Bingo
I'm not sure a lot of people understand what game coders actually do. We're not spending 9 hours a day finely hand crafting artisan software and expressing our inner dreams... 90% of the time we are fighting compilers and existing architecture, having to work out how undocumented code works, and tracking down obscure bugs and behavioural issues.
Most of game programming is just difficult, tedious, laborious grunt work, and the cognitive load we have to endure to get anything done is tiring and frustrating. No game coder is doing it for this 90% of the job.
We make games because the 10% that IS actually about making things fun and expressing ourselves is so incredibly rewarding it makes the other 90% bearable.
Now imagine if there was a tool, some kind of AI agent maybe, which could do most of the 90% grunt work for you, leaving you to just make all the decisions and express your creativity. How amazing would that be. How completely revolutionary would that be.
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polygrafix retweeted
I'm not sure a lot of people understand what game coders actually do. We're not spending 9 hours a day finely hand crafting artisan software and expressing our inner dreams... 90% of the time we are fighting compilers and existing architecture, having to work out how undocumented code works, and tracking down obscure bugs and behavioural issues.
Most of game programming is just difficult, tedious, laborious grunt work, and the cognitive load we have to endure to get anything done is tiring and frustrating. No game coder is doing it for this 90% of the job.
We make games because the 10% that IS actually about making things fun and expressing ourselves is so incredibly rewarding it makes the other 90% bearable.
Now imagine if there was a tool, some kind of AI agent maybe, which could do most of the 90% grunt work for you, leaving you to just make all the decisions and express your creativity. How amazing would that be. How completely revolutionary would that be.
Most of game programming is just difficult, tedious, laborious grunt work, and the cognitive load we have to endure to get anything done is tiring and frustrating. No game coder is doing it for this 90% of the job.
We make games because the 10% that IS actually about making things fun and expressing ourselves is so incredibly rewarding it makes the other 90% bearable.
Now imagine if there was a tool, some kind of AI agent maybe, which could do most of the 90% grunt work for you, leaving you to just make all the decisions and express your creativity. How amazing would that be. How completely revolutionary would that be.
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polygrafix retweeted
Read the comments under my tweet about generating novel ideas with ai by mapping existing ideas.
If your "secret knowledge" contradicts someone's existing beliefs about the world, and they have tied their identity to those, good luck. Doesn't matter if you have proof.
If your "secret knowledge" contradicts someone's existing beliefs about the world, and they have tied their identity to those, good luck. Doesn't matter if you have proof.
I never believed in "secret knowledge" until I acquired some and tried to excitedly share it with other people. I was immediately met with anger and derision. It was like a mental "block" appeared that kept people from accessing the understanding. They needed to shield themselves.
There are some ideas that aren't meant to be known to everyone or else society would not function properly.
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polygrafix retweeted
Interesting idea. Had tokens to burn so I got Opus to put it to the test
Of course it can. Take all 100,000+ games on steam, scrape their descriptions and metadata, semantically plot them in vector space using embeddings, mathematically choose a location in vector space far away from neighbors, convert that back to a description and metadata, boom, brand new ideas ranked by how unlike any other ideas they are.
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polygrafix retweeted
GATEKEEPERS WITHOUT GATES
For years, aspiring game developers were told that ideas were worthless. That execution was everything. And to a large extent, they were right.
Everyone has ideas. Very few have the technical skills, resources, time, and perseverance required to turn them into actual games.
But here's the thing: that reality also served as a natural barrier to entry.
The industry didn't need explicit gatekeepers. The gates were already there. Programming, art, animation, sound design, production. Each demanded skills that took years to develop, money to outsource, or extraordinary amounts of time to learn. Most aspiring creators never made it past those barriers.
And then came AI.
Suddenly, people who had spent years imagining games but lacked the technical means to build them could actually start creating. Not effortlessly, not without challenges, and certainly not always successfully. But the barriers were dramatically lowered.
And something interesting happened.
