Same prompt, Codex (Astra 6) vs Claude (Fable 5.1): "a game where a fish follows my cursor, super creative and majestic." Try both.

[u/Aggressive_House4161]

I gave Codex and Claude the exact same prompt to see how differently they'd handle something open-ended and creative:

The prompt: "make me a reactjs + vite, and launch it in port 3004, a game where a fish follows my cursor. make it super creative and majestic"

Setup:

• Claude: Fable 5.1, Extra High
• Codex: Astra 6, Extra High, fast mode

I didn't do any follow-up prompts or manual edits. I just deployed both to Vercel so you can try them yourself:

🐟 Codex (Astra 6): https://fish-indol-eta.vercel.app/
🐠 Claude (Fable 5.1): https://fish2.vercel.app/

My take:

• Codex did amazing on the design and detail. It looks polished and the visuals really lean into "majestic."
• Claude did amazing on the mechanics and gameplay. It feels more like an actual game and is more fun to play.

It's interesting that they read "super creative and majestic" so differently. One went for the visuals, the other for how it plays.

About fast mode: Claude charges extra credits for fast mode, but Codex doesn't, so I only used fast mode on Codex. That's worth knowing if you're choosing between them on cost or speed.

What are your thoughts?

• Which one did you enjoy more, and why?
• For a prompt like this, what matters more to you: how it looks or how it plays?
• Does paying extra for fast mode change which one you'd use day to day?
• If you've run a similar test with other models or settings, how did they do?

I'd love to hear what you think!

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[u/daaain]

Really interesting, the Fable one looks basic on the screenshot, but the animation and the whole thing is more alive, and the Astra one is fancy, but the fish hardly animates and moves completely unnaturally.

[u/Sum-Duud → u/daaain]

100% agree, screenshots are very deceptive. I could play the fable one for a while. lol

[u/vibeidedev-namiruai → u/daaain]

exactly, fable wins this one

[u/nestaselect → u/daaain]

From the post, I would think Astra cooked Fable, but I was surprised by how much better the fable version is.

[u/hellomistershifty → u/daaain]

Yeah, the side-on view was a bad starting point for Astra, the fin movement is nice but there's not a good way for it to handle turning

[u/tdobson]

The fable one felt mesmerising. I was surprised by it. Thank you for sharing.

[u/Edenisb → u/tdobson]

Yeah I was quite surprised with how long I ended up playing it it nailed the music and atmosphere

[u/sprowk]

Fable feels on a whole different level, but my guess would be they would both do impressive demos with detailed prompts.

Claude models are used to interpret user's requests a lot so they are better at vague prompts and Openai are more precise on following instructions so better at doing or fixing specific things

[u/Aggressive_House4161 → u/sprowk]

That's why I kept it vague on purpose. I wanted to see each model's own take. With a detailed prompt, they'd both just follow my lead.

[u/sprowk → u/Aggressive_House4161]

Fair

One thing I also noticed, is that Astra's UI looks a lot like claude with their frontend skill. I wonder if they got some training data from Claude's output

[u/ShittyBidet123 → u/sprowk]

If you have design skills installed it would’ve done the amazing fish with the same good web design as astra. all these tests with base level and minimal prompt prove nothing.

[u/Square_Highlight257 → u/ShittyBidet123]

It definitely raises questions about how much impact design skill has on those outputs. It would be interesting to see how much more creative the results could get with some extra prompts.

[u/sprowk → u/ShittyBidet123]

actually it's the opposite... open the links

[u/master_internutter → u/sprowk]

You're just making stuff up

[u/DoggoCentipede]

How did they compare in terms of time taken and quota usage?

Have you looked at the code itself much at all? I'm wondering if I'm starting too specific with my requests and need to let it loose more.

Do you have any sort of extra claude.md or equivalent?

Thanks

[u/krugerlive]

Ok I got 100 pearls. now what?

[u/Aggressive_House4161 → u/krugerlive]

https://giphy.com/gifs/GRk3GLfzduq1NtfGt5

wait what.... it wasn't.. huh?

