Shuriken Slam Jam
A one-button arcade roguelite: throw one shuriken, bounce it off four walls and stack relics until a single throw clears the room. The developer says Claude Code writes the code.
Links go to the official store or developer page. Last verified Nov 4, 2026.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- View on itch.ioitch.ioReleased$2.99
Download from itch.io.
Desktop · Mobile · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Shuriken Slam Jam
Shuriken Slam Jam is an arcade roguelite played with one button or one finger: aim, let go and watch your shuriken bounce from wall to wall, slicing through everything in its path. Every enemy in the room must die before the hourglass runs out; after each room you pick a relic, such as trails of fire, chain lightning, portals, black holes, venom or frost, with up to five relics of five levels each, and the relics stack until one throw clears the screen. A run is a 20-room dungeon with elites and bosses, and coins and stat upgrades from the forge carry over between runs. The full game has 63 relics, 11 bosses, a Daily Run with an online leaderboard and a harder Daily Nightmare, an Endless Run of up to 200 rooms, 15 Ascension levels and 90 trophies; the free browser demo has the full 20-room dungeon, 32 relics and the forge. The developer, Groowl, says it is game #1 of a challenge to make one game a week for a year with Claude Code: “it writes the code, I do the design.” Every sprite is drawn in code and the music is synthesized. The full game is US$2.99 or more on itch.io for Windows and Android; the demo plays free in desktop and phone browsers. In English and French.
How it was built
Partially verifiedIn a post on r/ClaudeAI (31 Oct 2026, UTC) the developer says the game is the first of a challenge of one game a week for a year, all built with Claude Code: “How Claude is used: it writes the code, I do the design.” A CLAUDE.md file holds a “where to go” table that maps each kind of change to the file and function to edit; a balancing bot plays real runs headless on the real code and reports how far a build goes; and a capture tool plays the game with chosen upgrades to record clips for the GIFs and trailer. The developer keeps the game design, the artistic decisions and the design of builds and bosses.
Per the developer, Claude Code writes the code and the developer does the design. There are no art files: every sprite is drawn in code and the music is synthesized. The browser demo is a single HTML page of about 590 KB of JavaScript drawing on 2D canvases, with English and French text built in; its code checks for Capacitor, which is used to package web games for Android, and sends the daily leaderboard and anonymous play statistics to a Netlify server.
- Engine / framework
- None (HTML5 canvas and JavaScript, observed in the browser build)
- Languages
- JavaScript
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“How Claude is used: it writes the code, I do the design.”Verification notes: The AI claim rests on one source, the developer's post on r/ClaudeAI by u/Groowl (31 Oct 2026, 12:44 UTC), read from the Arctic Shift Reddit archive; the post links the browser demo on the itch.io account of the same name. Both itch.io pages show the label “No generative AI was used”; see the conflict below. Features and the demo's contents come from the two itch.io pages (read 4 Nov 2026): the full game was published on 15 Oct 2026 (16:29 UTC) and the demo the same day (14:19 UTC), both last updated on 27 Oct 2026. The developer's post, written after both pages were published, says game #1 “is out”. The demo's code (checked 4 Nov 2026) contains no OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter or Groq addresses; its only outside addresses are itch.io and a Netlify server for the leaderboard and play statistics. The paid Windows and Android builds were not downloaded. Neither page showed a rating. Team size and location are not stated (the profile says the developer is French). The game was not played.
Development history
The full game (Windows and Android) and the free browser demo are published on itch.io.
The developer shares the game on r/ClaudeAI as game #1 of a one-game-a-week challenge built with Claude Code.
DeveloperReddit (u/Groowl)
Game performance
Each figure measures something different — concurrent players, owners, downloads and sales are never interchangeable and are never added together. Labels show where each number comes from.
itch.io
US$2.99 or more on itch.io (4 Nov 2026) for Windows 10/11 (64-bit) and Android (APK). A free browser demo for desktop and phones is at groowl.itch.io/shuriken-slam-jam-demo. The daily leaderboard needs an internet connection; no account, no ads.
Not publicly available: itch.io rating, Downloads, Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built with Claude Code: one game a week for a year. Game #1 is out (r/ClaudeAI) Reddit (u/Groowl) | Social post | Oct 31, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Shuriken Slam Jam by Groowl itch.io | Store page | Oct 15, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Shuriken Slam Jam (Demo) by Groowl itch.io | Store page | Oct 15, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Groowl — itch.io profile itch.io | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
- AI disclosure
- The developer's Reddit post says Claude Code writes the code, while both itch.io pages show the label “No generative AI was used”. The post also says there are no art files (the sprites are drawn in code and the music is synthesized), and the pages do not explain the label. (Reddit (u/Groowl), itch.io, itch.io)
Similar games
