Today was all about chasing down elusive bugs and bringing Stellar Throne’s combat system back online. I made progress aligning fleet behavior, restoring engagement triggers, and fixing visual/UI issues — including a very stubborn notification bug. I also optimized the loading screen to prevent a short freeze, got the test runner compiling cleanly again, and did a full quality control pass of recent commits. There’s still work to do on the combat UI, but it’s coming together.

Today I focused on reviewing and improving the modularity of my Godot codebase using Claude. I experimented with deeper AI-assisted refactors, but noticed that some of the changes subtly altered functionality — a reminder that even “smart” tools need clear boundaries.

On the feature side, I added a proper loading screen for galaxy generation and restored key parity features:

• Build buttons are now back in the planet and star detail panels

• Ships no longer appear instantly when queued for construction

It’s steady progress toward visual polish and parity — but it’s also clear that Claude needs tighter prompt rules when it comes to refactoring logic. I’ll be updating my CLAUDE.md guidelines accordingly.

Today was all about closing the gap between the original Zig build and the Godot port. I tackled a wide range of bugs and visual polish tasks: fog of war is back, the background star field is in place, and the main menu, game setup screen, and star map all got a visual lift. I also adjusted the zoom level so you can now see the entire galaxy at once, and finally got animated notifications working — a deceptively tricky task.

I also pulled all the notification code into its own system, refactored how buildings are handled, and fixed a bunch of UI interaction bugs (like clicks passing through panels to the map). ChatGPT gave CLAUDE.md a 9.5/10 after a full audit, and a code quality review helped clean up some lingering issues — replacing unsupported typed arrays and cleaning up debug output.

Claude is starting to really shine inside Godot now that the environment is more stable. Tomorrow, I’ll continue hunting bugs and pushing toward feature parity.

Today marked a huge milestone — the Godot port of Stellar Throne is functionally complete. I wrapped up the final phases of integration, testing, and UI polishing. Most of the core systems are now running in Godot, including fleet travel, the research system (96 techs with tier unlocking), fog-of-war rendering, and responsive detail panels for stars, planets, and fleets.

While the port wasn't 100% complete — I estimate about 20–30% of the original Zig/SDL2 functionality still needs to be rebuilt — the trade-offs feel worth it. I’ve gained a cleaner UI, smoother navigation tools, and access to Godot’s powerful exporting pipeline (WebGL, platform builds), editor-driven UI, and runtime debugging.

Bug hunting continues. I’ve already addressed missing header fonts, fleet icon visibility, and notification behavior. Button layouts have been reorganized for better clarity, and I'm finally seeing visual polish emerge from the workflow.

From here, it’s about rebuilding what was lost and extending forward from a stronger foundation.

Today's Godot port made huge strides across core systems:

• ✅ Phase 3.6: Combat & Military Systems

• ✅ Phase 3.7: Strategic Layer

• ✅ Phase 3.8: Advanced Features

• ✅ Phase 4: UI System

• 🔧 Phase 5: Integration & Testing (in progress)

One big shift I noticed today: debugging with Godot + Claude introduces a workflow tax. Since Claude can’t see the Godot runtime logs directly, I now have to manually screenshot errors and paste them in. This adds friction compared to my Zig workflow, where Claude could read the logs, compile the project, and even suggest fixes without manual input.

Trade-offs becoming clear:

Overall, I still feel optimistic about the switch. Once the core pipeline is smoothed out and testing integrated, the benefits of rapid deployment and visual editing may outweigh the added friction.

Tomorrow I’ll focus on fixing the save/load integration and begin real-world gameplay tests inside the Godot port.

Today marked a turning point in Stellar Throne’s development — I’ve officially reached what feels like an Alpha milestone. The core gameplay loop is playable, the systems are largely in place, and while many features are still rudimentary or placeholder, the structure of the game exists end-to-end.

