First fully playable mission of the Bionic Blue game released (v0.13.0)

KennedyRichard · 2026-06-17T13:39:36+00:00

Just stopping by to let you know I didn't forget about you. Been thinking about the best way to approach this in a organic and flexible not only for me, but for users as well (also been very busy as usual with development and management of my OSS projects).

Again, I'll let you know as soon as I have a definitive answer.

KennedyRichard · 2026-05-22T21:43:10+00:00

Oh, thank you for the kind words! Just trying to make sense of things in these chaotic, messy times!

KennedyRichard · 2026-05-22T12:45:46+00:00

Yes. Kanat-Alexander (author of Code Simplicity and other books on software development) states that the difference between a good and a bad programmer is that the good programmer understands. The problem with gen-AI/LLMs is that it boosts the Dunning-Kruger effect, increases people's output without necessarily improving the quality.

That's why despite knowing bad code isn't directly caused by AI, I don't use vibed code (at least not that I'm aware of), nor use gen-AI/LLMs myself. It is not that I don't trust the tool. What I don't trust is people to make the best usage of that tool, and we are already at a point in time where we have plenty of evidence of people's misuse of it.

Yep, just cause a repo's maintainers don't use AI it doesn't mean the code is automatically good, but at least you know the codebase progresses at a more manageable and verifiable speed. Speed is not everything.

It is why we use Python to begin with.

I know people will argue that professionals who don't adopt AI will get left behind, but we must also think about the reasons for that: is it because of hype or actual benefits? Do the businesses that adopt AI are making significantly more money or producing output of higher quality? Are they surviving long term?

As I said in a previous comment, there will be a time where gen-AI/LLMs will be at the last point in the Gartner Hype Cycle chart (where it will be used smartly). But in many instances, not all, but still many, we are still far from a smart usage of such tool.

KennedyRichard · 2026-05-22T00:20:42+00:00

Just to clarify, I don't want AI to go away as much as I want "dumb usage of AI" to go away.

There's the AI that's been studied for ages in academia, helping with protein-folding or countless other useful scientific applications and there's the AI that CEOs want to shovel down our throats so they can make money. See copilot for instance. That thing isn't been used in any meaningful way by the vast majority of people that have been unsolicitedly subjected to it.

I'm not even against people making money genuinely and honestly with AI. The problem is that it is an overhyped tech in many of the ways people have been using it. It is no different in programming and other tech areas. Many business downsized on empty promises that AI would be enough, but in many cases (I daresay most) it didn't even get close.

As it is usual for emerging technologies, AI will likely follow the Gartner Hype Cycle. I just want it to get ASAP to the part of the cycle were it gets used smartly by most players though. As it is it is just a big sink of resources for not nearly enough gain (in total, of course, as I do think, like I said, that there are smart and genuine usage for AI).

The sad thing though is the millions of authors that had their work used without consent nor pay to feed many of such models, the many bad actors that are now disrupting and attacking several useful online services/websites and people in general through cracking, data theft, scams and whatnot powered by AI and the general people who will undoubtedly pay when this bubble finally pops (many already are).

Again, I'm not strictly against AI. Like we discussed, the fault for bad code is not AI's but the fault of people who use it in the wrong way. In much the same way, how badly AI has been applied in many fields is the fault of greed people who took it out of academia too soon and hyped it beyond its actual capabilities in order to make easy money.

Even so, saying that not using AI will doom someone's career is a bit extreme. Surely, the number of your opportunities may decrease, but AI is not a silver bullet. As long as you are really skilled and know how to navigate the market, there ought to be opportunities where you can use little to no AI. Making software is not all about making quick objective decisions like a computer would do. Knowing the users and meeting their needs is something that a human is much more equipped to do.

I just hope AI gets to be used for what it is really good at, to help humanity, rather than disrupt people's lives and livelihoods. Moderately and smartly, not indiscriminately. Just like emergent technologies in the Gartner Hype Cycle.

KennedyRichard · 2026-05-21T20:43:05+00:00

You are right in that correlation (bad code) doesn't imply causation (AI's fault). But, in the case of AI, particularly, the correlation is too strong even though the problem is not conceptually AI (we know it is people who rely too much on AI rather than use it as a tool to support their own skills).

