6 ms·

Everyone will think this impressive, but they’re not game developers. You could literally make all this in probably 24 hours and not spend any time mucking aro

by xwdv 3y ago

Everyone will think this impressive, but they’re not game developers. You could literally make all this in probably 24 hours and not spend any time mucking around with prompts. Like what are we even seeing here? Basically a tech demo of a physics engine, a little UI interaction for throwing a collidable entity into other entities, and some code for setting up a level? Show me the maintenance, adding new features, bug fixing, cross platform compatibility, shaders, networking code, sound, etc.

Veuxdo 3y ago
And, most importantly, marketing.
dan-g 3y ago
You could argue then that this reduces the barrier to entry for people to become game developers. Isn’t everything you just listed (physics engine, UI, collide entities) how you make a simple game? It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t have networking code, shaders, or sound. Those things can be added later. I don’t think it’s productive to gatekeep who is and isn’t a game developer. They developed a game, that makes them a game developer—it doesn’t matter how they got there.
- raytopia 3y ago
  I'm not sure how this reduces the barrier to game developement. There are already lots of free assets and game engines designed for making arcade games that are a lot easier then say Unity or Unreal. Like https://arcade.makecode.com/ https://arcade.makecode.com/ or https://microstudio.dev/ https://microstudio.dev/ or https://scratch.mit.edu/ https://scratch.mit.edu/. And if you don't want to make arcade games there are other tools like RPG Maker, RenPy, GDevelop, and many more each of which are much easier to use then this AI pipeline (not to say it isn't impressive you can do this with AI though) and will lead to better outcomes of actually understanding game development.
  - gowld 3y ago
    All of those things require me to write code, in an annoying, slow, hard to debug click-drag format. I'd rather the AI write the code for me based on my natural language description of what I want.
  - dan-g 3y ago
    My point is there isn’t a “correct” way to become a game developer— by your own response you showed that there are frameworks you can use, WYSIWYG editors, you can code a framework from scratch in a high- or low-level language, or you can work with an AI to make something that works. This person successfully developed a game. Just because it isn’t how others would have done it doesn’t minimize the result.
- xwdv 3y ago
  I think some gatekeeping is warranted. If I stitch a wound it doesn’t suddenly mean I’m a doctor. Similarly, using AI to develop a game makes you as much of a game developer as someone who hires someone to make a game for them. And some development studios are basically that, people hiring developers to make games. But AI can’t compete well with that. It’s like coming up with a new fusion power plant, but it takes more energy to run than what it produces. Inspiring, but useless.
  - gowld 3y ago
    Angry Pumpkins did not exist. Now it does. In time for Halloween. You can't refute that. Using a computer to write a letter makes you as much of a writer as someone how hites someone to write a letter for you. And some writers are basically that, hiring scribes to write for them. Computer can't compete well with that. Except it does.
    - gardenhedge 3y ago
      Did I miss the link to download the app or something? Where does it exist?
      - GaggiX 3y ago
        https://bestaiprompts.art/angry-pumpkins/index.html https://bestaiprompts.art/angry-pumpkins/index.html (it's in the second tweet)
        gardenhedge 3y ago
        Oh, I don't have a twitter account so only see the linked tweet
        GaggiX 3y ago
        I used the nitter link someone linked in the HN comment section.
  - 3y ago
pphysch 3y ago
Yeah the killer feature here is being able to generate premium-looking game assets without any art team or funding. That's always been the tough part of creating even simple games for solo programmers. The rest is whatever.
- hfuyf65 3y ago
  [dead]
l33t7332273 3y ago
>ou could literally make all this in probably 24 hours and not spend any time mucking around with prompts. I couldn’t make that art in 24 days. The big thing about the state of current AI isn’t that it does a bunch of things, it’s that it drastically increases the number of people who can do things. That is, I could not make this game in a day before AI. With it, maybe I could. I am far from unique.
- gowld 3y ago
  And it drastically increases the number of things a person can do.
- rchaud 3y ago
  > it’s that it drastically increases the number of people who can do things. Giving the whole world blogspot.com 20 years ago didn't measurably improve the internet, it just added a few more winners and a gigantic increase in low-quality spam pollution.
  - l33t7332273 3y ago
    If you’re saying blogspot is in the same ball park as generative AI I just don’t know how we can continue.
    - rchaud 3y ago
      Bloggers have broken news well in advance of large news outlets, partially because of the ability to publish online rapidly, without knowing HTML or administering a web server. But it's mostly been used to pollute the internet with useless spam. With generative AI, the same thing will happen. The very example shown here is an Angry Birds clone, patient zero of the pay-to-win hellscape of mobile games. I don't think it's an accident that they had AI in their hands and decided to build that.
      - l33t7332273 3y ago
        You don’t need to know HTML to send a tweet either. I would wager more news has broken there. > With generative AI, the same thing will happen I’m not sure what your point is. Of course it will. When powerful tools are available and perverse incentives exist, humans will follow them.
phkahler 3y ago
But have you seen most programmer art? This has really nice graphics too.
- xwdv 3y ago
  Some people are really good at art, some aren’t. Regardless, I can pull down some off the shelf assets from an asset store and make a game with them.
  - gowld 3y ago
    Where are the off-the-shelf Halloween-theme Angry Birds-style sprites? Where are the ones that look different from the ones 50 other game makers used? I don't know, and now I don't need to care.
  - GaggiX 3y ago
    I doubt the asset store has a pumpkin in the style of Angry Birds that looks like Red, it doesn't seem a good alternative if he wanted to create this game.
torginus 3y ago
Which imo summarizes what GPT4 is great at - bootstrapping devs who have a general idea of what they want, but are not familiar with the exact specifics of the technology, or need to freshen up their knowledge. I've learned Kubernetes and Powershell this exact way.
gowld 3y ago
Does 24 hours include learning how to use a game engine that you've never used before? When you've never used ANY game enginer before? Maintenance and new features are more of the same already done. Networking code is a library. Sound is a library. Cross-platform is a library. Shaders are a library. AI fixed bugs.
gardenhedge 3y ago
Agree. No menus or anything
furyofantares 3y ago
> Everyone will think this impressive, but they’re not game developers. I'm a game developer. It's impressive. I'm extremely aware of how short a game jam demo is compared to an actual product. There's an ocean between the two. That doesn't diminish how much easier and more approachable it suddenly is for someone with little experience to make a game jam demo, and with kinda-passing art.

