Post by welovegiantess in I've Made 3 Games Using AI — Here's What I've Learned So Far

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Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed response! 😄

I think you actually make a very good point, especially about how players are supposed to know whether a game is fun before they even click on it.

That's something I honestly haven't thought enough about.

I've actually experienced something similar with my own games. Some of my earlier projects attracted quite a bit of attention, while a newer game I spent more time developing struggled to get noticed.

And you're right. Just because I put a lot of effort into something doesn't mean people owe me their time or attention.

I started making games with AI because I wanted to bring my own ideas to life. That is still my biggest motivation, but of course it's also exciting when other people enjoy what I've created.

I think one of my biggest challenges now is learning how to present my games in a way that actually makes people curious enough to try them.

I also agree that AI-generated visuals can start looking very similar. That's something I want to improve as I continue experimenting with different graphics, 3D models, and gameplay ideas.

And I really appreciate your final point about personal preferences. Not everyone is going to enjoy giantess games, 3D games, or AI-assisted games, and that's completely understandable.

I don't expect everyone to like what I make.

But I do want to keep learning how to make my games better, both in terms of gameplay and how I present them.

Your response has genuinely given me something to think about, so thank you for sharing your perspective!

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LinXueLian7 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

You're welcome. I feel very few developers actually realize how hard it actually is to stand out to potential players. Game-play, characterizations, stories and mechanics, while important, are something people discover only after playing a game - but before someone even plays a game, they must first be interested enough to click on the banner and try the game out.

The first thing people see on a banner? The artwork.

I feel that one of the biggest "mistakes" AI developers tend to make is to use solely AI-generated artwork as their front-facing assets. No matter how unique the prompt is or how defined the character is, it's still going to have the look, shading and texturing of an AI-generated image. Many people will look at it, roll their eyes and relegate it to what they call a pile of "slop", simply due to how oversaturated AI art is. Oversaturation, I feel, is what's making people tired of AI-generated stuff and subsequently their dislike for it. This is basic psychology. Eat or hear something too much and you'll eventually start getting tired of it, no matter how good it is.

I brought my initial points up because a lot of developers don't even seem to know what a target audience is, which is where the actual problem lies. It's not an issue with AI either - a lot of games that aren't made with AI don't get many organic views or plays either for the very same reason.

People who don't like AI games were never the target audience of an AI developer in the first place. My advice is to stop chasing after them and ask yourselves what the ones who prefer AI games would want to see. It's fine even if those players are other AI developers. It may be that you'll never get the amount of organic players you want (a.k.a. players who aren't developers themselves, and only want to play games), so AI developers will need to be each other's support and audience. There's nothing wrong with that.

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Programming Protogen7 days ago

You make really good points! I just wanted to add some from my perspective as a consumer, the “look, shading and texturing of an AI-generated image” is one of the main reasons I don’t like it, not just the oversaturation of these sorts of covers. (I also don’t like the ethical and environmental implications of AI, though those thoughts typically come after my immediate reaction of how the cover looks.)

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LinXueLian7 days ago(+1)

Yeah, the look and texturing can be hard to get over. I mean, OPM and Higurashi got really big despite their initial art style. In fact, all the mistakes made them quirky enough to endear themselves to the consumer, for one. They only got redrawn by other artists after they got enough traction to begin with. I also remember the art of Wadanohara and the Sea (mostly the shark guy) fondly.

But I cannot, for the life of me, immediately recall any AI game nor its art. I feel that's the price of having perfect art that doesn't have distinction in its form.

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