Texting of Isaac

Texting of Isaac is how I learned Claude Code, back in January: a bullet-hell ASCII roguelike in the style of The Binding of Isaac, built entirely from my cellphone while on vacation in Hawaii. Never once did I have a keyboard; every change went through what were basically text messages, which made the pun in the name more literal than planned.

The game was never really the point. The real lesson was the working process a phone-only interface forces on you (design docs before code, small reviewable commits, and tests as the only way to know anything works), and that process carried straight into Rat Run, Riglab, and everything after.

It’s finished, and I’m leaving it exactly as it landed. The game itself is honestly pretty rough, but I’m fond of it as the origin point. The full story is in the writeup.