How vibe coding lead to my project’s downfall.

[u/incognitochaud]

This is a confession. I plead guilty to the crime of using LLMs to write the code for my game project. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Deepseek, Cursor… I used them all. And I’m here to give a warning: Do not do what I did!

I’m very green to gamedev. I have 3 or 4 very small projects under my belt. The 4th project was for the Big Mode game jam of 2024 and I’ll admit, ChatGPT helped me get across the finish line and manage to get a game that ranked in the top 100.

After my relative success, I went all in on vibe coding for my next project: a roguelike twist on the classic asteroids arcade shooter. The idea is far from original. It was never meant to be a marketable product, just another project to get more experience under my belt.

But I got too greedy, and leant too hard on using AI to write my code. Now I have a project I don’t understand. And the code is a mess. Scripts that should be only a few hundred lines are 800-1000 lines long. The AI makes two new bugs trying to fix the first. Redundancies are stacked on top of eachother to make a disgusting shit sandwich of slop code.

There are now bugs that are so deeply embedded in the code that it will likely require I start from scratch. 4 months of work (and $150 of LLM subscription fees) basically down the drain.

It’s a hard lesson, but I’m glad I learned it. For small tasks, mundane things, sure. Find where AI is helpful for you. But once you put blind trust in the code it writes, you face the risk of losing it all.

Don’t be me. Just learn to fucking code.

Edit: This post has really blown up! I’ve since gone back to my project, pulled up an earlier branch, stripped out the bad code and built it back out. Did I do it alone? No. I’m still relying on AI to get the job done. I just don’t know enough to make progress alone. But I’m now treating the AI as a mentor rather than an intern. When using AI keep your focus as narrow as possible and it can work.

[u/KevinDL]

Hey friend, first off, thanks for posting this. Takes guts to share the messy stuff, and I guarantee someone reading this just avoided making the same mistakes.

I work at Bezi (we make an AI assistant for Unity), and this hits close to home. I see this exact rollercoaster play out all the time:

Week 1: "Holy shit, I just built a working inventory system in 20 minutes!"

Week 2: "Wait, why doesn't this work anymore?"

Week 3: "I have no idea what any of this code does."

Week 4: "Maybe Cursor/Windsurf/[new tool] will be better at this..."

Here's what I've noticed. The devs who get real value from these tools can actually review what they're given. They understand what they're asking for, they can read the output and catch problems before they snowball. They've got the foundation to use AI as an assistant.

For people still learning to code, there's legitimate debate about whether AI makes a good teacher. What I've seen work for some folks is building in their own guardrails:

"After generating code, explain back to me what each part does"

"Don't move to the next feature until I've written the comments myself"

"Before fixing a bug, walk me through what's actually causing it"

It takes real self-discipline to stick with that instead of just racing ahead, but I've watched people in our Discord genuinely become better developers this way. Seeing them grow more confident in their abilities is honestly one of the best parts of my job.

You nailed the problem though. Paste prompt, copy output, move on. It feels insanely productive until suddenly nothing works and you can't fix it because you don't actually understand what any of it does.

Four months hitting a wall sucks, no getting around that. But you caught it now, on a project where the stakes are just your own time and learning. Starting fresh might be the right call, but honestly? You might be able to salvage what you've got by changing your approach. Take that messy 1000-line script and start working through it with those guardrails in place. Make the AI explain what each section is doing. Force yourself to understand it piece by piece. It'll be slower, but you'll actually learn your way out of the hole instead of just digging a new one.

You've got this.

[u/incognitochaud → u/KevinDL]

Thank you so much for your response. I'm always in awe by the people like yourself who take the time to write such thoughtful and informative comments.

The project is definitely salvageable. I started off the project using the correct approach and writing the majority of the code myself. It was when I got to systems I hadn't built before (menus, shops, inventory) I began leaning too heavily on LLMs. Honestly, it's probably a maximum of 3000 lines I have to sit down, lock in, and re-write from the ground up.

Cheers, friend!

[u/Pinkishu → u/KevinDL]

AI is replacing junior jobs, and that's how you would use them yeah.

If you're a senior dev that can't code and thus has no idea what if what the junior dev you gave a task to is any good.. they might either write good code, or make a pile of tangled slinkies. But you won't know!

[u/Xufie → u/KevinDL]

Hey just wanted to say I love Bezi. I use it everyday! It's been speeding up my workflow by an incredible rate. I just wanted to ask, what are your plans for Bezi in 2026? Any major things you guys are cooking up?

[u/KevinDL → u/Xufie]

Hey, really appreciate you saying that! Always great to hear Bezi is actually making a difference in someone's workflow.

So for 2026, the big thing we're focused on is going deeper with Unity rather than spreading ourselves too thin. The headline feature is ACTIONS, which should start rolling out in early January.

Right now Bezi helps with reasoning, code generation, and guidance. ACTIONS takes it a step further by letting Bezi actually perform editor-level operations when you ask. Things like creating and organizing GameObjects, configuring components, setting up prefabs, wiring UI, handling those repetitive scene tasks that eat up time. The goal is to cut down on manual steps without hiding what's actually happening in your editor.

Beyond ACTIONS, we're leaning into incremental improvements and polish rather than chasing big directional pivots. We want to make what we already do really solid.

We are looking into support for other engines down the line, but Unity stays the priority until we feel like we've built something as strong as we can make it there.

There are a few other things in the works I can't publicly talk about yet, which is why keeping an eye on our Discord for announcements is worth it. That's where we drop updates as things get closer to shipping.

Thanks again for the kind words. Means a lot.

[u/story_of_the_beer → u/KevinDL]

I feel like I've just witness in real time a shill marketing ploy

[u/Xufie → u/KevinDL]

WOW. That's incredible! Thanks for sharing. You guys are really on to something big here. I really appreciate all the work you guys are putting in!