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HTH Studios on Game Development and the Use of AI
🕑 Added 2024-12-06 00:29:49 +0000 UTCI’ve had a few people come to me with questions about the current state of game development and why I’m embracing AI moving forward, and I’d like to explain things to everyone in one place. There are a lot of reasons that have led me to make this decision. I realize not everything has been clear and without more regular updates about it, some may be left in the dark. I’m here to fix that. I’ve broken it into chunks so you can jump to the parts you're missing if you’re familiar with some of the info.
The Fall of Flash and the Slow Switch to Unity:
I want to address why the workload has drastically changed from uploading a scene per week to an update (or two) a year. When Adobe abandoned Flash that meant I could not work on updating the game AT ALL. All work stopped because, without Adobe’s support, Flash became so unstable that it crashed every few minutes when I was working. The only option left to me was to transfer everything over to Unity.
The problem with Unity is that the code language is entirely different from Flash, so I’ve been learning a new coding language that often goes counter to the languages I’m familiar with. It’s been hard, and I haven’t picked it up as fast as I’d hoped. I have been able to hire coders to help me, but that has also been complicated. I had to let go of two coders who worked for me because of different issues. One lied to me about their skill set and would undo my work while I was asleep to hide their mistakes. Another got so involved with outside passion projects that work wasn’t getting done. Currently, I have someone helping me, but they have another job and I don’t have the funds to be someone’s only source of income. I will say that funds from Patrons like you are the ONLY reason I can afford help at all.
Working with Artists, Animators, and the Rise of AI:
I did hire animation help, but that was also met with people who did not want to do the work I needed of them so I had to let them go as well. Frankly, finding coding help has been more successful than working with artists.
This brings me to my reasons for turning to AI. AI is NOT going to replace my work. I’m using AI as a substitute for the sketch artists I’ve been trying to hire, and frankly, I’ve been getting better and more consistent results this way. What I’m doing with the AI is training it on my style so that when production is in full swing again, I have a sketch artist who knows my style and can give me something I can break up and animate. The hope is that it should go faster now that I won’t have to dick around in the sketch phase anymore, I can get right into animation.
The Current State of Updates and Our Games Moving Forward:
The way updates went with Flash, was the peak of what I could achieve with Flash. That was me at full production, but I’d been working on that system for years. Where we are now, the game in Unity is not even close to peak efficiency. Where we’re at with Unity is the startup phase, we’re barely into production, and that’s because writing code in Unity takes up so much time and it’s hard. Eventually, when I get a handle on this we will get back to that level of production we had at the height of Flash.
This is another reason I’m turning to AI to help with production. I’ve been working with AI in a variety of ways. From what I’ve seen, I see a lot of potential for use as an in-betweener, for voice work, and code writing. Frankly, I’m not ruling anything out because, let's face it, I’m not getting any younger, and I need all the help I can get. The way I see it, if I can’t hire the help I need and there’s a tool out there that has the potential to help me get back to where I want to be, I WILL use that tool. I’ve watched artists and animators I admire reject new technology and get left behind. I will not make those mistakes. I will adapt and continue to create!
I want to thank everyone who came to me with your concerns. I know this is something that I’ve needed to address for a while and your questions have allowed me to get that information down.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.
Comments
KizukiMLBB
Hi can I get the link?
Matt Bailey
Need link please
anonomous
its just another tool for you to use its fine
Mr Wolf
I think that anything that helps is more than welcome, I would not judge something as poor as whether what is done is done by an AI or if it takes more time to do it in a single way... the correct way, I have played many games and without a doubt this one holds a very special place in my heart, so I think we can all wait and wait for something good, a hug, greetings.
lo
This is a nice update knowing that the project is still alive even with the hiccups and there is nothing wrong with using tools like AI to streamline your work
ECohen756
Do what you gotta do, man. We know you've got good reasons behind your decisions.
