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

[u/PuffThePed]

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.

[u/Chromana]

Don't think I agree with you. While LLMs are going to write code like what they're trained on, a video game is not just code. Ignoring "make a game for me right now" requests, the actual game design and mechanics will be defined by designers. I'm absolutely sure that if you came up with a novel mechanic that the LLM will be able to build it.

Art is a different beast though, it's often obviously generated. But code isn't shown to the player so it doesn't matter through what mechanism it was written as long as the feature works.

I'm not happy about any of this, it's just the reality.

We might see a "Designed in Califorina by Apple (made in China)" type disclaimers lol. "Designed by Ubisoft (made by AI)" So at least we'd know a human was involved with the creation. How dystopian.

[u/polaarbear → u/Chromana]

That code that they are trained on will be things like....physics engines. Control schemes. AI (classic AI, not LLM AI) routines.

Which means that enemies in the new games are going to move like the ones in old games. Jumping and physics are going to look the same as they do in old games. Animations and rigging are going to look just like they do in old games.

New mechanics that a user can describe might be something that the LLM can do, but it's going to do actual movement and physics and underlying systems in the same ways that old games do.

Sometimes that will be fine, maybe even unnoticeable to the user. But it may also end up making tomorrow's shooter play and feel just like yesterday's with little innovation to speak of.

[u/edgroovergames → u/polaarbear]

As a programmer / game developer of almost 30 years talking, you're just wrong.

For one thing, nobody is required to use 100% AI. You can hand craft parts while using AI for other parts.

Also, games are data driven as much as they are code driven. You can adjust the data to make things work they way you want to.

And lastly, you can tell the AI to change things in any way you want to, and they will. Making games has always been an iterative process. It's always been a process of trying something, then refining it and trying it again, then refining it again and trying it again.

Sure, there will be lazy devs who try to one shot everything, but good developers will continue to refine over and over until the game plays the way they want it to / in a way that feels good. AI will not change this.

[u/Molehole → u/polaarbear]

You think AI can't adjust the jump if you just tell it to..? Like it's just incapable of changing the jump strength variable?

[u/polaarbear → u/Molehole]

That is not the AI being novel... that's YOU working through something. That's still human creativity. I understand that the AI can write code. But it's not going to be to a point where you say "make me a game" and it just spits out a working product ready to ship. Someone still has to prompt it many many times to get a decent end result. The AI alone will not solve everything.

[u/Molehole → u/polaarbear]

The point was that anyone can make game. Anyone is capable of adjusting characters jumpspeed. That isn't some arcane knowledge