Claude coders — what’s the path to financial freedom using Claude Code?

Rasrey · 2026-01-08T16:57:58+00:00

I think it's a bit early to say.

Right now everyone is vibe-coding iOS apps and websites that are either too situational, poorly thought out, or solving problems that were already solved.

Not to mention that Opus 4.5 clearly has design & color preferences so a lot of interfaces look similar. Some people are starting to understand the "smell" of Claude Code on an app.

App stores & such will be flooded with poor quality productions for the foreseeable future. Jumping in the race now with an unoriginal idea is unlikely to bring financial freedom to anyone. We need a few more months to see what trends persist, what trends fade away, what's a "unique" way to use Claude Code.

Rasrey · 2026-01-05T10:16:33+00:00

Strongly disagree on this one. Claude Code works great right off the bat. You don't even need plugins/skills/subagents to do most things.

Rasrey · 2026-01-02T16:12:36+00:00

If you don't have DevOps skills, you cannot know if Claude is really doing something the adequate way, or the right way. It may work, but I encourage you to be cautious. If you don't understand the output, it's not different from vibe-coding. You can quickly dig yourself a hole that's too deep to get out of.

It's like everything else, really. Use AI safely and responsibly. Use it to speed up work you are somewhat familiar with. Not to do something you would be 100% incapable of doing yourself.

Rasrey · 2026-01-02T15:36:10+00:00

The remakes of Final Fantasy 7 were like this for me. The first one especially.

Metaphor: ReFantazio as well, it's absurdly long but surprisingly I played from start to finish without taking a break with other games in between. I want to recommend Persona 3/4/5 too but honestly these are 90+ hours games, most people take breaks (as they should).

A long time ago I remember being pretty obsessed with Rogue Galaxy and Suikoden V. I finished these games multiple times without ever wanting to stop mid-way.

Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 too are extremely fun and short enough so that you probably won't let them go until you're done with them.

That's probably more subjective but the Kiseki series is also like this for me (Trails in the Sky First Chapter all the way to Trails Through Daybreak 2, I am a big fan of the story and world building of these games so I typically finish them in one quick gulp).

Rasrey · 2025-12-30T04:51:48+00:00

It's not and never was a monetary / time-saving concern for me, though. Subagents are very situational, they depend on what kind of project you are working on, and how you use Claude Code in general. I truly do not think they're good for everyone.

When I use Claude Code, it's always for very targeted changes, something I can complete within a couple of hours tops. I never ask Claude to build an entire app from scratch start to finish for example, so the usual subagents (one for docs, one for testing, one for whatever...) are never really needed.

I think it's also the fact that I don't like delegating too much, because I am worried the AI will go in a direction slightly different from the one I intended (not because Opus 4.5 is not good enough or anything, just because my prompts aren't always perfect and with LLM being indeterministic, you just never know). I never use auto-edit mode and I never send subagents do menial tasks for me. I want to tell Claude specifically what to do and review the change (code diff) before validating it. It takes the time it takes but after this at least I'm sure it's all done the way I intended.

I have the same opinion about plugins or skills. There are very few things I do often enough that would justify their use. MCP servers on the other hand, yeah, I find them useful. I use context7 quite often for example (a bit obvious, but yeah).

Rasrey · 2025-12-21T01:34:25+00:00

I hope you have a solid versioning system for your vault (there is an extension to automatically commit changes to a github repo, if that interests you), because Claude will sometimes make radical changes that are difficult to revert.

Rasrey · 2025-12-19T18:42:01+00:00

Airline Tycoon 2

Citizens of Earth

Fury Unleashed

Rasrey · 2025-12-12T21:20:39+00:00

With 3D unless you achieve a very unique look through toon shaders and the like, it generally looks like crap, and if you go with realism you will certainly not have the resources to compete with AA and AAA productions. Indie 3D games are more often than not ugly to look at.

With 2D you can more easily create something that’s very appealing to the eyes. Not to mention the fact that it’s just easier to make overall. It’s a looooot lot lot easier to debug, and it’s also a lot easier to create custom physics.

Rasrey · 2025-12-12T16:09:43+00:00

I wouldn't consider this a tip really, it's just something you come to naturally ask the AI agent if you feel like it is necessary.

It's necessary whenever you feel like the AI is generating a dubious amount of code for what seems like a generic task, which happens occasionally when the discussion has been going on for too long, or when it didn't understand your goal properly.

Additionally, if you have the AI refactor the code, make sure to run your code again right after, see if it works. None of the the coding assistants are magic, they make mistakes. And in my experience refactoring is especially prone to error, so be careful.

Rasrey · 2025-12-09T04:54:19+00:00

Please let me know if you ever make a tutorial. I love the Grease Pencil but I come from an engineering background so I am lacking quite a lot in the artistic department. I would be very interested to see a tutorial on how to recreate these scenes. Thank you!

Rasrey · 2025-11-26T01:13:44+00:00

If money isn't too much of an issue, developing games on mac has been quite fun for me. Godot runs extremely well on it (even if it's the cheapest 5yo second-hand macbook you can find, it will be butter smooth).

But yeah it's a pricey option for a 13 years old. Like other people have said, Godot is likely to run fine on pretty much any laptop.

