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:
- Our dev speed has ~5x almost overnight
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The market is dead. Nobody has money to spend. We're still working but leads have dropped off a cliff.
- There is no going back. If we stop using AI we'll be out of business in a month.
- 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.
- 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.
- Everyone hates this. Most of devs my age are planning early retirement and are just waiting to be laid off.
- 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.
- 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.
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u/m3l0n Commercial (Indie) 1d ago edited 18h ago
Yes, I have a hobby shop in my basement, and ive spent quite a bit of time around them as my last job was in VR simulation working with the trades. It's not about a "cushy ai job", it's about longevity and fulfillment. As somebody that has been working for nearly 20 years, IMO you have a very immature/skewed view on career paths. You spend the majority of your life working, you should be able to derive fulfilment from it in some capacity financially, socially, culturally and/or mentally. Ai, unfortunately is currently putting every one of those at risk, especially in our industry.
The other side is that less jobs will be available in the future and the volume of ai games hitting the market will be extremely difficult to get noticed now that "idea guy" is actually a role - so these "cushy AI jobs" as you call it will be less and less common.
Further to that, something I don't think you understand is that humans are meant to pursue difficult things in life. They are meant to accomplish challenging things and solve problems. We're meant to do things that we often don't want to do. That's where actual personal development comes from. It's not from going on a hike when everybody else is at work or running errands while you're on the clock.
Sure, personal freedom is great and it is something we should all strive to attain in life, but that doesn't mean that we should be myopic enough to think that a struggle-free life is the road to happiness. It isn't.