Show HN: I AI coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process

Summary

Tower of Time Entry for Beginner's Jam Summer 2025 A time-traveling tower defense game where you defend your base against waves of enemies using the power to rewind time. 🎮 Play the game at https://m4v3k.itch.io/tower-of-time About the game Tower of Time is a unique tower defense game that combines strategic building with time manipulation mechanics. When enemies overwhelm your defenses, use your time-travel powers to rewind and rebuild your strategy. The game features multiple tower types, energy management, and wave-based enemy spawning. Key Features Time Rewind : Roll back time to survive the enemy waves : Roll back time to survive the enemy waves Multiple Tower Types : Basic turrets, sniper towers, slowdown towers, and splash damage towers : Basic turrets, sniper towers, slowdown towers, and splash damage towers Energy System: Manage energy for building towers and rewinding time Controls Game supports both keyboard and gamepad. Move : Arrow Keys / Gamepad Analog Stick : Arrow Keys / Gamepad Analog Stick Action : Spacebar / Cross (PlayStation) / A (Xbox) : Spacebar / Cross (PlayStation) / A (Xbox) Rewind: Backspace / Left Trigger Vibe Coding Proof of Concept This game serves as a proof of concept for AI-assisted game development. Approximately 95% of the codebase was written by AI using: Augment Code - Advanced codebase context and AI coding assistance - Advanced codebase context and AI coding assistance Cursor - AI-powered code editor, mostly using Agent mode - AI-powered code editor, mostly using Agent mode Claude Sonnet 4 - My LLM of choice for this project (also used OpenAI o3 and Claude Opus 4 occasionally) For detailed prompts and development process, see PROMPTS.md. What I've learned: It is entirely possible to develop a game with AI, but you need to know what you're doing AI makes prototyping super fast, but as you transition from prototype to final game you need to be careful AIs like to write a lot of code, this project could probably have two times les...