Build a game like Grand Theft Auto with Claude Code

An open-world action game: top-down city to explore, get in and drive cars, missions and more.

Big buildPayments, real-time, regulation or heavy infrastructure

The Claude Code prompt

Build an original browser game in the same genre as Grand Theft Auto: an open-world action game. Use your own name, characters, art, sound and levels. Only the general mechanics should feel familiar; do not copy Grand Theft Auto's name, characters, art, music or level layouts.

Version one should have:
- Top-down city to explore
- Get in and drive cars
- Missions
- Police chase meter
- Map

The hard part: Scope. Make a small top-down city first.

How to build it:
1. Read this folder first. If it is empty, set up a browser game with Vite, TypeScript and Phaser (or Three.js if it is 3D). Write a short PLAN.md with the game loop, entities, controls and what you are leaving out of version one.
2. Get the core loop playable before anything else: top-down city to explore. Use simple shapes or free placeholder art until it feels good.
3. Add the rest of the mechanics one at a time, keep game rules in pure functions you can unit test, and make it work with both keyboard and touch.
4. Add a start screen, game over, score and a saved best score in localStorage, plus sound effects you generate or that are free to use.
5. Run it, play it, tune the difficulty, fix what breaks, and finish with a summary and how to deploy it as a static site.

Paste it into Claude Code in an empty folder. It plans first, so read PLAN.md and steer before it starts building.

Version one

  • Top-down city to explore
  • Get in and drive cars
  • Missions
  • Police chase meter
  • Map

The hard part

Scope. Make a small top-down city first.

Make it yours: original name, characters, art and levels. Familiar mechanics are fine; Grand Theft Auto's assets are not.

More to build

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