everyone posts the AI game demo.

nobody posts the receipt.

so here it is, straight from the people who actually tried unreal engine 5.8 with claude opus 5.5:

boss fight with 3 attacks: half a day
first 3D model: unusable
3-hit combo: about an hour (same combo by hand: 15-20 min)
“fix the controls”: +15 min, still broken
wait per request: 5 to 15 min
one developer’s 36-hour multiplayer RPG: a full week of usage limits
one morning of small tests: 15% of the weekly limit
same task in Puget’s test: $0.55 on low effort, $5.98 on max
total at API prices: around $2,400.
still worth it. but only if you build in the right order:
→ stay on medium effort, max costs 4x more for the same result
→ one system per prompt, never “build me the whole game”
→ give every experiment a time limit
→ do the 5-minute fixes by hand
→ commit before every session, AI will break what already worked
congratulations.. you just saved $2,400 by reading a receipt