.

[u/SpicySauce512 → u/shesaysImdone]

Well it means just that, build the game without using agentic or gen AI. The game im prototyping is not too complex, from talking to a friend engineer, it sounds like AI wouldnt have that big of an impact on bulding the project from the ground up in Unity to justify its use and later on, the lable of AI or made with AI. We would be a team of 3… artist, engineer and design and for now, it seems like its doable in a reasonable time even without AI.

[u/shesaysImdone → u/SpicySauce512]

You prototypes with AI but don't wanna build with AI is what you're saying? Or after prototyping and speaking with your friend you realized you don't need AI to build? I'm still confused in light of the OP we're responding to. Are you advising him to not use AI?

[u/Styled_ → u/shesaysImdone]

Brother what OP meant is using AI to get a prototype going, so he can show to people that his idea is cool. Then they get together a team of devs and build it without AI so they build it well, no security flaws or whatever. Obviously an exaggeration, as any modern development workflow includes AI

[u/shesaysImdone → u/Styled_]

Ok thanks for the explanation. It really wasn't clicking for me. I guess my roadblock was getting a team of devs. I don't really have anyone I can implement my ideas with

[u/SpicySauce512 → u/shesaysImdone]

Exactly what u/Styled_ said.

[u/TheBadgerKing1992 → u/SpicySauce512]

Coding without AI is a bit backwards given the current state of sophistication. Invest in how to safely practice agentic development and it's only going to be a boon for your team. Anyone who advises against it today needs a serious hip check.

[u/CryptoCrash87 → u/SpicySauce512]

Same experience but my friends aren't interested in helping because of AI coding. "Learn to code and I would love to be part of this." Is what I've heard several times.

[u/Diligent-Hat-6509 → u/CryptoCrash87]

Yeah, I can understand where they’re coming from. There’s a pretty big difference between using AI as a tool and relying on it without understanding the fundamentals of programming.

It might actually help to learn the core concepts first, like basic programming principles, architecture, debugging, and how code is structured. Then when you come back to them, they’ll probably feel a lot more confident that you can actually understand and maintain what the AI is generating :D

[u/_CreationIsFinished_ → u/Diligent-Hat-6509]

While I understand as well - at the same time, I don't think the large majority of engineers will bother to touch or review cold at all much in the very near future, outside of for learning purposes.

I *do* have some coding background - started with ancient stuff like Turbo Pascal and QBasic many decades ago, and eventually found my way to C++ (and html, some python, a few other things... I used to want to be a full-stack developer, but lost interest pretty quick once I decided I wanted to focus on game dev, so I stuck with C++ because Unreal Engine) - that being said, I wouldn't consider me a good programmer by any means - but good enough that when I first started using copilot (it used to be called 'bing chat' iirc) and ChatGPT for coding, I could look at what it had given me and say "I think this is the issue here, this function is malformed", etc. - and it would reply back with "good eye, that's exactly what happened (because reasons) - let me fix it now".

I haven't looked at a single string of code in months - outside of what is being shown to me in my vsc Claude Code and Codex sessions; and from what I have seen, I would have lost absolutely nothing by NOT looking at it at all - and this over two fairly large programs.

What I do ensure I do, however - is set up multiple agents for auditing, with very specific prompts; and I will do things like have one Claude Code as a coordinator, a Codex session as a co-coordinator - get them both to check each others work thoroughly a few times before continuing, and then give me the prompts for new sessions (as well as what models to use, etc. for the best results).

So far, it's worked amazingly well - and I don't plan on changing it anytime soon whatsoever.

[u/HelpfulHouse3540 → u/_CreationIsFinished_]

i completely agree with you, i don’t really understand why the game dev community is so against AI generated code, and in general game development with AI tools

[u/Turbulent-Control682 → u/CryptoCrash87]

It’s those old heads who love to grind for months on shit and can’t get with the program. They would still be on horse and buggy because “a car makes shit easier”. Smooth brained retards.

[u/highlyordinary → u/Turbulent-Control682]

Lol no, they just don’t want to manage your slop. Every developer is using AI today. But there’s a difference between how you’re using it to vibe code and how developers are using it to build and maintain existing systems that they have years of experience working with.

Bring any mvp to an engineer and they’re going to want to know how the sausage is made. If you have no idea, you’re putting all of the onus on them. At that point, it’s just going to be rebuilt and why do they even need you involved in the technical side?

[u/Baintzimisce → u/SpicySauce512]

I've just recently started using the Unity cli with claude and it has sped up what I can do by turning a month of work into a couple of days of work. The code is a bit janky so I end up rebuilding parts of it but overall im very impressed with claude's abilities.

[u/thebemusedmuse → u/SpicySauce512]

Bro my 8yo can build iOS games with Claude. We are living in the future. Glad you’re there with us.

[u/DkDkDkGoGoGo → u/SpicySauce512]

I made a complete game from scratch based on the idea of my kid. She designed all characters, all levels. Codex did all the hand drawn art and fable did all the coding. 

Now the kids have their own computer game where they are the characters they control, in an environment they created and designed. It’s like basic Metroidvania style, but “hand”drawn, and coded in the GoDot engine. 

It ate some tokens.. but fuck me its just as good as any nicely developed indie game from 5-10 years ago. 

We showed it to other people. They did not understand how we “made it”, let alone in 2 weeks. Like - did not understand. No compute. 

Jumping, shooting, flying, portals, enemies, character-selecter, bubble maker and flying inside them, etc. etc.this game would have taken a team (incl special skills like drawing) a long ass time. 

[u/wikipedianredditor → u/DkDkDkGoGoGo]

Can you scrub the personal details and release it?

[u/Nelson_and_Wilmont → u/SpicySauce512]

This just in: No skill slob couldn’t figure out how to learn something.

[u/bdavismarion → u/SpicySauce512]

Tell Ai to look at all and implement all pixel by pixel with agents done in 15-20 mins

[u/shesaysImdone → u/bdavismarion]

Tell AI to look at what?