A community that had spent years insisting that ideas were worthless because execution was what mattered suddenly began insisting that execution wasn't enough either.
Now it was about the process.
About putting in the hours.
About earning the right to call yourself a developer.
About whether you had suffered enough, learned the right skills, or used the approved tools.
The goalposts moved.
And I think that's where a significant part of the hostility toward AI-assisted development comes from.
For a long time, technical expertise wasn't merely a skill. It was also an implicit qualification for belonging.
AI challenged that arrangement.
And when the natural barriers began to disappear, some of the very people who had celebrated the openness and inclusivity of the indie community suddenly found themselves acting as its gatekeepers.
Except this time, they couldn't rely on technical barriers to keep newcomers out.
So they turned to social ones.
Public shaming. Harassment campaigns. Boycotts. Intimidation. Attempts to make developers afraid of admitting which tools they use.
It's a familiar playbook, reminiscent of the worst excesses of cancel culture: when you can't prevent someone from participating, you try to make participation socially unbearable.
Ultimately, AI doesn't guarantee good games. It doesn't magically turn every idea into a masterpiece. Taste, judgment, creativity, iteration, and execution still matter enormously.
What it changes is who gets a chance to execute. And that's what makes this moment so disruptive.
The people who once lacked the means to participate no longer necessarily need anyone's permission, approval, or validation.
Social gatekeeping only works when enough people agree to enforce it. And it becomes increasingly difficult to enforce when the people being excluded can simply create, publish, and reach players anyway.
The gates were forced open.
And no amount of shouting at the people walking through them will put them back.
For years, aspiring game developers were told that ideas were worthless. That execution was everything. And to a large extent, they were right.
Everyone has ideas. Very few have the technical skills, resources, time, and perseverance required to turn them into actual games.
But here's the thing: that reality also served as a natural barrier to entry.
The industry didn't need explicit gatekeepers. The gates were already there. Programming, art, animation, sound design, production. Each demanded skills that took years to develop, money to outsource, or extraordinary amounts of time to learn. Most aspiring creators never made it past those barriers.
And then came AI.
Suddenly, people who had spent years imagining games but lacked the technical means to build them could actually start creating. Not effortlessly, not without challenges, and certainly not always successfully. But the barriers were dramatically lowered.
And something interesting happened.
A community that had spent years insisting that ideas were worthless because execution was what mattered suddenly began insisting that execution wasn't enough either.
Now it was about the process.
About putting in the hours.
About earning the right to call yourself a developer.
About whether you had suffered enough, learned the right skills, or used the approved tools.
The goalposts moved.
And I think that's where a significant part of the hostility toward AI-assisted development comes from.
For a long time, technical expertise wasn't merely a skill. It was also an implicit qualification for belonging.
AI challenged that arrangement.
And when the natural barriers began to disappear, some of the very people who had celebrated the openness and inclusivity of the indie community suddenly found themselves acting as its gatekeepers.
Except this time, they couldn't rely on technical barriers to keep newcomers out.
So they turned to social ones.
Public shaming. Harassment campaigns. Boycotts. Intimidation. Attempts to make developers afraid of admitting which tools they use.
It's a familiar playbook, reminiscent of the worst excesses of cancel culture: when you can't prevent someone from participating, you try to make participation socially unbearable.
Ultimately, AI doesn't guarantee good games. It doesn't magically turn every idea into a masterpiece. Taste, judgment, creativity, iteration, and execution still matter enormously.
What it changes is who gets a chance to execute. And that's what makes this moment so disruptive.
The people who once lacked the means to participate no longer necessarily need anyone's permission, approval, or validation.
Social gatekeeping only works when enough people agree to enforce it. And it becomes increasingly difficult to enforce when the people being excluded can simply create, publish, and reach players anyway.
The gates were forced open.
And no amount of shouting at the people walking through them will put them back.
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polygrafix retweeted
30% AI. 70% me. 100% ignored.
