How I Built a Full Xiangqi Game in a Week Using GitHub Copilot (Instead of 3 Months with a small Team)

Three years ago, building a Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) game required a team and months of development. Today, I rebuilt it almost entirely by myself — with the help of GitHub Copilot. You can try the game here: Cờ Tướng This article is not about hype. It's about the real workflow changes, practical lessons, and how AI fundamentally changed how I build software. The Old Way: 3 Months, 3 People Previously, building a Xiangqi game required: 2 developers 1 designer ~3 months of work Scope included Core Screens Login page Register page Lobby Gameplay screen Table management system Designer workload (~1 month) The designer had to create: Board textures Piece designs UI layout system Lobby visuals Buttons, panels, effects Game UI design is time-consuming because everything must feel immersive and consistent. Development workload (~2 months) The developers focused on: 1. UI implementation Building pixel-perfect UI from design files. 2. Multiplayer system Room creation Joining tables Synchronizing