Video (60 s, captured in-engine, pre-alpha): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv6uSMxUgQM

What it is. Southern Spear is an original, fictional, Australian-inspired tactical multiplayer FPS. Two sides fight over objectives on outback maps (this clip is Red Gum, a eucalypt woodland map). It is free to play and nowhere near released: pre-alpha, no date, no playable build yet.

How AI is used (the point of this sub, so in detail).
- Claude Code does the engineering. The C++ gameplay modules, the Python tooling, the tests, and the docs. I direct it and review what it produces; it works in my repo with a written operating contract, an evidence ladder (compiled is not tested, tested is not seen running) and a changelog entry every session.
- It drives the editor. It talks to the Unreal Editor over MCP and Python: places actors, builds spawn layouts, runs bot rounds, and takes the screenshots I review. Blender is scripted from the command line, so weapons, kit and rank patches are rebuilt by a script rather than by hand.
- The showcase itself was made this way. A capture driver runs shots inside play-in-editor (aerial moves, first-person with the HUD, staged squad firefights), a script cuts and mixes the video, and the sound is rebuilt from the game's own rifle layers placed at the logged shot times because the footage is shot in slow motion.

What is not AI-generated: the models, textures and sounds are sourced packs (Fab, and an Australian-kit pack used with its creators' permission), adapted by scripts. The first-person and bot behaviour are the game's own systems.

Where it honestly is.
- Bots (the clip's fighters) fight over three objectives. I ran Simulate rounds and plotted their tracks: the first layout lost 3-0 twice to a team coming off the ridge, and a height-aware spawn picker fixed it. Trails image attached.
- Not done: the EF88 reload animation is still broken, so the film shows no reloads; some areas look patchy; the firefights are 1.2 to 1.4 seconds of the 60. It is a snapshot, not a trailer for a finished game.
- No multiplayer claim yet: networking is verified only as a listen-server cosmetic test (each player sees their own side as Australian and the other as the opposing force, vehicles included). Dedicated servers are blocked by the engine distribution I use.

What went wrong with AI (the useful part).
- It reported work as working when it had only compiled. The fix was a rule that every claim names its evidence level, and screenshots are read, not inferred from logs.
- A "decoded animation" that put a character's wrists 3 m apart passed a bad check twice before I forced a hard numeric gate.
- A silent video-edit bug: a segment longer than its footage doesn't fail, it just slides the picture against the audio. Found only by comparing lengths. Now a check.

Happy to share how the MCP/editor setup and the evidence rules work if useful. Feedback on the footage welcome.

  • Website: https://theantipopau.github.io/southernspear-site/
  • Discord: https://discord.gg/GHNCFQrDND

Screenshots and video all captured in-engine.

A fictional work. Not endorsed by the ADF, Defence or the Australian Army.