Vibe Game — for Unity

Ship indie Unity games solo, fast. The taste your code is missing — Vlambeer, Steve Swink, Jonas Tyroller, and GMTK encoded into every skill.

Package: vibe-game. Unity-only. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Unity Technologies.

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🎮 Built for Unity, only for Unity

This is not a generic game-dev skill. Every skill, every agent, every line of generated code is tuned for the Unity engine:

• 🎯 Engine: Unity 6000.x (preferred) or 2022.3 LTS
• 🎨 Render pipeline: Universal RP (URP) default — Built-in supported
• 🎮 Input: Unity's new Input System (legacy Input Manager supported)
• 📷 Camera: Cinemachine 3.0 for damping, shake, and impulse
• 🎬 Recording: Unity Recorder for devlog GIFs
• 📦 Build target: WebGL → itch.io as the default ship path

No Godot. No Unreal. No Löve2D. Unity, deeply.

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What this is

Every other Claude skill for game dev gives you templates. None give you taste.

vibe-game is a Unity-focused Claude Code skill pack that doesn't just write Unity code — it has opinions. About game feel. About scope. About when to ship. About what's fun.

It's what you'd get if Vlambeer, Steve Swink, and Jonas Tyroller sat at the next desk while you built your Unity game.

The 11 Unity skills

Core (build & ship)

Skill	What it does in your Unity project
/vibe-start	1-page Vibe Brief replaces 50-page GDD. Saved to Assets/_Project/vibe-brief.md.
/prototype	Project-aware Unity scene, playable in 30 minutes. Reads your Packages/manifest.json, render pipeline, Input System version, existing MonoBehaviours — generates code that fits your project, not a generic template.
/juice	Game feel pass. Cinemachine Impulse for screen shake, Time.timeScale hit-stop, ParticleSystem bursts, animation easing, anticipation. Every change cites its source (Vlambeer P3, Game Feel ch.7).
/feel-check	Critical playtester. Scores against Swink's 6 metrics. "This jump feels dead. Here's why. Here's the Unity fix."
/cut	Scope killer. Ruthless. Cites solo-dev failure data for every cut. Quantifies hours saved.
/grab-asset	Unity asset pipeline — Kenney, OpenGameArt, Itch CC0 → palette-matched → imported with correct PPU/compression settings → added to CREDITS.md.
/ship	Unity WebGL build via batch mode → itch.io page draft → launch devlog. One command.

Workflow & accountability

Skill	What it does
/jam-mode	Game jam workflow with locked scope, auto-checkpoints, CC0-only asset rule, auto-devlog cadence, and hard ship gate at T-2h.
/devlog	Generate GMTK-style devlog posts in 3 lengths (Twitter/X, itch.io, blog) with GIF placement guidance. Mood-aware tone.
/death-watch	Honest project health diagnostic. Tracks activity, scope drift, playtest gaps. Outputs four paths: PIVOT / SHIP / CUT-AND-CONTINUE / ABANDON.
/diagnose	Self-diagnostic for the plugin itself. Validates install integrity, explains the Claude Code "0 skills" counter quirk, lints SKILL.md frontmatter, checks cache freshness. Run when something's confusing.

What makes it different

1. Encoded design taste (the moat)

A real taste/ library — Vlambeer's 27 juice principles, Steve Swink's Game Feel metrics, Tyroller's 17 indie mistakes, GMTK design patterns — turned into rules the skills cite when they change your Unity code.

2. Project-aware Unity code

Before generating, skills read your Unity project: Input System version (com.unity.inputsystem), render pipeline (URP / HDRP / Built-in), Cinemachine version, existing MonoBehaviour namespaces. The output fits your project — not a YouTube tutorial template.

3. Fun-O-Meter

Heuristic playtest score after every meaningful change:

• Time-to-fun — how many seconds from Play to first interesting moment?
• Decision density — choices per minute
• Feedback latency — input → visual response (ms)
• Surprise quotient — how predictable is the next 30s?

4. No "I have no assets" excuse

Unity-ready procedural placeholder pipeline: jsfxr SFX (drop-in .wav), shader textures (Quad-ready), Kenney CC0 search with import settings auto-applied.

5. Scope killer agent

A dedicated agent whose only job is to say "cut this" — citing post-mortems and quantifying hours saved.

6. Death-watch built in

After 2 weeks of low Unity Editor activity / no playtest, /death-watch runs honest project triage with four explicit paths: PIVOT / SHIP / CUT-AND-CONTINUE / ABANDON. No flattery, no cheerleading.

7. Hooks that nag at the right time

Two starter hooks in hooks/:

• vibe-brief-check — if you edit code in a Unity project without a vibe-brief.md, reminds you to run /vibe-start first.
• juice-citation-check — if you touch juice-relevant code without citing a taste source (Vlambeer P#, Game Feel ch.#), nudges you to add the reference.

