Its impossible to hand roll code at the same rate as an LLM. Which means that if you don’t use them, you better have a good explanation for your manager as to why you’re clearing far fewer features/tickets relative to your colleagues.
You can try the “But my quality is higher/defect rate is lower”, but that gap is shrinking, and it doesnt seem like game studios even care about that anyway.
We all still have the skills to write code, its just that the people who pay us don’t actually care about human written code, they care about getting the game/software written as fast as possible.
Look, some code definitely falls into the realms of art. Fast inverse square fits that bill for me. But the vast majority of code simply isnt an artistic endeavour, its just code. And the vast majority of game coding isnt creating art, the game designers and artists create the art, the coders just make it a reality.
In a roundabout way, we may get more artistic indie games, as the artists can just get the robot to do the code to make their vision a reality, instead of needing to beg for coders. Flip side of that is that every half-baked hack can spin up their own derivative clone, and its near impossible to stand out from the sea of slop.
Disenfranchising laborers is never a good thing. More indie games (that barely work because they were vibe coded with AI) at the cost of countless coders being put out of potential employment because some numpties with no solidarity decided to use a robot that half assed the code is not a fair trade.
Also, being used in the process of an artistic endeavor makes it an artistic endeavor. To bring art to life is itself a form of art and it demands a level of quality that AI cannot replicate.
Solidarity? Really? The entire history of computers and technology has been disenfranchising labor… Its just our turn, we can pivot or we can die. Its not even new either, we have been progressively disenfranchising ourselves the entire time. From punch cards to editors, assembly to higher level languages, raw syscalls to libraries, every bit of progress we have made has obsoleted one of our own’s skillsets.
As for the second point, we have to draw the line somewhere, otherwise the horse that shits in a field, that grows the food that feeds an artist is all part of the artistic endeavour.
How many people do you suspect care how much manual labor they pour into collecting a paycheck, let alone call it “art”? I don’t give a damn if I never handwrite another line of code for my day job.
You’re worried about the state and future of AAA gaming? That shit has sucked for decades now.
EDIT: I’m a backend guy which the AI dev toolkits serve just fine these days. I’d be more inclined to agree with you I imagine, if I were in a design position.
Yeah, but in one scenario I still get paid the big bucks until then and a healthy severance. I personally have no hill to die on before something that will happen naturally happens.
You are right… though I will point out that is the speed of a delivering product which is what AI is good at and what managers want, speed of writing lines of code was never a good metric. Other than that programs have always been judged by their quality, function and performance, which perhaps AI can still improve and get better than the average programmer. Most tech companies have in the last decade prioritizing shipping fast over shipping quality, so that’s why many companies see AI as something that fit right in with their production philosophy.
Nonetheless, the point is whether coding without AI is impossible as Molyneux said depends on your definition, Pandora’s box is opened and it’s in almost every tool, but creating new code or documentation with AI or not is still your own choice.
Its impossible to hand roll code at the same rate as an LLM. Which means that if you don’t use them, you better have a good explanation for your manager as to why you’re clearing far fewer features/tickets relative to your colleagues.
You can try the “But my quality is higher/defect rate is lower”, but that gap is shrinking, and it doesnt seem like game studios even care about that anyway.
We all still have the skills to write code, its just that the people who pay us don’t actually care about human written code, they care about getting the game/software written as fast as possible.
Gotta love the incentives of capitalism absolutely destroying artistic endeavors time and time again.
Look, some code definitely falls into the realms of art. Fast inverse square fits that bill for me. But the vast majority of code simply isnt an artistic endeavour, its just code. And the vast majority of game coding isnt creating art, the game designers and artists create the art, the coders just make it a reality.
In a roundabout way, we may get more artistic indie games, as the artists can just get the robot to do the code to make their vision a reality, instead of needing to beg for coders. Flip side of that is that every half-baked hack can spin up their own derivative clone, and its near impossible to stand out from the sea of slop.
Disenfranchising laborers is never a good thing. More indie games (that barely work because they were vibe coded with AI) at the cost of countless coders being put out of potential employment because some numpties with no solidarity decided to use a robot that half assed the code is not a fair trade.
Also, being used in the process of an artistic endeavor makes it an artistic endeavor. To bring art to life is itself a form of art and it demands a level of quality that AI cannot replicate.
Solidarity? Really? The entire history of computers and technology has been disenfranchising labor… Its just our turn, we can pivot or we can die. Its not even new either, we have been progressively disenfranchising ourselves the entire time. From punch cards to editors, assembly to higher level languages, raw syscalls to libraries, every bit of progress we have made has obsoleted one of our own’s skillsets.
As for the second point, we have to draw the line somewhere, otherwise the horse that shits in a field, that grows the food that feeds an artist is all part of the artistic endeavour.
How many people do you suspect care how much manual labor they pour into collecting a paycheck, let alone call it “art”? I don’t give a damn if I never handwrite another line of code for my day job.
How is that relevant to the fact that gaming is an artistic industry that is being ruined by the incentives of the capitalist system?
If you don’t give a damn, then go find a different industry where you actually do give a damn about the quality of your work.
You’re worried about the state and future of AAA gaming? That shit has sucked for decades now.
EDIT: I’m a backend guy which the AI dev toolkits serve just fine these days. I’d be more inclined to agree with you I imagine, if I were in a design position.
Again, how is that relevant to the point being made? Just because it sucks doesn’t mean we should just give up and continue to make it worse.
Devs need to quit working for AAA studios, leave them high and dry, and go start up their own indie production.
Malicious compliance. Burn it down and let the ash fertilize indy gaming.
Denial of Labor > malicious compliance but you seem to get the gist.
Yeah, but in one scenario I still get paid the big bucks until then and a healthy severance. I personally have no hill to die on before something that will happen naturally happens.
You are right… though I will point out that is the speed of a delivering product which is what AI is good at and what managers want, speed of writing lines of code was never a good metric. Other than that programs have always been judged by their quality, function and performance, which perhaps AI can still improve and get better than the average programmer. Most tech companies have in the last decade prioritizing shipping fast over shipping quality, so that’s why many companies see AI as something that fit right in with their production philosophy.
Nonetheless, the point is whether coding without AI is impossible as Molyneux said depends on your definition, Pandora’s box is opened and it’s in almost every tool, but creating new code or documentation with AI or not is still your own choice.