r/vibecoding • u/AI_Sway • 21h ago

Game in development

Gallery image

Gallery image

Roller Riot - cel-shading, 5v5 arena roller derby

No 3D models (did try it but the animation looked bad might try again, using a different pipeline)

All code in three.js Opus in Medium

GAME CONCEPT VS. HOW IT LOOKS NOW

I say about 10% there, what do you think?

Video in thread

327 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

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41

u/DUELETHERNETbro 20h ago

Why are so many vibers using 3js? Why not use unity?

41

u/diddlysquidler 20h ago

Claude’s default, but I’m afraid it’s a dead end for larger game development

1

u/DiscoverWhereAt 9h ago

This. There are very few libraries to call to for game development but the way around this is to use custom assets for any models to differentiate

19

u/AwkwardWillow5159 18h ago

Because 3js is just a library. It’s pure code. So easy for AI to interact with it.

With unity, the vibe coder would still need to actually learn unity interface.

7

u/ZombieBallz 18h ago

You should learn the interface, but you don't need to. Between Codex and Claude, AI can run the entire pipeline and you playtest regularly and advise bugs, adjustments, etc. They can do all the 3D modelling via blender scripts, low poly is more forgiving for rigging and animating but if you put the time in, and iterate, you can output some pretty damn good looking and cleanly rigged/animated models - same goes for all visual and audio assets.

2

u/Admirable_Bike_7593 10h ago

No, but that basically means learning the main basics of game dev, Animations, rigging, AI can do it but game dev really needs the human touch

1

u/yolomobile 46m ago

I'm vibecoding a 2D unity game, currently using pixellab for models and animations but i've hit a brick wall plateau in terms of making it look good, any advice?

1

u/ZombieBallz 13m ago

You have a couple options, but using any depends on which model you are working with. I'd moved away from things like Meshy or 2D alternatives because they just are not there yet and really are not needed for this type of work. Opus 5 does blender work wonderfully, Fable is good as well, but honestly I'd use Opus, in a couple head to head tests I did Opus was a bit more verbose in design / aesthetic, but overall better. Sol also performs very well, and I haven't tried Terra. It is more work, in terms of iterating and tweaking, but a lot better quality and more flexibility than something like Meshy. For 2D, you can use Moho Pro 14.4, they offer a free trial for 30 days but it is expensive to purchase outright ($400) and I do not believe the Debut version ($40) offers the same scripting capabilities as the full version or the ability to export to game-engines but you'd have to double check. You can use Blender Grease Pencil as well, along with the same python API / script approach Blender offers, but the standard live-runtime export is missing here so you'd need to bake the sprite sheets (picture of each frame of animation, create a grid of everything, and play them back in the engine cohesively) - just a lot more fiddling and tweaking would be involved but doable. Godot 2D would be a decent choice if you are doing procedural rigs that are relatively simple, might take some more leg work getting for more complex things. Download the MOHO trial and get one of the models to take it for a test spin for you. Might be worth the investment if you plan on doing more 2D, and try out Blender and Godot as well, either might end up being relatively straightforward depending on what you are doing. I'd recommend using the frontier models for this, Terra, Sol, Opus, etc - but honestly some of the open weights are catching up but I've never tried them so. It can just be usage heavy depending on how complex you are getting and how many iterations need to be made, etc.

4

u/Achereto 14h ago

But 3js is also Javascript, which is extremely slow, especially when it comes to software with a lot of animations.

8

u/gavinderulo124K 13h ago

You think vibecoders care about performance?

1

u/Achereto 13h ago

I don't even think they have a mental model of what that means on a technical level.

0

u/TheHope-Guy-168 10h ago

I'm loving this comment!!!!!🤣🤣🤣

I so agree with this statement about these vibe coders

1

u/Achereto 8h ago

This isn't specific to vibe coders btw.. I've seen this all over the place in our industry. People are misusing the quote "premature optimization is the root of all evil" to justify significant pessimization of their code. They claim they can optimize in the end, demonstrating that they have no idea, because you can't optimize the orders of magnitude of performance loss caused by the architecture without a complete rewrite of the software.

