How does AI change my work? | Dev Diary #02
Today's topic is a bit boring and probably one you've already heard way too much about because everyone can't stop mentioning it. But I feel like it's necessary to dive into how AI is impacting my work, in which ways I use it, and in which ways I don't.
The beginning:
I'm not gonna lie to you all. I'm not the biggest fan of AI tools. As an artist, I do feel threatened by it and can't approach these tools without bias. I feel like it's going to cost many artists dearly, that it creates soulless results, and I fear we will lose so much humanity in our art and in the images we consume, with the internet being less and less human-generated.
Already, when searching for hairstyles on Pinterest for character inspiration, it feels like 80% are AI-generated. And all of that is based on probably the biggest art theft humanity has ever seen.
But what's done is done, and I also know that a younger me, free from biases and knowledge about how the world and capitalism works, would have loved this shit. So while I rejected anything that had to do with AI for many, many months, I slowly started to warm up to it—and after a period of sulking, I knew that I needed to get into it if I didn't want to get left behind.
That's just how it is, and I'm glad that I gave it a chance.
Programming with AI:
I'm not a programmer. I never was. I always approached game development from a creative perspective, always only learning exactly as much about Ren'Py as I needed in any given moment—but often falling short and not being able to get my vision exactly the way I wanted it. Close, but not exact. In this aspect, ChatGPT has become a huge help. While it's confidently incorrect pretty much all the time I ask it to code something for me, it still gives me the answers I've always needed.
Before, I had an idea and thought about the implementation, realized what I had to do, and then googled how that would work in code. Sometimes I found what I needed, sometimes I didn't.
Now, I have the idea, think it through, and then ask ChatGPT how each individual part could be done in Ren'Py. More often than not, this works—and it works really well. In the new side project I'm making, I was able to create simpler and much cleaner code for more complex problems than ever before. While I knew this was possible, I always feared that I wouldn't learn anything new about coding this way, but I was wrong. It feels like I'm working with an exclusive tutor that answers my exact questions—and only the exact ones. It's a bit too dumb to answer more complex stuff, so I still have to do all the actual thinking. I actually love it.
This way, ChatGPT has completely changed how I approach the programming tasks for my games, and I'm very excited about what I'll be able to do in future projects. It opens up so many possibilities for me. But that's not the only way I use it right now.
Writing with AI:
The other way ChatGPT helps me is with grammar, punctuation, and spelling. I don't know if you've noticed, but the last update in CoM was proofread by ChatGPT. It's a bit of a headache to get it working with explicit material, but after some begging and whining, it always works. You just need to gaslight the AI, which is kinda weird but okay. Then it'll do what I want and check the script.
I was very happy with the results. I told it to check the writing, but without changing it. Just get rid of errors—don't change the actual words or sentences. Leave my human writing and flaws intact; only get rid of mistakes. This way, I make sure that my style persists, that my flaws are still there, and it doesn't sound machine-written—but no errors or hiccups.
ChatGPT can't really replace a real editor—it doesn't give good feedback in my opinion, and its writing always feels a bit generic. It's also unable to follow the larger developments of a story and only really works on small text snippets. But for the singular purpose of getting rid of my typos, it seems to be doing a good job.
What else I do with AI:
Programming and writing are the two big things I use AI for, but there's also small stuff. Sometimes I ask it brainstorming questions that honestly seldom reap any rewards.
Once I asked it to generate a pattern based on a description that I then used as the base for a texture in Blender, which worked really great.
A few days ago, I asked it to turn a normal picture into an equirectangular picture so I could use it as a background in Blender. This also worked quite decently.
More and more, I'm testing its limits and enjoying it quite a lot—but while I do all of that, I also realize where I draw the line and where I still refuse to use AI.
What I don't do:
Again, I'm biased against it. When I was looking into using AI to generate music, I realized that I felt really uncomfortable with it. In all areas where I've used generative AI, I've used it to change my personal inputs. I use it on my own writing or in my own 3D scenes. With music, that would be different.
If I were to use AI-generated music, that music would have absolutely no human input whatsoever. It would just be AI and nothing else.
Let me make it clear: I don't condemn the use of generative AI for music. I don't care what other people do or don't. But I care about what I do, and I realize that this feels wrong to me. It's something I don't want in my games. Using it as an assistant to alter or improve my own work? Sure. Using it to completely generate my work for me? Forget it.
In the end, I came to the conclusion that I really enjoy working with ChatGPT and the freedom it gives me—especially when it comes to the programming part of my work—but even now, I don't feel comfortable replacing my creative input with AI. I don't use it to write for me, I don't use it to generate my plots or characters, I don't use it to make my images or music or plan minigames or anything at all that involves actual creative decisions.
I'm the director of my games, and ChatGPT is a tool that I use. I don't want it to become the other way around.
That's all from this development diary. The second entry already! How time flies. That means the next time you hear from me will be with another status report on what exactly I'm doing with the games right now. So I better start working right away :D
I wish everyone a great, sunny week. Touch some grass—or don’t. I've just started with the Oblivion remaster and feel like this week is a don’t week for me.
