Mr. Phil Games

*How AI became my thinking partner while building a strategy game from scratch*

Phase 6 Galaxy Generation finalized.

Unit test failures down to one, UI buttons restored, combat bugs squashed, and questioning the ROI on unit tests.

Most unit tests passing with only 9 remaining.

Expanded test runner with pass/fail/skip summary, but memory leaks and broken tests surfaced.

Improved unit test coverage, built a test counting verification system, and completed a CLAUDE.md audit pass.

Discovered that Claude-generated unit tests weren't being added to the test runner, creating a false sense of coverage.

Persistent notifications, top nav buttons, combat visualization fixes, and protecting ships in transit from combat engagement.

Seven major files refactored for AI tooling compatibility, playtesting bug fixes, and ongoing planet sprite sheet development.

Latest newsletter on using Claude like a junior developer.

When I started building *Stellar Throne*, it began as an experiment in **Agentic Coding**—using AI not just to generate code snippets, but to act like a cowo...

Fog of war visuals implemented, first complete playthrough completed, fuel system removed, and ChatGPT used as a prompt architect for Claude.

Research system enhanced with tiers and gating, energy system adds tactical limitations, and smart notifications surface pending actions.

SpriteSheetMaker upgraded with Mitchell filter, bombardment and ground combat systems operational, save/load UI built, and research framework established.

Major systems day: colonization, territory borders, sensors, fleet management, ship components, trade, victory tracking, and battle system implemented.

Complete restart of Stellar Throne after snake_case corruption.

In-game data editor with tree view and inline editing.

Welcome to this week's Stellar Throne development update!

CLAUDE.md violation audit completed, new landing page for mrphilgames.com, star map icons generated, and Substack newsletter launched.

CLAUDE.md serves as a specification document giving AI tools essential project context, creating a living contract between human and AI.

CLAUDE.md finalized at 9/10 quality, sprite sheets generated for all planet and star types, and Jekyll-based mrphilgames.com launched.

Major features: planetary invasions, ship retrofit system, first contact diplomacy, orbital bombardment, and trade/supply lines.

An overview of Stellar Throne — a turn-based 4X strategy game built with Zig, SDL2, and AI coding tools like Claude Code and ChatGPT.

Early experiences with agentic coding and vibe coding — two emerging AI development paradigms that expand both workflow and creative thinking.

The problem with Democracy is that no one gets their "Correct" view encoded into law.

Live long and prosper.

A couple months ago I started game development again.

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I'm experimenting with using animation as a design tool.

Last night, Abner announced on his Twitch stream that Jai is close to beta release with a list of items that need to be completed.

Saw this awesome slide from a GDC talk and had to share.

Today is a special day for me.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it be...

I'll be participating in Ludum Dare 41!

I'll be participating in Ludum Dare 41!

**Theme:** "The more you have, the worse it is"

**Theme:** "Roads" (December 2008)

Ludum Dare is coming soon, Dec 1 and occasionally I like to use new techs during the jam.

I attended Unity’s Conference, Unite, in Austin this year.

I'm going to try my hand at pixel art.

It isn't a game, but I made this interesting looking thing, a sort of moving fractal.

Update: Unity has announced some changes here: http://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/06/16/evolution-of-our-products-and-pricing/ I've made ed...

A follow-up post about the Seamless Texture Generator with a link to learn more.

I watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi on Jonathan Blow's recommendation, he calls it an example of "Deep Work."

Updated 2014-01-16This is a question I hear a lot and here's what I've learned: 2013 Race the Sun [source] ittle Dew [source] ...

I decided to do an experiment this month and make some Let's Play YouTube videos.

I voted in the IGDA 2015 Board of Directors Election!

Jai programming language reference/link collection

I watched Jonathan Blow's talk How To Design Deep Games with Jonathan Blow which is actually kind of a misleading title because the tal...

Just a little something I've been messing with.