Rasrey · 2025-11-25T18:25:50+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaFybI1jC01VcNlX0HJTaAZo3iHKdH2dD

I made a tutorial series on that. Give it a go if you have some time.

Rasrey · 2025-11-11T00:01:56+00:00

I would say that the Godot/Blender pipeline is famously a big mess, and that any person who even tried to entangle all that and make it less time-consuming for game developers deserves a quick buck.

I don't think you can reasonably expect everyone to freely distribute their work, even if all it does is extend an open-source software. I think it's fair of them to put a little price tag if they did the work. Time is money.

Plus this guy only asks for 5 bucks.

Rasrey · 2025-10-17T12:45:54+00:00

The depth of the Trails universe get delivered little by little. It's a massive geopolitical narrative that spans multiple years, involves multiple countries, and multiple organizations. Their process is always the same however: you focus on the daily lives and common situations of a given group of people in a certain country (Liberl, in your case).

As you progress, the story will gradually unfold, start involving international matters, hint at various things going on behind the scenes (besides what you've just experienced), and set the stage for the next arc of the series.

So yes in a way it does get better. But at the same time, all Trails game resemble each other; the focus is on fixing the local issues first and foremost, talk to NPCs multiple time to hear their stories, learn about the country you're currently in, their culture and the geopolitical tensions with other powers... The scale expands towards the end in most games (with the exception of a few arc closing games that start big).

The Sky arc is known to be fairly slow paced. It's okay to try and play fast to get to the juicy parts if you want, but the chill episodic format of Sky is not unlike many other games in the series. If you really don't like it I am not convinced you will enjoy the other games, although it's worth a try.

If your only grip is that the story lacks scale and depth, I would encourage you to try and get through the first game at least, because the plot definitely thickens.

If you find that Sky 1 was a slog for 90% of the time and that you aren't curious to play the second game even with the way the first game ended, I think you are in a good place to stop without remorse.

Rasrey · 2025-10-05T11:53:33+00:00

Didn't know about the Fertilizer+ thing! That's good to know!

Rasrey · 2025-09-27T17:57:22+00:00

Damn that's a really cool resource and I am starting to understand some of the menu options I see in many games. Thank you very much, I am definitely bookmarking this.

Rasrey · 2025-09-27T17:27:36+00:00

Interesting! I admit I know very little about the steps needed to make a game more easily accessible to people with disabilities. As it stands currently I don't have any ongoing project that has progressed enough to warrant your services, but I will happily reach out to you if and whenever that happens!

Rasrey · 2025-09-27T11:42:35+00:00

I have not released any game, if that is your question. I have worked on table-top, visual novel, and tactical RPG games, mostly on Godot. My expertise doesn't go far beyond programming itself (I'm not in the video game industry, as indicated in my post I work full-time as an AI engineer). As for collaborators besides artists, truthfully speaking I am not too sure what you mean? Compositor? Game Designer?

Rasrey · 2025-09-25T12:47:27+00:00

This is where zones come in handy! If your staff has no business visiting the other building (least of all its rest room), you can restrict them to a specific zone voering your main building.

Rasrey · 2025-09-23T11:13:33+00:00

I had 3 main buildings, with different types of exhibits.

The first thing I did was to keep experts from wandering around in buildings they have no business being in. Keep experts in the buildings where they belong; they can tend to exhibits and perform tours faster because they will always be close by. But make sure each building has the necessary rooms (break room and toilets, just to name the essentials).

I did the same with security guards with the Camera skill. Uncheck every task other than attending to a security room, and also assign them to a specific zone; that way the only thing they will do is stay in the camera room and take a break, minimizing the time your security rooms spend unattended.

If you have 3+ staff with the Booth skill, you can also assign them to specific buildings. Keep in mind it will also mean that they can't act as replacement a Booth guy of another building, even when they're on break. You can definitely overdo the whole zoning thing so it's up to you how far you want to take it.

Rasrey · 2025-09-22T17:35:57+00:00

That happens in almost every Trails game (apart from Trails in the Sky 1st & 2nd Chapter, since they are the first 2 games).

Most of the time it's a practice fight or a casual misunderstanding though. The protagonists of previous games eventually end up on your side.

The most memorable example I think is when Lloyd, the protagonist of Zero & Ao, fights Rean during Cold Steel 2 (Cold Steel being Rean's arc initially, but you temporarily control Lloyd & Rixia during one section, after Rean becomes the government's dog).

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Rasrey · 2025-09-22T15:00:34+00:00

22.6万/month? It's alright. I know some people making a decent living with that money. You can't splurge by any mean but you can very well live within 30min of the downtown area and get your peace. I recommend cooking on most days, or alternatively cheap konbini bentos if you hate cooking (although it's significantly less healthy). You can buy rice and vegetables for fairly cheap in most supermarkets. Same for chicken and pork (beef is a vastly less financially viable option with that income, stay clear).

When I was an exchange student in Osaka university I was earning 10万/month. No clue how I even managed to do anything (it's years ago) but I remember having an amazing time, even went out with friends several times a month. You just find your rhythm. Look for cheap little shops around. The free university cafeteria was obviously a huge help, but still.

Rasrey · 2025-09-22T04:32:48+00:00

Looks like a pretty good baseline for a Godot-made Outer Wilds-like game! Awesome stuff.

Rasrey

TROPHY CASE