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I'd like to hear more about your experience using AI for game development.

I've had a strangely asymmetric experience where frontier models are failing apparently basic tasks like making changes to a Pong clone without breaking it, while the same models are successfully designing and implementing multiplayer servers with rollback netcode!

I think it has to do with what they can and cannot verify (i.e. they can't actually play pong to see if they broke it), but I'm not sure.

(Also happy to hear anyone else's experiences on this matter!)

by arsenide1 hours ago|

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I've been having a bunch of fun working on a couple games on a new platform - everything (platform and games) developed with AI.

quackwave.com

Hasn't really been stress tested yet (this is the first time I'm mentioning it publicly), but it's been fun playing with friends & family and iterating.

Party game platform, think "jackbox but no host screen" - just need a web browser open on phone/tablet/PC.

Your comment matches my experience: it has to do what can and cannot be verified. As an example, it was much easier to have AI write a large e2e test using Playwright (then add test cases and expand) than to assume it'll correctly fix bugs without guidelines like this. Also, the human loop is still important in things like screenshot verification - but the frontier models are getting even better here so I'm not sure for how much longer this will be true. The ratio of test code to production code is a bit over 2:1 right now.

by phaser15 hours ago|

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For all the bad rap that AI gets in game development, stories like this should be heard more. I occasionally get tendinitis and I can't code for the entire day like when I was young. I get some relief dictating to the AI when I need to rest my hands. I can imagine it's a much bigger help for someone who is struggling with worse.

by zahlman3 hours ago|

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Glad to hear. I could say I'm in a similar position actually, but my setbacks have been more psychological.

by zandermax6 hours ago|

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I am also interested in trying this game out! And I'm really glad to hear how agentic coding got you back in the game (literally)!

by guiambros22 hours ago|

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Big fan of SW:KOTOR series. Would love to test Vestiges when ready.

You should consider creating the game on Steam, so you can start building your audience.

by ksaun19 hours ago|

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Thanks! I've been hesitant about Steam because of the strong anti-genAI sentiments there. (And the initial fee to set-up a game's page.) You are right, though, and I probably should just push past my reservations.

(When I began this effort, I was just enjoying feeling productive again and didn't have any real plan to release. But I've been pleased enough with how it's been coming along that I've started seriously thinking about it.)

by mh-19 hours ago|

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The anti-AI crowd on Steam only really seems to care about it being used for art, from what I've seen in reviews.

by ogig16 hours ago|

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I'd also include the UI in things they seem to care about. If it looks "web style" or has the common tells (dashes, //) it will be most likely be called out.

by ksaun10 hours ago|

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(Early on, one requirement I gave it was not to use em-dashes for anything player-facing. It's kind of amusing (and a bit sad) at how often I see in its session self-talk something like "No em-dashes!" alongside much more important comments. It's really taken that constraint to heart! :) (Alas, I liked to use em-dashes myself, too; I'm resisting giving up semi-colons and parentheses, though!)

Fortunately, I personally enjoy writing. Currently, I wouldn't be able to claim that Claude didn't contribute to the writing, but nothing in Vestiges should sound like genAI. (Which is actually a little funny to me since one of the characters is an AI. But the genAI writing style grates on many, including myself, and I'd imagine that 20+ years into the future, such issues will have been solved.)

by ksaun18 hours ago|

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That's useful context, thanks. I might be in a grey area on that front. Vestiges has no genAI-created images, textures, etc. Pretty much all of the (non-text) visuals are generated at runtime using Godot's 2D vector drawing capabilities.

(I've considered trying to find an artist to work with to have professional 2D art.)

by marknutter7 hours ago|

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This an inspirational comment, thanks for posting it! I love that more and more people are being enabled (or re-enabled in your case) as software developers thanks to ai.

by selimthegrim4 hours ago|

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I would like to play this demo when it comes out.

by spariev19 hours ago|

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That’s just pure pazaak! Would totally like to see this game

by ksaun19 hours ago|

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Yes, the minigame is like Pazaak. I've prototyped two more radical variants that might also make the cut.