Dustwalker - The beginning

Source: Dev.to

Background

It’s been a while since I played with Godot. I have a series posted here from a few years ago (pre‑ChatGPT) when I made some good progress on a game. I never finished that project, but it was a lot of fun to start learning the technologies behind game development. Later I made a game‑jam entry where I experimented with crude 2D assets that were AI‑generated. All fun stuff.

AI‑Assisted Development

Today, with tools like Codex and other LLMs, my approach to coding projects has completely changed. Since ChatGPT, I’ve built a fairly large, non‑game project (ReciScan) that evolved alongside the AI tech. In the beginning, 100 % of the code was hand‑written. Over time, new features became easier to add by first consulting an LLM, then copy‑pasting, and more recently I hardly do more than describe the desired behavior and test it. I’ve even added functionality that was well beyond my ability a few years ago just by “vibe coding”.

I spent over a decade as a professional developer, so I know enough to use the best tool for the job. In my humble opinion, the best tool for most software development these days is probably not a human. Creative guidance and technical direction still require humans, but the future is sneaking up on us fast in this space. I’m open to disagreement and debate, but I can’t believe we’ll keep spending time creating more programming languages for humans; the next ones will be for AIs.

Project Overview

A week ago I decided I needed an excuse to migrate away from GitHub to a different platform (I have my reasons). I created a new Codeberg repository and dreamed up a game project, with no intention of writing any code by hand. I settled on a reimagining of the old Atari game Moon Patrol. I am mind‑blown by what can be achieved by prompting alone with the tools available right now. Despite having a full‑time job, four kids, and other projects, I managed to produce an almost playable game in less than eight hours of spare time over a single week. It looks pretty darn nice!

Asset Creation

I had Gemini create a few images for the rover and settled on this one:

image placeholder for rover concept

Then I used Meshy.ai to turn it into a 3D object. It didn’t come out perfect (the middle wheels were missing), but it was a quick fix in Blender. I did the same with a lunar base and a UFO. After several hours of prompting and tuning, I ended up with this:

image placeholder for lunar base and UFO

Future Plans

Not bad! With a little more effort, I might even release the game—perhaps on Android/iOS where I’m comfortable, or maybe I’ll explore the authoring process for Steam. Stay tuned!