Kraig Adams
A station of six outline hexagons joined by tube belts around a glowing dock, with the frigate docked below

A game in progress · early playtest

Starhex

A game about a dead station you wake up and build into a factory, and the frigate you fly to feed it. I'm designing it and playtesting every version; Claude, Anthropic's AI, writes the code. It changes every day.

Play the current buildRead the devlog

  • Version 61
  • Updated Oct 18, 2026
  • Mac trackpad or mouse, and a keyboard

Build 22, the copper line

The frigate lining up side-on below the dock, leaving a trail of light-grey thruster puffs

What it is

Wake the station, feed the factory

Far out in the dark, a derelict station drifts. It doesn't fly and it never will: it's home, and the place your factory grows. You are the AI aboard a small frigate with a hold and a battery. You fly it like a unit in a real-time strategy game: select it, right-click a rock, and it flies there, mines it, hauls the ore home and docks over the station's heart to unload and recharge.

At the station you build on a hex grid around the dock. Every module starts empty, and you give it a job for good: a burner for power, a smelter for iron or copper, a constructor for plates, wire or data cards. Drag a belt from one to the next and the factory runs while you're out. A sensor finds the copper far out; data centers read your data cards into research, and research is how the frigate gets bigger holds, longer reach and, in the end, a mind of its own for mining.

The look is geometric: thin outlines on black, with colour only for cargo, jobs and status. It began as the second version of Jumpgate and borrows its outline art and music.

Where it stands

Stage
Playtesting, version 61
Updated
Oct 18, 2026, 10:45 pm
Playable now
Chapters 1 to 6, about an hour and a half: gather loose ore with the frigate's pull field, wake the station, crack big rocks with the chaingun, find copper with a sensor, research with data cards, decode a signal from the vanguard, switch to solar power with silicon from far out, then build batteries and ride out ever-darker dust storms. Runs in the browser with a mouse and keyboard.
Next
  • Chapter 7
  • Tuning from the next playtest

How it's being made

The full devlog

I direct and playtest

I decide what the game is and how it should feel, play every version, and send notes as I go: what's confusing, what's too fast, what I want next.

Claude writes the code

Claude, Anthropic's AI, turns each note into a new version, tests it and publishes it, often within minutes. It also asks questions and suggests a default when a decision is open.

Every version is logged

The devlog keeps my notes in my own words, what changed and screenshots, so you can follow the whole thing from the first message.

Latest from the devlog

All 96 entries
  1. Oct 19, 10:10 am · v104The ship AI speaks through chapter 2
  2. Zoomed far out: the station at the top with iron rocks around it, a ringed copper field labelled 2.7 km to the right, and a ringed silicon field labelled 7.0 km at the lower left with a red Sentinel marker; the goal card warns Get past the sentinelOct 19, 9:30 am · v103A bigger map, and a threat in every chapter
  3. The station with steel, circuit and motor production lines, the Items chip showing the new part dots, and a constructor's panel making a circuitOct 19, 7:25 am · v102Parts in the chain, upgrades in place, and a busier factory
  4. A rock far out with a dashed orange line toward the station and the label ROCK INBOUND 1:34, the station small to the lower rightOct 19, 6:30 am · v101The defence update: rocks, turrets, repairs, relics and heat

Play the build

It runs in the browser on a computer, with a trackpad or mouse and a keyboard. It's an early build: it changes every day and saves can reset between versions. Tell me what felt good and what didn't.

Play version 61Send feedback

Written with Claude, from the conversation where the game is being made.