by xwdv 3y ago

Veuxdo 3y ago

And, most importantly, marketing.

dan-g 3y ago

You could argue then that this reduces the barrier to entry for people to become game developers. Isn’t everything you just listed (physics engine, UI, collide entities) how you make a simple game? It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t have networking code, shaders, or sound. Those things can be added later. I don’t think it’s productive to gatekeep who is and isn’t a game developer. They developed a game, that makes them a game developer—it doesn’t matter how they got there.

raytopia 3y ago
I'm not sure how this reduces the barrier to game developement. There are already lots of free assets and game engines designed for making arcade games that are a lot easier then say Unity or Unreal. Like https://arcade.makecode.com/ https://arcade.makecode.com/ or https://microstudio.dev/ https://microstudio.dev/ or https://scratch.mit.edu/ https://scratch.mit.edu/. And if you don't want to make arcade games there are other tools like RPG Maker, RenPy, GDevelop, and many more each of which are much easier to use then this AI pipeline (not to say it isn't impressive you can do this with AI though) and will lead to better outcomes of actually understanding game development.
- gowld 3y ago
  All of those things require me to write code, in an annoying, slow, hard to debug click-drag format. I'd rather the AI write the code for me based on my natural language description of what I want.
- dan-g 3y ago
  My point is there isn’t a “correct” way to become a game developer— by your own response you showed that there are frameworks you can use, WYSIWYG editors, you can code a framework from scratch in a high- or low-level language, or you can work with an AI to make something that works. This person successfully developed a game. Just because it isn’t how others would have done it doesn’t minimize the result.
xwdv 3y ago
I think some gatekeeping is warranted. If I stitch a wound it doesn’t suddenly mean I’m a doctor. Similarly, using AI to develop a game makes you as much of a game developer as someone who hires someone to make a game for them. And some development studios are basically that, people hiring developers to make games. But AI can’t compete well with that. It’s like coming up with a new fusion power plant, but it takes more energy to run than what it produces. Inspiring, but useless.
- gowld 3y ago
  Angry Pumpkins did not exist. Now it does. In time for Halloween. You can't refute that. Using a computer to write a letter makes you as much of a writer as someone how hites someone to write a letter for you. And some writers are basically that, hiring scribes to write for them. Computer can't compete well with that. Except it does.
  - gardenhedge 3y ago
    Did I miss the link to download the app or something? Where does it exist?
    - GaggiX 3y ago
      https://bestaiprompts.art/angry-pumpkins/index.html https://bestaiprompts.art/angry-pumpkins/index.html (it's in the second tweet)
      - gardenhedge 3y ago
        Oh, I don't have a twitter account so only see the linked tweet
        GaggiX 3y ago
        I used the nitter link someone linked in the HN comment section.
- 3y ago

