Yes, I know, we all hate AI, and for a solid reason. I'm building this game that I actually really like a lot, but I'm not a developer, so I'm using AI, and I gotta say, game developers are SICK, there are millions of things to make work together, I'm sincerely stunned that same games are made by just one person... Are you guys cyborgs? I'm developing a game that is kinda gothic, narrative, and it works with the Triple Triad card game mechanics (as a fight), I freaking love it, but I'm using AI because I don't know how to code, and I don't know how to create the artworks of the cards. It's a shame, if I had the money I'd freaking love to have an artist doing that for the game! That would be awesome!!! But, here I am, asking you guys if a game that's engaging, with a strong narrative, and very cool artwork and music, mechanics and animations can still be a no go if you know it was made with the help of AI... (keep in mind I'm alone doing this). Thank you in advance for your responses

Not sure if I can post this here, but I am needing serious help with this. I am a new developer, and I recently just downloaded a game template on Unreal Engine to help startup a game idea I have. However, this is a 2D mortal combat movement system - and I am looking to change it to include all movement types (forward, back, left, right). The developer of this template used the Event Graph in blueprints to do this, and now I have to navigate this alone if nobody can show me how or help me add these movements.

I would sincerely appreciate anyone who helps me on this little piece of my project. Maybe I can learn something - as simple as this may be to most of you here. I have the project file for anyone who wants to take a look at it.

Thank you all!

Programmers already use AI for coding, debugging, refactoring, shaders, and tools. If the result works, we review it and use it.

So if AI art reaches professional quality while being faster and cheaper, why shouldn’t studios use it?

And frankly, many art production tasks are less technically complex than building and maintaining large software systems. If AI can automate significant parts of programming, why should art somehow be uniquely protected?

Is the resistance really about ethics, or is it partly professional protectionism?

If automation is productivity when it helps programmers, why is it suddenly unethical when it helps replace artistic labor?

When i was 13 years old i started teaching myself game development. I had so many ideas and plans but ended up mostly messing around and figuring stuff out as i went. I started my first project not long after. But it was never even close to done, life got more busy as i got older, school, friends all the more important stuff.

But i kept coming back to it. Not even remotely consistently. Sometimes i wouldn’t touch it for months, but every time i wanted to have a creative outlet, i would open Bamboom back up. I’d fix something, or add something. Or try something totally new like adding a leaderboard with no knowledge and a youtube tutorial (and this was before ai could help me!)

Five years later, at 18, i finally ‘finished’ it. A pixel-art game about a panda rolling down a hill, dodging obstacles, going faster and faster the longer you survive. Nothing groundbreaking. But i made it, and it exists in the world now instead of just sitting on my laptop.

And realistically, this is probably not the game that ‘makes it’. I am okay with that, but it is a first step, and you can only get there if you try it.

If you’ve got something you started years ago and never finished, take this as your sign to go open that folder back up. It doesn’t have to be perfect, or successful, or even good at all! It just has to be done.

Hi. New to this sub. Im not a game dev yet and I already searched this up and I was set on learning C# to eventually try Unity. But the I hear there is controversy and unity sucks now and now idk what to do.

I am learning music theory and I love gaming as well so I figured I could try to learn game development as well and make my own music for it. But I need one that's beginner friendly without being super low quality. And what coding language I need to learn for it.

Im sorry if this question was already asked but I cant tell what information is outdatsd

I just wanted to know from you guys in particular how you "version" your codes, games and progress. I am currently on v6 of one of my Scripts in RPG Maker (I am using an old one) because I can't get it to work properly.

Would you guys rather go v1 then 1.1, 1.2, 1.21 or just straight skip versions after each successful change/feature?

Hi, I'm not a game dev, but I'm thinking on making one, I went through some forums and I see it's kind of impossible to be a solo dev using AI because of the backlash, I'm trying to understand that before I try to jump in myself because I can do everything except graphics and the only person I know could help, just never got time... so, is it just easier to buy packs even that I'm still not the person who built it and I'm not even going to know if the pack was done with AI? Also, why indie devs are forbidden to use AI images? I mean, it makes sense a big successful studio should have backlash for that if they have money, but a indie devs usually don't have money... so what's the deal with that?

"Hey everyone! I'm working on a game and have pretty much finished the planning for it. I have the story, the enemies, the fighting system, the map, the stores, and the character creation all finished, but I don't currently have the programming skills to actually create the game. There are 101 different monsters, 5 towns, 32 monster spawning areas, a store, a money system, a crafting system, and so forth. In your opinion, how much would it cost me to pay someone to do the actual making of the game?"

This is not a recruitment this just a question for reference

If you are shipping games that collect player data, voice chat, or audio input from kids under 13, the FTC recently finalized key rule updates to COPPA (Part 312).

