Stellar Throne Devlog #10 — From Bug Fixes to Breakthroughs
Fleet navigation, event system, research persistence, and construction system all fixed and implemented. 13 commits, 1000+ lines changed.
2025-11-06
Stellar Throne Devlog #8: Validation, Parity, and Precision
Building a comprehensive serialization parity test framework, fixing floating-point precision, and validating the dual-engine architecture.
2025-11-05
Stellar Throne Devlog #9: Visual Parity and Data Preservation
Fixing star rendering, preserving planet data, restoring entity names, and fleet composition through Zig serialization improvements.
2025-11-05
Stellar Throne Devlog #7: The Zig Simulation Goes Live
The Zig simulation backend is now live in production. Bidirectional serialization breakthrough enables the 52x performance improvement.
2025-11-03
Stellar Throne Devlog #6 — Zig Parity and Production Deployment
Comprehensive parity testing, 11 bugs fixed, and the Zig backend reaches production-ready status with 52.7x performance improvement.
2025-11-01
Stellar Throne Devlog #4 — The Great Migration: GDScript to Zig Complete
All 23 game managers fully ported from GDScript to Zig. 333 tests passing, TOML config migration complete, and simulation system track 2 underway.
2025-10-31
Stellar Throne Devlog #5 — All 21 Zig Simulation Phases Implemented + Parity Tester Online (52.7x Faster)
All 21 simulation phases complete in Zig with 52.7x speed improvement. TOML config system, rehabilitated test suite, and parity framework built.
2025-10-31
Ground Combat & Territory Borders Revamped
Ground combat gets strength bars, ownership updates, and battlefield grids. Territory borders redesigned with shaders.
2025-08-16
Stellar Throne Changelog Week of August 8-15, 2025
Major planetary warfare upgrades with Orbital Bombardment and Ground Invasion systems, redesigned Ground Combat UI, and dozens of bug fixes.
2025-08-15
Bugs, Battles, and a Bit of Scroll Sorcery
Combat UI scroll fix in Stellar Throne and ClaudeCraft course structure progress with modules 7-10 complete.
2025-08-10
Why I'm Making ClaudeCraft
Four core reasons for building ClaudeCraft: democratizing game creation, empowering creative communities, learning through teaching, and embracing AI's creative future.
2025-08-10
Redesigning the Battlefield: Combat UI Overhaul & ClaudeCraft Takes Shape
Comprehensive combat UI screen infrastructure redesign and launching the ClaudeCraft 10-week program for AI-assisted game development.
2025-08-09
Patching Up Combat and Building Better Testing Tools
Refining combat UI, building a Zig-based test harness, and creating specialized Claude agents for development and quality control.
2025-08-08
Opus 4.1, GUT Migration, and Combat UI Overhaul
Upgraded to Opus 4.1, migrated to GUT testing framework, and evaluated six combat UI layout designs.
2025-08-07
Upgrading to Godot 4.3 (Opus 4.1) and Combat UI Progress
Upgraded to Godot 4.3, performed a full codebase audit, and continued combat UI fleet layout improvements.
2025-08-06
Combat Returns (Sort Of)
Chasing elusive bugs to bring combat back online, fixing fleet behavior, engagement triggers, and optimizing loading screens.
2025-08-05
Refactoring with AI: Lessons in Trust, Testing, and Prompts
AI-assisted refactoring with Claude requires clear boundaries. Restored build buttons, loading screen, and ship construction timing.
2025-08-04
Closing the Parity Gap in Godot
Fog of war restored, star field in place, animated notifications implemented, and CLAUDE.md earns a 9.5/10 audit score.
2025-08-03
Godot Port Complete (Mostly!)
The Godot port reaches functional completion with fleet travel, 96 technologies, fog-of-war, and interactive panels all working.
2025-08-02
Stellar Throne: Porting Progress & Platform Trade-Offs
Huge porting strides across combat, strategic layer, and UI systems. Comparing the Godot and Zig development workflows.
2025-08-01
Stellar Throne Enters Alpha: Polish, Audio, and the Godot Port Begins
Stellar Throne officially reaches Alpha. The transition to Godot begins with foundational migration, galaxy rendering, and core mechanics ported.
2025-07-30
Stellar Throne Devlog — Phase 6 Complete, Diplomacy & Polish Begin
Phase 6 Galaxy Generation finalized. AI systems, diplomacy, and Phase 7 Polish begun. Fleet-splitting UI bug fixed.
2025-07-29
Refactoring, Regression Fixes, and the Case Against Unit Tests?
Unit test failures down to one, UI buttons restored, combat bugs squashed, and questioning the ROI on unit tests.
2025-07-28
CLAUDE.md Audit Continues, Test Suite Nears Green
Most unit tests passing with only 9 remaining. CLAUDE.md audit yields real architectural benefits through event-based system migration.
2025-07-27
Test Breakdown and Recovery Mode
Expanded test runner with pass/fail/skip summary, but memory leaks and broken tests surfaced. Codebase review against CLAUDE.md rules underway.
2025-07-26
Test Coverage, CLAUDE Compliance, and a Safer Codebase
Improved unit test coverage, built a test counting verification system, and completed a CLAUDE.md audit pass.
2025-07-25
Smarter UI, Safer Fleets, and Combat Sanity
Persistent notifications, top nav buttons, combat visualization fixes, and protecting ships in transit from combat engagement.
2025-07-23
Refactors, Bug Fixes, and Sprite Progress
Seven major files refactored for AI tooling compatibility, playtesting bug fixes, and ongoing planet sprite sheet development.
2025-07-22
Fog of War, First Playthrough, and Prompt Engineering Wins
Fog of war visuals implemented, first complete playthrough completed, fuel system removed, and ChatGPT used as a prompt architect for Claude.
2025-07-21
Research Deepens, Energy Burns, and the Galaxy Pushes Back
Research system enhanced with tiers and gating, energy system adds tactical limitations, and smart notifications surface pending actions.
2025-07-20
Explosions, Research, and High-Fidelity Sprites
SpriteSheetMaker upgraded with Mitchell filter, bombardment and ground combat systems operational, save/load UI built, and research framework established.
2025-07-19
A Big Systems Push — Colonization, Borders, and Battles
Major systems day: colonization, territory borders, sensors, fleet management, ship components, trade, victory tracking, and battle system implemented.
2025-07-18
Restart, Rebuild, Recalibrate
Complete restart of Stellar Throne after snake_case corruption. Rebuilt star map, fleet movement, HUD, and created SpriteSheetMaker tool.
2025-07-17
Editor Progress & CLAUDE.md Wrangling
In-game data editor with tree view and inline editing. CLAUDE.md audit reveals Python-driven refactor damage from snake_case replacements.
2025-07-16
Stellar Throne Devlog — July 15, 2025
CLAUDE.md violation audit completed, new landing page for mrphilgames.com, star map icons generated, and Substack newsletter launched.
2025-07-15
Stellar Throne Development Log: July 14, 2025
CLAUDE.md finalized at 9/10 quality, sprite sheets generated for all planet and star types, and Jekyll-based mrphilgames.com launched.
2025-07-14
Stellar Throne Devlog: Ground Combat, Ship Upgrades & First Contact
Major features: planetary invasions, ship retrofit system, first contact diplomacy, orbital bombardment, and trade/supply lines.
2025-07-13
Stellar Throne: Building a 4X Strategy Game with AI Coding Tools
An overview of Stellar Throne — a turn-based 4X strategy game built with Zig, SDL2, and AI coding tools like Claude Code and ChatGPT.
2025-07-12