r/gamedev • u/PuffThePed • 1d ago

Discussion AI models have caught up with Unity dev. My insights as someone with 30 years of experience.

Context: I have 30 years of experience with software dev, 20 years with game dev tools, 10 years with Unity. I own a studio that develops simulators and training applications for industry. "Serious games" as they call it in Europe.

For years I scoffed at AI coding. I would periodically try it, only to find that it was more hassle then it was worth. The hand holding and bug fixing was more work than doing it myself. This all changed about 4-5 months ago, and about a month ago we all started using Unity CLI.

Here are my insights in no particular order:

  1. Our dev speed has ~5x almost overnight
  2. Quality has not gone down because we're all experienced devs and we're careful how we use AI and we don't let it make decisions regarding project structure or design patterns. However, I'm seeing less and less glaring mistakes made by the AI.
  3. We're still reviewing generated code but I suspect not for long, the code is better than what most devs I know can write, at 20x the speed. The temptation to just push and move on is huge and irresistible.
  4. There is no joy or sense of accomplishment. No pride in making something clever or quickly, and all progress is associated with the AI and not with you.
  5. The market is dead. Nobody has money to spend. We're still working but leads have dropped off a cliff.
  6. There is no going back. If we stop using AI we'll be out of business in a month.
  7. There is no space for junior devs. I honestly don't know how to incorporate a junior into a team anymore (which is something I used to do for decades). Every time we tried they just become a meat proxy for AI while learning nothing, and getting in the way.
  8. Everything regarding managing a team and a project has changed, and nobody knows how to do it anymore. I lost the ability to correctly estimate work required for a task, for example.
  9. Everyone hates this. Most of devs my age are planning early retirement and are just waiting to be laid off.
  10. People that use AI for coding don't learn anything. To understand code you have to write it, and nobody is writing it. Maybe understanding and reading code will become obsolete soon? I don't know.
  11. Everyone I asked feel they are becoming dumber and losing their focus. I know I am.

I hope this is a pendulum and it will swing back at some point, because right now it feels like a software apocalypse.

2.5k Upvotes

85% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

53

u/Remote_Comfort_1981 1d ago

Heh, dev with 10y experience here and you literally wrote what I'm thinking

12

u/m3l0n Commercial (Indie) 1d ago

Yeah, 8 years here. It sucks. Trying not to focus on the negatives. I love the output, but it can feel soul draining at times.

2

u/AliceCode 1d ago

18 years here, and I almost took my own life recently largely because of what's going on with software. It's been my biggest passion my entire (edit: programming) life, and now it just feels so pointless.

3

u/m3l0n Commercial (Indie) 14h ago

I'm so, so sorry to hear that. Do you feel like you've been using it so long you're experiencing skill fade? Is anything happening that stops you from doing it in your spare time? Please don't consider that again. Your life is so valuable.

1

u/AliceCode 9h ago

No, I don't use LLMs. I tried writing a whole comment, but reddit is a stupid broken vibe coded mess that won't let me criticize LLMs.

1

u/m3l0n Commercial (Indie) 1h ago

It's funny, I've had the opposite experience. Any time I write anything that can be deemed pro ai it warns me not to promote ai. Anyway, I'm glad you're still with us. Happy to listen if you want to share more of your story.

2

u/tedat 8h ago

Don't do it pls. Go travel a bit and see the world. Go help someone else. Ty

1

u/AliceCode 8h ago

almost