Pet Shark Productions

IdLings Dev Log

How IdLings was made, in the order it happened: from the Unity prototype I built alone to the App Store, five days of work in September 2026 with AI agents as my development team.

It was not a one-prompt build. I ran the agents the way I would run any development team: workshop the ideas, mock them up, write the plan and the specs, build, then test and review, with me making the calls at every step. Each entry is tagged with its stage, and says what I did and what the agents did. Claude Code agents wrote the code and the mockups under my direction, and OpenAI's Codex drew the new art. The ending stays a surprise: finish the game to see it.

  1. 2020

  2. Prologue First scenes in Unity The earliest screenshots I kept, from January 2020, when IdLings was a Unity game I was building alone. 5 pictures
  3. Prologue The last Unity build The layout the Unity version settled on, and the one the rebuild started from. I set it aside unfinished in 2021. 3 pictures

  4. 25 September 2026

  5. Unity or Godot? Workshop Back to it, in Godot I picked IdLings up again with AI agents as my team, and the first call was whether to finish it in Unity or rebuild it in Godot. Text
  6. Six checks for done Plans and specs A plan before any code A design plan with a measurable definition of done, approved before a line of game code, then filed as 13 epics. Text

  7. 26 September 2026

  8. Mockups First draft: 22 boards The first full set of mockups, rendered from an HTML kit. Superseded the same day. 4 pictures
  9. Mockups Redrawn on the Unity forest The mockups redrawn over the Unity scene's own layout, with all thirteen statue slots and my clock. 4 pictures
  10. Mockups Variations, then a fresh start Seven variations after my notes, and then I asked for a fresh start. 6 pictures
  11. Mockups A fresh pass in three bands Mr Moody and the time at the top, the forest in the middle, the wallet over wooden signs at the bottom. 6 pictures
  12. Mockups Every screen, signed off The complete set of 31 boards and a style guide, signed off before any screen was built. 7 pictures
  13. Implementation First light on the iPhone X The first Godot build on my iPhone X, installed without Xcode's help. 3 pictures
  14. Implementation Art: reused, drawn and generated The Unity art reused, the new pieces generated from it, and everything snapped back to the game's pixel style. 4 pictures
  15. Implementation Every screen built against its board Each band, sheet, popup and cutscene built and checked side by side with the board I had signed off. 7 pictures
  16. Round 7, 8.5 hours Testing and review A bot plays the whole game A simulated player showed the plan's clock rule could never work, and set the game's pace. Text
  17. Testing and review The whole story on a phone A scripted run on the iPhone X from a fresh save, through the intro, the first rounds and every panel. 4 pictures

  18. 27 September 2026

  19. Testing and review My first playtest I played it on the phone and raised what was wrong, and each report became an issue. 4 pictures
  20. Implementation Real purchases, real Game Center The store, notifications, achievements and the review prompt, working on the phone. 7 pictures

  21. 28 September 2026

  22. Workshop Workshop: an attack for every fairy The fairies' borrowed animations replaced by a real attack each, picked from three options. 3 pictures
  23. No spoilers Workshop An ending worth reaching The credits scene had five rounds of its own. It stays a surprise. Text
  24. Workshop Workshop: Dust that grows with power The Dust a fairy throws grows with her power, in her own colour. 3 pictures
  25. Workshop Workshop: where does a kitty sit? Kitties hung in the air while their fairies moved. The answer was on her head. 3 pictures
  26. Workshop Thirteen kitties on thirteen heads All thirteen kitties riding on their fairies, and the fairies no longer shrinking when they attack. 3 pictures
  27. Testing and review Every purchase, start to finish Every product bought and restored, the notification on time, and a full run from a fresh install. The plan closed. 8 pictures
  28. Mockups Readability: I cannot read anything On the phone, everything was too small. A redesign with bigger type, rounded numbers and taller sheets. 6 pictures
  29. Testing and review Mark-ups, nit-picks and the approval Two more rounds on the phone, my marked-up screenshots, and the redesign approved. 6 pictures
  30. Workshop A flourish for every ×2 When an upgrade doubles a fairy's power, stars burst from the button and a ×2 rises from it. 2 pictures

  31. 29 September 2026

  32. Testing and review Old devices and the final build The store build needs a newer iPhone than my test phone. Then the last fixes from a fresh install. 2 pictures
  33. Release A store page without spoilers Six screenshots rendered from the build, never the ending, and the version submitted with its purchases. 6 pictures

  34. 7 October 2026

  35. Release On the App Store IdLings went on sale on 7 October 2026, free, with nine in-app purchases. 1 picture