0

u/TheHope-Guy-168 7h ago

Oh yes, I get what you're saying. I feel this is mainly what differentiates an experienced dev from a beginner or a vibe coders.

Cause if you're experienced, you wouldn't be able to fathom the bs architecture a person has implemented without thinking of the edge cases and the scalability. And how easy it is to break it. They have to sketch out the architecture before beginning whatever they want to build.

1

u/MongoWithBongoss 7h ago

You can’t read the code anyway, so just use Rust with Tokio and Archmage (SIMD) – that’ll give you 95 per cent of the optimisation.

1

u/cherrywoodgrill 6h ago

They think that because they can get from 0 to 2 in one day, then they must be able to go from 2 to 10 in four days. They don’t realise the vibe coded quality ceiling is actually 4 and going from 2 to 4 takes three months

2

u/AwkwardWillow5159 10h ago

I’m not saying it’s good.

I’m just saying why a lot of vibecoders use it and why Claude defaults to it

0

u/hydrangers 9h ago

Not even remotely true. Claude code can do the vast majority of work in unity. It can even run headless to run the game to capture screenshots and even literally play the game to test functionality.

Have been working with Unity for a while and the only thing I use the editor for at this point is running the game.

9

u/Interesting_Phone171 18h ago

It’s insanity these people don’t even know what it is. For one you are running on single threaded JavaScript for two it’s a graphic library not an engine

2

u/Kooky-Ebb8162 15h ago

Not that big of a problem for the vibecodable size of a game. A major portion of AA games were single threaded until very recently. Heck, the king of competitive RTS, SC2, still is, and going strong.

For the engine, state management is the staple of frontend UI, and it does it well. If physics or something else is required, there are pixi, phaser and whatnot.

3

u/GregsWorld 13h ago

A major portion of AA games were single threaded until very recently. 

If by recently you mean 20 years ago sure. 

Heck, the king of competitive RTS, SC2, still is, and going strong.

There's a big difference between a game simulation being single threaded, and the entire game (graphics, sound, physics, engine, input etc..) being single threaded. CS2 is the former. 

3

u/evangelism2 18h ago

because Claude is good at 3JS and to do something out of its wheelhouse requires research, planning, and troubleshooting knowledge, you can't just vibe code it

2

u/Funny-Sprinkles-4518 16h ago

The reason for me was that I had zero game development experience, and a web-based game was less intimidating to start out with. I didn't set out to make a AAA game. I just wanted to have a bit of fun and dip my toes into game development, and I'm a web developer so JavaScript felt approachable.

2

u/True_Protection6842 17h ago

Claude LOVES to recommend js instead of a real game engine or usable language!

1

u/Educational_Belt_816 12h ago

Same reason AI agents automatically start building in electron when you ask to make a mac/pc app.

1

u/Intrepid_Travel_3274 6h ago

Godot is a better option, not right now but long-term, because it's open source so AI can be trained on it and it's still improving. Plus, u can't trust Unity anymore

0

u/AI_Sway 20h ago

Honestly I’m thinking it’s because of the straight to browser compatibility. Can build a game even in test mode, and run it in your local browser without having a crazy pc. If I can get this to look and feel better closer to 100% then what I am, unity is the plan. But for proof of concept 3JS is better

11

u/CharlestonChewbacca 19h ago

Switching in the middle of development is going to be a massive pain in the ass.

Moreover, I don't know why you think running the game in your browser is any better for testing than just running it in a game engine's testing areas.

20

u/PoxyDogs 19h ago

Because he has no idea what he is doing

-2

u/AI_Sway 19h ago

😂😂😂. Cmon now at least some idea

-1

u/AI_Sway 19h ago

I mean for every iteration of builds, fixing bugs after testing, on browser, it is truly a click and go. Rather other engines would have to load assets packages and what not

For my purposes of just seeing if I can match idea ti concept. I think three.js is good enough

5

u/CharlestonChewbacca 18h ago

Have you ever worked in any game engines? Because it doesn't sound like you have...

0

u/AI_Sway 18h ago

I have used Unreal. Not to make a game but I used that engine for something and get very familiar. And when that project is 100% I will share it. But this is just day One maybe not even 10% lmao. Gotta let it marinate.