Our storyOne developer and an AI
Moonrise Mini Golf is made by Moonrise Studios: one developer working with Claude, an AI coding assistant made by Anthropic. The developer decides what the game should be, plays every build in a Quest headset and makes every call. Claude writes the code and builds the courses from that direction.
The timelineSix days to the store
- September 24, 2026
- The first line of code.
- September 30
- On the Meta Horizon Store: four free 18-hole courses, online play with friends, and a clubhouse to start from.
- October
- A new daily challenge every day, painted lost balls to find on every course, Glowtown (our first add-on course), hand tracking, and fixes sent in by players.
- October 20
- Dinosaur Valley: 18 holes past friendly dinosaurs to an erupting volcano, free to keep for everyone who finishes a round by November 1.
Along the way the project has passed 2,800 commits. More courses are being built and tested now.
How it's madeEverything is built in code
Every course, creature, sound and song in the game is generated by code written for it. Scripts sculpt the dinosaurs and the mushrooms, assemble the holes and light the worlds; the music and sound effects are synthesized note by note. There are no AI image, 3D or music generators in the pipeline: the AI writes code, and the code makes the game.
Who decidesA person plays every hole
Nothing reaches the store until the developer has played it in the headset and said yes. Holes get sent back: "the ball flies off the buckets too easily", "this needs a safe path down". Courses go round after round of review until they look and play right. And when players write in, their reports get read and fixed: one player's notes on the multiplayer scorecard were fixed and in the store within days.
The result, by Meta's own numbers for the game's first weeks: a crash rate of 0%, first sessions averaging about 22 minutes, and a store rating that has stayed between 4.6 and 5 stars.
Say helloQuestions, interviews, clips
We're happy to talk about how the game is made, share clips and screenshots, or send anything that helps your coverage. Write to moonrisestudiovr@gmail.com.