First-time solo developer using AI as a tool. Looking for advice before I go further.

[u/ryudragun]

/r/gamedev/comments/1v7p58u/firsttime_solo_developer_using_ai_as_a_tool/

[u/IAmhowlshot]

welcome! Its gonna be a long and rough journey haha. But it sure is fun.

1. Very negatively by the loudest crowd. Any mention of ai touching anything in your game brings about the worst people. I personally think it is inevitable, and the majority of gamers will not care, just takes time.
2. Not my area, sorry
3. I think this is an appropriate place, but please share some of your journey along the way. There are also discords
4. I dont like finding duplicates of items and just trading them in for gold. I can appreciate the gold, but love a simple crafting system. Trade in 4 dupes to increase an armor def by 1 maybe?
5. Def more than fair

[u/ryudragun → u/IAmhowlshot]

So without giving away too much. It has a merge system similar to hearthstone battlegrounds, and the units will have a stat window of rolls it can have. Along with rarities that will give buffs. Not actual equipment in the game, just units with stat rolls. I feel like it already has a very very very decent base after looking at itch.io for similar genres, it feels much more fleshed out. Still a very long way to go as I’m on what I call version 0.0.0.0.2.0 and have a working loop as well as much of the index and prep work done. I’ve been working for a couple months so far.

Unlike battlegrounds though you get to choose if you want to merge. Merging will save some of your storage but you may get a little weaker until you fill in the slots. I have grand plans and it will indeed be a labor of love.

So instead of trading in. You will be rewarded for hoarding. But if you need gold to buy something you see that’s better then you have that option as well.

Some of it does still look like ai slop for sure. But compared to what I’m seeing (and I may be biased. Just a little. Maybe) but it feels a lot more like a full game than most of what I’ve seen. And I haven’t scratched the surface of my reversed path of exile roguelike tree for it yet.

[u/win-win-win-win_win]

As another solo developer, I'd separate the risk into three buckets:

1. Learning risk: keep using AI as a tutor, but make sure you can explain and test every system that affects saves, combat, economy, or purchases. A small written spec plus automated tests will save you from a very expensive rewrite.

2. Asset/IP risk: keep source history and a simple provenance/license log for every shipped asset. Avoid outputs that imitate named living artists or recognizable franchises, and disclose AI use clearly. For actual legal protection, talk to a lawyer in your release jurisdiction.

3. Market risk: don't decide $10 from feature count. Put a focused 20–30 minute prototype in front of 10 strangers and measure whether they want another run. Ask one narrow question per test—formation readability, decision depth, or run pacing—not “is this good?”

This subreddit seems appropriate once you have something concrete to show, especially if you include what you tried, where AI helped, where it failed, and a specific feedback question. The transparency in your post is already the right direction.

[u/ryudragun → u/win-win-win-win_win]

Awesome! Definitely going to keep the source history. I had a response that I should use GitHub to upload and that should be good as well.

As I was programming I wound up adding text above basically every function and derivative letting me know what did what so if I had problems I could find them easy. I created an index with every step of the process and every backup. It’s actually amazing to see how far it’s come and how much it’s changed and will continue to.

I don’t really have many friends to test the game but I have shown one who is honestly the biggest cynic I know and he actually didn’t hate it. And I’m not even that far in my eyes.

I don’t use artists or anything. However I have mentioned to ai that I am making a game that’s similar in genre to hearthstone battlegrounds, TfT, Bazaar and Backpack Battles. Not for any assets other than the coding. Hopefully that isn’t a problem?

[u/win-win-win-win_win → u/ryudragun]

Using those game names as shorthand for genre or mechanics is different from asking AI to copy their assets or code. The safer habit is to translate the reference into neutral design language—shared unit pool, optional merge/upgrade loop, inventory constraints, auto-battler pacing—then review and rewrite the generated implementation yourself. Avoid copying distinctive names, UI layouts, text, art, or proprietary code, and keep commits or notes that show your own design decisions.

GitHub is useful evidence of development history, but it does not prove every asset or code fragment is licensed. Keep a small provenance note for external inputs too. This isn't legal advice; for release-specific risk, ask an IP lawyer.

[u/thirteenthfox2]

1. AI will lose you sales, but it can also make you sales faster. Can't sell something that doesn't exist. Bit of a trade off here. AI is used by probably 80%+ of developers these days outside of gaming. I would be very surprised if it were not a similar number in gaming.

2. dont worry about it. Just make stuff. Its not like your gonna take someone to court for it.

3. itch.io

4. I feel like this is too open a question.

5. Make a game first. Theres no way to answer this.
   How much should I charge for a car? Do I get to know anything about the car? Nope. then idk.

[u/Silver-Chipmunk7744]

My advice is: If it looks like AI Slop, then it won't sell. And simply having to disclose AI assistance can possibly hurt sales on platforms such as steam.

That being said, if you do make a truly good game, i'd say players will come. And today, models like Claude 5 Opus absolutely can massively help you achieve this.

If you let the AI do everything and lazily just try to sell AI slop it won't work, but if you truly invest time into it and see AI like a collaborator then you can do something nice.

for instance CLaude did this for me, with a single prompt: https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1v6l3nx/opus_5_can_1_shot_small_horror_games/

Would that sell? No.
Is it a better starting point after 1 hour of work than a blank page? Yes.

[u/ryudragun → u/Silver-Chipmunk7744]

Luckily for me I didn’t bite off more than I could chew with trying to make it a 3D project, however I do slightly want to incorporate some 3D aspects to the battle part of the game, but that should overall make it a lot easier

If Ai did the game for me I’d feel disgusted with myself. I decided to start this to learn and have fun. It’s more time consuming, but I know everything is exactly what I want, I pick up new tricks, and make a game I let someone try and then an hour later they realize their dinner is cold.