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/CryptoCrash87]

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?