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Comment by ianbutler

11 hours ago

The majority of all code written is highly mediocre. Acting like most people made good and enjoyable games when it was handcoded is just not right.

The same people who were going to make something good will still make something good, the code imo has very little to do with it.

Passion is necessary but insufficient by itself to make good things

>Acting like most people made good and enjoyable games when it was handcoded is just not right.

Every good and enjoyable game made was handcoded, with art, music, dialogue and design created with intent. I have yet to see a game created with an LLM that's even worth playing, despite countless LLM enthusiasts declaring the death of art , design and programming.

A tool that takes a simple prompt and generates a game from it isn't capable of any of that, and the necessary passion is nonexistent. It's an interesting technical demo but it's useless for gamedev unless your only goal is churning out programmatic slop, which is exactly what it will be used for.

  • > Every good and enjoyable game made was handcoded, with art, music, dialogue and design created with intent.

    I am not sure about you, but I do not know a single developer who isn't using LLMs with a passion, even if its only just cursor and auto-complete.

    So, quite the opposite. Instead, literally all games are being made with AI now. I expect the same thing applies to the other professions that you brought up, if not now then soon.

    • >But I do not know a single developer who isn't using LLMs with a passion, even if its only just cursor and auto-complete

      A passion for using LLMs, not for making games. If they had a passion for making games they would recognize how limiting LLMs actually are to the creative process. They wouldn't be making Show HN's for what amount to barely coherent tech demos. But it's very clear from having seen many such projects that the actual game doesn't matter to them.

      > Instead, literally all games are being made with AI now.

      That's a statement of faith. It's something you want to be true, and believe must be true. And it may prove more accurate as time goes on but it certainly isn't true now.

  • Nothing you've written here disproves my point. If you drop the barrier to entry, which this does, of course you see more crap. It won't change the fact someone with taste and skill will make a good game with this tech. People with those qualities will make a good game with whatever tools are available. They're just tools.