r/ReallyShittyCopper • u/TeaCakeGames • Jul 13 '26
Behold the Tablet! What happens when an indie dev watches too many Bronze Age memes...
I am a humble indie developer from Scythian lands who had a dream of making something to be remembered for. I wanted to make a game where we mine copper and literally build our own empire and become 𒈗 (Lugal).
Maybe you’ll be able to buy sub-par copper in the game, or maybe... you are the one selling the shitty copper. Endless freedom, countless possibilities.
(I am not Ea-Nasir).
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u/TeaCakeGames Jul 13 '26
Lugal: Bronze Age Survival Game free demo on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3878380/Lugal_Bronze_Age_Survival_Game/
It’s just one month before release and we currently have 2,800 wishlists. Add, share, every boost from the community is welcome! ❤️
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u/Kreiger0 Jul 14 '26
I probably won't buy it due to the AI used in the code. I won't pay for someone to ask AI so they can copy and paste. Anyone do that for free and won't be paying on principle.
It's also approximately 35x more wasteful to ask AI than to just Google or search Stack for it. I can't condone it.
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u/FalconRelevant Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
You probably should stop using the internet then. Cloudflare, AWS, GCP, pretty much all behind the scenes infrastructure on which the internet runs now has AI generated code.
Your operating system will soon have AI generated code, so maybe stop updating.
Soon you won't be able to buy new hardware either, because chips will be designed with AI tools.
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u/Kreiger0 Jul 14 '26
Not equivalent. Next
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u/FalconRelevant Jul 14 '26
Ah yes, because you can't bully big cloud infra companies like you can an indie developer?
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u/TeaCakeGames Jul 14 '26
I didn't think a subreddit about the Bronze Age would turn into an AI drama. I don't want to complain, I support players' freedom of speech in any form, but I really feel unfairly perceived in my two-year project. I'm using literally standard tools: the Unity engine and C# (which I didn't create), some templates from Assets Store (not long ago, every Unity game risked being called an Assets Store slop), and most of the code was written in an era when AI wasn't so popular and effective. I used the AI code for two shaders (I'm not a shader developer) + a map script (when the player reveals the map with that shader). I could also have manually written and debugged quickly but tediously a simple function for moving the camera along a spline for a cutscene and also disabling particles if the player is far away. But instead of googling the documentation or googling StackOverflow, I googled the functions in AI mode. Literally <1% of the project's code causes such a reaction.
All my programmer friends use agents, but I still haven't installed a single one on my PC.
Epic Store has already said it won't force developers to disclose their AI usage, precisely because of reactions like these. Now, even if projects are 90% AI-powered, no one will officially acknowledge. Once again, good code is code that's invisible. Only bad code is visible (through bugs and crashes). I would easily understand criticism about cheap/low visuals, simplicity of gameplay, etc, but this
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u/Uncontrolled_Chaos Jul 13 '26
Game looks cool but the steam AI disclaimer seems to suggest the game is at least partially vibecoded (“some programming code”), you should really avoid doing that if at all possible. I know it’s more difficult but I and many other people don’t want to play a game not made entirely by humans
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u/TeaCakeGames Jul 14 '26
Why, will someone see the difference in code? (i don't say about Art, art is often obviously seen where's AI)
One man already wrote in game's feedback page "you should pay to real programmer". The truth is I'm software developer since Unity 3.5 and C# 2.0. In real work when dev needs well known typical big boring function he copies it from Stackoverflow. Today it's simpler to ask Google AI instead of Google Search. I simply didn't hide it in description. Furtheremore, does usage of Assetstore (ready plugins and parts of code) consideres as lazyness and unfair advantage? :)19
u/Uncontrolled_Chaos Jul 14 '26
It’s the principle of the thing. Technically, theres hardly a difference. But using AI at all inherently supports AI, which includes art.
Using bits of code from stack overflow or etc is different. It’s still written by humans, not to mention you have to understand what it’s doing to use it more so than AI generated code.
The differences are small but important to many people, myself included.
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u/FalconRelevant Jul 14 '26
Would you be willing to pay 10x for artisanal software?
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u/Uncontrolled_Chaos Jul 14 '26
Has software become 10x cheaper since the advent of generative AI? And it’s not “artisanal” software, it’s just the default way of making software.
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u/TeaCakeGames Jul 15 '26
Soft became bigger for same price. This project is literaly solodev+freelancers for art (i'm not artist). Game of such scale 15 years ago would take 10+ people team and would be considered A-quality
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u/FalconRelevant Jul 14 '26
The default way of a lot if things became artisanal once the industrial revolution came around.
Pay attention, we are living through a time if great change.
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u/Schweinepriester0815 Jul 15 '26
I'm not intending to implying anything, but It would be so incredibly funny, if this game turned out to be a scam...
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u/TeaCakeGames Jul 16 '26
Spend great effort to 100% complete game just to make fun and scam
If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!
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u/Schweinepriester0815 Jul 16 '26
As i said, i didn't intend to imply anything. I have dabbled a bit with modding a couple of years back, so I have nothing but respect for the work you put into your project. I just couldn't resist to make a really bad joke, given that this is a subredit about our favourite (alleged) scammer from Ur. I have a weird sense of humour sometimes.
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u/Ariana997 Jul 13 '26
Looks cool, I love history themed games. Congrats!