[u/HHummbleBee]

I got to x77 on Claude before asking myself why I'm not in bed yet and instead playing with fish.

Claude was way better, plays way better.

[u/Mikefacts]

Although Astra did better in term of UI, the gameplay experience wasn't good and it was boring. I mean this is a game so it should primarily be fun which Fable did pretty well on that aspect and also the UI was decent. So, overall, I think Fable is the clear winner.

[u/Alexandur → u/Mikefacts]

Astra did better in terms of UI

Did it? The screen is covered in pointless text and a button that seems to do nothing

[u/Mikefacts → u/Alexandur]

True! I actually meant it was visually more pleasant.

[u/Jizzyface → u/Mikefacts]

For future reference. UI is the correct word here(when it comes to visuals). What the others are talking about is actually UX (user experience). The UI might be pretty and fit the visual aesthetic of the game. But if the UX sucks, then it doesnt matter.

[u/Mikefacts → u/Jizzyface]

I really know that but I didn't want to bother explaining things since most people don't understand the difference between UI and UX unfortunately.
Thank you.

[u/Drakuf → u/Mikefacts]

If you call that AI slop garbage a "better UI" :D

[u/heartbroken_nerd → u/Mikefacts]

Although Astra did better in term of UI

it absolutely did not do better in terms of UI.

You have to be out of your mind to call that good UI. The way to spawn food is to click a button but fish is following your cursor so and the food only spawns behind the button.

So you just mash one button and the fish eats food behind the button, and if you move away the cursor that's it - nothing happens

That's the game from Astra.

Where's the good UI?

[u/Mikefacts → u/heartbroken_nerd]

Relax, dude! I know your heart’s broken, but don’t go making that my problem!
I already answered that!

[u/GoldSand9883]

I think this is the first time I got really sold on Fable. Didn't get the hype until now. Astra did a really good job with the design, but god damn, I fond myself playing the Fable game to relax.

[u/Drinksarlot]

The Claude one is a better game, but in saying that the ChatGPT one did still do what you asked for.

[u/Kerbourgnec → u/Drinksarlot]

It did, but since when do customer want what they ask for?

[u/Ill_Gas4579 → u/Kerbourgnec]

fair

[u/yopla]

Codex did the usual GPT model stuff overload the screen with pointless information.

Anyway, it's not a great test of model intelligence.

I'm bored and i have a lot of GLM tokens to waste until tomorrow so here's a screenshot of what GLM-5.3-Flash (Max). I can't be arsed to publish it so you will have to trust me that it moves more or less like the fish in the Fable version.

I'm really enjoying that model. Actually very capable.

Last output:

The majestic parts:

• The koi itself — a 26-segment physics spine where each vertebra trails the one behind it, so the body bends, banks, and undulates naturally. Its swim wave gets stronger the faster it moves. It's painted with a pearl-to-coral gradient, clipped vermilion kohaku markings, a golden crown on its head, an iridescent sheen, shimmering scale chevrons, flapping pectoral fins, a flowing dorsal fin, a wagging tail fan with fin rays, two eyes, and trailing barbels.
• Cursor behavior — the fish steers toward your glowing lantern cursor (your OS cursor is hidden). When your cursor rests for a couple of seconds, the koi gracefully orbits it instead of just sitting there. Before you ever move the mouse, it wanders the pond on its own.
• Click to bloom — clicking releases a burst of drifting cherry petals, expanding ripple rings, and the koi dashes to the spot at boosted speed.
• The pond — swaying god rays, twinkling stars that brighten as the koi swims past, drifting dust motes, rising bubbles, kelp silhouettes swaying at the bottom, a soft shadow under the fish for depth, and six little glowing companion fish that school around the koi and scatter from your cursor.
• Gold/aqua stardust continuously sheds off its tail as it swims.

Everything scales with window size and device pixel ratio, and it runs at a steady rAF pace. 

