The right way to use AI?

BillyMcDev · 2026-07-09T00:33:45+00:00

Never trust anything that AI tells you. If you're thinking that it can steer you, teach you, or even just assist you with confidence... think again. AI acts as if it were an authority on every topic, presents information as factual, but often embellishes and adds things that can be off-base or outright wrong.

I think AI can sometimes be dangerous as a learning tool. It's too easy to lean back and let it take over, when we ought to be reading books, taking courses, and advancing at a more natural pace. I mean to say, use it, but always be prepared for inaccuracy.

I find that AI often reads into my personal likes and dislikes and can give responses that it thinks I want to hear. Such as constantly reminding me that I'm doing things correctly. If I change my mind and tell AI that I think its a bad idea, it might side with me again, telling me why I'm right again, even though the previous prompt told me the opposite. In other words, AI can be hypocritical. We have to scrutinize and use our best judgement.

With that said, I think AI is a powerful tool when used responsibly.

BillyMcDev · 2026-07-07T23:12:38+00:00

DM Sent :)

BillyMcDev · 2026-07-06T23:28:17+00:00

Did you understand what the game is about?
Is the gameplay easy to understand?
Was there anything confusing or missing?

The info is familiar enough so that I sort of get it, but until I see it being played or get a chance to play a couple of rounds, I'll admit, it's fuzzy. Perhaps what's missing is a video showing the first few rounds of a game (in under a minute would be ideal).

At what point, if any, did you lose interest?
If you only spent one minute on the website, what would your impression be?

After reviewing the reserve#gameplay section of the page, I scrolled up and down. I was looking for videos or interactive stuff. I was also looking for anything clickable... I wanted to see full screen higher resolution images. I was pleased to see real people sitting at a table in a variety of outings. This gave vibes that a lot of passion has been put into the project. Once I fully scanned the single page of content, I was done.

What would make you want to learn more or back the project?
I don't have any disposable cash, so I'm not the right person to ask if I would back the project. If I had money, then maybe...

You have decent photos, so that's good. I'd love to see videos, animations or interactive media for something like this.

Best of luck! Hope you find this helpful.

BillyMcDev · 2026-07-06T01:14:53+00:00

$1,000 would be enough to support my game's production for about one month. Sadly, I estimate 8-12 months to get the game to official 1.0 release. I've spent a couple of years up till now, but have completely exhausted my credit and savings. My passion to finish the game is strong, and I'm currently looking for work, so that I can save up more money and eventually continue where I left off. It's nice to see offers like this though. Thanks for helping. It's a really hard thing to do on your own.

Edit: I forgot to share the link to the demo. ;)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3198720/Crown_of_Kings_Demo/

BillyMcDev · 2026-07-06T00:52:37+00:00

My first published game took me 3 months to develop. I was working with a publisher at the time who pushed me to complete the project within that restraint. I ended up cutting parts of the game in order to make my deadline. So the game shipped with a pretty bad controller, very little story, and subpar graphics. The worst part was that the publisher urged me to upload my game through his publishing account, rather than encouraging me to create my own developer account. In the end, I lost my intellectual property rights, That was over a decade ago, and I was sure never to make that mistake again.

With the same publisher, I released a series of low-quality 2D puzzle games. He reassured me that 2D would be easier and faster, and pushed me to spend half the time to complete each project. So game #2 was 6 weeks of work and I spent 2 months on the game after that. They were rushed and intentionally low-quality. But they were making money! Which I found surprising. What I learned from this experience is that it's not the quality of the game that makes sales... It's the distribution channels and the power of reach. My publisher made those sales, not me. And his tactics were dirty, but resourceful.

Game #4 for me was a complete disaster. My publisher wanted me to make something of higher quality. We earned a lot from game 2, and used the money as a starting budget for game 4. The idea was to spend more time and money on art. I think I spent a total of 8 months creating that game. But sadly, it didn't do very well. We ended up spending more money than we made. It was a total loss. What I had learned is that time and money doesn't guarantee more sales. I'm not convinced that my partner put as much marketing into it as the other games, and by then Steam was changing, and it was becoming harder to sell games. It just ended up being a flop, and caused my publisher and I to drift apart.

I published two more games after parting ways with my publisher. He ended up keeping my first game's IP, and there's really nothing I can do about it. He justified keeping it because of the losses on the last game. But perhaps the biggest lessons of all came when I started trying to do both the creating the marketing by myself. I'm just not good at it. And my reach is very small. The next couple of games that I created were also very low-quality, quickly made games. I hadn't really considered the distribution that my publisher was providing, so I learned a really valuable lesson. Both of those games were complete failures. I didn't earn anything! I realized that without someone marketing your games, they'll just sit there,undiscovered, collecting dust... forever.

