I have seen games purely generated by AI and they look horrible. So I am here to ask, what is the moderate amount of AI usage in the development. For example I sometimes ask AI for help in coding(for example one line of code that I don't know). I also don't know how to code shaders in Unity so I have also asked help with those. What do you think is the allowable amount of AI?
I don't think there's a specific "allowable amount" of AI usage. The real issue is how it's being used.
Using AI as a tool to help solve problems, explain concepts, generate boilerplate code, or assist with things you don't yet know—such as shader programming, optimization techniques, or a particular API—is no different from using documentation, Stack Overflow, or asking another developer for advice. You're still making the decisions, understanding the implementation, and integrating it into your project.
Thank you for reading.
I agree with the user above. And i'd like to add that if those games you mentioned look horrible is not for the AI usage but because they are just plain ugly looking games. A good game made with AI (like with any other tool) is a game where the player can not tell it was made with AI (or the tool) at all.
What is a moderate amount of AI in game development?
I think a better question would be, for which tasks to consider using an ai.
It is useful for some things, horrible for other things. Using an AI as a mirror to explore concepts and test your own understanding is a thing I cannot do with regular search engine. Even complex questions are a bit much for regular search prompts.
If you do this for things you do not understand at all, ai is a bad choice.
If you use ai to do actually create things for you, that's better be menial tasks. If you use it to write things, people will catch on and you are responsible for the errors the thing made. Also, it's rude in social context.
It is rather bad for using as your game's graphics. Too much drawback. Which includes how ai looks and how unpopular ai is. It's only justifyable in some cases. Like for a hobby game. It's just not something you could brag about or be proud of.
For coding in particular, a good prompt question might be considered a higher level of programming language. That's what I imagined a few years ago. The reality seems to be vibe coding. At least for all the bad ai games and apps out there. Coders that could do it by hand probably use it as a powerful tool and use it for repeated or menial tasks. Programming is all about coding repeated tasks in a way that you can use the existing code other people made. It's the whole point of a library.
So, no, I do not think there is a moderate amount. This is not drinking alcohol we are talking about.
But there is the question of when it makes sense to use ai tools. Since acceptance of ai images and results of ai image generation are lacking for the recreational sector (that means video games), it would be rather unwise to use it. But it would make perfect sense for a prototype or proof of concept.
If you are a hobby dev and thus have no budget and if you can't draw, but code a little, using the code like prompt mechanics to at least have influence on the images, instead of using stock images, would make those ai image more attractive to use. But using rendering software might to the same trick and also is adjacant to coding.
What do you think is the allowable amount of AI?
From which perspective? An ai hater/avoider will tell you, it's 0. A vibe coder ideas guy will tell you 100%
As a player, I tolerate it in hobby games. But not in "professional" games. And I do not care much about usage in coding. But when I read all the memes about the shenanigans of software made by ai, that developer better use ai the way you described.
