The October inflection point for vibe game development
https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/28/vibe-game-development/We need to not glaze it so much. It's cool that a rock put these demos together, but they're not "really fun". Not even close.
Also, it's been easy to make not "really fun" games since the late 90's with no-code game maker tools. Klik & Play anybody? The only difference is now, thanks to the hard work of Three.js and browser tech contributors—the graphics are better.
Then try to think of examples where Generative AI has betrayed a lack of creativity or care from the creator, and thus left a sour or ambivalent impression.
Personally, I can't do the former and the latter is depressingly easy.
A couple of years ago I predicted that an award winning movie would eventually be made that used generative AI as part of the production process.
Then I learned a VFX artist on that movie used Runway's AI-assisted rotoscoping tools (though notably not generative AI, so I guess my prediction hasn't resolved yet) for the emotional sequence with the rocks.
https://www.techbrew.com/stories/2023/03/09/this-ai-startup-...
(I'd argue that the armies of orcs in the Lord of the Rings movies are a ~25 year old example of AI usage in movie making, too.)
I guess I should refine my question to be about text to media specifically.
Likewise for the orcs I guess. Maybe its just going to be a matter of degree and any test I come up with have exceptions and counter examples.
The worst example I've seen was the title sequence from the Marvel show Secret Invasion in 2023, which I think was the worst show Marvel have put out (independently of the awful title sequence.)
I've got the impression that concept art for movies is heavily AI generated now. Directors like being able to spin up a visual concept from a prompt as part of the development process. The concept artists are really suffering.
Right now you have failsons like musk bragging about his terrible "one shot" short films but people who use them with more subtly and with actual skill will just look like anything else being produced.
I don’t want the games industry to be polluted with slop that has no soul. But also, I want opportunities for people to learn or just exist in game development via smaller projects. There is some market for web games, casual games, and generally small games. These markets can be great for indie devs and beginners. But if we lose that market to the slop machine, real people will lose a lot of these opportunities.
But just like people who try to write a book without writing skills or paint a mural without ever having picked up a brush, it’s going to be an uphill battle and will likely fail. So to that end I ask: what’s the point? Why are the AI pilled so passionate about the increase in spam and slop and harbor so much disdain for skill, expertise, and dare I say, discipline?
I don't particularly mind if those things aren't very good. I want people to be able to build things, share them with friends, and have fun doing so.
I'm just not convinced that someone building a crap (or not so crap thanks to Opus 5.5) game hurts anyone else. Just like if you write a bad blog post I don't think it's harmful.
What's harmful is spamming other people with your unwanted crap. So don't ship bad games to Steam, don't setup reply bots on Twitter, don't spam Reddit with slop.
For the record, I was one of those people who wanted to make games. That led me to learn programming and eventually led to a career as a programmer. Lots of others with similar stories. But if you’d given a younger me an LLM, I may never would have developed those skills.
That’s one of my concerns. I have others, like effects on the job market, the general unfairness of all our data being used to train models we’re now expected to pay for, negative effects on the environment, and the way in which LLMs promote inequality and can potentially crush small businesses. How do these concerns weigh against someone who wants to make a video game but doesn’t want to learn how to make video games?
That’s the piece that’s missing from this and other analyses. At least in other cases it makes a little sense in automating work. But game development is a creative endeavor, and the health of our planet and the lives of real people are at stake. Can’t you at least weigh the downsides against the benefits?
This feels like Jurassic Park: “Your scientists spent so much time asking if they could, they didn’t stop to ask if they should.” LLM supporters act like LLMs are inevitable and talk about the benefits, even when they’re relatively minimal. But serious discussion of the risks and downsides is missing. And it has been missing for years now.
We can do away with all that. No need to strive to be a complete person, no need to grow, to challenge yourself.
All you need to do is snap your fingers. What do you mean you still feel hollow inside? You should have asked the machine to also give you a dose of Accomplishment for the task you didn’t put any effort in.
I wonder if I can ask AI to make me a millionaire so I don't have to put in the effort to do it myself.
I dont need to milk a cow to enjoy cheese, or build a house to enjoy having one.
Some people enjoy and romanticize the process, and that's okay. Others aren't interested.