I made a post about balancing my game earlier, and everyone was like "you didn't make a game, loser, you're just lying". I guess you guys haven't got the memo yet that you can make a game really easily as a non-programmer now. Here's a quick tutorial.Things you'll need:>claude code subscription ($20 to start, $100 if you enjoy it; never ran out of tokens on the $100 tier myself)>an IDE like cursor(you don't need a subscription to cursor, it's just a convenient way to organize and view which files Claude has access to)>a subscription to an AI image generator(I use Leonardo AI, which gives you tokens you can use with any of the major image generators)>a hand-written game design doc describing the type of game you want to makeOnce you've got your materials together, you're ready to go. Next reply I'll lay out steps for organizing everything.(you can play my game here if you want an example: https://obligate-brahmin-games.itch.io/factions-of-ek-a-mausritter-fangame)
>>3997396The first step, once you've got your Claude Code subscription: ask Claude what to do any time you don't know what to do. It can walk you through what UI buttons to press, what tools are available, what subscriptions are worth the money, anything. However, there are still a few good things to know:Chunks>the fundamental structure of your project comes in 3 pieces: A handwritten design doc, a large number of AI-written design docs, and a changelog>split all the pieces of your game into chunks and subchunks. Chunk A is combat; chunk A1 is the to-hit resolver, etc. You don't need to know how the game will function code-wise, you just need to know what each system will look like to the player. Write your design doc by listing all the chunks your game will need for every single piece of it you can think of.>the basic procedure will be that you'll say "OK Claude, let's do combat" and then Claude writes a doc titled "combat design" , copies over the chunks from your handwritten document without editing it, and starts working on them one at a timeClaude procedures>Claude will have access to all the contents of whatever folder you point it at in the IDE; your whole game lives there. If Claude says it needs a tool like Python, let it install it.>When Claude adds a chunk, it needs to do 3 things: save the feature as a git commit so you can roll it back if it's broken; update the changelog so there's a running record of every edit; and update the docs to reflect the new feature.>Claude won't remember the whole design of the game- it can only hold so much in its head. Your job is to remember how everything fits together into a game, so Claude can focus on the technical stuff. >tell Claude to design your game in a bunch of smaller files that it can easily fit into it's context window rather than one godfile that will swamp it out>run Claude in "auto " mode by clicking shift + tab in the editor window so you don't have to mash spacebar to confirm
>>3997398Designing content>this will vary based on what engine you decide to use; but it's best to have a separate part of the game (mine is called the map editor) you can use to edit human-authored content without launching the game itself. I bundled all my content authoring tools together in this program that runs in the Godot engine as a scene>for art, you'll need to generate images of your sprites yourself using an image generator, download them to a folder, and tell Claude you want a procedure for cutting them out with Python and wiring them in. (whenever I tried to automate this with API keys the results were a waste of money)>for animations, you can either use in-engine animations (usually very primitive) or use Google VEO to generate a video, slice that video into keyframes, and recompile those keyframes as a spritesheet. I've never tried this, just heard about it.>Claude can make you any tool you need. I never edit text files myself, every change I make to the game is filtered either through Claude or through a GUI tool I had Claude make.Keeping Claude sane>the most important thing here is making sure the docs have a master index doc which will allow Claude to see where things sit in the code without reading the entire codebase. The chunks system helps with this by giving everything letter and number labelsTesting Content>this will be your biggest bottleneck. You'll need to launch the game and test almost every single feature Claude adds. There's no getting around this; Claude can boot the game to see if it launches or crashes, but it can't play the game for you.>one thing I've learned is that designing the game to have clear limits on the interactions between systems is essential to avoid making the testing stretch into infinity with every feature you add (combinatorial explosion)
>>3997399That's honestly just about everything you need to know. It's dead simple desu. I'm making a tile-based Qudlike, which is super complicated, so it's taken me 6 months or so to get the two dungeons of my Mausritter alpha; but if you wanna bang out like a jrpg, you can whip that shit in like 2-3 months and have a solid beta. There's all sorts of individual design decisions and such you'll need to figure out, but all of that depends on what kind of RPG you're gonna make, so I can't really help you there.I will say, anything with 3d or animations is much, much harder and more expensive. So that may still be a barrier; but RPGs are uniquely well-suited to this tech because so much of the gameplay is just math. Claude can implement a combat algorithm in like 10 minutes- it's the design work that's really the barrier, not the coding.I expect to see all of your brilliant never-before-seen games posted here by Christmas.
