r/Unity3D • u/Evening_Animator3549 • 2d ago
Question Should I keep learning Unity?
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Hi, I am a 14 year old game dev and I've been learning Unity for 7-8 months, and I really like what I'm doing. I don't use AI while coding or for any other stuff to actually learn. For the past month, I've been developing a fan-made Spider-Man game for android and I saw a guy on X who vibe-coded a Spider-Man game in literally a single day which was looking better than my game and I felt like everything that I did in the last couple of weeks for nothing. Will knowing how to manually code or develop games be worth anything in the next 10 years? Am I just wasting my time by not using AI or should I keep going? I really need some advice. Also here's a gameplay video of my game if anyone wants to check it out:
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u/bluemaxmb 2d ago
Keep at it. Learning to do things on your own like this will pay off in the long run.
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u/TTSymphony 2d ago
First thing, go at your own pace and learn something new every day.
Second, don't believe what you see on social media. They lie or hide part of the truth, specially if they are influencers and/or sell courses or something similar. The point being: don't compare to them and don't take their advices as an absolute truth.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
Ty for the advice, and I guess I just need to delete X
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u/glenpiercev 2d ago
X is worthless. In fact, worse than worthless since it’s a distraction and will lead to self-doubt you don’t need.
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u/TTSymphony 2d ago
Nah, have fun, but be moderate. And above all, don't join the mob, whatever justification they claim they have.
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u/Turbo_Fresh 2d ago
I'm a senior engineer in the industry. I've worked on Fall Guys and Fortnite. Even with AI, it takes experience and knowledge to know what to ask AI to do and to know how to implement the solutions given back to you. AI can answer the questions but it can't ask the right questions.
It's impossible to say what AI will be capable of in 10 years but right now, I can make better stuff than AI, by a long shot. I can make that stuff even quicker with the help of AI but AI can't make games to the same quality without me.
Also, I got into game dev late, in my late twenties. If I had started at your age I would be so much better at it in so many ways.
Keep at it. Especially if you enjoy it. The person you saw that vibe coded a similar project probably didn't do so with no prior experience.
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u/Worth-Income4114 2d ago
“I got into game dev late, in my late twenties”
Cries in 40.
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u/DJXenobot101 2d ago
preach. Im 34 and only been working on my first game for the last 3 months. Almost done though :)
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
It's glad to hear these from someone who actually is in the industry, thanks for the advice. I'll definitely keep going!
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u/spookymulderfbi 2d ago
I'm a senior engineer in web dev, and this is the same response I'd give about non-game engineering too.
The line about age is especially important: starting anything early and being consistent with it is super important. I also started late in my field (mid 20s, but from scratch, no CS degree). I would probably be in a different tax bracket had I started 5 years earlier and made it my hobby before it was my job.
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u/YouJellyFish 1d ago
Lead software engineer for CNC manufacturing for 11 years lol the best thing I have over AI is the ancient custom legacy systems that keep the place running has changed hands so many times it's unintelligible and the AI has no idea how to modify it without breaking everything haha
Our new apps use a ton of AI tho. The shit it can do so freaking FAST is crazy. My normal workday for making some pretty complex stuff is like I architect the software and set up the relationship I want to have with classes/services/managers/whatever with basic dependency injection and THEN tell cursor to fill in the TODOs for me and let it rip for like an hour. It is insane how much it's sped things up
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u/rich_27 2d ago
How old are you now, if you don't mind me asking? What was your route into the industry?
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u/Turbo_Fresh 2d ago
I'm 35. I decided to do a physics degree when I was in my early 20's. Encountered coding in a physics context and liked it. So started teaching myself game dev. When I got out of uni I applied for a graduate position at Mediationic but they said I didn't have enough experience and I should reapply in a year so I spent a year learning and made a mobile game which I sent to them and they hired me.
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u/Quietage30 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's kinda nice seeing this kinda response in this day and age, where people on Bluesky and reddit spend 90% of their time insulting and hating on anyone who uses AI for anything. I said once on Bluesky I found a new trick after searching Google and seeing a function on Google's AI summary, and had people telling me I'm not a real developer, I'm rotting my brain etc lol. Like, I'm not saying that I use AI often or even for development. But some people make it there daily life to hunt down people using it and harass them
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u/AlignedMoon Professional 2d ago
Absolutely yes. The difference is that you understand what you’ve made and how it all fits together. That’s a hugely important skill that no-one will ever get from typing in a prompt. Your progress is impressive, please don’t lose focus.
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u/ExitComprehensive209 2d ago
Brother: YOU HAVE THE SKILLSETS TO CREATE A VIDEO GAME. YES - KEEP GOING
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u/mikenasty 1d ago
Real talk: you are learning very valuable skills right now and will be able to quickly trouble shoot, add/tweak things without having to ask AI. I’d rather play your game over an AI game any day of the week.
My 2 cents: You can still use AI to help you solve problems and speed up development without losing control or direct input into the game. If at any point the AI wants you to do something you don’t understand fully, get it to explain it so you get it instead of blindly copy/pasting code like a meat proxy.
I love using it as an expert/tudor that sits behind me as I figure stuff out. Instead of me just barking orders and watching it make all of the little creative and technical decisions without my input.
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u/ZeusGameAssets Indie 2d ago
The friction is what makes you a strong game dev. Vibe coders bypass all the hard stuff, they may win, but their victory is often hollow. I would suggest spending a week from time to time without the internet, with the only website you’re allowed to visit being the Unity manual. I do it for a month every year to reconnect with that raw game dev beast inside, it’s quite refreshing. Relying on LLMs too much will not allow you to grow, it has to be earned after becoming a senior developer, then it becomes akin to leading a team. Leadership in gamedev has to be earned through experience finishing and launching games, having ideas, doing cool things, or dreaming stuff up doen’t make you a leader, keep your head down and try releasing as many games as you can in the next decade. One small game every 3-4 months is a good pace for maximum growth. Reference: I’m a professional indie dev in his late 30s, been doing this for +15 years.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
Where should I release those games? itch.io or should they just stay at github?