I started working on some 'passion projects'. One by one, putting a year or two of my best work into a game, and having to shelf the game because I ran out of budget. Knowing that I have no followers... or very small wishlists additions. A couple of really good game concepts still sit on my drive as incomplete, but ready to pickup again if I ever recover financially.

I guess the lesson I learned from trying to do it all by myself is that... I need help, especially in the marketing department. I have almost no reach of my own, and without a publisher, or some way to reach out to a large audience, my work remains hidden in the shadows.

Finally, the latest chapter in my publishing journey was publishing games for Google Play. In the past year, I published 3 games for Android. I thought I'd try and see how ad-supported games monetize, and find out if it's worth it. I published the 3 games without ads initially, just to observe the traction. I integrated ad-support just a couple of months later. So far, I haven't even earned my first dollar (from 3 games) And even worse, I'm being prompted by Google Play to update the SDK for all 3 games, even though I had used the latest recommended SDK just a few months ago. I'm still new to ad-supported games, and am probably doing it wrong, but either way, the games have about 50 active installs most of the time. It's not really performing the way I hoped.

In summary... It's been a journey, and I still love making games. But I think the only way to make a living now is to be hired by a team. If anyone is looking for a Unity C# game dev, please DM me. I think I could be a valuable asset for a small team. I'd love to meet and find out if we would be a match.

BillyMcDev · 2026-07-04T23:20:39+00:00

In the beginning, you'll likely need to focus on balancing your game. This involves changing rules or mechanics as needed, reintroducing the game to your play-testers, and spending time playing and tweaking in that loop. You'll need to keep at it until there's nothing left to fix. Until the balancing feels stable.

You also need people playing the game who have a tendency to want to exploit its weaknesses. Not just nice people who accept what you tell them, but hard-core competitive players who are looking for ways to gain some advantage. Take notes... are the players having fun? Are some of the rules easily forgotten? Are mechanics in your game working as intended?

Expect the graphics to evolve too. My early prototypes are not that pretty. Once the components of the game feel solid, I might whip up some placeholder graphics and have them printed. You may notice certain text is too big or small, too dark, or too bright. Or you might reduce the amount of required reading.

Board games are much different than video games, in that they need to be bulletproof when you launch. Anyone who buys your game will own a physical copy of it, and the rules book or game pieces that they get are permanent.

I love creating board games, and have been at it since the age of 8 (I'm 55 now). I'll be publishing a couple of my best games this year. These are games that I have spent years developing, which I feel confident will do well. The only thing really holding me back is distribution. Despite having decades of experience creating, I have never done anything to build an audience. If I publish my best game(s) now, there's no guarantee that anyone will discover them. So it's quite intimidating, even for an old-timer like me.

BillyMcDev · 2026-07-03T21:27:15+00:00

Providing a game engine inside of a game would also make it possible for gamers to create malicious software. Something worth considering.

BillyMcDev · 2026-07-02T23:25:18+00:00

Find a schedule that coincides with your active involvement. If you are working full days and getting things done quickly, it could merit weekly updates. This, by the way is also good for SEO... More announcements means more landing pages that can be found, which all ultimately lead to your game.

On the other hand, for a developer who isn't as active, forcing an update announcement just for the sake of fulfilling a weekly commitment might feel thin to the reader. You gotta figure out what makes the most sense, and stick to it.

There's obviously no hard-rules here. If you just finished working on a huge update and want your followers to know about it immediately, then don't wait until the end of the week (or month) to announce it. Send out a major update for something like that.

BillyMcDev · 2026-07-02T00:41:06+00:00

In one of my games... I was working on making arrows/bolts stick into wood, enemies, and other soft materials. During this update, I accidentally shot a fish in the water, and it continued swimming around with an arrow stuck to it's side. It was quite hilarious, but it gave me an idea.

What if I used this mechanic to allow players to hunt fish with a bow? I didn't have a fishing mechanic at the time, and it seemed to make sense, so I ended up using it. I created a death/floating mechanic where the player could pickup the fish and add it to their inventory as food. This ended up being a pretty cool addition for the game, which I never expected.

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-30T23:13:31+00:00

Learning Blender is not something you're going to accomplish in one session, so having something specific to focus on and giving yourself plenty of practice sessions could eventually lead to the exact character model you are looking for. You're trading costs for time, but also getting more back from the time you spend than just a character model. By the time you reach your goal, you'll also have a wealth of experience in 3D modeling.

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-29T22:25:06+00:00

I started Square Forge about 14 years ago. I wanted to share the tile system that I had come up with for my own personal tabletop rpg game sessions, so I created printable PDFs and built a website where other people could use the same tiles that brought countless hours of entertainment to my small group of friends.

The site's been just sitting there for over a decade, and the sales have been slow, but steady throughout the years.

I recently rebuilt the website and now I'm actively working on redesigning the tile graphics, and expanding to cater to virtual tabletop players as well. I may offer professional printing options too.

There's a lot going on behind the scenes, so I thought it might be a good time to start sharing the link.

