Sudo su@sudoingX
9B on a 3060. 2,699 lines. 11 files. blank screen.
Qwen 3.5 9B Q4 running through Hermes Agent wrote the full Octopus Invaders project autonomously. config, audio, particles, background, enemies, player, ui, game loop, README. structured the directory, separated concerns, documented everything.
then it selfdiagnosed 10 bugs and patched them across files. fixed variable references, missing classes, broken directory paths. even created a reusable Hermes skill for future game builds unprompted.
the code reads like a senior dev wrote it. clean architecture, proper separation, professional naming. but CONFIG.canvas is null on line 1 of initGame(). the game crashes before a single frame renders.
9B understands structure. it can architect, scaffold, and debug individual files. what it can't do is hold 10 files in context and wire them together correctly. duplicate Bullet classes across two files with incompatible interfaces. static method calls on instance based classes. enemies that spawn but never move because there's no y += speed.
35B on a 3090 built 3,483 lines in one pass and it ran. 9B built 2,699 lines across multiple iterations and the screen is black.
the ceiling for autonomous multifile coding on 9B parameters is real. still iterating. trying a singlefile version of the same prompt next to isolate what 9B can actually close on.