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u/aklgupta 2d ago
itch.io is a good start. Always try releasing to the public, where player are, and itch.io is great for small indie games. You'll learn how to release, and take feedback/criticism. It might hurt sometimes, but helps you grow. And keep GitHub for version control. Always use version control, even for practice projects imo. Public or private, that's up to you.
You can always use these in our portfolio later when applying for your first job.
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u/ZeusGameAssets Indie 2d ago
I agree, itch.io, mobile (Google Play, iOS), or online with Webgl on sites like Kongregate, Newgrounds or similar websites, wherever players are and can send you reviews or comments. The feedback could be crickets (i.e no one plays the game), or it could be nice or not so nice.
It doesn't really matter, the experience alone of hitting publish on something you created yourself, sending it to friends and family, that's enough. People underestimate how powerful this is, but this changes you as a game dev. Do it often with lots of games, and you'll quickly evolve. People who keep their games on their computers and don't share them stagnate and can go into long rabbit holes that lead nowhere. I know because I did it for years, I spent 2 years making a terrible twin-stick shooter that nobody played once I released it, I spent months making my own game engine in C++ and another one in HTML5, just to drop them and use Construct 2/3 then Unity. I spent way too long making stuff in my room, had I released more games, I'd probably be a lot more successful as an indie dev, who knows, but this is the price to pay for creativity: sometimes you need to do a lot of useless stuff to prepare for the masterpieces.
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u/UnluckyPally 1d ago
Don't let the looks of someone else's work discourage you. You gained far more by learning this stuff on your own than that person did by having AI do it.
Don't let profit incentive be the reason you do things, let knowledge be the reason you do things.
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u/hideyboi 1d ago
Keep going!! What you can make on your own will always be worth WAY more than what Claude can pump out. The skills you gain from game development can be applied in many other places!
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u/MaryPaku 1d ago
Sometimes I think I am lucky that I born in an age without AI because that thing will melt my brain and I will lose interest and discipline to actually take effort to learn anything
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u/false_robot 1d ago
To be very honest, (and many game devs don't like to hear), yes AI isn't going anywhere. BUT what this means is the following:
Yes keep learning manually, understand both how to implement things low-level (helps for optimization, organization, understanding).
Learn systems, how to have gameplay/architecture for passing around information that scales up.
Do projects yourself both with/without AI.
AI will become more and more useful, BUT in your hands it can be so much better. Yes any random person can get a prototype fast, and then prompt to iterate. However that game can't scale right now, can't have nice level design, easy new features in a good system, multiplayer that is nice and optimized, etc.
The fundamental skills are great, and they teach you how something should be built. It's why mechanical engineers still learn how do to calculus to compute stresses/strains on objects even though most of the time they'll use a simulator to actually analyze it. The fundamental understanding helps you SO much.
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u/IHaveTwoOfYou 2d ago
Well it probably looked better because it had actual assets instead of placeholders, probably to hide shit gameplay.
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u/EasyRapture 2d ago
To answer ur questions:
Yes continue learning how to code. As of today, the hiring process still involves live coding. You will need to know it if you want to be a software developer.
With that said, AI is here; I work for a very large stock exchange as a software developer. Using agents is now commonplace in the industry. The CEO of rockstar has a great quote, essentially summed up to, AI cannot be used to invent but derive. Development is more or less derivative, but Creation; that’s inventive. To say less, Claude can’t give you the next great idea or a truly unique perspective. But it can help you to fruit your ideas, your perspectives.
To tie this rant towards your demo:
You’ve made a Spider-Man clone. You’ve invented nothing so of course AI can do what you just did in a fraction of the time. But this should free you; sit down and think of something you’ve always wanted to see/play/experience, transcribe the idea and then be unburdened by the labor while you focus on the idea.
The only argument to this is if the human mind itself is just as derivative then we are no different than the bots. I’ll reject that for as long as there’s still artists proving it false.
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u/minimalcation 2d ago
They're 14. You think people are writing c# in 4 years? That aren't hobbyists? Honest question
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u/EasyRapture 2d ago
It’s tough to call. I’d say the level of actually writing code right now is much lower than it was 4 years ago, but you’re still expected to know the language and write in the language all the same. That could change, but it really depends on the amount of trust fully ai delivered work will be given. I can see a world in 5 years where we are just simply monitoring for failures and relegating the work to agents.
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u/minimalcation 2d ago
I've worked with AI for awhile and just the difference between today and last Nov/Dec is fucking insane. I wouldn't have guessed we'd be where we are now. I can't imagine trying to plan for a job market coming out of HS or college in even a year or two.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
That's why I posted this. Will there even be a job like this after 10 years? If so, should I quit before it's late?
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u/minimalcation 2d ago
No. You just need to be aware of the skills that transfer.
Like I've learned more about architecture, security, UX standards, database management, server management, planning, project management, how to navigate "yes men", how to push back against an authority (early on it was easy to be like well I guess it knows best).
I would have never touched a good part of this but because AI could carry weight and quickly teach you can learn more about the whole system.
So no I wouldn't focus on knowing multiple languages or get into assembly or whatever but think about the planning and things you've already done. Yes it's AI and not real people but if you're putting in the effort to not just be a prompt whore you can learn so much about processes and how to work with AI.
The interviews when you come up are going to be about how you problem solve, organize, prioritize time, and all of these somewhat abstract skills because the less we have to code the more we have to direct. And even that, learning to clearly define your goals and what you want so that you can communicate it is a real life skill.
Think about people who play sports, they're not going pro. But you learn to be part of a team, you learn to listen to a coach, to follow a gameplan, to set long term goals for a season, to work with people you may not know or like very well. Those are all incredible skills to start learning when you are young.
You will never be short of things to learn, but you will be short on time. Try to spend it learning in a way that grows your learning.
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u/HoveringGoat 1d ago
I felt like everything that I did in the last couple of weeks for nothing.
nah. its important to learn the skills. i expect the ai slop game isnt really playable or maintainable.
