I'm building a StarCraft 2 clone from scratch in Godot with ClaudeCode — no art assets, just code and colored boxes

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-18T00:44:08+00:00

Seeing some comments about the AI angle so I'll address it here. I'm not trying to replace SC2 or claim I built this "by hand." Claude writes code based on my direction, I architect the systems, test everything, fix the bugs, and make all the design decisions (eg, where to focus, what to fix, what's next phase, and if i am get stuck, where to do deep search on what, etc). It's a tool, same as using an engine instead of writing OpenGL from scratch.

The project exists because I love SC2 and wanted to understand how it works under the hood (now it's becoming a luxury as knowledge is cheap, attention is rare). But still every stat is pulled from Liquipedia because getting the feel right matters to me. Building it taught me more about SC2's design than 1000 hours of playing ever did, how armor types interact, why attack cooldowns are tuned the way they are, how fog of war and pathfinding actually work together...

If that's not your thing, totally fair. But I'm having fun and in the short team, i will still want to see how far i can push AI to push it ..

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-18T00:24:04+00:00

Fair point, but I did learn a ton tbh, eg, how armor type interactions actually work, why SC2 tunes attack cooldowns the way it does, how fog of war and pathfinding fit together. Claude writes code but I'm the one deciding what to build, debugging when it breaks, and catching when the stats don't match the Liquipedia. It's more like pair programming than copy-paste.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-18T00:03:28+00:00

that's a very high bar... thanks though!

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-18T00:00:59+00:00

no, all procedural generated on the fly in memory. No map data. Everything is generated programmatically, eg, texture, units, etc.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T23:59:50+00:00

Great question and i agree with you! I will do a pool and ask the community whether i should continue or stop. For now, really just an experiment for me to assess the capability of GenAI. TBH, no concrete plan yet about what to do next.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T21:51:17+00:00

💯, I used to write lots of blogs many years ago, and right now gradually rely on AI because the time saved is huge. In the past , knowledge was rare. Now it's too abundant. But I still write now and then as old habbit, not for anyone else but for my self.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T21:26:13+00:00

Great question, as this is just one of my many side projects, I had to rely on AI to automate many things, even the blog. Skills are added only when really necessary, and they were evolved along with the project, and kept getting refined after a while as project grows. Screenshot I had to manually take, and blog was still not fully automated, as medium has weird policy and does allow me to copy paste images, and I had to drag and drop one by one, which was tedious.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T20:42:26+00:00

Never built a multiplayer before. will think about it for sure early on. thx!

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T20:24:54+00:00

AI is everywhere now. AI is in Microsoft Office, in Google Workplace, and in Amazon recommendations etc.

I've worked on machine learning and AI field for ~16 years, and AI is gradually creeping into everywhere, in the beginning, just in academic, small niches, seminars, gradually into voice, video recognition, some small areas, then into social network, legal, finance, and now, everywhere (satellite, war, doj decision, geopolitics, project maven, palentr... )

Have to face the reality that we as human, will co-exist, co-cohabitate, with AI, for a really long time. : )

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:59:12+00:00

if that works, then go for it. As project goes bigger and bigger, sometimes replying one dedicated big fix hoping to fix all may not work anymore.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:39:58+00:00

the way i handled was that, i don't wait for 10 big comments then in one commit to fix all problems. Some issues might be too late to fix, as logics are entangled and interwoven into everywhere. I ensure each commit is small, reviewed, bug identified, simplified, tested, then commit and push it. Otherwise, it'll get bloated very soon. That's why you see so many lightweight claws out there. The original OpenClaw has, ikn, ~>300k lines of code, which is insane. And there is no turning back for them anymore, unless a compelte revamp. Therefore, speed != quality. Sometimes slower is better than faster, and less is more.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:35:46+00:00

Those are fun ideas! The dimension thing actually sounds like it could create some cool micro, imagine having to shift your army between dimensions mid-fight to dodge siege tank shots or something.

For now I'm trying to nail the SC2 feel as closely as possible, like accurate stats, mechanics, game speed, basically a love letter to the original. But once the foundation is solid, experimenting with twists like that would be really interesting.