The moat is cited taste. The hooks enforce it gently.

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Quickstart (Unity project)

In Claude Code, from your Unity project root:

/plugin marketplace add ivala2081/vibe-game
/plugin install vibe-game@vibe-games

Then run:

/vibe-game:vibe-start

Requirements:

• Unity 6000.x (preferred) or 2022.3 LTS
• Claude Code v2.1.143+ (for displayName support)
• A Unity project (new or existing — both work)

The plugin auto-discovers your Unity setup (Input System version, render pipeline, Cinemachine, existing controllers) and adapts its output accordingly.

Alternative: clone for local dev

If you want to hack on vibe-game itself:

git clone https://github.com/ivala2081/vibe-game
cd vibe-game
# In Claude Code:
/plugin marketplace add ./
/plugin install vibe-game@vibe-games

Working demo

Pre-built: see examples/demo-1-cleave/ — a 60-second score-attack cleave game built end-to-end with vibe-game, including the actual /juice change log and /feel-check report. Drop the scripts into a fresh Unity project, attach Bootstrap.cs to an empty GameObject, press Play.

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Unity stack assumptions

The skills assume — and will configure if missing — this Unity stack:

Package	Why	Required?
com.unity.inputsystem	New Input System for clean, polling-free input	Recommended (legacy supported)
com.unity.cinemachine	Camera damping, look-ahead, Impulse for shake	Required for /juice camera work
com.unity.render-pipelines.universal	URP for performant lit/unlit shaders	Optional (Built-in works)
com.unity.recorder	Devlog GIFs and screenshots	Optional (recommended)

If missing, /prototype adds them to Packages/manifest.json and refreshes.

Where things live in your Unity project

Assets/_Project/
├── vibe-brief.md           ← The 1-page design contract
├── Prototype/
│   ├── Scenes/             ← The playable scene
│   ├── Scripts/            ← Project-aware code
│   ├── Prefabs/            ← Player, dummy targets, etc.
│   └── Input/              ← .inputactions
├── Art/Sourced/            ← /grab-asset downloads with CREDITS.md
├── Audio/Sourced/          ← SFX + music attributions
└── CREDITS.md              ← Attribution log for shipped builds

Builds/
├── WebGL/                  ← /ship output
├── webgl-build.zip         ← itch.io upload
├── itch-page.md            ← Page draft
└── devlog-launch.md        ← Launch post

Known Quirks of Claude Code (not vibe-game bugs)

These are things you might see in Claude Code v2.x that look like vibe-game problems but aren't. Documented so you don't panic.

"0 skills" in /reload-plugins output

Reloaded: 3 plugins · 0 skills · 10 agents · 2 hooks

This counter is mislabeled. It reports the plugin's command_count and prints it as "skill", while your actual SKILL.md files are loaded through a separate code path that the counter ignores. Your skills are loaded. Verify by running /vibe-game:vibe-start — if it executes, you're fine.

Or run /vibe-game:diagnose for a full self-check.

Stale cache after editing source

If you edit a SKILL.md file but Claude Code doesn't pick up the changes, the cache is stale. Bump the version in .claude-plugin/plugin.json and run /plugin marketplace update vibe-games — version change forces a fresh clone.

agents field as directory path

If you ever override the auto-discovery and write "agents": "./agents" in plugin.json, Claude Code rejects it (Invalid input: expected …). The field requires .md file paths, not a directory. Just leave the field out — auto-discovery from agents/ works.

See taste/claude-code-internals.md for the full reference (11 documented quirks with CC1–CC11 IDs).

Showcase

• Cleave — 60-second score-attack cleave. Charge-and-release timing, crit windows, mood-aware juice. Built end-to-end with vibe-game (dogfood test). Read JUICE-LOG.md and FEEL-CHECK.md to see what the skill pack actually outputs.

Demo reel coming with v1.0 — 5 indie Unity games built with vibe-game, each in under 2 hours, full timelapse.

Philosophy

• Vibe before system. Mood and verb come before mechanics.
• 30-minute loop. Every Unity iteration must produce something playable in <30 min.
• Cite the source. Every game feel change references why.
• Cut, don't add. When stuck, the answer is usually "remove."
• Ship the prototype. Indie Unity projects die in polish hell. Get it out.

License

MIT.

Credits

Encoded design knowledge sourced from public talks, books, and devlogs by: Vlambeer (Jan Willem Nijman, Rami Ismail), Steve Swink (Game Feel), Jonas Tyroller, Mark Brown (Game Maker's Toolkit), Derek Yu (Spelunky), and the broader Unity indie dev community.

This skill stands on their shoulders. Buy the book. Watch the talks.

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"Unity" is a trademark of Unity Technologies. This project is independent fan tooling, not affiliated with or endorsed by Unity Technologies.