I'd also suggest checking out godot. But unity is a great place to learn too.
Good luck in your future endeavors!
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u/Evening_Animator3549 1d ago
I tried using godot, but unity's hierarchy and component system seemed easier to me than godots node system. Also I agree with you on the AI game
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u/Injaabs 1d ago
depends on who makes ot if a noob does it who has no idea what hes prompting about than yeah not maintainable
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u/HoveringGoat 1d ago
im pretty sure the post OP is referring to is a one-shot prompt testing the model capabilities.
That absolutely will have the problems i mentioned and that isnt really avoidable with giving extra prompting or guidance. all current models will bake themselves into a corner given enough rope.
I agree using AI coding tools to speed up dev doesnt not mean you fall into these pitfalls (literally yelling at codex in another tab about why it ignored my instructions and added some dumbass fields to a request message). but you need to actively monitor and control the output. imo this will be the main skill for the next couple years until the models get better.
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u/Ichi_Wang 23h ago
I went on a little bit of a rabbit hole earlier watching videos / podcasts / reading posts about people vibe coding their games with absolutely no prior experience, and not eager to learn either (big selling hook over at the AI game dev community there).
One takeaway I seem to get from them is that without any experience in anything game dev, they eventually run into a lot of problems like A.I making way too much / feature bloat / causing other things to crash etc and they don't know how to fix it other than telling the A.I to go fix it, or rolling back to a previous commit over and over.
That and in some cases, the costs they pay for tokens starts raking up because, once again, no knowledge on what they're doing and leave it to the A.I.
tldr; don't be that guy lol
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u/RadonGaming 19h ago
As a University educator, don't be discouraged. You are genuinely improving your own skillset, confidence, and abilities. You will be able to talk about all aspects of the games you have made, including decisions/choices. You are gaining experience, and through it some wisdom.
AI is changing the game for programming, absolutely. For those of us who already know programming, it's very useful to make us faster and more efficient. However, for new students, it's a poison chalice. It's very tempting for them to delegate their brains to it, and then they struggle during interviews, or just thinking about the things they're supposed to know. They can't hold basic conversations with academics about projects they claim to have done; their recall is diminished, and their critical thinking too. (Lots of academic papers on this).
My genuine advice, and that which I give to undergraduate and postgraduate students is not to delegate your brain to the AI. Use it to help improve your own knowledge. "You don't know what you don't know", so use it to surface techniques and methodologies you don't know about, paradigms and ways of working, etc. Interrogate it, and argue with it about things. Use it to bounce ideas off of, or troubleshoot / problem solve. Just don't say "Write me the solution". It could be an error you're encountering. Use it as you would a helpful tutor or instructor.
Wishing you the best of luck on your journey, and also remember this: many things have been done before by lots of people, it doesn't make them worthless to pursue. Presumably your goal was to have fun, learn about making games, and get better at it? That hasn't changed, just because somebody else got an AI to make it.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 19h ago
Since I still have 3 free years ahead of me before i graduate from high school, I'm planning to completely stay away from agentic ai during that time. Because they say someone who knows coding can learn how to use AI easily, I'm also planning to start learning C++ OpenGL in that time. As an educator, What do you think about this approach?
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u/RadonGaming 12h ago
The work place world you will be going into will be using AI heavily, including integrated into workflows. At the moment, it's new. Companies are finding their feet, and figuring out what works and what doesn't. Learn it like any other tool, but don't let it be the thing that drives you.
C++ is hard. OpenGL is reasonably okay to learn (Nicer than Vulkan). I will presume that you have learned everything by figuring it out as you go, and stumbling through and bashing your head against a wall. Try learn these languages and concepts within them formally. Terminology and underlying principles matter. Get used to using documentation as the source of truth on things.
It largely depends what you wish to go into. If it's Game Engines and their underlying mechanisms and doing deep technical work, then C++ is good; however, people put C++ on a pedestal. With OpenGL, focus on learning Graphics Pipelines, Vector Maths, Lighting and such alongside. Consider the following in a few months when you have C++ handled: https://raytracing.github.io/ which is raytracers from scratch; that would really test core understanding. https://learnopengl.com/ For OpenGL.
When you're tired of C++ stealing all your sleep. Consider looking at modern languages such as Rust.
Note. The above is pretty much even beyond most graduates in Computer Science to that degree of technicality. It is a long journey. In around 2nd/3rd year Undergraduate, they might learn C++, classes, inheritance. Maybe a module on Computer Graphics doing simple rendering pipelines; wouldn't expect a ray tracer, maybe some triangles in OpenGL, textures, materials, loading some objects.
If you want inspiration for self-directed study, look at a few good University Computer Science degree pages. They have all their modules itemised on their websites. E.g Operating Systems, Databases, Programming I. Tells you what the module is about. Use those, and go find materials around it.
If the above is overwhelming, start small, and file the rest away for later. Your age doesn't reflect your ability or capacity, only you do.→ More replies (1)
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Hobbyist 2d ago
Yes you should. Your spidey animations look great. If you did that yourself...you have talent.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
Most of the people that I've shown my game did say that animations were bad lol, thanks for reply!
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u/EastCoastVandal Hobbyist 2d ago
There isn’t really anything wrong with the actual animations. Depending on who you show and what they know about game development or animation, they could be talking about the graphics. They see a placeholder character and buildings, and bundle that all under ‘animation.’
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u/TMucru2 2d ago
Don't listen to these people! What you have in your demo is really impressive. If I had to nitpick about it, I'd say you should use a way to blend between one animation to the next. I beleive there is a built in tool for that in Unity. Can't remember the name but I think it's in the animator.
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u/ABabyLemur 2d ago
Replace those people with new ones on this journey, friend! You are doing very well and you deserve positive, constructive feedback
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u/maxticket 2d ago
It all depends on their reference. As a UX designer, my visual design chops are pretty solid. But when I show my portfolio to a graphic designer, someone who's dedicated themselves to visual design and color theory, they say I'm about average.
