Shameless plug - and nothing so grandiose as SimCity but I built a pretty substantial 2D/3D blindfold trainer chess game. It's by no means "vibe coded" though, and there's a fair bit of manual work around the 3d modeling that I had to roll myself.
Even with that I'd still say 70% of the code was written using LLMs with the opencode agent.
Oh please, just stop being silly. Being a game dev means you're building games which means you're thinking about the mechanics of the game and what makes something fun to play. The programming is not "game dev" and offloading it to an AI agent doesn't make someone any less of a game dev.
If you want to see what the HN game dev community is building, I’ve been curating the list here (https://hnarcade.com) for the past months.
The output is quite impressive. And having spoken to a number of the developers, it does seem like AI has had a massive impact on delivering their ideas.
>Or is the underlying 'brainrot' actually destructive to creative potential?
Creativity comes from constraints. Writing code hasn't been the hard part since the 90s. Deciding which things make for a good game and are worth spending your limited time on is where fun comes from.
AI makes it easy to spit things out, but it doesn't make things fun or good at all.
Time will tell! Certainly AI is unlocking a lot of stuff, a huge number of people who did not have the time or the special skills before to create games will do so. I can think back to my own start in making computer games, using Amos on the Amiga (vastly easier than C or assembly).
It's a separate question whether anything actually good will come out of it. It's incredibly unfair to look at any particular project and say: what, another clone of this or that done idea? Very few things are original in any time. Certainly I didn't make anything particularly original all those years ago. But, soon, there should be really something, if there's really something there. If it's not just burning tokens to copy older ideas. And we'll know it when we see it, this amazing thing that would not have existed otherwise.
Im using UE5 which is arguably GUI heavier than Unity.
You can get around a lot of the GUI-heavy stuff by using C++ in preference to Blueprint, and/or developing some tools to help you decompile/recompile Blueprints.
It has a pretty cool remote control plugin you can install which can be used to simplify a lot of test cases through automation.
I have a relatively large amount of experience with UE4/UE5 and C++ though, so it's probably not for the absolute beginner or the faint of heart.
I've build 10+ games which I am ashamed to show :)
Straight JS/html/css front-end with zero dependencies works well.
Ask for a node.js backend and can be instantly deployed as client/server or straight to html - multiplayer feels trivial.
C# Monogame works well for something heavier.
You can actually edit Unity scenes directly using the LLM as they're a readable text file which works ok, but Unity is bloatware when you can code it all yourself (it's an absolute nightmare of inexplicable bugs, do not use it. After updating to 0.62f from 0.48f my clang compiler now segfaults while building Webgl - luckily my team mate can do the builds)
The key is building exactly and only what you want and need. Make your design lean, suit the game as you are actually building it not a theoretical overengineered masterpiece - refactors are cheap later, but bloat will kill your project.
I've had my own rollercoaster relationship with Unity over the past decade, but telling people to roll their own game engine so that they can finally make a game is almost universally terrible advice.
People who want to build game engines should build game engines; people who want to build games should absolutely use Unity, Unreal or Godot in no particular order.
It's no different than needing to build a web framework so that you can make a website. The people who do it are often not even aware that they are procrastinating.
Big plus for html/css/js, mostly Pixi 8 or around (I also have a couple threejs). Vanilla JS. I did this by hand before, but having the LLM tweak around the code and styling while I handle more gameplay related things makes this doable (otherwise I just would not have enough free time)
i don’t like ai art bc it lacks and sort of “soul” or “human touch” (nebulous and subjective but iykyk) games are just another form of art, so why would i waste my time with just another form of slop?
I mean all the major hurdles of making a game aren't really helped much by AI...
AI has no training data on complex logic and systems so you gotta do that all yourself.
It definitely doesn't get anything visual right really.
There isn't large amounts of automated testing you can setup ahead of time for a lot of game-play so the AI can't iterate on it to make something work it'll just be hopeless.
The art is also going to all be really derivative plagiarism overly averaged scammy looking stuff. So that's basically an insurmountable hurdle. No unique style.
>I mean all the major hurdles of making a game aren't really helped much by AI...
