The Big Catch-Up — Changesmith, YouTube, Community & More

Hey everyone — MrPhil here.

It's been over three months since my last update, and a lot has happened. New projects, a YouTube channel, a community launch, and some hard decisions about where to focus. Let's get into it.

Changesmith — Turning Git History Into Release Notes

The biggest new thing I want to share is Changesmith — a SaaS product I built that solves a problem every developer knows: writing release notes is tedious.

Changesmith connects to your GitHub repos and automatically generates polished, human-friendly changelogs from your commits, PRs, and issues. No special commit prefixes required — it reads the actual diffs and context, then writes release notes your users will actually want to read.

Here's how it works:

1. Create a release or tag in GitHub
2. Changesmith analyzes your commits since the last release
3. AI generates a draft that matches your existing changelog style
4. You review, edit, and publish — right to GitHub Releases

It comes with both a web dashboard at changesmith.dev and a CLI for local or CI/CD workflows. There's a free tier to try it out, and paid plans for teams who ship frequently.

I built the entire thing with Claude Code as my coding partner — which brings me to...

My First YouTube Video Is Live

I just published my first video: "I Built a SaaS with Claude Code — Here's My Workflow"

Watch it here

In it, I walk through the actual workflow I used to build Changesmith — screen share and all. I cover how I use PLAN.md to structure work, how BUG.md tracks issues, how AirTower monitors progress, and what it really looks like to work with Claude as a co-developer rather than just prompting it.

If you've been curious about agentic development in practice, this is a real, unfiltered look at how I ship software with AI.

Stellar Throne — Playable and Looking Beautiful

For those who've been following the Stellar Throne journey from the beginning — the game is playable.

Since the engine overhaul I wrote about in October, I've been focused on gameplay feel and visuals. The map generation system is very mature now, and the core gameplay loop of exploring and "painting the map" — claiming territory, expanding your empire across the galaxy — is genuinely fun to play.

The art team has been doing incredible work on concept art and is now focused on galaxy map visuals. Seeing the game start to look as good as it plays has been a huge motivator.

Stellar Throne remains my primary game project, and the one I believe has the best shot at becoming something special.

Crimson Crisis — On the Backburner

Speaking of focus — I've made the decision to put Crimson Crisis on hold.

This wasn't an easy call. It's a fun project and I enjoy working on it. But the reality is: with limited funds and limited time, I need to focus on the project with the best opportunity. Stellar Throne is that project. The engine is solid, the gameplay is clicking, and the art direction is coming together. Splitting my energy between two games was slowing both down.

Crimson Crisis isn't dead — it's shelved. I'll come back to it when the time is right.

Agentic Game Devs — A Community for AI-Powered Creators

This is something I'm really excited about. I've launched AgenticGameDevs.com — a community for non-coders, artists, and visionaries who want to use AI as their coding partner to bring their game ideas to life.

The idea is simple: you shouldn't need to be a programmer to make a game anymore. AI tools have gotten good enough that if you have a creative vision, you can build it. But figuring out how is hard on your own. That's what this community is for.

Members get:

• AI-Powered Workflows — Learn to use tools that handle the coding so you can focus on creativity and design
• Project Feedback & Collaboration — Get real feedback from peers and mentors
• Rapid Prototyping Support — Go from concept to working prototype fast

There's a free trial to check it out. If you've ever wanted to make a game but felt blocked by the coding side, this is for you. Come join us.

AirTower — My Dev Companion

One tool that keeps coming up in my workflow is AirTower — a macOS floating panel I built that shows real-time git status for whatever repo you're working in.

It sits on your screen and tracks:

• Branch status and recent commits
• File changes and staging state
• PLAN.md task progress
• BUG.md issue tracking
• Build and test results

It's become essential to how I work. If you watched the YouTube video, you'll see it in action. I haven't open-sourced it because I thought it might be viable as a commercial tool. I just haven't done that level of polish yet. There is a placeholder website at airtower.dev.

Worldweaver — Collaborative Worldbuilding with AI

A newer project I've been having a blast with: Worldweaver is a collaborative worldbuilding toy where you and an AI craft a map together. Built in C with SDL3, SQLite, and the Claude API, it's a creative sandbox for generating rich, detailed worlds.

It's still early, but the core loop of painting a world alongside an AI partner is surprisingly compelling.

DeepHollow — Cooperative Survival Strategy

DeepHollow is a cooperative survival-strategy game where you partner with an AI assistant to build an underground fortress. It's a web-based game built with Next.js and Neon PostgreSQL, with all gameplay running through a bot API.

Think of it as a strategy game where your AI companion isn't just a game mechanic — it's a genuine collaborator helping you survive.

Kira — A Language Designed for AI

On the programming language front, Kira continues to evolve. It's a functional language with explicit types and tracked effects, specifically designed to be great for AI code generation. Built in Zig, it features pure-by-default functions, pattern matching, and algebraic data types.

The idea: if we're going to have AI write code, maybe the language should meet it halfway.

MrPhilGames.com — Rebuilt from the Ground Up

I've rebuilt my website as a Next.js static site with three content types: hand-written blog posts, newsletters (like this one), and auto-generated devlogs from my AI assistant Athena that summarizes my GitHub activity nightly.

That means even when I'm too busy to write, the site stays updated with what I've been working on. You can follow along at mrphilgames.com.

The Big Picture

Looking at everything laid out, the theme of the past few months is clear: building an ecosystem.

• Changesmith is a real product serving real developers
• Stellar Throne is a playable game with an art team
• Agentic Game Devs is a community bringing people together
• AirTower is a developer tool that powers my workflow
• Kira and Worldweaver push the boundaries of AI collaboration

And the YouTube channel ties it all together — showing how this stuff actually works in practice.

It's a lot. But it's all connected by the same thread: what happens when you treat AI as a genuine creative and technical partner?

I'm finding out. And I'm bringing you all along for the ride.

Thanks for sticking around — especially through the radio silence. More updates (and more videos) coming soon.

— MrPhil