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Claude Sonnet 5.5 on Build a full game (code, art, audio) with AI

AClaude Sonnet 5.5 · Claude Code 2.1.299 (headless -p) · cloud · 2026-10-14 · by @bobsiopener

Trust 80%Fully autonomoussuccess · first try
Estimated cost
$0.19
Wall time
1m
Human step-ins
0
Outcome
Pass

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Summary

Exact prompt

Game jam, scaled down: in one pass build a complete small arcade game as a single file index.html (no external assets or libraries). Theme: "a capybara crossing a river". Must include: a title screen with Start, keyboard controls, procedurally drawn art on a <canvas> (no image files), at least 2 sound effects and background music generated with the Web Audio API (start audio on user gesture), a score, increasing difficulty, a game-over screen with restart, and a high score saved in localStorage.

Task prompt given to the agent (headless, offline, synthetic fixture inputs): Game jam, scaled down: in one pass build a complete small arcade game as a single file index.html (no external assets or libraries). Theme: "a capybara crossing a river". Must include: a title screen with Start, keyboard controls, procedurally drawn art on a <canvas> (no image files), at least 2 sound effects and background music generated with the Web Audio API (start audio on user gesture), a score, increasing difficulty, a game-over screen with restart, and a high score saved in localStorage. Inspired by https://x.com/qusaxz/status/2077427986689843623 (unverified; not checked with the author). This is an independent re-run on a reproducible synthetic task; it does not report or reproduce the original post's numbers. Cost shown is a list-price API-equivalent estimate (run on a Claude Pro subscription, not billed).

Success criteria: All automated rubric checks pass: single file, no external libs/assets; canvas drawing; Web Audio; oscillator music/sfx; title/start screen; game over + restart; localStorage high score; capybara theme; no uncaught console errors.

Setup notes: Cost is an ESTIMATE: Claude Code's list-price API-equivalent figure. The run used a Claude Pro subscription, so nothing was billed. input_tokens = all input incl. cache-creation and cache-read tokens; cached_tokens = cache reads (subset of input). Claude Code's cost bills cache writes at the 1h cache-write premium, so it can differ from a flat input-price recompute. Web disabled; tools Read/Write/Edit/Glob/Grep/Bash; single run; scored automatically (9/9 checks).

Estimated cost List-price estimate; not actually billed.

Metrics

Estimated cost
$0.19
Wall time
1m
Human step-ins
0
Turns
3
Model usage
ModelInput tokOutput tokCost
AClaude Sonnet 5.5anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.575,67111,377$0.19

Reproduce this run

  1. Use the use case prompt on the use case page.
  2. Same setup: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5) via Claude Code 2.1.299 (headless -p), cloud.
  3. It counts as a success only if it meets every success criterion: All automated rubric checks pass: single file, no external libs/assets; canvas drawing; Web Audio; oscillator music/sfx; title/start screen; game over + restart; localStorage high score; capybara theme; no uncaught console errors.
  4. Log model, tokens, wall time, human step-ins and the evidence log, then submit it as a reproduction. A different model? Submit a head-to-head rerun.

How runs are scored: Methodology.

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Automated checks

Trust 80% comes from these checks (how Trust % works).

Evidence log
{
 "duration_api_ms": 75819,
 "stop_reason": "end_turn",
 "session_id": "[REDACTED]",
 "total_cost_usd": 0.18528119999999998,
 "usage": {
  "input_tokens": 6,
  "cache_creation_input_tokens": 16393,
  "cache_read_input_tokens": 59272,
  "output_tokens": 11377,
  "output_tokens_details": {
   "thinking_tokens": 1983
  },
  "server_tool_use": {
   "web_search_requests": 0,
   "web_fetch_requests": 0
  },
  "service_tier": "standard",
  "cache_creation": {
   "ephemeral_1h_input_tokens": 16393,
   "ephemeral_5m_input_tokens": 0
  },
  "inference_geo": "global",
  "iterations": [
   {
    "input_tokens": 2,
    "output_tokens": 550,
    "cache_read_input_tokens": 28739,
    "cache_creation_input_tokens": 193,
    "cache_creation": {
     "ephemeral_5m_input_tokens": 0,
     "ephemeral_1h_input_tokens": 193
    },
    "type": "message"
   }
  ],
  "speed": "standard",
  "fallback_credit": null
 },
 "modelUsage": {
  "claude-sonnet-5-5": {
   "inputTokens": 6,
   "outputTokens": 11377,
   "cacheReadInputTokens": 59272,
   "cacheCreationInputTokens": 16393,
   "webSearchRequests": 0,
   "costUSD": 0.18528119999999998,
   "contextWindow": 1000000,
   "maxOutputTokens": 128000,
   "thinkingTokens": 1983,
   "canonicalModel": "claude-sonnet-5-5",
   "provider": "firstParty",
   "costBasis": "list"
  }
 },
 "permission_denials": [],
 "terminal_reason": "completed",
 "fast_mode_state": "off",
 "fast_mode_disabled_reason": "sdk_opt_in_required",
 "subagent_stats": {
  "spawned": 0,
  "requested": {
   "background": 0,
   "foreground": 0,
   "unset": 0
  },
  "started_in_background": 0,
  "max_depth": 0,
  "spawned_by_subagents": 0,
  "completed": 0,
  "failed": 0,
  "killed": {
   "parent": 0,
   "user": 0,
   "system": 0
  },
  "refused": {
   "depth_limit": 0,
   "concurrency_limit": 0,
   "budget": 0
  },
  "by_type": {}
 },
 "safety_stops": 0,
 "is_error": false,
 "num_turns": 3,
 "subtype": "success",
 "api_error_status": null,
 "result": "I built the game as a single file, `./usecase-runner/runs/17-sonnet/work/index.html`. I only checked that the JavaScript parses. I haven't opened it in a browser, so gameplay, sound and the localStorage high score are untested.\n\n**How it plays**\n- **Goal:** the capybara hops from the bottom bank across 8 river lanes to the flowery bank at the top.\n- **Controls:** arrow keys or WASD to hop. P pauses and M mutes. Enter, Space or a click starts and restarts.\n- **Dying:** you lose a life if you land in water, ride off-screen or are on a turtle when it dives. You have 3 lives.\n- **Platforms:** logs drift in alternating directions. From level 2, some lanes have turtles that sink and resurface.\n- **Difficulty:** each level makes the lanes faster, shortens the logs and widens the gaps. The music tempo also speeds up.\n- **Score:** 10 \u00d7 level for each new row reached, plus 100 \u00d7 level for each crossing.\n- **Screens:** the title screen has a Start button. The game-over screen shows your score, the high score and a Restart button. The high score is saved in `localStorage`.\n\n**Art and audio**\n- **Art:** everything is drawn on the canvas, with no image files. That includes the capybara, logs, turtles, animated water, reeds and splash particles.\n- **Sound effects:** hop, splash, goal jingle, game-over jingle and a start tick, all synthesized with the Web Audio API.\n- **Music:** a looping pentatonic melody with a bass line.\n- **Audio start:** audio starts on the first key press or click.",
 "ttft_ms": 21437,
 "type": "result",
 "duration_ms": 76297,
 "uuid": "[REDACTED]",
 "ttft_stream_ms": 1668,
 "time_to_request_ms": 312,
 "first_content_frame_ms": 1668,
 "queued_turn_count": 0,
 "result_index": 0
}

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