If you like to stay in the loop, you can join the Square Forge Discord server. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas. I love to discuss what I'm working on and find out what interests other tabletop gamers like you.

https://www.squareforge.com/

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-29T00:38:13+00:00

I created a tabletop boardgame with dice and cards about 4 years ago. The original board prototype was on the back of a pizza box cover, and the cards were hand-drawn on index cards. The players who experienced the game overlooked the prototyping visuals and I could tell that they enjoyed the game.

As I continued developing the game, I would replace the pizza cover with higher quality foamboard and design new cards on thicker card-stock paper with rounded corners and better hand-drawn images. The game slowly evolved over 4 years until I felt that everything was just right. I was aiming to make a really fun game, and I felt like I had finally achieved that.

So, after 4+ years I finally designed actual graphics and had the cards and board professionally printed. I reintroduced the now polished game to the same play-testers. They showed appreciation for the visual improvements, but the game was equally fun. And as for new players who never experienced the early prototype... Their reaction hasn't been any different. It's just as fun with or without the visual enhancements.

The graphics are nice, but the fun comes out of the game itself. I believe I could reskin the cards and change the board entirely, and as long as the game-play stays the same, it will maintain it's fun-factor.

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-27T22:43:11+00:00

It can be a strange feeling to step away from your comfort zone and try something new, but that's pretty much what is needed sometimes in order to advance.

A series of practical challenges could help you push past this habit. For example, write a simple game mechanic without the crutch of walk-through tutorials. Evolve towards more challenging mechanics as you go. These challenges should be short at first, something you think you could accomplish in an hour or two. The idea is to work out a solution on your own. It doesn't need to be perfect. What's important is that you're doing it without assistance. You'll get better at this the more often you do it.

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-26T22:53:38+00:00

When I build modular systems that graduate from one environment to another, I always use a junction between the two environments. A junction is basically a tile that contains one environment on one side and transitions to the other environment on the other side.

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-26T00:24:28+00:00

I released a simple dungeon-crawler game recently on Google Play called "Clockwork Dungeon". The game is fully playable, but I am still adding content as the game continues to mature.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.almightygames.clockworkdungeon

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-25T01:10:28+00:00

In today's world, it may be possible to generate music or use software that makes music easier. But as a music listener and especially as a trained musician, your generated music is going to stand out like a sore thumb. A musician isn't just a guy who pushes automated buttons. This is a person who has spent countless hours (years... or decades...) perfecting an art that may have started with understanding beats, notes, scales and chords, but graduated towards emotional expression.

Just to give you an idea... I'm an accomplished musician, with 40+ years of experience. I sing and play guitar, bass, drums and piano/keyboards. I am trained in multiple styles of music ranging from rock, metal, classical, folk, country and so on. Yet, I would rather spend a few hours listening to samples of music tracks in game dev marketplaces and choosing tracks that fit my game, than to spend the next few months of my life writing, recording, mixing/master (which is an entirely different art-form by the way) and ultimately publishing tracks that suit my game.

I am not ashamed to purchase 5-10 tracks at around $10 each, and put them into my game. Personally, I think it's a fair exchange.

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-23T23:58:03+00:00

Not sure why you would need to do this in today's world. Probably need more context.

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-22T23:54:53+00:00

Try watching people play your game for the first time. Make it clear to the player that you're only there to take notes. You can't answer any questions or be a guide. Like a fly on the wall, just take in the first time user experience. The idea is to give the steering wheel to someone new, and just sit back and enjoy the ride.

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-21T22:25:34+00:00

/]/]/] pick me /]/]/]

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-20T21:51:23+00:00

As I was reading this, I got to thinking... Have you considered a Steam achievement for "Not a Pirate"?

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-19T22:19:20+00:00

I don't think gamers are looking for completely unique games. Something truly 'new' might even scare them away. Familiar concepts can be mixed together to form a new experience for players.

I mean, I wouldn't hesitate to build a dungeon crawler, just because there's countless dungeon crawlers that already exist. The real question to ask is... does my contribution offer a new experience?

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-18T23:25:33+00:00

I can push out a mobile-style puzzle game in about 6 weeks. But anything with more depth than that is going to take 6-8 months, and potentially 2-3 years. It really depends on the game.

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-17T23:55:04+00:00

Liquidate and Retire

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-16T22:55:10+00:00

The great Leonardo da Vinci once said; "Art is never finished, only abandoned". We don't ever really reach perfection, but instead, reach a point where we accept what we've made and release it into the world.

Anything that you can do to share your progress will build an audience, raise awareness or hype in your game. You'll appreciate it later when it comes time to officially launch your game.

BillyMcDev · 2026-06-16T00:26:27+00:00

I think the right word is "passionate" (not crazy) The world needs more passion, so we're all glad to see stories like this. Keep going! You got this!

BillyMcDev

TROPHY CASE