I Built a 3D Star Wars Game Without Writing a Single Line of Code (And You Can, Too)

Claude 3.7 + Cursor = Vibe Coding Heaven

Dear subscribers,

I haven't been sleeping much lately.

Instead, I’ve been up late building games with Cursor and Anthropic’s new AI model.

Previously, coding with AI meant spending hours fixing bugs instead of creating.

But Claude 3.7 Sonnet has completely changed the game.

Last night, I built a 3D Star Wars game where you fly an X-Wing to destroy the Death Star without writing a single line of code myself. It felt like magic.

In this post, I'll share my step-by-step process so that you can create your own epic games with AI.

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The Star Wars game that we’ll build

Here’s the clip from my Star Wars game (sound on for the epic music):

It features:

• TIE fighters that hunt you down

• Epic music and sound effects

• X-wing wings that dynamically open and close based on speed

Now, let's build this from scratch in just seven steps.

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Step 1: Install Cursor

First, download Cursor and create a folder for your project. Then tap the top right panel button to open Cursor's AI agent.

You'll only talk with this agent to build the game.

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Step 2: Work with AI to write the spec

I kicked off the project with this prompt:

Tip #1: A good spec is your secret weapon. Ask AI to write the requirements, tech stack, and a roadmap that breaks the project into phases.

Breaking the project into phases is crucial because AI isn’t great at building the entire spec in one shot. Here's the readme.md with the phased approach that AI created:

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Step 3: Build the foundation

Your spec also becomes a reference point for future prompts. I simply asked AI to "Build phase 1," and it created a perfectly working X-Wing model on the first try:

Tip #2: Build and test one small feature at a time. Asking AI to build everything at once is a recipe for disaster.

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Step 4: Add X-wing controls and the Death Star

Next, I asked AI to add ship controls and shooting. I previously built a plane game with similar controls, so I uploaded an image of that UI and asked AI to code it.

The camera and shooting mechanics took a few iterations to get right:

Tip #3: “Restore checkpoint” is a lifesaver for returning to clean code if AI builds something you don’t want.

Then came the fun part — adding the Death Star and coding a glorious explosion when hit with enough lasers:

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Course preview: We’ll build 3-4 products live in my upcoming AI course

I’ve been working hard on the AI prototyping section of my upcoming course (March 29-30). You'll get hands-on experience building 3-4 apps while mastering AI coding tools like Bolt and Cursor.

It’s going to be a lot of fun, especially with Claude 3.7 🙂 Join the 50+ students who've already signed up:

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Step 5: Add the TIE fighters and enemy AI

Adding TIE fighters with intelligent behaviors seemed tricky, so I asked AI: "Describe how you'd build this; don't code yet."

The plan AI gave me below was way too complex, so I asked to simplify it:

Tip #4: Force AI to plan first before coding complex features. Then, ruthlessly simplify that plan before letting AI build it.

After testing, I found the enemy AI boring — TIE fighters just beelined for my ship. So, I asked AI for options to make their movements less predictable:

Tip #5: Ask AI for options ranked from simple to complex when facing tough challenges. Nine out of ten times, you should choose the simpler option.

Here's how the game looked with the TIE fighters hunting me down:

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Step 6: Add the game states, music, sound

I then asked AI to add start, victory, and fail screens. Claude 3.7 nailed it in one shot:

Of course, no Star Wars game is complete without iconic sounds and epic music. For sounds, I went old school and found a Star Wars soundboard where I could download clips. For music, I used Suno to generate this epic track:

After adding all sound files to my project folder, I asked AI to play them at the right moments. The laser sounds were overwhelming, so I asked AI for simpler options:

I spent another 10 minutes getting the X-Wing wings to open and close based on speed. It was totally worth it 🙂

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Step 7: Deploy to Github pages

Finally, I deployed the game to GitHub Pages to let anyone play it.

Instead of manually deploying it, I asked Cursor to "deploy to GitHub Pages and execute the necessary terminal commands," and it handled everything perfectly.

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5 tips to excel at “vibe coding”

To recap, here are five tips to get started on your own “vibe coding” journey:

1. A good spec is your secret weapon. Ask AI to write the requirements, tech stack, and a roadmap that breaks the project into phases.

2. Build and test one small feature at a time. Asking AI to build everything at once is a recipe for disaster.

3. “Restore checkpoint” is a lifesaver for returning to clean code if AI builds something you don’t want.

4. Force AI to plan first before coding complex features. Then, ruthlessly simplify that plan before letting AI build it.

5. Ask AI for options ranked from simple to complex when facing tough challenges. Nine out of ten times, you should choose the simpler option.

If a PM like me built a 3D Star Wars game using AI in two hours, you have no excuse.

With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, we're entering a new era where anyone can build without traditional coding skills.

The gap between idea and creation has never been smaller.

Now go build something amazing, and let me know in the comments what you create!

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If you want more hands-on practice, it’s not too late to join my Become an AI-Powered Product Leader course on March 29-30. We'll build several projects together and master these AI coding tools.