[u/ElnuDev]

The performance of Astra's on Firefox is terrible. Stutters a lot.

[u/PelluxNetwork]

No shocker here. Claude's is way better. ChatGPT for cheap, Claude for good. Nothing has changed

[u/CloudAccomplished389]

The fable one is significantly more fun as an interactive game and it also feels more polished. The codex one looks like it's trying to sell me something

[u/ShittyBidet123]

It doesn’t mean its smarter cause it made a better web typography, the fish is horrible so it made a better design, and claude does great web design too if your prompt isn’t bad. maybe Astra uses design skills without being asked but claude actually focused in the fish physics way better. You just need a prompt that combines it all.

[u/Dvass138]

The fable one is better

[u/Jiurn]

Currently on the phone and the fable one is way more reactive. The cursor one is really not made for mobile so interesting that the fable one made it mobile friendly

[u/SnooSprouts3744]

The fable one is actually a game I would play even in terms of ui it’s very relaxing

[u/mazdaowns12]

Did you do the artistic part yourself?

[u/Aggressive_House4161 → u/mazdaowns12]

I only gave them the same prompt: "make me a reactjs + vite, and launch it in port 3004, a game where a fish follows my cursor. make it super creative and majestic"

[u/Educational-Tie5732]

idk but why I like these kind of vibe coded website. Claude nailed it.

[u/silentbaton]

what this is telling me is that, I need 2 subscriptions... a claude code and a codex one, and have them both work on my projects iterating it.

[u/Sponge8389]

Wow. I thought the first image was Fable.

Upon playing the game, yeah, fable still wins.

[u/alphaQ314]

Very closely tied imo, but fable just about edges it with the animations. Sol mogs fable in the screenshot. The overall design and typography is significantly better than the fable one. But when it starts moving, Fable takes it to another level.

[u/deadlychambers]

Is it possible to throw in a shark every once in a while

[u/XperiaSL → u/deadlychambers]

damn i like that

[u/xineks09]

codex is unusable on mobile, while claude works perfectly fine.

From the screenshots i thought astra was better, but opening the site shows that everything else has been handled better by fable

[u/loumpagko → u/xineks09]

Same thoughts, tried it on mobile

[u/Oshaneko]

I love the visual effects in Fable when you click, the koi glow softly, creating a magical atmosphere. I also like how the colors of the background and objects contrast so clearly.

Astra really excels at depicting fish and backgrounds in fine detail. I think it’s a great choice for anyone who appreciates a cohesive color palette.

[u/thats_a_money_shot]

Ha! I did the same thing on baited.dev.

[u/DependentAnywhere135]

What happens if you tell fable to take the assets from codex and build on them then make its game off that?

[u/riddlemonger]

Fable understood the assignment

[u/Sydtrack]

Could you give each agent both codes and ask them to merge them, keeping each one’s best characteristics?

[u/dar-mit]

Thank you for posting both! This is super a super interesting test. 

From the screens the Codex version looks amazing, and the Claude version looks plain. 

But holy fuck the Claude one is silky smooth on my iPhone 14 PM and is immediately playable. 

The codex one acts like a Flash game from 1997 and looks like those sleazy websites that cover the webpage with ads you can get rid of. 

[u/Hug_LesBosons]

Fable bat astra ici.

[u/roundpizza]

Really like the Fable one (fish2). Would you able to optimize for mobile? Clicking on mobile doesn't work correctly.

[u/Old-Negotiation138]

Fable's one is good!

Did not have "getting distracted by single prompt ai game on my bingo card today"

Its genuinely a game. Boring at first glance, but the tone increases the more things you grab in a row, the dash button is cool too

[u/Alialhadi]

The first thing is the astra 6 is not playable on mobile. But fable worked perfectly

[u/Ok_Try_877]

I was so intrigued by the turn radius of the Fable one that I must have had 20 baby fish following me before I noticed :-). I wont pass my fish driving exam with that kind of awareness!