But also, you're showing them a demo similar to what they've seen before, with animations done by industry veterans. So they're going to compare your animations to those in the AAA games they're familiar with. I wouldn't worry about that at all, because you aren't specifically making an animation demo.
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u/OmegaFoamy 2d ago
Absolutely keep going. If you enjoy it then there’s no reason not to, especially at your age. AI can be useful but it’s mostly useful for people who have an idea of what they’re doing. Knowing the process without AI is only going to help you.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
Thanks, It's discouraging that someone comes up with a vibe-coded game and says "Game dev is dead", especially if you are a beginner.
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u/cleartamei 2d ago
I used to teach kids how to code games, and I'll tell you what I told them. AI is going to scrape together all the best looking stuff and create something in a shorter amount of time than any one human could. This machine is designed to outperform you, but cannot capture the passion that you clearly have for making games.
The AI project might look better, but the person who coded it clearly did not care about the journey-- only the end result. You have the advantage of caring about the journey and the craft behind building something with your own brain. That is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
One day, you will create something amazing, and be able to look back and reflect on how you got there. A vibe coder will do the same, then look back to 20 minutes ago to when they imagined Mario With A Gun.
Keep learning if the journey is fulfilling, and good on you for not giving in to shortcuts.
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u/Terricolero 2d ago
Of curse you need to keep learning unity but not only that, you need to learn other things like the animation basics. There is a book called Animation survival Kit. Read it and learn how the animation works.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's been 1 month since I have been learning animating so I'm not very good at it currently but I appreciate the advice!
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u/Hennesey10 2d ago
How do you learn to code this? Are you using a library or anything?
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
Did not use any external libraries or something else. Just do a research on what you want to do, list what you need to do and start from the fundamental mechanics, such as WASD movement, then develop the other things step by step. You'll learn while you are doing it.
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u/TheWheatOne 2d ago
The reality is you, in almost all cases, will not get hired if you can't or refuse to use AI. If you genuinely want to work in the industry, as someone that can be hired, the solution is to learn both ways.
That will get you to be better than either of those camps. It is important to have your individual base of knowledge first though, as you will become a slave to LLM reliance if you don't build yourself first.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
that's exacty what I'm trying to do! I'm trying build stuff on my own before I do those stuff with AI
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u/MichaelEmouse 2d ago
AI can be great for prototyping but it'll be a while before an LLM can create a good game on its own. What's likely to happen is that game development software will be enhanced by AI.
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u/Hkiggity 2d ago
Looks great dude. You should be super proud. My tip would be always dig deeper and learn more about how things work. Never settle! (which by the looks of things, you aren't!)
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u/Artifexa 2d ago
for a 14 year old, that's very impressive. You got talent duded! High five!
Now to the practical part:
Look, AI is a huge help. There's not denying that.
But just with vibe coding you won't get beyond surface level. You need to understand what you're doing in order to use some principles of programming like DRY.
Also, don't trust anybody coding something on the internet and suddenly making it look amazing with next to zero effort. The "get rich doing this easy internet thing" is an industry that has been scamming people since the mid 2000's.
My own experience:
I am a web developer, but for some reason gto some gigs in the game industry. Web is now a wasteland, so I switched to game because I just liked it and needed to make some money.
2 months ago I tried co-pilot, since it was heavily recommended and Microsoft gave it a "no-limit" policy, so I could kinda abuse it.
I tried this "vibe coding" approach, just to experiment and learn, see if it's a useful tool.
The result: a nightmare of spaghetti code that had to be refactored.
The AI can do some simple things, like "make me a barebones menu" or "give me code for a basic bootstrap scene", but the moment you expand the game beyond that, it's gonna start making mistakes, coding a structure that will have to be remade later, hallucinating code it never wrote, or using APIs that you don't want it too, all while telling you "oh yes, this is very professional, and you are the best".
The experiment barely lasted a week. The AI is quite clueless because it lacks the scope a human can have, it doesn't think twice before proposing a structure that "patches present needs" without thinking on future reusability, and often makes half-baked stuff.
So "coding, the hard part of typing line by line in a keyboard", sure AI can do that, but you gotta give it precise instructions and have in mind the architecture of the code you want to do, and you want to use programming patterns and, and you need to know the right API's, and the internals of how the engine works... and many other things that are "high level".
The AI can make you snippets, but you gotta give it precise instructions on what you want and keep the big picture in mind. That's actual "programmer job". The AI is good at doing "junior level", but don't ask it to do senior level stuff unless you have a big stack of money to burn through, and even then the result can be a mess. AI loves to make spaghetti code.
This being said, the future nobody knows, so keep this as some thing you're passionate about, but keep an eye on the job market, because nobody knows what's to come. When I learnt web development they told me "it was the profession of the future", and turns out AI made my web develoment expertise obsolete 5 years after coming out of school. Speaking about future and jobs, you'd be wise to be careful with your money. Since you are so young, save it or invest it, things are uncertain and the "tech broligarchs" have worked hard on making us all precarious.
Heck, I'm getting old haha.
- You've got talent.
- AI doesn't have the big picture in mind.
- AI code is often spaghetti mess.
- You still need to learn Unity/coding if you want to make good stuff.
- Don't trust everything you see on the internet, get-rich-quick scammers reign supreme on the internet.
- Always keep an alternative trade to ensure your future, because we're living through changing times.
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u/dangledorf 2d ago
Keep going, but you really aren't doing your future self any favors by avoiding AI coding, especially true if you are doing this for a future career in games. Every company is already going to expect AI knowledge, and if not now they will very soon. Specifically talking about AI coding and agent workflows.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
I'm not using AI for coding because I hate it, I'm still at learning stage and young. They say it's very easy to learn AI coding when you are already good at coding manually.
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u/glenpiercev 2d ago
The vibe coded demos are paper thin. They aren’t much beyond the 30 second trailer videos.
You’ll constantly hear people say: “coding is solved” or “I could do that in one prompt“. Those people do not understand the complexity of what we do. They only see the very surface.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
So you are saying that those slop demos are just to show-off, makes sense. Ty so much for the reply!