I have been using Claude Code to develop a game in unreal engine. It is fricking amazing. Its like hiring someone with 10 years experience to work for you. I am really impressed by how it know game patterns.
>It definitely doesn't get anything visual right really.
Sometimes it struggles to things things right visually, other times it nails it!
I have been using an MCP from gemini image 1.5 to generate my icons. And once it go my styles down, after 20 experiments, it does really good. Notice: It uses high quality by default which will burn up your credits. But if you turn down the image quality to low, it cost around 3 cents an icon.
>There isn't large amounts of automated testing.
Some things can be easily automated for testing. But other things require play testing.
>The art is also going to all be really derivative plagiarism
I am just using it to generate icons, and it does great. For 3D artwork I either use things from the FAB Store, or I pay a team of artists in Pakistan to do it.
Overall I say it is the equivalent to have a senior dev on your team, for 100 bucks a month
I am excited about game dev with AI, but the games you posted are kind of a joke.
My kids made similar games with Claude code in js.
Was hoping to see some serious indie games, but these looked pretty terri-bad.
Is anyone building the next SimCity, Civilization, etc.?
Shameless plug - and nothing so grandiose as SimCity but I built a pretty substantial 2D/3D blindfold trainer chess game. It's by no means "vibe coded" though, and there's a fair bit of manual work around the 3d modeling that I had to roll myself.
Even with that I'd still say 70% of the code was written using LLMs with the opencode agent.
https://shahkur.specr.net
Having AI generate a game for you no more makes you a game dev than ordering a happy meal makes you a chef.
This is funny as most Michelin star chefs I've had the luxury of knowing love fast food
This 100%. After all, why do you think so many chefs feature "elevated X" items? Have you tried our take on the Taco Bell Chalupa made with A5 wagyu?
Also, they make their kids boxed Mac and Cheese because that's what they ask for.
Gotta love a good false dichotomy on late-night HN.
Oh please, just stop being silly. Being a game dev means you're building games which means you're thinking about the mechanics of the game and what makes something fun to play. The programming is not "game dev" and offloading it to an AI agent doesn't make someone any less of a game dev.
Well as long as they keep labelling it as AI so I can avoid buying it, we’re all good.
If you want to see what the HN game dev community is building, I’ve been curating the list here (https://hnarcade.com) for the past months.
The output is quite impressive. And having spoken to a number of the developers, it does seem like AI has had a massive impact on delivering their ideas.
I am so bullish on this.
AI is obliterating the barriers to game production for the next generation.
Will this be the next flash revolution? Or is the underlying 'brainrot' actually destructive to creative potential?
I am optimistic about the human spirit in this regard. Making games with AI will be cool when the games are cool, and the only barrier is design.
>Or is the underlying 'brainrot' actually destructive to creative potential?
Creativity comes from constraints. Writing code hasn't been the hard part since the 90s. Deciding which things make for a good game and are worth spending your limited time on is where fun comes from.
AI makes it easy to spit things out, but it doesn't make things fun or good at all.
Time will tell! Certainly AI is unlocking a lot of stuff, a huge number of people who did not have the time or the special skills before to create games will do so. I can think back to my own start in making computer games, using Amos on the Amiga (vastly easier than C or assembly).
It's a separate question whether anything actually good will come out of it. It's incredibly unfair to look at any particular project and say: what, another clone of this or that done idea? Very few things are original in any time. Certainly I didn't make anything particularly original all those years ago. But, soon, there should be really something, if there's really something there. If it's not just burning tokens to copy older ideas. And we'll know it when we see it, this amazing thing that would not have existed otherwise.
Which game engine is recommended for vibe coding games? I assume something like Unity is not very practical, since it's very GUI heavy.
Im using UE5 which is arguably GUI heavier than Unity. You can get around a lot of the GUI-heavy stuff by using C++ in preference to Blueprint, and/or developing some tools to help you decompile/recompile Blueprints.
It has a pretty cool remote control plugin you can install which can be used to simplify a lot of test cases through automation.
I have a relatively large amount of experience with UE4/UE5 and C++ though, so it's probably not for the absolute beginner or the faint of heart.