pphysch 3y ago

Yeah the killer feature here is being able to generate premium-looking game assets without any art team or funding. That's always been the tough part of creating even simple games for solo programmers. The rest is whatever.

hfuyf65 3y ago
[dead]

l33t7332273 3y ago

>ou could literally make all this in probably 24 hours and not spend any time mucking around with prompts. I couldn’t make that art in 24 days. The big thing about the state of current AI isn’t that it does a bunch of things, it’s that it drastically increases the number of people who can do things. That is, I could not make this game in a day before AI. With it, maybe I could. I am far from unique.

gowld 3y ago
And it drastically increases the number of things a person can do.
rchaud 3y ago
> it’s that it drastically increases the number of people who can do things. Giving the whole world blogspot.com 20 years ago didn't measurably improve the internet, it just added a few more winners and a gigantic increase in low-quality spam pollution.
- l33t7332273 3y ago
  If you’re saying blogspot is in the same ball park as generative AI I just don’t know how we can continue.
  - rchaud 3y ago
    Bloggers have broken news well in advance of large news outlets, partially because of the ability to publish online rapidly, without knowing HTML or administering a web server. But it's mostly been used to pollute the internet with useless spam. With generative AI, the same thing will happen. The very example shown here is an Angry Birds clone, patient zero of the pay-to-win hellscape of mobile games. I don't think it's an accident that they had AI in their hands and decided to build that.
    - l33t7332273 3y ago
      You don’t need to know HTML to send a tweet either. I would wager more news has broken there. > With generative AI, the same thing will happen I’m not sure what your point is. Of course it will. When powerful tools are available and perverse incentives exist, humans will follow them.

phkahler 3y ago

But have you seen most programmer art? This has really nice graphics too.

xwdv 3y ago
Some people are really good at art, some aren’t. Regardless, I can pull down some off the shelf assets from an asset store and make a game with them.
- gowld 3y ago
  Where are the off-the-shelf Halloween-theme Angry Birds-style sprites? Where are the ones that look different from the ones 50 other game makers used? I don't know, and now I don't need to care.
- GaggiX 3y ago
  I doubt the asset store has a pumpkin in the style of Angry Birds that looks like Red, it doesn't seem a good alternative if he wanted to create this game.

torginus 3y ago

Which imo summarizes what GPT4 is great at - bootstrapping devs who have a general idea of what they want, but are not familiar with the exact specifics of the technology, or need to freshen up their knowledge. I've learned Kubernetes and Powershell this exact way.

gowld 3y ago

Does 24 hours include learning how to use a game engine that you've never used before? When you've never used ANY game enginer before? Maintenance and new features are more of the same already done. Networking code is a library. Sound is a library. Cross-platform is a library. Shaders are a library. AI fixed bugs.

gardenhedge 3y ago

Agree. No menus or anything

furyofantares 3y ago

> Everyone will think this impressive, but they’re not game developers. I'm a game developer. It's impressive. I'm extremely aware of how short a game jam demo is compared to an actual product. There's an ocean between the two. That doesn't diminish how much easier and more approachable it suddenly is for someone with little experience to make a game jam demo, and with kinda-passing art.