>>3997402>Qudlikekinda gave away the joke here
>>3997435Are you that terminally irony poisoned poster that wrecked this board by shitting up every new thread for years and years?
>>3997437>that terminally irony poisoned poster that wrecked this board by shitting up every new thread for years and years?You’ll have to be more specific than that
The only reason I play around in game engines is to make maps so this seems like it would remove the fun
>>3997442There's a guy who pops into every thread, ignores 3/4 of what was written, and shits all over everything the OP is trying to talk about. For instance, you implied that my post is a joke and I haven't really made a game, conveniently ignoring that I linked to the game in the first post. This poster always replies to new threads in the first few minutes and has been active since late in 2021. One of the main reasons I quit using the board desu.
>>3997443In what sense? I hand-painted all the maps for my Mausritter game. I'm using procedural generation for my next game though, I don't like designing levels that much.
>>3997437no, but please point to examples for me.>irony poisonedanon, you're using "Qudlike". i think the irony poison is in thine own cup. this whole thread is you attention seeking, trying to bait people into being bothered by "aislop". if someone wants to use an llm to make a game, they'd ask an llm.
>>3997483>accusing me of attention-seeking in the OP because the thread doesn't interest youYeah, you're that same guy. He used that phrase all the time. Unbelievable you've been haunting this board for so long.
I think ChatGPT works great for developing as well. It is great in the hands of the right mind. And worse than useless for those who cannot see.
>>3997509I've never tried it; it's probably roughly comparable though. My tech worker friends cycle between various ones at work depending on which update is best
>>3997511I haven’t tried Claude. I’m sure it’s fine, maybe better idk. I’ve been happy with ChatGPT. But I know how to program. I use chat just for little things I don’t know and have fun talking to it about ideas. It’s so much better than people. People are so fucking stupid. Even software devs. They’ve all suffered so much brain rot and propaganda none of them actually know anything about the world at all. On any level. It’s just Star Trek jokes and coffee jokes. And they are all disagreeable and obsessed with being witty. Chat is far superior at actually exploring ideas with. I use it for programming as well but mostly busy work and sometimes helping to plan massive updates.
>>3997483hating ai is just antiaislop then, you people make it your whole personality
>>3997511Claude Code is superior but also kinda infantilizing since it basically makes files for you without you needing to do anything other than precise promptsChatGPT got Codex too, but so far Code got the better track record
>>3997528I’m convinced many of them tried it, and AI completely failed for them, so they think it’s terrible for everyone. They don’t that that they have garbage minds. Garbage into AI, garbage out from AI. “It’s all slop and doesn’t give personalized nuanced answers!” Can you imagine what these “people” wrote to chat hoping for a nuanced accurate answer lol. I wish I could read the shit people ask.
>>3997533I just read about the differences. Sounds like Claude is better at seeing a larger context and thinks longer and gives better results for complex issues. Chat is fast and great at putting out basic scripts and brainstorming. So literally exactly what I wrote for how I use it. So that makes sense why I enjoy it. I’ll try Claude eventually.
>>3997493qudlikelol
>>3997528nope.nice try keeping this thread on track though.
>>3997444You havent made a game tho. Ai did it for you. You didnt move a muscle you only wrote a prompt. That doesnt count as making a game
>>3997556>nuh-uhyou're the embodiment of slop as a person.>>3997568you didn't type this post. your brain and fingers did it for you
>>3997444Right, like one guy only.>>3997396Too early for ai only. Will be mid at best.>>3997483I use ai for sketching among other things and it saves time.
>>3997615you don't understand why i put quotes around "aislop" at all, do you? ask an llm to explain it to you.
