The Shining Source

Hi guys.

Can't believe this site is still going strong, with fangame updates from only a few months ago (unlike some other related sites)! And somehow my account works again, whilst I was struggling to log in in the past.

Well done all of you on that one!

All this made me wondering.... do you think it has become possible to vibe code a Shining Game these days or is it a hopeless idea?

Hey Dev, good to see you! I try to keep the site updated with Shining news, although there isn't that much activity these days. Especially since the most recent official project was cancelled.

I've not tried vibe coding, but looking at the latest models I think they could probably make a pretty decent attempt at a Shining-style battle. If only they could make an extra 24 hours in a day so I could work on my own stuff.

Hey there!
You probably could, but you would need to be enormously organized.
I started on my own project (in python) a few days ago, and am getting into the weeds of the documentation.  I'm at over 60 pages of just raw explanation and diagrams.
I saw your question, and out of pure curiosity decided to give it a try with vibe coding, and I can say - I'm kind of impressed.  After about 4 hours, with my documentation in hand - I was able to get:

• A working start menu
• The classic "mysterious person welcomes you" dialogue process
• Some enhanced character creation dialogue (not a shining force original, but I basically did a Ultima and made a Q-n-A for your stats.
• An opening overland scene where you can recruit your initial force
• A super basic force management menu
• Ability to read other characters' sheets
• a way to create triggers
• a start of combat
• basic movement cost calculation and menus
• AI will move enemies and react according to terrain conditions

Is it anywhere near a complete game? No.
And, I haven't integrated the sprites' animations yet, so every image is just static (this is an area I need to learn more).
But - it's kind of cool.  Yeah, it's a lot of time carefully articulating the components, but the reasoner made a lot of similar pattern and coding decisions that I would have, and was able to get me to a boiler plate setup VERY quickly (faster than me hand typing in folder and file creation.)