Build an open-world Godot space game with AI NPCs and daily builds

Reddit user u/Abject-Tomorrow-652 and some friends are making a space game in the Godot engine, built entirely in the Claude Code desktop app without writing code by hand. They began with a long voice planning session with Opus 5.5. A local Qwen model set up the data layer, Opus and Sonnet did models, lighting and graphics, and Fable ran passes that opened performance issues on GitHub for Opus to pick up. Claude also uploads the newest build to a shared Google Drive folder each day. In-game NPCs can be run by an AI model with a key the player brings, and have tools to give quests, move the plot or search the player.

By day six the game had one seamless loop from walking to cockpit to orbit to a larger ship with no loading screens, smuggling with checkpoints and bribes, grenades and AI NPCs that answer from real game state. After feedback on an earlier post they fixed bugs, cut lag, added a low graphics mode, renamed the repo for IP reasons and froze new features to focus on the core loop and performance. Commenters compared it to existing space games, and one said it looked derivative.

Scope grew fast enough that the poster told friends to stop adding planets, weapons and enemies until the core loop was solid. AI NPCs need the player's own API key; with AI off, NPCs fall back to non-AI behaviour. A commenter reviewed the repo to check it was not harvesting keys and reported nothing wrong.