Submitted by polda604 t3_11cpe6c in singularity
gantork t1_ja4jwld wrote
I'm also interested in game dev and I see this in the opposite way. Right now I could either try to make it as a solo indie dev, or be someone's employee in the field. The first option is extremely hard while the second doesn't interest me. I rather do web dev if I'm gonna be an employee.
Thanks to AI this might change in a couple of years. If these tools keep evolving it might get to a point where I have a bunch of AIs doing everything for me, art, programming, music, etc. while I act as the designer and director. This would allow me to do stuff that's completely out of my reach right now, so I'm very excited about the future.
spiritus_dei t1_ja54p1f wrote
Here is the issue: when every single person on planet earth can be a game developer it's like saying everyone can have their own podcast on Youtube. That increases the competition from a few highly skilled people (programmers) to everyone on the planet Earth (or a really high percentage of people).
The market for people willing to play your game will be about the same, but the odds of you ever making a game that will generate you any money will be like winning the lotto.
The exceptionally creative (or maybe lucky) will be able to make a living, but most people will make nothing or so little that it doesn't matter (similar to creating content on YouTube).
gantork t1_ja581q9 wrote
I agree, I think the period of time where we'll be able to capitalize on this will be pretty short.
crownketer t1_ja5jrh1 wrote
This is exactly it. I’m sure some other development will emerge that allows some to stand out from the crowd, but we’re all gonna be game designers soon enough. Personalized media is on its ways very swiftly.
sachos345 t1_ja5youz wrote
> Here is the issue: when every single person on planet earth can be a game developer it's like saying everyone can have their own podcast on Youtube.
I get your point but my counter argument is how many of those people will actually want to make a game, and how many of those have interesting things to say/are good enough gameplay designers. Unless we are talking about an AI capable of designing games too, then we are fucked.
spiritus_dei t1_ja6cjms wrote
When you say "make a game" it will be as simple as writing out for the AI what you want, describing the backstory, etc. It will just be prompt engineering. The AI will do all of the coding in the future.
It will be a much more advanced version of generative AI for pictures. The AI will have a really good idea of most of the genres and will probably be superhuman at playing all of the top games so it will understand the gameplay mechanics of all the popular titles.
For anything derivative the AI won't even need much human input. "Make a game that combines the gameplay of game X with a similar backstory of game Z but don't use any of the same names or violate copyright and make it more addictive."
The publishers will spit these types of games out non-stop, which will probably make truly unique and creative games more popular.
That means anyone with some level of creativity will be able to make a game lowering the barrier to entry to almost anyone. That doesn't mean that anyone will be able to make a good game, but the signal to noise ratio will change.
Just like with YouTube there will be a lot of noise. YouTube has millions and millions of videos that nobody wants to watch, but someone took the time to create the videos and post them.
My guess is there will be mountains and mountains of very bad games. And a very small subset of good to very good games. Eventually there will be a rating mechanism for games to become popular (similar to reddit comments and posts).
But it will be extremely difficult to make a buck at it. Unless you're super talented, but instead of having a small number of competitors you'll have an extremely high number. The cream will still rise to the top, but I think a lot of people who might otherwise make pretty good games will be turned away by the hassle of having to make a bunch of good ones before anyone notices.
People assume that it's simply a matter of talent. Plenty of extremely talented people won't have the patience of dealing with an avalanche of crap they have to wade through to get to the top. That will be a tiny subset of really talented and persistent people who probably would make games for their own entertainment regardless. This is likely true of a lot of the top writers who sit down and write regardless because that is something that is cathartic for them and not simply about making a living at it.
polda604 OP t1_ja4kgrp wrote
That is very good mindset about this and also it’s great point, I never thought of it that way.
intergalacticskyline t1_ja4tbrb wrote
Just think of it, YOU can be the one implementing AI into games through API's or learning how to code them into your game. You could do this in a creative way so it's still a unique game to you and for your players. Once AI can do it all on it's own, it's up to the creativity of the prompting that will set games apart depending on what kind of things they implement, so you'd definitely still be able to sell games, especially if you've made a few successful ones at that point (with or without AI in them) and because you'll have people who are loyal to you/your brand/your games they'll be much more likely to buy your new ones just because of that.
Besides, at that point, probably most people won't have jobs, so you absolutely won't be alone.
Sudden-Bit-1837 t1_ja4wp6t wrote
I completely agree, excitment comes to mind with all these new tools.
purple_hamster66 t1_ja7vgmw wrote
I think that will result in your and your 15 friends playing the game. If everyone can write a game, everyone will, and no players will be able to keep up with all those games. Then, the Epics of the world will create even more fantastic games that you won’t be able to create, and you are left behind again.
A rising sea raises all ships.
gantork t1_ja7xjg4 wrote
Yeah as I said in another comment I think there will be a short period of time to take advantage of this, where you'll still need technical knowledge to use these tools to make something as complex as a game, and being creative and a good designer will still give you an advantage.
Once AI gets so advanced that anyone can do it and big studios start fully implementing this tech, then yeah you'll be pretty fucked if your goal is to have a lot of people playing your game. But at that point no other job will be left either.
purple_hamster66 t1_ja8b76t wrote
I know a key designer at a major game company. He says they use AI in all their work, today, and that individual game writers will have no ability to catch up. They will always be more informed, better funded, and have more people working on the project; they will always dominate the games in terms of market share, even after it’s democratized by independent game writers.
gantork t1_ja8fj5n wrote
I don't fully agree with that, all the advantages of big studios that you described above have already existed for a long time even without AI, yet the indie game dev market is huge, from solo devs to small teams, because not everyone likes AAA games. They might dominate in market share (I don't know the actual numbers) but there's still a place to make a ton of money as an indie dev.
purple_hamster66 t1_ja8qb29 wrote
The AI they are already using won’t just do code completion or even just write the code for the games, but direct & produce them, write the story lines, provide artists with starter ideas (both visual and audio artists), and provide smarter chattier responses for, say, non-player actors and adaptive generative scenery. And it’s super efficient, too, taking the effort levels from 1-2 years with 100s of people down to months (also with 100s of people).
Upshot: we should see a lot more games soon (yeah!) and potentially with higher quality.
Downside: big game companies like this are no longer profitable, and so must make their workplace more efficient.
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