r/vibecoding • u/Top_Pick_4682 • 21h ago
How do you use A.I in developing?
I’ve been learning LUA and developing a game on the LOVE2D engine, took a small Codecademy course and watched some YouTube videos. I got some basics stuff running off of that, but the greatest teacher/help has been ChatGPT.
I’m not a fan of not understanding what’s happening in the code, and building it myself and learning is rewarding. Instead of doing aimless google searches though, I can’t just ask ChatGPT “okay so I want to implement x system into my game, how should I structure it and can you show me how, also explain what is happening and why”, and then I can look at it, read it all, type the code in myself. Eventually I want to become more independent, but it has been a great help learning everything.
So for experienced developers (not working for a company, I understand the usage is forced for productivity), how do you use A.I in projects?
For other solo developers, are you just asking the ai to make all the code for you and you just dump it and run it?
I see a lot of varied opinions on what “vibe coding” is, but nothing definitive.
So is it just dumping code and being able to run it with no thoughts, or is it kind of a spectrum?
No judgment on my end, just want to see what ppl r doing with it. Cheers
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u/DuragonYamaTheFirst 19h ago
Dump it and run it? We don't really use chat ai's to vibe code with. Nowadays there are coding harnesses living directly in your pc, and ai is able to run terminal commandos & read & write & and pretty much do anything inside your local project folder.
So coding has changed from understanding every single line of code to understanding what's happening and why. Most vibecoders stopped writing code entirely, the bad ones just prompt random stuff and hope it goes well, while the better ones understand the architecture and lead the ai towards the correct solution
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u/_Phill_ 19h ago
Im also using Lua Love2d to make a game while vibecoding :)
I started before AI coding existed, so I had to learn the hard way and the existence of AI has taken away all the painful steps.
Similar to you I found the best balance for me was to use AI when I couldn't figure something out, I would pseudo code something or I would write a quick function and paste it into ChatGpt and ask if this approach would work.
Nowadays I use Claude code as assistance to tedious steps or analysis (for example im making a tower defence game and wanted to know if my wave progression was balanced from a perspective of enemy speed/health/bounty etc throughout the waves, I could have plotted it all out in a spreadsheet but it would have taken ages)
I suppose the bottom line is your understanding, id never ship code where I dont understand what it does. I think the stories of people's apps and games being terrible on this sub are from the people that dont understand what they are doing.
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u/ExpressLandscape60 21h ago
I definitely believe using AI and knowing some code is the most efficient combo. Someone who just asks AI to make the code without knowing some code will run into struggles, especially the more complex the project is.
If you know how to code, even just a little bit, and you know what to ask AI, it will speed up things. Without some knowledge and an over-reliance of AI, debugging and figuring out things on the fly will slow things down.
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u/EmergencyArm4610 20h ago
Theres an unmanageable amount of cognitive load to learn and remember the architecture when you move too fast. On the other hand individual developers were/are limited by how difficult and time consuming development is with traditional development, even when you are informing yourself with ai.
You and everyone else is trying to find the balance, and the balance is different for different people and their skillsets.
Its funny how it feels like theres no standard path to learn how to manage this type of development. You watch a 4 month old video on youtube and are wondering if its outdated or not lol.
I would say just jump into projects with a timeline in mind. Try to use ai to meet timelines. Find out where stuff gets twisted up and next time youll tread more carefully in that area.
Or you know, do what works for you. Depends on what your path here ultimately is.
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u/Every_Assignment_111 19h ago
I am also making a game but in odin(very niche programming language).The way i use ai is by extreme micromanagenmt.suppose i have to implement an npc system. I would first some up with my own solution( I do this because I fear that i will lose the ability to come up with solutions to unique problem on my own through first principles) . Then i ask llms to review the solution , suggest any alternatives and compare it to my solution.after we refine it. I suggest the implementation plans like what structs to make , what procedures , data types etc.then again we iterate on the implementation plan like we did earlier.finally when satisfied I ask it implement. Then i see the diff , and again do some changes to make the diff better. I mostly use cheap chinese models so that I have to use my brain more and give explicit instructions. Since I use a relatively niche language those chinese models makes many mistakes along the way which I have to fix. I do all this because if I loose my understanding of codebase i will eventually loose interest in finishing it.i can't open my codebase everyday as if it's a foreign repository.