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Ask HN: Is it worth avoiding AI while making a game?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it worth avoiding AI while making a game?

#21

Post by 2muchclout »

CM30 wrote: post #20

Depends on what you're using AI for. Programming purposes? Most people aren't too bothered by that all things considered. Making assets like art and music? Yeah, people really dislike that, and there's a huge stigma against games featuring such assets on platforms like Steam. Even if you manage to ignore the ethics issues and controversy, AI generated assets have the issue that they can be difficult to work with for…

Yes true, I have not even tried out the AI imaging tools for game dev specifically, I can imagine there are issues though. As for programming, I use it as a tool to assist, I haven’t gone full bore vibe coding for multiple reasons, one being that I want to learn the engine well and I feel like that is much harder vibe coding.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth avoiding AI while making a game?

#22

Post by 2muchclout »

cableshaft wrote: post #16

So I've handcoded and released a couple dozen games in the past, but I'm now old with responsibilities and a day job of coding, and my brain just doesn't have the energy to mess about with it like it used to after a day of work, so I have started experimenting with letting A.I. agent code some things (and been surprised at how well it can work). I'm aware of the gen AI stigma but it's either that or this damn game pr…

I also have a personal stigma against AI art (for commercial purposes) because I don’t see the cost vs the value doesn’t add up to me. I am trying to see if my own bias was negatively effecting my progress or if staying hand drawn was what the average age dev was doing. As for programming, I find it does help aid when I know what I want but can’t quite find the syntax, it’s the balance between that and still learning that I struggle with.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth avoiding AI while making a game?

#23

Post by 2muchclout »

munksbeer wrote: post #12

I would like to try game development, only for personal satisfaction, and I will definitely be using coding agents and AI generated assets to help. I have very little free time and I am a decent enough programmer that I think I should be able to pick up what the agent is doing if I keep the chunks small enough and review each time. And this will be for my own hobby purposes and possibly for my children only. But, if…

I agree, as someone who has the goal for commercial purposes it seems like AI generated assets are a no go. As for people who make games for pleasure, unless you have a personal issue with AI I don’t see the issue. As for the coding part, I can’t imagine any game dev is not using any form of it to code.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth avoiding AI while making a game?

#24

Post by 2muchclout »

atleastoptimal wrote: post #17

If you don't use AI, making a genuinely good game will take multiple years. I'm not sure how fast AI will speed you up, but many of the things that would take time (creating assets, engine optimization, balancing) could be aided by AI.

I’m sure it would speed you up tremendously, would the output be the same though? Someone with no commercial ambitions doesn’t really need to worry about that, but if you do it is definitely worth measuring the trade offs. I’m not including coding in that statement, I think that for programming everyone should use it as long as you are still learning how to use the engine.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth avoiding AI while making a game?

#25

Post by psyklic »

The hypothetical you state only matters once you have a game! The biggest risk by far is not AI assets -- it's finishing the game.

So if AI increases your odds of finishing, go for it. Then once you have a game, more people will care about whether it's good than whether you used AI assets. I suspect there will be lots of interest in how you incorporated AI, maybe even moreso than otherwise. You could alternatively use the AI assets as placeholders and intend later to replace them with hand-drawn, if desired.

When I made games, I had zero interest in making assets but wanted to understand every detail about graphics engines. I just grabbed random mediocre assets from online. I would have definitely used AI to make assets but done the coding myself.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth avoiding AI while making a game?

#26

Post by aklsdf__ »

If this is your first time making a game, you should do everything yourself the first time.

Doing all of the work yourself at least once (or at least really giving it a go) will help you develop two of the most important skills in game development: understanding what parts of the process of game dev you like and are best at, and understanding how much time and effort it takes to get to something you think is good.

AI shouldn't be used as a replacement for not learning a skill. You will never have as much control over an AI doing the work for you as you want, and your role as the middle man between whatever AI agent you are using to do all the work and the end result is not a good or fulfilling place to be.

You don't have to avoid AI all together, but use it in ways that enhance the skills you care about developing instead of filling in for ones you lack. A good example for art is using it for placeholder art when you are starting something new or experimenting with an artistic choice. Using AI as a more convenient way to look up information while you are coding is very different than prompting what you want done and blasting it directly into your project.

Do you want to learn how to draw or buy a 3D printer with a pencil holder attachment and download images for it to draw for you?

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth avoiding AI while making a game?

#27

Post by umasood »

In my opinion it depends on how AI is being used. In many projects it’s hard to avoid it completely for example, while building a game solver I ended up using AI in a few places. More or less half of the development was done through vibe-coding and for screenshot detection I trained a small object detection model by AI. That part is difficult to solve reliably with simple rules and logic alone because screenshots vary a lot between devices.

Here it is: https://www.aiblockblastsolver.com

At the same time, most of the logic, debugging and problem-solving still came down to regular development work. So using AI with clear limits feels more like using a tool than replacing the work itself.

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