Line Tower Wars Rebuild

One of my favorite passion projects is rebuilding Line Tower Wars - the Warcraft III custom tower-defense map. The first playable version lived in Three.js, which was perfect for proving the loop quickly: lanes, waves, towers, build grids, sends, research, UI, and the general feel of the original map.

The project has now moved into a proper Unreal Engine workflow. Codex is doing the hands-on Unreal work: creating editor-only tooling, driving headless Unreal commands, importing Meshy and Blender assets, compiling the project, and exporting verification screenshots from the engine. Claude Code is helping on the deterministic simulation side. The Three.js build is still useful as a prototype and reference, but the current direction is Unreal for the actual vertical slice.

I have been using this as a benchmark for AI coding tools since GPT-4 in 2023. Back then I would copy and paste snippets into my editor, and every new generation got the project a little further before hitting a wall. The breakthrough now is that the agents are not just generating code; they are operating the full production loop with me.

Line Tower Wars Unreal Engine proof capture showing an Arcane lane, imported tower, creep, and attack beam. — First Codex-driven Unreal proof capture: imported Arcane tower and creep assets, lane kit, Niagara beam setup, and a render-target screenshot exported from the headless editor workflow.

The current milestone is not final art yet. It is the pipeline becoming real: concept image to Meshy, cleanup in Blender, scripted import into Unreal, editor helper modules for VFX assets, C++ bridge rendering from deterministic sim state, and engine screenshots as verification. That is the line where the project stops being a browser prototype and starts becoming a game production workflow.

Line Tower Wars opening battlefield with two lanes, build panel, send panel, and research controls. — Earlier Three.js prototype: the two-lane browser playtest proved build, send, research, player stats, and the overall match read.

Line Tower Wars build grid preview showing tower placement cells across both lanes. — The browser prototype made placement and path readability testable before the move to Unreal.

Line Tower Wars battlefield with multiple starter towers placed on each lane. — Early tower placement pass from the Three.js version, useful now as a reference for camera distance and lane readability.

Line Tower Wars lean HUD view with towers, portals, research panel, and player stats. — Lean HUD pass from the prototype. The same information hierarchy will carry into the Unreal UI pass later.

Line Tower Wars match setup screen with lane layout, map, and AI opponent options. — The old match setup screen: still a useful reference for what the eventual desktop flow needs to expose.