Comments (9)
I've used AI to help me with my stories. I describe the setting, characters, and in general what I want to happen and it helps me work through the arcs. Mostly that's just reflecting back what I said in different words, but that's exactly what I need. Occasionally it has a useful suggestion I hadn't thought of, usually pretty obvious once it's mentioned. I don't have it write the prose; that's my job.
I'm with you on your verdict. Letting it help you is fine, letting it do your work isn't. I use Claude as my "editor" and sparring partner for story ideas I came up with, for consistency checking and even if I get certain trauma responses for my characters right. All those things are basically just replacing having to google "how to structure action scene" for me, which just saves time, but doesn't do my work for me.
Well let's get into the wayback machine. This all started with books. Does anyone even remember them? You are using a PC (probably not a Mac). Right there, you are half way to AI. If you are using Linux, you are already using AI automatically since it is built in. AI is a great tool but like everything in a computer, it has to start somewhere. If only AI is used, soon the basis for all AI will have been generated by AI and creativity will be lost. I happen to have loved computers from the start (since I am basically very lazy). They could do a lot of work much faster than you could by hand. Let us start with art. As an artist, you may already notice that much of AI art looks similar and can easily be recognized. This may change somewhat but if all art is AI generated, there is no basis for change, unless that has been programmed into the code. There is no motivation to do that, so it will probably not happen. As it is now, much of the basis for AI art is probably stolen from artists like you. As for proofreading (something I know a lot about). The mistakes will be corrected by AI but nothing more interesting will ever be added. Something you never thought of. If you are the worlds greatest writer, that probably does not matter, but not everyone has the perfect creative spark. Maybe what I am trying to say is, there is no eccentricity in AI. As a tool for code, AI is most likely very good. Will it create something completely unheard of before. I doubt that very much. AI generated code will get the job done, and in the simplest manner. That is a good thing. For something like that, it very useful. It should be able to do anything you will ever need. Of course all this code is limited by what has been written before so it is easy to combine what is already designed. No knew machine language code has to be written. All PC chips are now designed with AI. With each generation, it gets better, but it always starts with what was made before. The basis. Without a good basis, AI will fail to deliver what you expect to have in a creative AVN. In the end, it will be your own judgment that makes the difference in this game. DAMN. sorry for the wall of text 😂.
I'd like to compare ChatGPT to another tool that a lot of people seem to have a huge bias against, and that is Guns as a lot of people don't like the violence that can be done with Guns, and as such they call Guns evil and a lot of people even believe that they should be banned in many countries and such, but the reality is that Guns are just another tool that can be used by ANY human for either good or evil, depending on the person who uses it for the purpose that they decide for it, and the thing is that if you ever decide to get a gun yourself, you will find that the process for legally obtaining one is not easy at all, as you have to go through many different types of screenings, just so that it can be proved that you are not a criminal and are in the correct mindset to legally own a gun, and even then before you actually obtain the weapon you need to go through all sorts of trainings and stuff, and then when the gun is actually in your hands, since the gun has a serial number for registration, if it ever becomes used in part of something illegal, even if it was not by your hand, then you are still legally responsible for it, and this is a fact that criminals know which is why many of them steal such guns, and the more people that truly believe in Anti-Gun laws and stuff, the easier it is for criminals to do their thing, as people will be unable to properly defend themselves, and those criminals can always get around obtaining guns, through illegal means in the criminal network as its like a hydra that will never end, and the reason why I compared ChatGPT to Guns, is because ChatGPT is another tool by humans, that can be used for good and evil too, since people like yourself can use it to improve in the things you already do, which is why I liked that you called that experience such as having an exclusive tutor, but some lazy and questionable people, use ChatGPT to steal from other people's work, and this has happened in many places, where there are a lot of youtube videos out there, where some people have been called out for it, which is why I look at ChatGPT similarly to how I think about Guns, where I am glad that they exist, and I can only hope that people use both responsibly.
Honestly, these are the sort of ways I was initially excited for people to use when this whole AI stuff started blowing up. So It's fine in my eyes. It's still your art, but the more tedious parts of game creation can be very restricting from what I hear. There's no shame in using AI tools to assist rather than completely do all the work for you.
AI, at least as it exists now, should ONLY ever be a reference tool for an artist, not the artist itself. I'm not so much threatened by AI as concerned for hiw easy it is to dump all the work onto AI and then try and pass it's work as your own. Forget soulless art. Like, can you really call it genuine art when there's no genuine work or soul going into making it? Like, we can--and should--revisit that subject if/when AI hits the level of being true generative AI. But, until then, the onus is on us to keep art, well, art. So, as long as you're not being lazy and letting AI do the art for you, then you're fine.
To be honest i also agree, using AI to draw picture or drawing in general is not good, i know they can create good drawings but there's a lot of imperfections. It is way much better for artists themselves to make their own creation, it will bring some unique vibe that the AI can't even replicate. But overall AI has to be used as an assistance tool like to make programs or write something than making art. Keep your good work! Have a great day!
This is how you use Ai! It's a tool and an assistant! Let it enhance your work!
Sorry to the person whose comment I just removed. I removed it in case it is a phishing link, if you genuinelly just wanted to share a youtube link, sorry. Please mention the video title instead next time. Just straight up links are a bit dangerous.