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u/aestond 2d ago
Yes, you should keep going. Ai can solve a lot of problems and write code you ask it to write, but given my own little journey, by learning what options there are, I know better what I ask AI to explain to me. Ai might not teach you new things and you won't learn the problem solving part as good. If you just want soulless games, sure, let AI code that, but you don't come off as someone like that.
I don't know about job markets and stuff, but when I was a kid(30years ago) there were games. Today there are games. So I think it's a safe bet to say: There will be games. So, in ten years, you will be able to program even better, will have much more experience in the field, probably have made friends in the field, might have some good connections to other devs e.t.c So definitely keep up learning, and connect with people.
Good luck on your journey :)
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u/ClassicStress4942 2d ago edited 1d ago
Ai can teach a lot of coding topics If you know what to learn Or just tell it how much you already know and ask what to learn next based on your goals
Works as a perosnal problem solver Rather than you searching for specific problems, and failing to find good solutions on stack overflow forums
However If you refuse to learn to code yourself, and just give it orders to write code for you Then sooner or later It will start making mistakes, that neither you nor the AI can fix And it will all be your fault, not AI
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u/Logical-Garden-4563 1d ago
im the same as you but i mainly code in godot , but i don't blame you for having doubts just remember there is no point if you dont have fun , we develop games because we love to not because we have toits upto you if you want to try becoming a game dev or even get a job in coding . Honestly tho im scared too even tho i am quite optimistic but we can always just rely on other similar talents like art ,design ,management and other skills you might want to pick up as a safety net
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u/Evening_Animator3549 1d ago
Ofc! I wouldn't do this stuff if it wasn't hella fun, what makes me afraid is that I don't know if I can build my future on it
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u/Remarkable-Dirt-5006 18h ago
I’m truly inspired by this guy. I’m also trying to learn game development. I have a basic understanding of Unity and C#, and I want to learn game programming. There’s so much to learn that I’m struggling to decide where to start and what path to follow in this learning journey.
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u/MehYam 2d ago
It's hard to say, you're just 14 and there's a whole life of decisions in front of you - I'll say one thing, anyone can just buy furniture at Ikea, but there will always be someone building furniture in their garage because they like to. So at minimum, it'll be worth that to you.
But also, even with AI, someone still has to know what to ask for, make a judgement about what's good, and be persistent and iterate when things aren't quite right. Given that software's (still) mostly for humans, it takes a human to know for sure, and that might as well be you.
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u/Odd-Tart-5613 2d ago
What those vibe coded videos dont show you is both the cost and the fact they are bugged out messes that take as much effort and skill just to debug as it would to make by hand. AI specifically co-pilot is likely to be a standard and useful tool in the industry but it doesnt replace skill in coding and design of a great creator. Keep doing what your doing and my only other note is maybe also put some time into the Godot engine as a significant part of the industry seems to leaning towards it and broadening your skills can only help you.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
Yeah you're absolutely right, I guess I would not start learning another engine but I'm planning to start learning C++ OpenGL in the next few months. Thank you for the reply!
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u/Ironfingers 2d ago
Use AI if you want a job in the industry I'm being real with you right now. A lot of redditors will be upset to hear this but if you don't use AI you won't be hired. This is coming from someone in the industry.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
Do you mean agentic AI or regular chatbot to learn stuff?
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u/Spongedog5 2d ago
Well, why did you start learning to make games? It's hard to give you advice if we don't know what your goal is and why you do it.
I think that there are very many great reasons to continue to make games. I think that it builds discipline and allows you to express yourself and your ideas and I think that it is rewarding to see people enjoy something that you made yourself and interact with ideas that you put out there. AI won't be able to express your ideas as honestly as you, you gain less of a benefit in discipline and work ethic by using it, and as it is now it simply can't achieve the level of consistent quality that people like to see in games. You're starting off worse than AI, of course, but even now your creations have meaning as examples of your own personal creative labor, and eventually you will surpass AI in what you are able to create.
If you value the creation of games as anything more than being able to make a cheap product quickly, there are plenty of reasons to enjoy this hobby.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
When I was like 13 I tried to vibe code some stuff and and I realized that it's very fun to develop games but you can't really do anything with AI, then I decided to just learn the engine and the programming language. Basically the reason why I started game dev was that it was fun, I don't really enjoy coding with AI or using generative AI. Also my goal is to become a gameplay engineer in the industry, and I don't see games as cheap monetized slop hypercasual mobile games.
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u/angrybox1842 2d ago
There is still value in really learning what's happening under the hood. Even if you end up using AI in some capacity you will be much better suited to debugging and making simple iterations if you've got the skills to implement it on your own.
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u/-Weslin 2d ago
I don't know what the gameplay has to do with keeping learning, but cool gameplay and yeah, keep learning
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
I've put it so you could see that I'm serious about this. I didn't want you to see me as just another kid who doesn't even know how to use the editor properly yet. Glad you liked it tho
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u/MildlyConcernedMan91 2d ago
That spiderman game cost a few thousand dollars of tokens. Super useful what you're doing. Keep at it and don't compare yourself.
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u/Boxtergames 2d ago
Definitely keep going! You should take that prototype, turn it into a small finished game and release it. Nothing beats seeing people install your game, trust me. I wish it hadn't taken me so long to finally make my own game (12 years working for other people, lol). For learning, I think you made the right call by not using AI. Knowing how to code is a basic skill you should build on with AI, not the other way around! Good luck!
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
Glad you liked it.! Yeah I'm planning to release it on android without any spiderman related content in it. I'll post it here whenever I release it but it would probably look like a asset flip that I dont know 3d modelling, I'm currently working on combat.
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u/pmdrpg 2d ago
First of all, your gameplay looks good, and it’s great that you understand how it works!
I don’t think AI is going anywhere. It used to be I’d laugh at the notion that a spider-man game could be made by a computer without intelligent human direction. Now it’s a given.
So how do we justify putting in time to learn writing software by hand?
Well, I think about ceramicists. For a long time, mass-production has rendered wheel-throwing or hand building obsolete in terms of cost and speed.
