Build something vs. add new features and maintaining it

Source: Dev.to

Background

In my last post I shared my experience asking AI to help build a utility that speeds up game development (specifically building scenarios and story lines). For anyone who has written code, generating something new is relatively easy compared to adding features and maintaining it over a long period.

The Question

I asked ChatGPT (which helped me craft a prompt that I feed into Antigravity—Gemini could be used as well) the following:

Can I continue working in this manner (i.e., ask AI to generate a prompt and feed it into Antigravity), or will I soon reach a tipping point where I need to roll up my sleeves and code myself?

ChatGPT answered that, as long as we are very clear about what we want and can explain it clearly, there is no reason to dive deep into a codebase. The only requirement is to provide all the necessary data, scenarios, etc.

Extending the CSV for Party Management

I then asked ChatGPT to extend the CSV file so it could simulate the ability to add a party—allowing me to easily add or remove characters from the game party. At that point, my game didn’t even have a party concept, but because I had exchanged many conversations with ChatGPT about the scenario and my desired expansion, I thought the request might be too ambitious.

ChatGPT returned a very long prompt (scary length). Even on a good day, implementing it manually would have taken a few days without bugs. I fed the prompt to Antigravity, asking it to:

• Expand the CSV to support adding/removing party members.
• Indicate who can be added to the party.
• Add a reusable UI component that renders characters as they are added to the party.

After a short wait… wola, it worked! (I had to tweak the prompt a few times, so it wasn’t a single‑shot success, but it was still impressive.)

Demonstration

I triggered an event that added two characters to my party. Nothing else happened besides the addition and the display, but it already started to look like a real game.

Observations

• I can ask the AI not only to build something but also to keep tweaking and maintaining it.
• The AI understands the current implementation and adds only the code that is needed—thanks to the well‑crafted prompt I gave to Antigravity.

Further Enhancements

I also requested the ability to specify the source scenario (a .txt file) and the destination scenario file (a .csv). This lets me separate as many scenario files as I want, a huge plus for project maintainability.

Future Plans

My goal is to explore the limits of this AI‑driven approach to game development. I plan to keep posting updates here, so please stay tuned!