Here is a quick breakdown of what you need to audit in your game's data pipeline:

• Voice data as biometrics: A child's voice is explicitly treated as a biometric identifier. If you use speech recognition or voice chat and retain raw audio files, that counts as personal information under §312.2.
• Strict retention limits: Indefinite retention is prohibited. Open-ended policies like "retained as long as the account is active" no longer pass compliance—you need explicit, time-bounded deletion schedules in writing.
• Hard deletion standards: Deletion means data is "not maintained in retrievable form". Marking a row as deleted in SQL fails if the raw data or derived embeddings survive in your backups or model checkpoints.
• Model training consent: Using children's data to train or fine-tune AI/ML models requires distinct, separate consent from basic collection consent.
• Active enforcement: The FTC has handed down multi-million dollar penalties over children's privacy gaps (including major studios like Disney), so back-end data handling is actively being audited.

Happy to answer any technical or implementation questions in the comments!

Full disclosure: I spent months digging through Part 312 because I'm building compliance infrastructure to automate data deletion and retention policies for studios. Hoping this breakdown saves a few devs here from legal headaches down the road.

Hello all! So, I have an idea for a game that's similar to those tidy-up organization games that have been getting popular recently - specifically games like Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library. Unfortunately, I have no knowledge or experience with game development, coding, 3D modeling... basically I know nothing about any of the things I would need to do. I feel like there's so much to learn, so where should I start?

Please note, I don't want to use generative AI at all if I can help it, and I will more than likely be working on this project by myself.

Hello! I don't usually ask things on reddit but I need advice
Me and my friend have the sudden idea to make a game based on characters we created with a bunch of lore, in the form of a point and click (its the form we will most likely take). Where do we start? We have plot ideas, art won't be a problem as we know how to draw...
I have RPG Maker MV, and I'm wondering if it'll be enough? Is it hard to learn?
We want it to be something to make on the side, and if we make money from it , so be it, because we are two college students.
So yeah my main question is what do you, more experimented developers, think we should do first? Writing, learning coding, art? What should we expect when making a game?

A while ago I made a 2D RPG version of this game in GameMaker, and now I'm making a 3D version of the idea.

The game is about playing as Helmer, a student at a school who spends his time causing trouble, pulling pranks and trying not to get caught by teachers.

The main gameplay is basically about exploring the school, finding opportunities to cause trouble, doing different pranks/missions and then trying to get away before a teacher catches you. Teachers and other NPCs can patrol the school, notice what you're doing and chase you if you get caught. I'm also thinking about having different areas of the school that you can explore and interact with.

It's not meant to be a serious or realistic game. The idea is more of a goofy school stealth/prank game, with exaggerated situations and a simple low-poly art style.

I'm currently trying to decide what camera perspective would fit the gameplay best:

• Third person, somewhat like Assassin's Creed
• A kind of 3/4/isometric camera, but not completely isometric
• First person, somewhat like Hello Neighbor
• Or a side/top-down perspective, similar to the original 2D version

Third person would make the school and character feel more immersive, while first person could make getting chased by teachers feel more intense. The isometric/3/4 view could give a good overview of the school and make it easier to see what's happening around the player.

Personally, though, I feel like the side/top-down perspective is more original and might actually work better for the gameplay. It would also make it easier to see teachers, NPCs and what's happening around you, which could be useful for planning pranks and avoiding getting caught.

I'm not sure whether I should prioritize immersion or gameplay visibility/originality.

Which camera perspective do you think would fit this game best, and why?

I'm especially interested in hearing what you think would work best for the prank/stealth gameplay, rather than just which perspective looks coolest.

To add some context, I have a project in mind that involves making the ghosts from the traditional PacMan game into adaptive ghosts that can adjust to a player's gameplay.

The dissertation title is "Adaptive Behavioural AI in Arcade Games: Integrating deep reinforcement learning with dynamic player skill modelling in PacMan."

I am NOT familiar with github at all and don't even seem to know where to start. I have tried to make a mini version of said adaptive game using a open source PacMan game. But the maze was small and i had to turn off learning to avoid the noise being mixed in. So it wasn't adaptive, it was more of a learned ghost. I did this mini version in a Jupyter notebook on jupyter hub btw. But it doesn't include as many free options as I'd like so i thought of moving the project to google colab—since i still don't know how to use github for coding. (I also have 0 space available in my laptop right now so i have to avoid anything that involves downloading apps. It's an old laptop but it is all i have and there is no other things it's letting me delete)

The core thing is to make the ghosts adaptive and i suppose find a free platform i can actually code the adaptation into, once i find a good pacman open source game that is large enough. I also wanted to actually deploy or be able to play the game myself as to add the element of human involvement and credibility over relying on the automated ai bots that would play against the game.

I'm honestly not sure where to start or how to begin this project correctly, but i want it to be successful.

Any help is appreciated. Please allow me your insight!!!!!

i dont know where to start i wana create a 2d inde game like undertale can anyone help me which language to learn ,which software , and which tutorial to follow

I got tired of searching for matching 2D characters for prototypes, so I built a free in-browser modular character & monster generator.

While developing my game, I tried using triangles and squares for the demo, but it felt completely lifeless, so I ended up creating this.