I've build 10+ games which I am ashamed to show :)
Straight JS/html/css front-end with zero dependencies works well.
Ask for a node.js backend and can be instantly deployed as client/server or straight to html - multiplayer feels trivial.
C# Monogame works well for something heavier.
You can actually edit Unity scenes directly using the LLM as they're a readable text file which works ok, but Unity is bloatware when you can code it all yourself (it's an absolute nightmare of inexplicable bugs, do not use it. After updating to 0.62f from 0.48f my clang compiler now segfaults while building Webgl - luckily my team mate can do the builds)
The key is building exactly and only what you want and need. Make your design lean, suit the game as you are actually building it not a theoretical overengineered masterpiece - refactors are cheap later, but bloat will kill your project.
I've had my own rollercoaster relationship with Unity over the past decade, but telling people to roll their own game engine so that they can finally make a game is almost universally terrible advice.
People who want to build game engines should build game engines; people who want to build games should absolutely use Unity, Unreal or Godot in no particular order.
It's no different than needing to build a web framework so that you can make a website. The people who do it are often not even aware that they are procrastinating.
Big plus for html/css/js, mostly Pixi 8 or around (I also have a couple threejs). Vanilla JS. I did this by hand before, but having the LLM tweak around the code and styling while I handle more gameplay related things makes this doable (otherwise I just would not have enough free time)
Pick an engine that's been around for a long time like Love2D or PhaserJS as they'll almost assuredly be in the training data of any substantial LLM.
https://github.com/phaserjs/phaser
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Löve_(game_framework)
It's been a while since I used it, but afaik the editor is GUI heavy, the code is still there in C#.
Much like AI is great at Boulter plate code like FE, it's probably great at that sort of Unity code.
> Nobody's sharing their work, because they used AI.
Really. What a stupid statement. As if AI bros aren't screaming all over the internet telling people their vibe-coded projects.
i don’t like ai art bc it lacks and sort of “soul” or “human touch” (nebulous and subjective but iykyk) games are just another form of art, so why would i waste my time with just another form of slop?
If you're going to engage in Glenn Beck Conspiracy Whiteboard Logic on HN, at least start from a point that can be empirically measured.
I mean all the major hurdles of making a game aren't really helped much by AI...
AI has no training data on complex logic and systems so you gotta do that all yourself.
It definitely doesn't get anything visual right really.
There isn't large amounts of automated testing you can setup ahead of time for a lot of game-play so the AI can't iterate on it to make something work it'll just be hopeless.
The art is also going to all be really derivative plagiarism overly averaged scammy looking stuff. So that's basically an insurmountable hurdle. No unique style.
>I mean all the major hurdles of making a game aren't really helped much by AI...
I have been using Claude Code to develop a game in unreal engine. It is fricking amazing. Its like hiring someone with 10 years experience to work for you. I am really impressed by how it know game patterns.
>It definitely doesn't get anything visual right really. Sometimes it struggles to things things right visually, other times it nails it!
I have been using an MCP from gemini image 1.5 to generate my icons. And once it go my styles down, after 20 experiments, it does really good. Notice: It uses high quality by default which will burn up your credits. But if you turn down the image quality to low, it cost around 3 cents an icon.
>There isn't large amounts of automated testing.
Some things can be easily automated for testing. But other things require play testing.
>The art is also going to all be really derivative plagiarism
I am just using it to generate icons, and it does great. For 3D artwork I either use things from the FAB Store, or I pay a team of artists in Pakistan to do it.
Overall I say it is the equivalent to have a senior dev on your team, for 100 bucks a month
edited for line breaks.
Did you mean gpt-image-1.5? (the Gemini models are Imagen or NB)
this url https://www.tyleo.com/blog gives a 404 when infact it should retrieve a list of all the blog posts. Might want to fix that
It's actually intentional. The literal strings are just routed to pages.
However, if users are trying to do it, it should be a behavior. I'll make a note to change this.
For now, if you'd like to see more posts, you can go to www.tyleo.com and scroll down to the Writing section.
This is a WIP. I hadn't anticipated the popularity my site reached/extent of the blog.