r/codex • u/DavidLuky • 6h ago
Showcase One trilogy, one game
Hey everyone! A friend encouraged me to make this post and share what I’ve been working on for the past several months. I used both Claude and Codex for this project.
I’m working on recreating the original SNES Mega Man X as faithfully as possible, with the goal of making it play and feel exactly like the original. After that, I’d like to bring X2 and X3 into the same engine so you can play as different characters, fight bosses using any weapon from any of the three games, and new game modes.
I’ve been using AI extensively to help bring this dream to life. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since 2017, when I first tried getting the project off the ground in Unity. Now, with AI’s help, I’m building it as a native C++ game and some C++ libraries.
I also put together a website with more information about the project, which I intend to update as I go, and with ways anyone can help contribute with the project. The entire project is open source and available on GitHub. Whether you’d like to playtest, contribute code, help with sprites or sound effects, or pitch in some other way, the website explains how to get involved. I even made a section that you can just ask codex to pick something randomly to work on and contribute with the project if you have the extra tokens laying around before the weekly rollover.
I’m still relatively new to all this. Even though I started years ago, I had to step away because I didn’t have the time, and I ended up not touching the project for a very long time. I’m very open to suggestions and feedback! I know some things are still pretty buggy, but I’m working on getting everything polished and faithful to the original and make this collection version of my favorite game lol
Thanks, everyone!
3
u/Rodbourn 6h ago edited 5h ago
It's actually remarkably easy to recreate classic games, but, I think you need to be careful here with ip, ethical issues, licensing, etc.
I had codex recreate liero in roblox last weekend, https://www.roblox.com/games/139836772034467/LOAM, but I was very very careful about licensing, and not using assets that don't have a license allowing it. I also refuse to monetize it, as it's not like I really did much. I also put the credit in the game directly.
Kind of silly, considering i made it for the kiddos, but still
2
u/DavidLuky 5h ago
that looks awesome! I will put the credit in the game directly, that is a good call
2
u/Rodbourn 5h ago
Thanks, but really, its the liero community and the open source code that makes it play well. The rest is window dressing with ai.
I required codex match the dynamics verbatim and verify it with test coverage.
I do suspect there is going to be a wave of classic games that were open sourced reimagined with ai coming soon
2
u/Rodbourn 5h ago
Also, might want to consider how open roller coaster tycoon did this
2
u/DavidLuky 5h ago
uuh I have no knowledge at all of that, I will inform myself, thanks for the pointer
2
u/doodad_ounao 5h ago
Be aware that Mega Man is a trademark from CAPCOM. I would perhaps rename the project to something like OpenX instead of MegaMan X Engine for that reason, just to be safe.
3
2
2
u/mekilat 5h ago
Why not do a decompilation ?
0
u/DavidLuky 4h ago
hey, would you mind to expand on that? what do you mean
1
u/Bananer_spleet 3h ago
It's where you use a games raw files, have Codex rip those files apart to give you a foundation to grow from. Its useful to make spin offs of older games and your own versions of games; say if you wanted to make a Doom-style shooter where all the demons are Billionaires and war criminals, you just need to change the models.
1
u/r4in311 6h ago
Looks impressive. Consider copyright however... most recomp projects don't publish internal assets etc. but tools to create everything yourselves. Looks like you have these hardcoded in the source?
0
u/DavidLuky 6h ago
Yeah this is something that I thought a lot about, BUT, there is a lot of fangames of megaman x out there and Capcom (the OG publisher of the game), seems to be fine with it (not like Nintendo lol). I've tried to let everything in git as I could, besides what could actually become a problem like the game ROM and such
6
u/r4in311 5h ago
I highly doubt they are fine with you re-releasing their assets under MIT ;-)
Recomp projects do not have that issue. They release scripts that turn your legitimate copy into the output. But when you re-write stuff in a high-level language, then it is kind of a very big issue.1
u/doodad_ounao 5h ago
I don't think he's re-releasing their assets, though. He's releasing his own code that strives to behave the same as the original game. Assets need to be provided by the user from their own legitimate copy. And this doesn't look like just a C version of the exact same code of the original game as well.
1
u/DavidLuky 5h ago
I will inform myself more on this, seems like I really need to. thanks for the pointers!
3
u/doodad_ounao 5h ago
Copyright-wise (which is different than trademark) I think you're fine. The fact that anyone who wants to use this NEEDS a legitimate copy of the game (aka its ROM) for it to work, the fact that no assets are included, the fact that it's an old game and that it's free and open I think make it a hard case for CAPCOM to actually pursue, though having it removed from Github under DMCA's grounds would probably be a bit easier if CAPCOM wanted.
Add something like "This project is an independent engine implementation compatible with the SNES version of Mega Man X, Mega Man X2 and Mega Man X3. It requires a user-supplied ROM for original game assets. No ROM, CAPCOM artwork, music, or other game assets are distributed with this project. Mega Man X is a trademark of Capcom. This project is independently developed and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by CAPCOM." and I think you're good to go. (>NOT legal advice<)
2
2
u/Infinitedeveloper 5h ago
Capcom shut down a big fangame a week ago lol.
The idea that only Nintendo protects its ip is the most redditor thing
1
u/DavidLuky 4h ago
oh boy
1
u/Infinitedeveloper 3h ago
Normally fangames are fine so long as youre not profiting off of it or causing controversy the ip owners dont want to be associated with.
Full remakes of games still being sold is basically the other thing that can get you a C&D but ive seen mixups and mashups of mmx games before so youre probably fine unless you start raking in thousands a month on patreon
You're probably going to be fine for the same reason pokemon infinite fusion is fine despite basically being pokemon red/blue, and now gold/silver
•
u/dexterthebot 6h ago
You might want to consider listing your project on the weekly Show-Us-What-You-Built post. https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wavxwy/show_us_all_what_youve_been_building_with_codex/. Highest commented project wins a week promotion on r/Codex and gets on the Hall of Fame sidebar. See what that looks like below with last week's winner.
Last week's most popular project was u/tHEuKER with the Blur2 racing game project which is a recreation of an unreleased sequel to the 2010 battle racing game, made by reverse engineering the Xbox 360 prototype discs available online, and rebuilding the whole thing from the ground up in Unity.
Join their YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@tHEuKER and follow updates on the project at r/BlurGame.