Hej hej and thank you, it shows that you care and that is very important for the gaming community overall, so keep it up.
I am grateful for being part of this JAM, having my entry accepted and pushing myself with all the other devs to deliver a full experience.
My background and passion comes from a different angle and maybe sharing a PoV helps. I do not try to normalize AI but I need to be up to date in order to survive (not as a gamedev, this is a side hobby activty but in my field).
Before it gets any better on ASSET and AUDIO generation (there are crazy tools, we just don't have acces to) - so ART, first it came for all the classic development. And this is SAD and I would never try to defend it. The coding layoffs became the norm, at way way way higher level than in ART, because coding tools not only are accepted in the industry, but now it's required you are confy with them as part of getting a job or project.
And while I'm older (close to 40) and I code less these days and plan/organize projects more, I'm a bit worried about the future of DEV since this area I know and understand a bit better. I was having recently a talk with a friend that's teaching at a tech university and the conclusion was that the workforce does not need JUNIORS anymore. Unless you need to grow 3-4 super good students to know the ins and outs around and carry on the legacy (and don't end up with a magic black box source code), AIs in the hand of a few experience developers can cover up for a dozen of juniors. And this is a tragedy because youngsters feel the need to also jump with Claude and stuff and end up not understanding wtf they are building, but they are just trying to survive. This is a recipe for disaster but then again we've seen it a few times in the past.
At some point webdev used to be pure (back in my age granpa), but then all sorts of layers and frameworks arrived so new devs only learned those tools, right and it looked like a disaster too. But before that there were assemblers, and layers and layers of tools and compliated libraries were added so the code looks and gets structure to make more sense. I don't know assemblers, I used to make it at uni but then never used it ever again.
So from a dev perspective, I have at times this "WE're DOOMED" feeling, nobody will know to fix our AI code but AI, the end is near. But I think humanity will thrive and adapt, we always do even if sometimes a bit too late. It's just we don't know how to transition and what elements will leave or stay from our current pipelines.
To touch the ART part, my late father was a guitarist, my brother is a sound engineer, my wife is an artist, my mentor was my art teacher from 10 -> 16. I tried to learn the piano (big fail w/o musical education) and draw and stuff, at least ART has always been part of my life and I have learned to appreciate it and taste it in my own ways. I think AIs are coming after this too, it's just a bit behind since coding was more abstract and easier to automate. And this is PURE SADNESS. Let's not talk about content on platforms, I'm sick and tired having to filter each youtube that I open - is this a super low effort full AI made video that's been spit into my feed or it's actually good content?
And everything I've been saying about DEV will be valid (if its not already) for art too.
---
Now that hopefully we're best buddies and in the same boat, let's talk about games.
I have TENS OF THOUSANDS of hours in games, I am not kidding, it has been a blessing and a curse, from Commodore 64 and NES, to all console generations and PC, I have seen them all. I Have all consoles, switch, steamdeck (LOVING IT), Oculus (meh) and around 50 board games too. When I open a game, I judge it based on how good of a game it is or what does it tries to be. I buy all possible early access titles, but super early and love to compare their 0.1 with 1.0 builds and usually good games have the DNA in them from that prototype.
There are so, so many ways that can make a game bad. AI slops is the newest ones and itch and steam are full of it. But we also had years of asset flip, another plague with often the same results. But hey, what about cloning games? Is DOTA a nice custom map in w3, let's do hon and league and dota2 and hots and smite. Did PUBG exploded (well it was more ARMA with Dayz), let's make fortnite, apex, warzone.
But the worst clone case for me is Vampire Survivor (we're in Bullet Hell anyway, and I know this is not the first entry in genre but for many it was and I love it personally) - everyone had to make a clone for it, and it's still happening years later. Yes, sometimes a good game comes out of it, I have hundred of hours in Brotato and Danger 5 cleared on half of the characters - maybe death must die was decent too and megabonk... but there's also HUNDREDS of clones, I DON'T LIKE IT.
What about monetization? Oh, 10k hours in dota2 over 16 years span, I COULD HAVE BEEN A PLANE PILOT they say with 10k hours in. I loved the first battlepass that they added, and the way the funneled the price into The International, it was organic, it was magic. I detest how everything today is a battlepass and why not loot boxes. GOTCHA! This is another plague.
What about putting up content on a conveyor belt where coders and artists are consumed and have to release a new game (with or w/o AI) every year. Do you need a new Fifa game and ulitmate team, you don't. Yet they do that, they fight for your wallet and attention.
Bad AI use has been the tip of an iceberg in an industry that turned creativity and joy into a cash grabbing machine, with MBAs and Psychology at the top on how to squeeze you more. And this is the real tragedy, not only AI slops, but ALL OF THEM COMBINED.
---
For me AI is just a tool, I adapt and learn to use them right, to combine the best out of all to create a good experience and learn whats all the fuss about.
Did I create a good experience, maybe not 'but I tried, didn't I? Goddamit, at least I did that" (good movie). In the last week of the event I have pushed around 12-14h a day, till 4-5AM, just to continue from 9AM, a bit of work for main job, then back to my game since we had deadline. Hell the cards balance, and they are still off, took me 2 days of straight wor and those godamn sounds, trying to make the user to 'make the sound' while playing the game was so hard and I'm so far far away of what I want to do here. I'm in love with everything procedural generated, and I don't mean some map in PoE or Dead Cells, Minecraft or Rimworld (love all of them btw), but rather No Man's Sky procedural level. I want to use AI to learn and iterate faster on the procedural area, and learn what can be done. This is my 2nd game ever as a hobby, the first with AI - there could be a a 3rd, time will tell.
So this is the only part where I say your detective work was a tiny bit insulting to the effort end ethics (you can still be agains AI, you can score me with 0 stars etc)! But I didn't lie, I never tried to hide what I was doing, got huge disclaimer day 1, I never said to be doing anything else than what I was doing. You don't have to be disappointed nor to assume that I was kinda lazy or deceiving or that the stupid story and concept were not my personal ideas (I was proud of it oups haha). Maybe if I wasn't so upfront with everything, you would have said, yeah, a bit off but I had fun clicking the belt and that would have been it.
I can tell you hate AI work and that is great. But NOTHING about this game was low effort on my side. Yes I used AI tools, I used claude, I used gemini but they are SO INCREDIBLE STUPID (especially on art and sound, or maybe I don't know how to use them, or maybe I didn't had access to more advanced tools).
I took the time to answer you because I do think you deserve a clear answer not just haha FU, survive, adapt (I don't think that's true btw, I've seen that on reddit a lot). I care about gaming, I'm passionate about it and I think navigating type of AI use will become just as comparing asset use, monetization, copy cats and the list goes on - is the product trying to be any good, maybe. And I don't say my game is good, I'm saying we have to be open that not everything that says "I HAVE USED AI or ASSETS" is a bad product or deceiving.
And now I'm behind 1h with main job, it took me 1hour for this reply (AND THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT hehe) on top of last week half asing my work just to finish my game.
Much love and keep the good games flowing. Cheers,
J
PS: OMG. HUGE wall of text, english not first language; sorry if it goes places, I hope I managed to share my POV; I don't want you convince you of anything, but just show how it looks from my side too.