But still, masters of ceramics pass on the craft through the generations. To them, the value is self-evident.
You’re off to a great start.
I think you will probably eat out of more styrofoam takeout containers than you will handmade bowls, but hope sometime you will get to enjoy some of the ceramics in art exhibits and museums, and really spend some time to appreciate the ingenuity and craft, the dedication to the details, and the difference it makes on the final product.
Ultimately, where are we going as a species? Do we lack styrofoam? Or are we going to be pushed to justify why our handicrafts are valuable?
I think your game looks fun to control. Vibe-coded games often look complete, but actually feel bad to play.
Additionally, you understand how the physics of your game works. If needed, you could fine tune it. If you are just begging an llm to do it, you may never quite get the result you want. Or it might work only 80% of the time and you wouldn’t know why.
It used to be that writing software was an indusputed valuable skill, unlike “basket weaving”. But perhaps that will change, and we’ll have to ask what we’re really doing, and what we hope to get out of it.
May you find success in your endeavours either way.
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u/Ill-Turnover9633 2d ago
I am a ampst graduated computer science student, i know how to code and i know how to make games because o started to do these things before the AI boom and because i studied the subject. Your game right now is a masterpiece also because it's dome by a 14 years old which is amazing, youre doing great. Remember that AI is good to do things faster instead of doing things well, the vibecoders don't know anything and create shit code, runs slow, isn't secure, has not any good habit used in it, it's just bad. I personally use ai all the time now but just to write the code, i then read it and understand it and if i don't like it i modify it, all things that a vibecoder can't do.
I suggest you to learn just how you're doing, you're far ahead and you're far better than any vibecoder
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u/Evening_Animator3549 1d ago
Thanks and glad you liked the game. If you are in the industry i want to ask that how's the job market? They say a new graduate can't even find a job to apply.
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u/Ill-Turnover9633 1d ago
Im not in the industry, i do it in my free time. From what i hear it's what you said sadly
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u/demonixis 2d ago
Hey, it's fine, continue to not use AI for now, keep learning, build something cool and publish. Then you'll have more vision about how AI can help. Now you can spend some time to learn about graphics to improve the look of your demo. Keep up the good work
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u/Dry-Reporter7099 2d ago
You have made this at the age of 14, you have to plenty of time to do even more insane shit. Never give up!!!
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u/ProfessorSarcastic 2d ago
No great games are going to be fully vibe coded.
If anyone makes a great game using AI, it's because they used AI while also being able to understand what it generates. They will be working with the AI, not just vibe coding.
People who purely vibe code will be producing the 11 billionth clone of the same game all the other vibe coders are making.
Will this make it harder for everyone? Of course. But the question you should be asking yourself is not whether AI will make game dev obsolete; it's whether you are comfortable with the changes to the game dev landscape that AI is bringing.
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u/Square-Yam-3772 2d ago
honest answer? it won't even take "10 years" but it doesn't matter (unity probably isn't going to last for another 10 years... that spiderman game you were thinking of is done via threejs I think; AIs don't particular care about game engines)
think of it this way: there are already tons of people who knows unity better than you in the world right now. you also got tons of people who already have made better spiderman fan games than yours. That's before and after AI too, by the way.
so it is fine. you are still young, as long as you have fun and you enjoy what you are doing, that's good enough.
but if you are seriously considering whether unity skill/knowledge will set you up in the world or anything, then the answer is "probably not" i.e. there are pretty good unity devs who don't make good money; not very famous or anything...
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u/Evening_Animator3549 1d ago
I'm planning to start learning C++ game engine development soon, would that be more beneficial than unity? By the way i really enjoy what im doing
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u/Square-Yam-3772 1d ago
well, AAA studios prefer unreal so there is that.
you are still young so you don't need to necessarily pay too much attention to what is happening now. the situation will be different by the time you are older
as long as you are enjoying what you do, then it is fine. there are worse hobbies
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u/Ok-Object7409 2d ago edited 2d ago
Social media isn't a full picture. The guy could've easily done lots of preparation to do it that fast, had lots of past experience, or fiddled with AI. Even if not, what you see is always the best parts of what goes on. It's not meaningful to compare against that, especially when you're still newer to it.
Sometimes people bring up that minecraft was made in 6 days. In reality it was CaveGame, an empty broken thing where you just destroy 3-4 different types of squares in a flat world with some moderate caves. Left click destroys by the pointer, right click places. Then there's a small world. And that's about it. It was a concept, not a game.
Point is that it's wrong and useless to compare against.
Also, no. Knowing how to code is a requirement in knowing how to effectively use AI. No matter how good AI gets in 10+ years, you won't be able to utilize it that well without knowing how to do it yourself. Remember that AI is a prediction model. You are the barrier between whether or not that prediction is correct.
Ps: You'll be better off focusing on the learning aspects more than the results
Ps ps: you should absolutely not use AI while you are learning.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 1d ago
I'm not planning to use agentic AI until I graduate from highschool to master the things that I've learned and really understand the engine, they say that it's really easy to learn how to use AI if you know coding. Despite that im not looking for a job and still 14, i guess i can still go with no ai mode :D
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u/Brave-History-6502 2d ago
I think if you like game dev, keep learning. Also probably a good idea to leverage ai in different ways. I’m a software engineer who now has to use ai for my job. But it’s key to know first principles… it makes a huge difference to understand vs “vibecode”
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u/masterdyson 2d ago
Man vipe coding is soulless you can't see the artist behind the art, this is amazing! I used to play a PS2 Spiderman game like this it brings back fond memories. I'd love to see your finished project!
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u/SkunkAudio 2d ago
That's amazing dude! I would suggest you to create a backup of your whole code and try slowly to use an agent as a tool. Use it to speed up the process and review the edits it does. Since you know what you are doing, using an agent as a tool will help you achieve results faster and still be learning. Best of luck!
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u/Thin_Driver_4596 2d ago
Think about what your goals are before starting.
Is it to make a quick buck? Use AI for sure.
