cd /news/developer-tools/show-hn-remaking-unreal-engine-in-ru… · home topics developer-tools article
[ARTICLE · art-89543] src=machinesatplay.com ↗ pub= topic=developer-tools verified=true sentiment=· neutral

Show HN: Remaking Unreal engine in Rust for coding agents

Machines at Play, co-founded by Kevin, has released an open-source (MIT) multiplayer 3D gaming engine built in Rust that is designed to be used by coding agents like Claude Code and Codex through the command line, without a traditional editor. The engine, available on GitHub, allows users to prompt an AI coding harness to create games and deploy them to a .machinesatplay.com link, with examples including a PUBG-like game and a car soccer game. Kevin chose Rust for compile-time validation and performance, using Bevy, Avian, and Lightyear for physics and networking, though compile times remain a challenge.

read1 min views1 publishedAug 9, 2026

Hi HN! I'm kevin, cofounder of https://machinesatplay.com, a multiplayer 3d gaming engine for codex/claude code.

TLDR: we're rebuilding unreal engine without the editor in rust meant to be used through the CLI. its open source/MIT. You prompt your favorite coding harness to create a game, and it'll give you a .machinesatplay.com link

Some multiplayer games built with it:

cubg: claudeunknownplayerbattle ground: [https://pubg.machinesatplay.com/](https://pubg.machinesatplay.com/)
car soccer: [https://benchmark-rocket-league-claude.machinesatplay.com/](https://benchmark-rocket-league-claude.machinesatplay.com/)

here's a 4min demo: https://www.loom.com/share/e3e3a37f52b54405a6fd89da079fb1c2

source code: https://github.com/machinesatplay/game Why not use unreal engine/unity/godot?

the approach to making 3D games right doesn't fit agents. you download this bulky editor, and drag and drop node-based / visual editing tools to code, create 3d objects, shaders, animations. with machinesatplay, the editor is files/folders and command line which is the DX that agents love.

Why rust?

I picked rust instead of c++ or typescript bc it moves more validation to compile time instead of runtime. it still is quite performant, has wasm support, and can target native desktop gpu/mobile gpu. downside is compile times, which im still figuring out how to address this. currently we use bevy, avian for physics, and lightyear for prediction/rollback/networking

How do I use it?

  1. pick your favorite coding agent: claude code, codex, opencode, etc. 2. paste in the prompt from the landing page. 3. iterate on a game. maybe /goal it against a screenshot 4. then mach deploy it, and you get a link to it

I'd love to get y'all feedback on this. its still early and focused on multiplayer 3d. thanks for reading

Comments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234818](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234818)

Points: 1

── more in #developer-tools 4 stories · sorted by recency
── more on @machines at play 3 stories trending now
sponsored brought to you by zahid.host 4,200+ EU-deployed projects
reading about agents? ship yours in a single git push.

Run your AI side-project on zahid.host

EU-based hosting, git-push deploys, automatic HTTPS, no cold starts. Free tier with a custom domain — perfect for shipping the agent you just read about.

$git push zahid main
Live at https://your-agent.zahid.host
Get free account → Pricing
from €0/mo · no card required
LIVE [news/show-hn-remaking-unr…] indexed:0 read:1min 2026-08-09 ·