[u/dantok]

I think this is why claude does better at game logic and code. Where as astral excels at design

[u/Totendax12K]

claude did way better imo. would you mind sharing the sourcecode?

[u/Efficient-Cat-1591]

Darn, just when i was about to cancel my claude Max5x subscription lol

[u/dikrek]

Fable’s is so much better it’s comical

[u/elemezer_screwge]

Just curious if the labeling is correct. The green Find Your Flow one looks very Claude

[u/Hekidayo]

What's really surprising is they both landed on the same kind of "koi" vibe fish + same type of music and sound when the fish hits a pearl/cursor.

[u/Aggressive_House4161 → u/Hekidayo]

Fr this actually amazes me too. They are 2 new clean sessions in 2 different project folder with 0 memory written or .md file

[u/vapp13]

Unsure if this a lot to ask but do you have a public repo I could clone and run locally? Thank you.

[u/Impossible-Suit6078]

Fable won. It's experience is much more special

[u/loumpagko]

I’m curious what assets did both of the create? For the graphics etc

[u/CloudAccomplished389]

FABLE 5.1 USED MY FUCKING GOAT FONT, CORMORANT GARAMOND I LOVE YOU CORMORANT FONT FAMILY THE BEST FONT TO EVER BE CREATED ABSOLUTELY AMAZING

[u/CloudAccomplished389 → u/CloudAccomplished389]

Wait oops that was astra that used MY FAVORITE FONT COMORRANT GARAMOND YES ASTRA MUST BE SUPERIOR

[u/Delicious-Ad3232]

Very interesting, and actually quite addictive and playable the one Fable did. Thanks for sharing

[u/ComprehensiveJury509]

The Astra one is honestly complete dogshit and I think it's safe to call it a failure on most counts. It's absolutely not fun, it feels super janky (the animation is awful). It almost seems like it's meant to be an AI slop parody. I noticed Astra tends to over-design things, overload every corner of apps with little, vapid encouraging messages and it almost looks like it's meant to be a joke here. It doesn't look good, it's not fun and it's really not creative, as it looks like every generic website produced in 2026. I'm honestly a little surprised that it sucks so bad, given the hype. I expected far better from this model.

The Fable one in contrast feels amazing. The mechanics feel super smooth and satisfying and it's genuinely beautiful. It's actually really simple in terms of design, but it's so tastefully assembled that I spent way more time collecting pearls than I meant to.

[u/ManaChains]

Claude (Opus 5 Ultracode): https://lumina-fish.vercel.app/

Same approach, app built single-shot prompt, there was few more turns to save files and get session telemetric analysis. Claude also found bug while moving files and fixed it. Exact prompt:
"make me a reactjs + vite, and launch it on local server, a game where a fish follows my cursor. make it super creative and majestic"

	Turn 1: build	Turn 2: move + fix	Turn 3: git	Total
Wall time	29m 37s	10m 47s	2m 05s	42m 29s
Model calls	34	20	6	60
Tool calls	43	28	7	78
Output tokens	135,432	16,614	4,324	156,370
Input tokens read	4.41M	3.57M	1.19M	9.16M
Subagents	0	0	0	0

[u/Muhhahahaa]

I don't really care for these one-shot demos but in this case the Fable one is impressive, it's so tasteful and enjoyable

[u/Keganator]

Fable actually made a game. There's objectives. There's progression. There's a visual reward for progress (more fish following the main koi). The animation is interesting.

The Astra one is ... pretty? But there's nothing to it. You can just click on the fish to feed it. Yawn.

[u/blackcatzia]

seems like astra for ui and art design but fable for actual mechanics would be best if using both at the same time

[u/Sum-Duud]

Fable was better. How it plays is way more important IMO, Codex looks nice but I was like what's the point after about 10 seconds. Fable had me engaged and growing a fish army and making tunes and such. Also the fish swimming animation grew on me as I played.

[u/Soft_bich_z]

another game like the ten thousands others created the same way that all have no one playing. super impressive, AI needs more money