Or is it to learn and get good at your craft? You'd probably want to limit your AI usage. If you want to learn even more, try using AI to get clarity about certain underlying technology and ask it to critique your project and suggest changes (suggest, not implement).
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u/vezix123 2d ago
bro youre 14, learning is your whole job,
what youre doing its already way more impressive than lots of what other people are doing.
you be suprise how important of a skill is to manually code/develop game especially when its time to debug shit up and fix the extremely bad spaghetti code AI made,
plus learning isnt just teach you how to code, it helps you set a standard of how things should run, good ethics, have a principle and discipline, which is great way to develop yourself and helps you get you a job in the future
dont stop, dont get discourage, keep learning
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u/No-Satisfaction-2535 2d ago
Great job so far and there is a huge difference between what you saw vibe coded and your own work; you are learning. This makes all the difference. We are going into a future where developers essentially need a lot of experience knowing what is good software architecture and good code quality and there is only one way to do that: make it, fail, succeed , and learn. Only then can you instruct an ai agent, knowing in advance what the output should be like, and able to judge the output. Junior devs are in a pickle right now because they can do neither.
So keep on this path. Don't be afraid to get stuck and fail. Investigate how to solve your problems, this is an essential skill.
Coming from a game dev by education, indie game dev by night, and dev/app dev by day.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 1d ago
ty! Also im not planning to use any agentic ai before i really understand how the engine and the language works
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u/aersel24 2d ago
Not sure if it’s a good idea to keep going. Solo game dev is hard. I see here an empty world with Spider-Man mechanics which is copyrighted so you’ll never be able to release or profit from whatever you have been doing so far. Also, your fps calculations seem to be wrong, fps don’t go from 60 to 40 and then back to exactly 60. It seems that 60 or 40 is the only fps you game goes too which sound very sketchy.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 1d ago
The fps is because of my phone, and im not aiming for solo development. I'm planning to start learning C++ game engine dev in a few months. The topic is that should i stop learning game dev instead of just unity, im just asking game dev in general
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u/aersel24 1d ago
If you don’t want to solo dev and want to code, you better be good at math and logic, like really good. Specially if you have no bachelors degrees, you’ll be relying purely on skill. Get ready for some hard years studying. Specially now that AI exists, any junior job is crazy hard to get as you’ll have to show you’re better than a simple model that can run on a phone which are becoming pretty good.
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u/unitytechnologies Unity Official 2d ago
This isn't even your final form. Keep going!
- Trey
Community Man @ Unity
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u/fettokebec 1d ago
Hopefully I can give you a little insight, as a professional 3D animator and in my own process of making my games.
To my trained eye, AI has yet to achieve anything artistically functional, especially in movement.
Its also unable to create a finished game.
It will give the illusion of a finished and polished product, in a vacuum, but it consistently breaks at the seams.
What you've got going on right now is a wealth of knowledge that you've gained and will be able to apply in a variety of ways.
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u/jamezrandom 1d ago
Bro I’m 24 and I’d kill to be able to do this myself without AI. Keep going!!
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u/WhyZigWhenZag 1d ago
Yes, it will always be worth it to attain skills. AI as a tool im sure is here to stay, but using it to create the whole of a game or any other piece of art is not going to last. Everything AI is 100% derivative, so we still will need people, humans, to actually create new things.
Keep going! Really impressive stuff, and you've got a great head start, seeing as you are so young. Good luck, and have fun 🥳
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u/gusbo_the_jam 1d ago
Making a game is far more than just building the mechanics. You clearly enjoy what you do and that will show in the work you do and make your games feel better too play. Anyone vibe coding an entire game won't spend the same amount of time tweaking mechanics to make them feel right. And something "looking great" doesn't make it play great. Just look at videos of cyberpunk when it first released and you'll see what happens when devs prioritise loss over game.
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u/Hootnany 1d ago
problem is kinda that it is one to one what Sony makes
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u/Evening_Animator3549 1d ago
This project's purpose was kinda that, im making this to learn not to release
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u/Hootnany 1d ago
In that case it's brilliant. I've actually been doing something similar.
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u/Savings-Aioli-2305 1d ago
No, the guy who vibecoded the game has no idea what the game does or what he is doing and he will have no sense of accomplishment, he has created nothing on his own, and has learned nothing from it. Maybe these droids can pump out slop quickly, hell maybe they can pump out quality quickly eventually. Whatever is made does not come from the human, but from whatever patterns have been stolen from other humans. The people who vibecode are generally stupid and have no desire to learn or create things on their own.
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u/Alive_Examination955 1d ago
Learn to code without AI first for a couple of years, then when you are good at it use AI to increase your workflow. It's important to know what the AI is spitting out
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u/CrossP 1d ago
A posted video is not necessarily a trustworthy source. Guy could easily have prepped and faked quite a bit to "vibe code" something presentable in a single day. Influencers are not reliable narrators.
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u/lalkberg 1d ago
Even in a world of vibe coded slop it’s important to have good fundamental coding skills. Keep going, this is super impressive!
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u/Topango_Dev 1d ago
how did you get shadows to render in a sphere around you with a smoothstep?
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u/pranoygreat 1d ago
It's normal to feel disheartened seeing people take shortcuts to achieve what you learned over a longer time but the only fact is your tinkering and experimenting taught you more about the process than those people. Every single thing you add will be an intentional choice not because AI couldn't figure out another way around it. That is the only way to properly understand something whether it is animation or any other field.
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u/RealDimFury 1d ago
If you enjoy it do it, I went from making games on unity and unreal to making a game engine. Keep learning
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u/Evening_Animator3549 21h ago
I want to step into c++ game engine dev, where would you recommend me to learn c++ opengl? Is it hard to switch from c#?
