WindRush: a windsurf & kitesurf game made with Godot + Claude

I live in Pucón, Chile, between the lake and the volcano, and I windsurf and kitesurf. That is where WindRush comes from: a 3D windsurf and kitesurf game for Android that I'm building with Godot, C#, MakeHuman and Claude Code (Opus 5.5) as my programming copilot. The game is still in development: these are real screenshots of the current build.

New: a console-style menu and three ways to play

The menu has been completely redone, in the spirit of console racing games: the photo of the current spot in the background, slanted panels and a row of cards to scroll through, one per discipline, like picking your car. Three entries to start:

• Training: guided lessons (duck jibe, kite tricks, take-off and jibe on the foil, pumping and flying with the wing), with a slow-motion demo, then it's your turn. Each lesson gives a bronze, silver or gold medal, and medals unlock gear colourways.
• Career: six chapters, one per spot (Ho'okipa, Étretat, Tarifa, Jericoacoara, Lagoa do Paraíso, then a final). Each stage is worth up to 3 stars, and finishing a chapter unlocks the next spot, new disciplines and new gear. The difficulty ramps up: more wind, more chop, faster rivals and less steering help.
• Free: every unlocked discipline, with spot, weather and time of day of your choice, and a photo preview of the spot.

Eleven disciplines, eleven ways to ride

• Slalom: an out-and-back race through gates, around a jibe mark, against three computer-controlled rivals, with a live timer and position.
• Waves: jump and ride the swell.
• Freestyle: rotations and combos that score points.
• Kitesurf: kite power, huge jumps, loops, rotations, spins and grabs.
• Speed: a speed record on a desert canal, above 90 km/h.
• Freeride: free planing, following a course of marks.
• Foil: fly above the water, with the foil height on screen.
• Kite Race: a kite race in the Formula Kite format.
• Foil Race: a windfoil slalom sprint, iQFOiL style.
• Wing: wingfoiling, an inflatable wing held in your hands and a board that flies.
• Wing Race: wing surf-slalom, in the GWA format.

Real sailing physics

The HUD shows what a windsurfer actually watches on the water: speed in knots, wind strength, point of sail (beam reach, broad reach…), how much the sheet is trimmed or eased, and the turbo. You head up and bear away, jibe, pump to get planing, and jumps only work above 8 knots, just like in real life.

There are five sailing spots, Ho'okipa (Hawaii), Étretat, Tarifa, Jericoacoara and Lagoa do Paraíso (Brazil), each with its own weather (sun or storm, Poniente or Levante) and time of day (morning, noon or sunset), plus the canal of the Speed discipline. The game is in English, French and Spanish, and you pick a male or female rider.

The waves changed too: hitting the whitewater of a wave that just broke head-on slows you down and shakes the rider, and a big wall of foam taken straight on means a wipeout. At an angle, or jumping over it, you get through.

Étretat: the cliffs of Normandy

New spot: Étretat, on the Normandy coast in France. The tall white cliffs, the arch and the needle, the village at the back of the bay: you sail at the foot of the cliffs, in sunshine or in a storm, and a nine-mark freeride course follows the coastline.

A real slalom race

Slalom is raced out and back along the coast: zigzag through the gates, round a jibe mark, then back to the finish. The three rivals, Kai, Lena and Mateo, each have their own style: wide and careful, tight at the mark, or unpredictable. They steal each other's wind (wind shadow is simulated), bump into each other and get angry when you hit them. Flying start with a countdown, a penalty for jumping the gun, slow motion and standings at the finish, then a replay of the best moments.

Real race formats

Races now follow the real formats. Kite Race uses Formula Kite: upwind start, windward mark, leeward gate, then a reach to the finish. Foil Race is a slalom sprint in the iQFOiL format, downwind with three jibe marks. Wing Race is a Surf-Slalom in the GWA format, with a pumping zone marked by yellow buoys where the wind drops: you have to pump the wing to stay up on the foil. In windsurf, an option adds the PWA slalom format (downwind, four jibe marks) on top of the out-and-back slalom. The rivals are no longer extras: they sail with the same physics as the player, each with their own gear from the catalogue, aim for the marks and avoid the rocks and the other riders.

The jibe and the duck jibe

The jibe plays like the real thing: you bear away, the board carves on its rail, the sail lays to the outside and flips, and you come out on the new tack carrying your speed. A clean jibe, keeping more than 70 % of your speed, earns a bonus. Press Shift + J on the way in to try a duck jibe: the sail goes round the back, over your head, while the rider crouches and ducks under the boom. It's harder, but you keep 75 to 85 % of your speed. A training mode shows it in slow motion, step by step.

Tarifa, Europe's wind capital

New spot: Tarifa, at the southern tip of Spain, facing Morocco. The white town, the harbour, the island and its lighthouse, the big dune, wind turbines on the hills and two winds to choose from: the steady Poniente blowing in from the sea, and the strong, gusty Levante coming off the land. On the water, up to 70 kites at once; on the beach, inflated kites lying on the sand, with assisted launches and landings. Offshore in the Poniente, a Big Air zone where every jump is measured, and a seven-mark freeride route around the bay.

Pure speed: over 90 km/h on a canal

The Speed discipline is inspired by speed records: an 800-metre canal in the desert, 120 degrees off the wind, with gusts of 35 to 50 knots. A 42 cm wide speed board, a small and very flat sail, a full-face helmet: the rider is almost lying down, front leg straight. You have to stay low in the gusts or you get catapulted, and leaving the canal costs you dearly. The goal is the 500-metre average (around 95 km/h) and the 2-second peak, with a personal record and a top 10. Five cameras: chase, drone, onboard on the boom, facing the rider and a tracking shot at water level.

Pick your gear like on the beach

Before hitting the water you choose board, sail, size, harness, wetsuit and rigging. Slalom alone has 37 boards, each with its own volume and length (for example the Vortex Speed: 136 litres, 2.38 m). For kitesurfing you pick the kite, and for foiling, the foil setup. Challenges per discipline, with medals, give every session a goal. On the water and on the beach, the other riders also use gear that fits the spot and the weather: mostly wave boards and sails at Ho'okipa, more wave sails when the Levante blows in Tarifa, and smaller sails as the wind picks up. Gear unlocks as you progress through the career, and the extreme sizes arrive in chapter 5.

Characters with MakeHuman, world with Godot

The riders and the beach crowd are created with MakeHuman, a free program for modelling 3D people, then imported into Godot with their skeleton so they can be animated. The scenery (animated ocean, mountains, palm-lined beach) is built in Godot 4.

Claude Code (Opus 5.5) as copilot

WindRush is written in C# (.NET), the same language I use for all my web projects. Claude Code works directly inside the project:

• it writes and refactors the C# scripts (board and sail physics, cameras, UI, opponents);
• it builds isolated test scenes so one piece can be tuned without launching the whole game: the sail, the rider's poses, the audio;
• it fixes bugs from what I describe while testing;
• it checks its own work: every tweak is verified with screenshots and measurements (knee angles, head clearance under the boom during the duck jibe, average speed over 500 metres);
• it helps me learn the parts of Godot I didn't know.

I decide the gameplay, test and tune the feel. Whether riding feels right is judged by someone who rides, not by an AI. But the pace of progress is nothing like coding alone.

What's next?

WindRush is still in development: the physics and touch controls need polishing, more spots are coming, and then the Google Play release. If you'd like to try a beta, get in touch.

I use the same approach (C#, .NET and AI as a copilot) on client projects: applications, platforms and games. See my custom software development service, or the case study of the FamiQuiz multiplayer game in .NET (in Spanish).