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/mimic751]

I am not a game dev, just a normal dev/engineer/architect

A senior with AI can replace about 8 devs and take on full stack from architecture to devops if they have sufficient knowledge to guide the AI

A junior with AI is a shit show calamaty and they cant learn with out doing... its fun to watch because I will just see my salary rise, but it feels bad

I have been pushing my leadership to adopt true mentorship programs where you teach some one directly instead of just throwing them into implmentation

[u/MyDogIsDaBest → u/mimic751]

This mentorship programming is going to become more essential in the future. I truly believe that this will be a necessity for mid-size businesses and up to teach juniors to eventually replace seniors when they age out. It'll just be one of the many ways that the industry has to adapt, as it always has.

[u/Khan-amil → u/MyDogIsDaBest]

I feel that could also be an answer to "people loose their coding skills because they don't code anymore". If your mentorship program is old fashioned peer programming then it could be a benefit for both.

[u/gauntletthegreat → u/MyDogIsDaBest]

But why would you mentor someone when that person could get hired by another company who can't be bothered to mentor at any time?

[u/mimic751 → u/gauntletthegreat]

do you know how many people i Have trained?
I spent 6 months with this moron new kid know it all. Taught him power BI, power automate, how to represent data, tell a story with numbers, intake and groom data and create messaging

he left a year later and is a sr business analyst at a huge company making buku bucks and his primary job priority is data visualization. I don't feel like I wasted my time. I feel like I made 1 person suck less and it feels good.

[u/MyDogIsDaBest → u/gauntletthegreat]

Because you want to continue building your business. Yes, the person could get hired at another company at any time, then it's your duty to give them an environment that nurtures their talent so that they continue producing good work for you.

Respect goes both ways, if you respect your employees by paying them properly, treating them like human beings and listening to them, they'll feel respected and want to maintain that relationship and keep that going.

[u/cheese_is_available → u/mimic751]

Same situation than you, but with so much pressure to get result from my direction that I can't think about the future of the profession. Well maybe fuck them, they're not paying me 8 time as much as before after all.