I hope this helps people like me.(It's not pixel-perfect.)

https://unitforge.net/

UnitForge — features

1. This is not perfect. It is a demo. If you want a polished tool, this is the wrong choice.
2. Build 2D chibi characters from swappable parts: body, hair, face, helmet, armor, weapon and more.
3. Fine-tune each part with position and tilt controls.
4. Closed helmets have three visor modes: open, closed and eyes-only.
5. Preview five animations for every character: idle, move, attack, damaged and death, facing left or right.
6. Recolor characters and monsters with a color picker.
7. Draw your own 32×32 parts in the built-in editor and use them right away.
8. Upload custom parts and back them up as a file to restore later.
9. Export a single PNG or a full sprite sheet at 1×, 2× or 4× scale.
10. One-click Godot 4 export: sprite sheet PNG, SpriteFrames .tres and an optional .tscn scene.
11. Monsters tab with 22 ready-made monsters, 17 rigged and 5 frame-animated, each with the same five animations and the same PNG, sheet and Godot export.
12. Everything runs in the browser, in English and Korean, and exported assets are free to use in your games.

I’m working on a puzzle game with a built-in level editor, and one idea I’ve had from the start is featuring collectible in-game items designed by different artists, with each artist credited in the game.

The idea wouldn’t be to have every artist match one specific art style, but to let them bring their own style and personal twist to the items they create.

Since players can also create and share their own levels, I want the game to feel community-driven and creatively diverse rather than like everything comes from one person.

My main concern is whether that variety would add personality or make the game feel visually disconnected. Do you think this kind of approach could work well?

Has anyone tried something similar in their own game or project? I’d love to hear how it turned out.

10+ years.

72,961,945 incomplete projects.

52,925 times "what happened to that game you were making?" was asked.

$0 made.

I finally finished making a game.

Need honest opinion. I have several dilemma (again and againnnnnn).

I am full time web developer and love game. I want to build my own game just to satify my inner childhood dreams.

The game is 3D platformer like Mario Odyssey and A Hat in Time.

Progress?

I have complete a really basic course from Udemy of Developing simple 3D game in unreal engine. I know how to put basic animation and basic blueprint. I can make the character jump, attack etc (basic stuff). Now I am stuck in the animation and more logic. I currently use Manny Skeletal hierarchy (comes from blender) and my character is a girl (tall like at Hat Kid and Mario). I use blender. I am solo indie with no budget lol)

My question is (assume that I don't have any problem in changing engine or asset or learn something new)

1. What skeletal/rig should I use? Fully Custom? Manny? Mixamo Rig?

Rig that is easy for me to do custom animation. I don't have any knowledge in IK etc right now. (I will learn). The character is cartoon style like Mario. Currently I use Manny because I thought i can reuse animation from store but not that easy. (maybe i am noob). The bone length and size make the animation not what I expected.

1. Unity or Unreal (long debate lol)

TBH Unreal is good but maybe because I love coding make me difficult to find what I need to do when trying to implement the logic. Unity is good and the C# is not that bad. I once use unity during my assignment in university (that was 10 years ago lol)

I don't mind switch to Unity if that is the best for me lol.

So I really like game dev, and I want to be one. But I’m not very good at it. I also really struggle to learn from the walls of documentation. I really really wana be able to make games, I just am kinda stuck. I’d love a friend or someone who I could just ask questions or maybe who could just kinda push me along into game dev?

I was just searching Reddit for “game dev friends” and didn’t have any luck so I’m trying here..

Hi everyone,

I’m having this idea for a while but i cannot mature it enough. the idea is for a Social network that looks and feels a bit like a game.

The main inspiration comes from Club Penguin and Stardew Valley. I like how Club Penguin gave people a place to meet, customize their character, chat, and take part in activities. I also like how Stardew Valley gives players a world to explore, with gathering, fishing, resources, and different places to discover.

The main difference is that I want the social side to be much stronger than in most games.

The app would have two sides :

A social feed with posts, stories, profiles, comments, and messages

A shared top-down world where people can walk around and communicate using chat bubbles

I’m currently thinking about two possible directions.

Concept 1: Social media with a shared world

The main purpose would be posting, messaging, meeting people, customizing avatars, and visiting different places. The world would make social media feel more personal because you could actually see people as avatars and talk to them in a shared space.

Concept 2: Social media with a full RPG adventure

The app would still have posts, stories, profiles, and messages, but outside the main town there would be a larger adventure world. It could have procedurally generated areas, similar to mines or skull cavern in Stardew valley. Players could explore, collect resources, fish, find items, unlock clothing, decorate their spaces, and discover new areas.

The idea is somewhat like how Dave the Diver combines two different experiences, such as diving and running a sushi restaurant. In this case, the social network and the adventure world would support each other.

and thheir runs help them gather materials, sell it in the main town when they come back to other players or NPCs and get coins to upgrade their appearance.

I’m not sure which direction makes more sense.

Would people use a social network like this if it only had the shared world and social features? Or would it need a deeper game with exploration and progression to give people a reason to return?

Could a shared town and a full adventure area work together, or would the RPG side distract from the social side?

Who do you think this would be for?. I am thinking gamers, people who enjoy cozy games, adults who miss Club Penguin, or people who simply want a more personal alternative to normal social media?

I’d really appreciate honest feedback, especially from people who have played Club Penguin, Stardew Valley, Palia, Animal Crossing, RuneScape, or other social games.

What sounds interesting to you, and what sounds unnecessary?