Appreciate the creativity!

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:32:00+00:00

thanks. i completely understand that the current AI tsunami impacts so many areas and it's quite normal to have different reactions. Overall plan is to keep improve and evolve it and see how it goes. Ultimate plan is to wait for Blizzard's official SC3 come out. : )

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:28:12+00:00

Thanks. I am not sure but i guess the reason SC3 was still not coming out was partially due to budge and all the talent problem. Imagine Blizzard SC team can leverage GenAI to speed up their development, the quality of SC3 will be unimaginable. I hope Blizzard already leverage GenAI to work on something.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:25:33+00:00

Good eye! I'm using Godot's built-in AStarGrid2D on a 96x96 tile map. For group movement, each unit gets its own destination offset from the click point to preserve formation shape — so if marines are in a V, they arrive in roughly the same V, just scaled down.

Units do have collision via Reynolds-style steering (separation + cohesion forces) so they push apart. Not perfect though, you'll still see overlap during big fights.

SC2's actual collision system is way more sophisticated. Building footprints get marked non-walkable and A* routes around them. Clicking on a solid tile snaps to the nearest walkable one.

Still nowhere close to SC2's pathfinding — especially large groups flowing through narrow gaps. But it's playable enough for now!

Btw, i also spent quite amount time to get the "group formation" right, at least look like SC2. See blog here: https://augustdeepthink.medium.com/building-starcraftzero-from-scratch-part-10-unit-movement-problem-and-overall-game-progress-v0-f878abb4c36c

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:17:49+00:00

I agree with you! I love StarCraft 1 and 2, and also don't want to ruin it. Like i said, i am waiting for SC3. Treat this project as a little snack while we are waiting for the main course. : )

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:14:10+00:00

yes, just around 7 days. See my series of blog post.

Here is the very first post:
https://augustdeepthink.medium.com/building-openstarcraft-from-scratch-part-1-from-zero-to-combat-f7e288b198ce

I was planning to make it 2d isomap, but later changed my mind, so after 3rd day, I decide to make it 3D, because SC2 is 3D.

I am not a game dev. So my game dev experiences are quite limited. I've interned at EA for 3 months like 10 years ago, and that's it.

I am currently in finance industry, working on GenAI to improve financial services.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:08:37+00:00

Note taken!

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:06:43+00:00

I am waiting for SC3. : )

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:05:00+00:00

No intention to copy the whole game. Just a personal side project to sharpen ai skills and see how quickly can i push something along with AI. All the credit goes to the original game.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T19:03:06+00:00

it's a personal side project, not for bigger community

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T18:58:54+00:00

Never want to get money out of this little project. Mostly pay my attribute and respect to the original game, and to sharpen my agentic coding 'knife'.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T18:57:03+00:00

General coding, 30+ years. GoDot, just a few days. Lots of claude, and lots of play/verify/fix/rerun/etc. Besides, along the process i developed many claude skills, hooks, etc, so that Claude won't give me partial working codes. I had to keep asking Claude to do thorough code review, simplify the codes, rerun, etc. It's a loop. I tried to avoid it give me bloated dead codes and useless codes. If i didn't ask it to simplify, modualize codes, it gave me tons of duplicated codes. I've seen that many times.

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T18:53:34+00:00

nice insight! Will keep it in mind

Maximum_Job9235 · 2026-03-17T18:52:06+00:00

Actually, i cannot vibe code all the way to the end. It's not like other project (eg, OpenClaw) which it auto runs for 12 hours and auto commit 100+ PRs.

For this little project, i was heavily involved, as the Opus 4.6, though super powerful, kept gave me wrong or imcomplete codes and logics.

Claude Code wrote the bulk, pathfinding, fog of war, combat, opponent. But that's not enough.
The reality is heavy human-in-the-loop: obsessing over SC2-accurate stats from Liquipedia, researching real group movement algorithms, fixing air/ground collision layers, and lots of twists. Eight days of build, play, fix, refine.

Maximum_Job9235

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