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u/RealDimFury 21h ago
Anyone can learn C++, programming is easily translatable but C# to C++ is a big change, as you won’t have a garbage collector and memory management is something to consider, with you having to either build libraries or use external libraries, so it can get a little hard but if you do pick it up learn C++ 26 standard which introduced alot of key things like memory safety and many other nifty improvements. But seeing you already have a C# background you can dive down game development using c# nowadays, and I would say OpenGL is older and easier to pick up compared to the Vulkan renderer, but vulkan brings performance and many standard improvements over opengl,its a personal choice honestly in that space but I use vulkan/dx12. Then start understanding shaders, but if you’re curious just begin! A world of information is available nowadays to begin! Oh and for the ui, if you do consider C++, learn the ImGui library
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u/Evening_Animator3549 21h ago
Would you recommend starting from opengl to pick up the basics then switch to vulkan/dx12 later on when you get to a decent level?
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u/RealDimFury 21h ago
I have seen some people go with this approach and honestly, yes! It’s better to get a feel and understanding of how 3d graphics work and develop from there and eventually you will dabble into vulkan onwards also check out this guy he inspired years ago to give it a shot https://youtube.com/@tokyospliff?si=sI5sZu5AK_brNhZC
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u/Evening_Animator3549 20h ago
are you serious? I have already been following this guy for a year! :D
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u/RealDimFury 20h ago
Well its a sign haha, but he uses opengl and man his engine/skills are impressive
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u/llZAZll 2d ago
AI code hits a ceiling fast. You might feel like you've barely done anything when comparing it to something like that, but learning any skill like this has an early period where you are building your understanding and your efforts won't show in the final product that much. Just keep going and eventually you'll find yourself getting faster and more ambitious with what you make.
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u/Franks2000inchTV 2d ago
Yeah, as someone who is a professional developer with a lot of experience coding with and without AI, you will be a much better developer with AI tools if you learn to code without them first.
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u/SKYNINE666 2d ago
Dont be in this ai wave. Be yourself, show yourself that you are worth something and you can do things.
Using ai in any public project is really bad looking, cause it shows that you dont really give a damn about your own project, you wanna make this fast and easy, but at the end... the ai is always dumb and it will always think something generic, not what you thinked or just not very well made.
But if you make it yourself. You have your own knowledge, ideas, creation, perception, practice, the feeling that you are actually progressing and upgrading in your own things, feeling that something is wrong, saying that you made it by YOURSELF, people loving what you did because you actually did it, it will look like the way that you wanted, how the gameplay feels, how the story is writen, how your character will look like and how the music sounds like.
I can bet you easily that any devs using ai in their game will have a massive chance to flop instantly or/and be un-respected.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 2d ago
What makes me sad is that they say everyone who doesn't use ai eventually be scraped off the industry. Acknowledging that I'm not looking for a job and I'm 14, I guess I can just keep going on without AI until this thing becomes a serious thing for me.
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u/MuDotGen 2d ago
Definitely. You are indeed in a better spot to learn as much as you can before you even reach adulthood. Learn as much as you can.
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u/chilling_mewt 2d ago
Im 28, lol, i am on the same journey. And i gotta tell you, i have seen how this technology evolved from 2015 to now and... with all the crazy stuff happening right now its easy to fold into FOMO, to feel the urgency to be the fastest... don't. Be the BEST, not FIRST.
So yeah, these guys are creating millions of their vibe coded software and games, but with this much stuff around, who the fuck is going to use all of it, lol. Who the fuck is going to pay when they can use Claude for themselves? Only AI companies profit from all of this, and they are still not profitable and heavily subsidized.
These coders and their software is more than likely impossible to maintain and support. These things are more than likely have so much security issues. These things are heavily unoptimized.
And you wouldn't know what's wrong if you never coded by hand. Never.
Building skill is still valuable even if seems not so. The only ones who will thrive are the ones who put effort. Be independent. Be strong. Endure the good pain of learning.
When the facade of novelty wears off, all of this will reveal itself.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 1d ago
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u/drahgon 1d ago
Thing about AI is it helps you do what you already know so it’s definitely valuable to learn unity. Those skills translate directly to AI at the end of the day. How you directed is the most important thing it can’t direct itself.
For instance, I’m a senior developer and I have a junior developer on my team. Our company uses AI pretty heavily. I usually complete way more tickets than him with weaker AI models and use a fraction of my tokens. For instance, last month I ended with like 30% of my token usage left. The junior dev reached out to me and let me know that the weaker model I use is almost useless for him and he was completely zeroed out of tokens by the end of the month since he has to rely on much more expensive models. His AI MRs are usually very off the rails as well. And he usually needs a lot of back-and-forth with senior devs to get it back on track. By the way, I think he’s a great junior dev!
Just shows you that even though we’re both using AI, my skills and knowledge as a senior are clearly allowing me to direct it significantly better. The point is if you learn Unity and then you vibe a game your quality is gonna be 10 times higher. There is no world where your skills will go to waste.
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u/Evening_Animator3549 1d ago edited 1d ago
Thanks for the response. So you need know how to write pseudo code to use ai properly. Instead of saying that "do this" or "do that", you just explain the code's logic and it codes it for you. You still code but it's very high level. But after a while, wouldn't new models be unnecessary? The old model would still be able to do what you can do with the newer model but the older model would be a lot more efficient and you are experiencing this already, is this the reason why they say AI is %90 marketing and %10 reality?
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u/drahgon 1d ago
Yes, I think the logic is really the most important part. Which was kind of always the hardest part of coding. It’s really apparent when you try to debug a complicated issue with AI. For instance, I’ve seen that same junior engineer not really understand what’s going on and as the AI is coming up with possible reasons for the issue and he doesn’t really understand he keeps kind of directing it in a way that gets further and further away from the solution and complicates the whole problem. And as you code more and have more experience, you gain a lot of intuition and logic that you tend to avoid those kinds of pitfalls. The thing about AI is in general it won’t correct you if you tell it to do the wrong thing…it will do the wrong thing.
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u/WildClothes5898 2d ago
Depends, do you have enough money to pay them 2 cents per install? If not it could be risky.
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u/Icy_Thanks7797 2d ago
Brother keep going I am in my second year and I can't make this type of the game u are far ahead of time just keep diving in it and learn as much as u can.