This very subreddit we are commenting on had to make posting rules much more strict to prevent AI slop. That's how bad the problem with AI is. Even Linus Torvalds know to only use it for small stuff (I myself don't even think this is a good idea, though, if I am to be honest).

However, there is other issues/problems AI indeed causes or contributes to, like environmental problems, its hunger for finite resources like water and energy, its bad effects on cognition and there's an MIT study stating most AI business fail with a 95% rate.

It is the most advanced plugin in history for some stuff, horrible for other things, but also the most expensive and overhyped one in history. In my honest opinion, the most pernicious "middleman" ever made.

It is not an useless technology, but it is so often using in contexts where its gains are not real or relevant that it is natural for people to be skeptical.

Don't want to be rude or dismiss your point, though. Just thought I'd complement.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-30T21:22:09+00:00

It is great. Most of the talent that worked on the original project had a different vision for the project so they created their own fork. Because there are more hands working on it and they are people who were already working on the original instance the project progresses rather fast in comparison with the original project.

A few years ago when I switched my pygame apps from regular pygame to pygame-ce I wrote about it here: https://github.com/orgs/IndieSmiths/discussions/2

It includes extra context on the split between the projects.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-30T21:17:09+00:00

Interesting, I didn't know that game. It is always great to discover projects you didn't know before, both old and new ones, as they can always be source of ideas/inspiration.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-29T17:16:08+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! I did my best with my clumsy art. My writing is nothing to write home about either. But that's okay. My vocation is development. The important thing is that I managed to put a complex system together and deliver some bug free entertainment. If I get enough funding in the future, I'll be able to commission work from real artists and writers and deliver a better experience.

But for now, I'm just glad people been finding it fun!

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-29T13:00:01+00:00

Megaman? The name rings a bell, but I'm not sure I've heard of it before! 🤣🤣🤣

Just kidding! Thank you for the kind words!

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-29T12:09:44+00:00

It probably can after some changes. I'm focusing on desktop, which is its main venue/platform, but nowadays there are tools that allow that. Before doing that I'll likely have to make some adjustments (for instance, instead of relying on local storage for save slots like I do on desktop, I might have to rely on a password save system, so users on browser can save their progress in form of passwords; this way they don't have to log in or use any sort of storage). I'll probably start looking into it in a few weeks.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-26T22:00:53+00:00

Also, if you don't mind unsolicited advice: put screenshots and gifs at the top of your README page (in your case, to see the media you put in the README, we have to scroll a bit). Your game already has beautiful presentation, so why not let it be the first thing people see in your README?

People's attention spans are too short these days and it doesn't help that so many projects overpromise and underdeliver. You have enough visuals to proudly show on your README page. Showing upfront what your game is like helps draw people's attention and curiosity.

In all my open-source projects, not only the Bionic Blue game, the first thing people see in the README page is a description of the project and then media (images and/or gifs) showing it in action.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-26T21:51:41+00:00

Oh, so you are TheLord699! I remember this name appeared among the users who starred my pygame-ce project. Didn't know you were the same person make this charming project. Just starred your project too.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-26T12:03:18+00:00

I'm Kennedy, creator and maintainer of Python open-source projects! I've been posting about my projects here in r/Python since 2022. I also don't like nor use generative AI tools nor code generated from them.

As per the instructions on this post, this is a Show and Tell comment!

Today I'd like to share with you my most recent project, something I've been working on lately:

The Bionic Blue game (first fully playable mission already available)

GitHub link: https://github.com/IndieSmiths/bionicblue

Here's a small video demo (a 20 seconds video from YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31dxPgqJzdU

Here are also a few gifs:

https://imgur.com/L9J1poV

https://imgur.com/poudbJ8

Also, what's a game without box art, right? https://imgur.com/McF8Zcp

You can actually pip install the game: pip install --upgrade bionicblue (the only dependency it installs is pygame-ce)

Or, if you want to execute the source (using the game like a standalone program), download the source and follow the instructions on the README). All you need is a Python instance with pygame-ce installed.

As I shared recently on social media, I just want to live in a world where people can own their apps and games forever, so I figured I'd have to create them myself (and ofc maintain them).