I kicked off Phase 7: Polish the Polish and Phase 8: Audio & Advanced Visual Effects, but I’ve quickly realized that I’m bottlenecked by asset limitations — both sound and visuals. It’s probably time to bring on an Art Director to elevate the game’s look and feel with professional guidance.

The other big development? I’ve begun porting Stellar Throne to Godot. Claude estimated about a week of work, and I’ve already completed the foundational port, galaxy rendering, and core logic migration. Using Godot opens up several exciting possibilities:

• WebGL support for playtesting on itch.io

• A proper UI editor (rather than building interfaces through AI prompts)

• Streamlined asset integration and animation pipelines

This is all made possible thanks to the accelerated development AI provides. What would normally take months has taken weeks — and I can feel the momentum building.

Today marked a major milestone: Phase 6 is complete! Galaxy Generation is now finalized, and I've officially kicked off both the AI Systems and Diplomacy phases. The first AI behaviors are in motion, and the foundations of diplomatic postures are coming online.

I also posted the latest newsletter and fixed a tricky bug with the fleet-splitting UI, where ship selection wasn’t responding. That one was subtle but satisfying to squash.

I’ve started on Phase 7 — “Polish the Polish” — where I refine interaction details, feedback animations, and overall game feel. It’s still early, but I’m excited to start layering clarity and visual cohesion.

One experiment didn’t pan out as hoped: subagents in Claude. While conceptually appealing, they aren’t automatically leveraged in workflows, so their value is limited unless I manually invoke them. Still, they help keep the context clean.

This week’s newsletter dives into the development philosophy behind Stellar Throne — and how I’m building it with AI as a true collaborator, not just a code generator.

I call it Agentic Game Development:
A workflow where AI helps me plan, design, and prototype entire game systems — from diplomacy AI to tactical ground combat — by working from goals, not syntax.

In the post, I cover:

• A full weekly dev update (event-driven managers, new HUD actions, galaxy anomalies, bug fixes)

• What “agentic development” means and how I use it daily

• Real examples of prompts, AI responses, and what I build on top of them

• The pitfalls of working with AI — and how I mitigate them

• Why this workflow lets me design faster and focus on what matters

👉 Read the full post here https://mrphilgames.substack.com/p/agentic-game-development?r=ifm45

Whether you're curious about AI dev workflows or just want a behind-the-scenes look at Stellar Throne, I think you’ll find this one interesting.

Today was a busy one for Stellar Throne. I pushed through a long list of regression fixes and finally got unit test failures down to a single case related to game save versioning. I also redirected all tests to a separate test_saves directory to avoid interference with the main game data — something Claude had been missing.

UI got some much-needed love today too:

• Top-bar buttons for Research, Diplomacy, Ship Build, Construction, Fleet Management, and Bombardmentare all back.

• You can now double-click planets to jump into construction, and double-click stars to access the shipyard.

• I also fixed UI quirks like not being able to select the last item in a panel, and persistent notifications not returning if a project wasn’t selected.

Combat bugs are getting squashed as well. Battles between AI empires no longer hang the game, and turn processing now has a wait animation to replace the “Pause” message.

But the biggest lesson today? I'm questioning the ROI on unit tests. While they’ve helped Claude stay aligned in theory, in practice they rarely catch production issues. The real failsafes are still my manual playthroughs and design audits. Something I'll have to think about.

Today was focused on improving test stability and aligning the project with the standards outlined in CLAUDE.md. I got most of the unit tests passing — only 9 remain, and they look solvable once the audit-driven changes are complete.

The CLAUDE.md audit is yielding real architectural benefits. I migrated several core managers to the new event-based system, simplifying responsibilities and improving modularity. Each change feels like it’s setting the foundation for long-term scalability, especially as we head into more complex systems like AI behavior and diplomacy.

Still no movement on Phase 6 tasks (Galaxy Generation and AI), but I'm confident that clearing this audit hurdle will unlock progress across the board.