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Thank you very much for the solidarity. Godot is inauthentic about their stance: "heavy" AI use is the key differentiator. They still accept "assisted " code, and want the engine to be monitored by humans who understand what code is contributed, which falls under the same use case as Ren'Py's lead developer.

I appreciate that Tom is highly transparent about EXACTLY how he is using LLMs for his code; there is no functional difference between his use of auto-completion and LLMs for convenience and countless Godot contributors. AI is frustratingly inescapable in modern open-source coding due to this pervasive use from many users, has been in Python for years, and for users such as myself who want nothing to do with it, it would require both engine dev and using bare basic languages to totally escape from. It's an extremely frustrating position to be in when my passion and project is not engine dev.

My decision to not instantaneously drop Ren'Py as an engine stems from the love of my project and understanding with the full transparency Tom is providing that his usage of AI is the same as what is in every single modern game engine. Its normalization is a nightmare, frustrating, not something I condone, and I expressed this to him as well at great length, but I cannot convince him or any other engine dev to stop using this slop.

If you are interested, you can see the terms of use from both Godot and Ren'Py at the following links. Their use case is frustratingly identical. Tom is simply being transparent about his LLM usage, while Godot is posturing they are "anti-AI" while still permitting LLM usage from users who understand what they're contributing.

https://github.com/renpy/renpy#efficiency-tools-including-language-models
https://godotengine.org/article/contribution-policy-2026/

Worth stressing that though Godot identifies the fundamental issues with using LLMs for coding, they do not have any way of enforcing a total ban on it as an open source engine. Tom does actually have that accountability as an individual, so I do at least respect the baseline honesty from his personal usage. It's extremely, extremely frustrating as an indie developer, but for the good of my project and to not scrap 3+ years of my own painstaking, human-made work to start engine dev, I am continuing with using Ren'Py for this game and wanted to provide absolute transparency to my players about the game engine (who may not be checking github repos or engine dev social media).