Build Real Worlds in Virtual Reality
Unity VR game development, technical tutorials, and real-world tech projects — from headsets to horsepower.
Explore Projects →Latest post
Making a Unity Game with Claude AI in Two Hours
Making a Unity Game with Claude AI in Two Hours
or how AI is making gamedev hella easy.
This year I took a break from working on gamedev, I haven’t touched Unity since January when I last worked on ShipVipers. Work and family and life just got a little too busy for me to keep grinding like I was.
Recently, Valve released their Steam Frame VR headset and I was lucky enough to get on the list. This got me all fired up again. A Quest-like headset with slightly better specs and way better focus on games? Sign me up!
..and sign me up I did! To the Steam Developer platform. ShipVipers is definitely going to be a Steam Frame game! (say that three times fast)
Now, as a professional web developer, I’ve been using Claude and Codex (and almost any other LLM you can think of) to help me with my day to day work. I used it in Unity a few times a year ago, but it wasn’t the best experience.
Every AI update is monumental, so I thought I’d give it another whirl. I installed the latest Unity, which now has an awesome new CLI specifically to help agents out! Then I fired up a new project and committed it as a starting point.
the idea
You can’t go into building something blindly, so the first step was to think about what I wanted to build.
I’ve been writing a futuristic short story and when I thought about it, for some reason, the NES Classic game Bionic Commando popped into my head.
So I went into Claude and had it create a plan for how to create such a game. I used a claude skill I created called Code Mentor which creates nice guides to walk me through whatever I want to build. (This keeps me from forgetting how to code and also teaches me new things!)
It also has the nice side effect of creating a step-by-step process for the agents to follow. Next, I pointed Claude to the newly created game folder (where the guides are now too) and said “Implement Guide #1.”
Off it went, writing code, testing what it made, and making adjustments. It was really cool watching it run Unity and fixing things as it went.
the results
After about an hour, and a few pieces of input from me, this is what it made.
Not bad at all.
The next day, I thought I’d spend another hour on it and see where we could get. The more I played it, the more I wondered why I went with Bionic Commando? The character in my story has a jet pack, not a grappling hook! So I asked Claude to replace the grapple with a jetpack.
Then I:
- imported one of my favorite asset packs, SurrounDead (a zombie game setting)
- imported a handful of animations from Mixamo
- told Claude to create a level and implement the assets.
This is where we landed after the second hour of development:
Pretty neat, right?
I gotta say, we’re going place with AI. I feel like Tony Stark working with Jarvis.
My plan is to keep hitting this project for an hour a day until Claude finally starts to choke. What if that never happens? Well, I guess I’ll be shipping this game to Steam!
Stay tuned.
Featured Projects
Unity VR, tools, and real-world tech
Latest Articles & Tutorials
Development notes, guides, and behind the scenes
- Making a Unity Game with Claude AI in Two HoursI gave Claude and the new Unity CLI two hours to build a Bionic Commando-style game. Here's the workflow, the demo videos, and why AI makes gamedev easy.
- Achieve Stunning Visual Effects with Unity URP Green ScreenIn this tutorial, we'll show you how to use Unity URP to create a green screen scene. This Virtual Production tutorial will teach you how to use Unity URP to create a realistic green screen scene for your video projects!
- Level Up Your Game with AI: Unleashing the Future of Game Asset DesignIn this tutorial, we're going to take a look at how artificial intelligence can help you level up your game asset design skills. By using AI to generate textures, models, and animations, you'll be able to create assets faster and with less effort.
- Unity XR - How to make a touchscreenIn this Unity XR tutorial, we'll be learning how to make a touch screen using Unity. We'll be creating a simple quest game using Unity and touchscreen controls.
- Unity XR - How to catch bugsDebug.Log will only et you so far, In this tutorial I show you how to manage and track bugs in your app when it's on the VR headset.
View all articles →
- Unity XR - Oculus Point and Spawn ObjectsWant to point and make things appear? In this tutorial I quickly setup raycast spawning with VRIF.
- Q & A: How NFTs can be used in Game DevelopmentI was recently invited to discuss the potential for using an NFT in gamedev.
- Unity XR - Oculus Hand TrackingOculus Meta makes it easy to track your hands. In this tutorial I quickly setup hand tracking with VRIF and Oculus Integration.
- Unity - Load NFT from OpenSeaIn this tutorial I show you how to parse a JSON api to load an NFT image into your unity game.
- Unity XR - Oculus Meta In-App PurchasesOculus Meta now let's Unity gamedevs have in-app puchases (IAP) in AppLab games. In this tutorial I show you how to start getting paid quickly.
- Unity XR - Unity crashes on Play exit with Oculus IntegrationIf your Unity crashes when you press Play and you're using Oculus Integration, it can cause an error on UnityEngine.SubsystemBindings.DestroySubsystem. In this tutorial we find the culprit.
- Unity XR - How to change the way the bow looks in your Quest games using VRIFIf you're making Oculus Quest 2 games with Unity and VRIF, this video will show you how to change the default VRIF bow to give your game a custom look.
Great Games from Other Developers
Indie games worth checking out
OVRLRD
by Niall SlaterOVRLRD is a mech combat simulator built from the ground up for Virtual Reality. Take the real, physical controls of a 50-foot bipedal weapons platform as you carry out complex operations across a challenging single-player campaign.
Check It Out
Meet Her There
by SinisthesisA short, intense, dark visual narrative in 2 colors. You are stuck reliving a single day, over and over. Explore a tiny, giant world of a relationship between two people. Don't get arrested. Try to reach the person you love and escape the cursed time loop. Is it not too late?
Check It Out
WyVRn: Dragon Flight VR
by Studio AsterismFly and crawl through levels on a mythical beast, killing dudes with magic (and dragon stuff).
Check It Out
Torches of Fate
by RoushTech, LLCThe land of Alga is being plagued by a strange outbreak of monsters but all is not lost. Follow the story of our four heroes. They will need your help to fight the ever growing evil. There is fighting, romance, cute lil foxes, an old man beating people with a shield, You know, standard RPG stuff.
Check It Out