This is my game, Solitaire: Kingdom in Chains.
It took me 3 months to build. Not 6 hours and a magic prompt.
I worked with Photoshop, Cubase, Filmora, Claude Code, and Codex. I designed, edited, tested, fixed, rebuilt, and polished until I had o release.
But apparently, none of that matters anymore.
Because the moment Steam puts that little AI disclosure on your game, some people have already decided it's garbage without even looking at it.
Three months of work? Irrelevant.
The actual gameplay? Irrelevant.
Whether the game is good or bad? Also irrelevant.
AI was involved. Case closed.
I'm not asking anyone to buy my game out of sympathy. Hell, I'm not even asking you to like it.
I'm asking you to judge the damn game, not the tools used to make it.
Because if using AI means your work automatically has no value, then we've stopped judging creativity and started policing toolboxes.
Here's the gameplay. Judge it for yourself.
store.steampowered.com/app/5188580/So…
This is my game, Solitaire: Kingdom in Chains.
It took me 3 months to build. Not 6 hours and a magic prompt.
I worked with Photoshop, Cubase, Filmora, Claude Code, and Codex. I designed, edited, tested, fixed, rebuilt, and polished until I had o release.
But apparently, none of that matters anymore.
Because the moment Steam puts that little AI disclosure on your game, some people have already decided it's garbage without even looking at it.
Three months of work? Irrelevant.
The actual gameplay? Irrelevant.
Whether the game is good or bad? Also irrelevant.
AI was involved. Case closed.
I'm not asking anyone to buy my game out of sympathy. Hell, I'm not even asking you to like it.
I'm asking you to judge the damn game, not the tools used to make it.
Because if using AI means your work automatically has no value, then we've stopped judging creativity and started policing toolboxes.
Here's the gameplay. Judge it for yourself.
store.steampowered.com/app/5188580/So…
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I just told Claude that i think we make a great team, We are so cooking with fire right now, and i cant wait to show you all the amazing things were doing. I only have this weekend to finish up. In the past- I'd never even think about adding features 2 days before submitting, but here are, and it's glorious.
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For all the AI haters out there condemning indie developers for embracing AI as a development tool- hear this man’s perspective, as it’s my story too. Ai has allowed creative people with ideas the freedom to express those ideas with limited resources
My most honest and real thoughts on AI in games. Not defending sides. Just me talking about why I use AI.
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My dog , looking over all the land he legally owns now from peeing on every single tree in the area
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polygrafix retweeted
All my game showcases will stay free. No gaming coverage behind a paywall, and no charging developers for a spot.
If you enjoy discovering indie games here, an optional subscription helps support the time and editing that goes into sharing them❤️ x.com/GamewithDave/c…
If you enjoy discovering indie games here, an optional subscription helps support the time and editing that goes into sharing them❤️ x.com/GamewithDave/c…
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Working on my Strip club business management sim game - Strip Club Empire x.com/i/broadcasts/1…
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polygrafix retweeted
Another day of Steam Next Fest coverage, tomorrow we have a big day planned!
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Working on my Strip club business management sim game - Strip Club Empire x.com/i/broadcasts/1…
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If you are an #indiedev working on an #indiegame, give this one a follow. He has been very supportive of indie dev's and a great connection to have.
For the first time since joining X, I lost more followers than I gained, ironically on the day I published the most indie game reviews ever.
A little discouraging, but I guess not every day can be a good one.
I'm not giving up. I'll keep doing what I love, helping #IndieDevs ryone supporting this little journey, thank you!
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polygrafix retweeted
My port actually runs at 120fps I just confirmed it. Thats a bit overkill. Butt Fuck it (no diddy)
Waverunner 64 VR
is now available standalone on the
Metaquest 3!
-Watery smooth 60FPS
-Look around with your head; the world stays still
-Chase camera or first person (click the right stick)
-Rumble on the Touch controllers
Link:
github.com/VistaLargaGame…
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