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Right. Moving from Assembly to high-level languages is still fundamentally programming. Directing an LLM isn't. With the former, the code you produce is still yours, and the claim that you-yourself wrote it holds up.

I consider writing code absolutely the least important part of my job. Architecture and interface definitions are 100 times more important, and I'm much more focused on that now than before

Yeah that's a big worry, especially for people just learning computer science now, I genuinely have no answer for that, I also strongly believe that it should free us to do more creative stuff, not do that for us, but it seems we'll just collectively drown in slop...

Honestly this is the most reasonable take. Yeah, lots of shitty uses of AI but there are a few exceptions and honestly I don’t blame small devs for at least dipping their toes. It’s the Squares of the world I am worried about. The opportunity to exploit workers and abuse a system is too high.

But its a massive change to everything it touches. We don't know how things are going to develop. Saying "I don't want this and am going to do what I can to navigate around it where possoble" is actually a very reasonable take.

I'm not against AI for programming, but the idea that people who don't use AI to make their games will be left behind is nonsensical. The games I most care about aren't interchangeable, so a game made more efficiently won't make it more appealing. More power to devs who can make great things w/o AI!

How do you think the bubble popping and all those retirees losing their entire savings due to index funds having gone hard for the AI company IPOs is going to impact what a toxic fucking brand AI already is for consumers, and thus its impact on your future sales if you use it?

I never have and never will use AI for coding, I don't need or want it in any way. Thankfully it's banned at work, and when I write code at home I want code that I understand and know. There is a fallacy that most coders use it or want it, where I see the opposite.

The only thing I ask is that the devs that use IAgen to produce code disclaim this, the same way the ia assets are disclaimed in steam. Then I can choose what devs I prefer to support

And then you're stuck paying for a bullshit "AI Agent" so long as you want to keep making games, no matter how expensive they make it. If anything, I think this only highlights how important it is not to allow the skill to be lost. Let the slop makers make their slop, I won't be buying it.

We do not use for it in our in-house projects. I don't feel ambivalent about this at all -- I enjoy programming. If I wanted to make unappealing compromises, I wouldn't be an indie.

Publishers funding projects care

It's like any drug, I guess? Just hope people are able to be careful and show moderation (I don't hold my breath for this unfortunately)

I agree it's a very tough arena to be dogmatic in right now, there is an industrial reality to things. But to me this is less a choice between velocity or "falling behind" (btw it's not a race, no?), it's a choice between "I like this world" and "fuck this shit forever"

This is all that people never used and don't know these systems have to say, it doesn't work that way, if you think all it does is scan the web and copy stuff you are talking with no idea of reality

oh you're actively feeding the beast huh! actively part of the problem!

"After completing the study, developers estimate that allowing AI reduced completion time by 20%. Surprisingly, we find that allowing AI actually increases completion time by 19%--AI tooling slowed developers down." arxiv.org/abs/2507.09089 RIP to your grandma but I'm different

I've seen people SAY they used some tool layer on top of it to spit out text-edited variations of other people's games and fuck that type "edit gorillas.bas" like the rest of us.

So, really, what it all comes down to is, simply: Capitalism is, by design, unethical. Capitalism dictates AI is good because it makes an adequate product, at the cost of humanity. That human cost is what most people are not okay with. But, capitalism, as a feature, doesn't care about humanity.

There are plenty of us left. We're just not as loud as the grifters.

Thank-you!

I think it's a lot more a AAA and mobile industry thing, if you're not working for a big company it doesn't necessarily apply as you can decide what to do

..having a good understanding of the technical, design, production implications of those decisions. Abdicating responsibility for the code to an AI agent would give me a much blurrier view of where things are at.

+1

It'll certainly be interesting to read the post-mortems of the games which were developed with AI-written code from the start.

My circle is UK/EU AAs and indies and there are some who use it, but they're the minority. "Everybody else uses it to ship games 5x faster" is also quite factitious I'd argue - if that was the case we'd see AAAs being released left right and centre (maybe they're "just around the corner" but 🤷‍♂️)

insanely stupid take thanks

So does ZERO Sievert 2 use AI?

I know 😭

it's only 5x faster if the end product is liquid shit, because that's all that genAI can produce: liquid shit

FTFY

Oh the FOMO is INTENSE in software dev (I don't work in games), though I'm not quite getting it: If the tech makes everything so easy, then I could learn at any point and not be at a disadvantage. Business folks love that shit because it's a temporary speed boost with unknown future consequences...

And if I could afford to quit over this, I _would_. AI fosters resentment in many of your employees, be aware of that. This is not the job I once loved, and forcing this shit upon me certainly hasn't helped.

Also there isn't really evidence that it's faster. It's always just "trust me bro" despite there being evidence from an actual study that trust me bro in this case had the exact opposite effect as they were saying.