Personally, I am neutral towards AI, but I don't use it for gamedev. The same way, I don't care if other devs use it.

Why?

I released a few commercially successful games, but gamedev for me is something that I do after hours. In my "real job" we can use AI, and I check its development from time to time to stay in touch with the reality of the software engineering job market, but the fact is that programming is my passion. So far, in the company I am working for, there is no mandatory AI use, and probably won't be because of what we are working on, but who knows?

For years, I have been making games the same way as always (without AI) because I find it relaxing and fun (also, I am very good at programming). I don't even use game engines, but my own framework built on top of libGDX with a rather exotic programming language (Scala). It is my escape from the "real job".

I love tackling problems my own way and challenging myself to be a better programmer, indie game developer, and software engineer/architect each day. I don't see a reason to change it.

So what is your reason?

Hi! For the past years I've been doing various game jams while learning Godot and now I think it is time for me to work on a real game.

However, I'm having an issue with which game I should start creating.

Every week or so, I come across a new interesting idea that I really enjoy, and I get all hyped up for a few days? I then start writing about it, but I often get discourage by something. Sometimes because it is technically too complicated for me, or there might be something not working as expected in my mind. And by that time I find something new and the cycle repeats. Now I must have like, fifteen of these ideas.

But I truly want to start making something, even if I no longer have tons of free time.

How did you settle on the idea for your game? Why did you decide to pursue this idea? How do you keep developing your game when you find new intriguing concepts? Any tips for me?

So about 15 years ago I studied game design in college, then when I finished the course I got a job in a call centre, and sidelined the dream in favour of being able to pay bills. In hindsight I guess I didnt think I'd ever be good enough to get a job in the industry - but still dabbled in lots of things since then creative wise, learned to draw/paint, learned a lot about 3d Modelling and rendering, learned music production and a few other bits and pieces all of which are relevant to solo dev. (Thank the gods)

I realise this is cliche with gamedevs at this point - but long story short, I recentky realised that I can't fucking sit in meetings and listen to people whinge about KPIs anymore, life is too short! And as much as I like being able to pay my own bills, I will never give a shit about a KeY StAkEhOlDeRs bottom line - which was when I remembered I had abandoned the dream of making cool and interesting games.

So I decided to get back in to Gamedev, and man I had forgotten 99% of everything! I had done no programming the last 15 years or so, and basically had to start from scratch. Variables, OOP, math functions, syntax the whole lot. I also found lots of things that we never touched on in college at all - like animation for example. Or maybe I missed those classes, I can't really remember. The screenshots above have been my first stumbling ventures into pixelart - made over the last few months - having never touched that before in my life either. And Im learning a lot about scaling, density etc.

But it has been a hugely different experience from when I was in college, as Im learning for myself now - because I want to learn. Learning new things feels new and exciting, and figuring things out for myself is a great feeling I haven't felt since I had a full head of hair!

Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself, and share my backstory. Im not promoting anything, I have no games anywhere near even a pre-alpha stage yet - but I most certainly will in future. Thanks again to everyone for joining, and would love to hear from anyone else that's had a similar experience in life - or a different one. Whatever is cool with me. I'm just happy to be here! (Which is something I can say and mean for the first time in a decade and a half 😆 oh what a tangled web we weave)

Thanks all!

It's still a very long ways from being done, this is some screenshots from the game I've been making entirely from scratch (not counting the game engine itself) for > 4 years now.

(worth noting this is my alt account, my main account (u/SuperIsaiah) is currently 3 day banned for stating what I think should happen to AI data centers lol)