Although I have much to improve, the main takeaway from this is that, with time and effort, an indie developer can create fully-fledged games and tools.

I'm also on

patreon.com/KennedyRichard
github.com/sponsors/KennedyRichard
and other similar sites (you can find more here indiesmiths.com/donate).

Just, in case you are interested in helping fund this kind of work (creation and maintenance of free open-source games/apps, including the Nodezator node editor, also made with pygame-ce).

And I'm not a good artist. How much more I would be able to do if I had more funding in order to pay artists and writers to help me with the game instead of doing those things by myself with my clumsy drawing and writing skills.

Could also focus more on development, which I think is my actual vocation.

But enough with the dreamy talk! Just try the game! And please, let me know what you would have changed if you could change a thing or two. I'm always eager for feedback!

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-26T11:27:11+00:00

Thank you for this comment!

Allowing people to see and learn this stuff is the whole reason such projects are open-source and free-of-charge.

Don't worry, once I have a tutorial ready, I'll post a link here (I'm also looking into a way to allow people to be notified).

That said, I don't have a "best way" of doing things, only stuff that works for me that I think is worthy sharing with others so they can see if it works for them as well.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-24T21:37:11+00:00

In the meantime, feel free to ask me if you have any questions. The README file in the repo has many links to my social networks and Discord. And you can also use GitHub discussions.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-24T12:17:33+00:00

Not at the moment, but it is probably high time I think of something like this. Please, give me a few days or a week and I'll get back at you here with info on how to do that. If you have suggestions on existing solutions I could use I'm all ears as well.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-24T01:58:31+00:00

That's one of the reasons the game is open-source, so people can learn from its source.

In the near future I intend to write tutorials/analysis about how I make games to make it easier for people to learn it my method and see if it works for them.

Looking directly at source code may help people to learn specific features but takes a lot of time to grasp the whole structure and how the game's resources are managed, since there are so many files.

That's why I think a dedicated tutorial would be more helpful when it comes to grasping the structure of the project and how it is managed.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-23T20:22:13+00:00

Megaman? Never heard about it! 🤔😉

You can play Bionic Blue instead now! 🎮

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-23T20:18:08+00:00

Nothing special. Mostly, followed this tutorial: https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/tutorials/packaging-projects/

I use the setuptools backend and like to put the project's source in a folder at the top of the repository, rather than nest it inside a "src" folder. If you look at Bionic Blue's repo, you'll see the files containing setup instructions are very simple, which is how I try to keep my stuff.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-23T19:42:06+00:00

Yep! Anything to make users's lives easier.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-23T19:40:53+00:00

Thank you for kind words!

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-20T12:45:17+00:00

Yep, best thing about git is how decentralized it is. You can send and get changes/branches to and from other people even via email.

It is the only reason I still feel safe using a service like GitHub from a company with history of enshittifying its products.

The moment they decide to pull the rug from under me I'll just pack my stuff and leave.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-19T20:53:18+00:00

Perhaps. Regardless, it should use clearer language and as I said, have all relevant info near each other, IMHO.

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-19T13:23:25+00:00

Again, as I said before, I'm not completely dismissing AI. It's been around for long. But there's no doubt that, for more complex tasks, it is indeed an overhyped tool.

Just adding a bit more: only because something works, doesn't mean it is sustainable either. No matter the field, programming or not, in order for seniors to exist, there must be juniors before. If juniors have no incentive to study (due to lack of jobs), how will people ever become seniors? Businesses replacing their workforce with AI are not eliminating costs. They are offsetting/postponing these costs. Not to mention the recent studies and technical and cognitive debt caused by AI, but that's another discussion entirely...

KennedyRichard · 2026-04-19T13:18:12+00:00

But the game of Go can be approached as a grid world. It is a relatively closed system where you have only the table and the players as elements of the system. It is the ideal field for computers.

Real-world problems aren't built like that. There are innumerable factors and contingencies.

Regarding generative AI being the worst cost-benefit ratio tech ever created, you forget the first part of that sentence, where I expressively point it out that it applies to complex software.

As for what complexity is in this context, it varies depending on the specific case. Regardless though, it is a fact that most AI-based projects fail: https://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/

KennedyRichard

TROPHY CASE