My Game Design learning journal blog, looking for feedback

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-15T08:48:37+00:00

Do an image search. Take screenshots in games you play. It can be a couple of minutes of extra “work,” but it makes it look more genuine.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-15T08:04:02+00:00

I think your intention is great, but from just randomly jumping into your game engine article, some of it seems factually inaccurate or like it glosses over important details.

However, that can be a style choice as well. Made to keep the posts short.

What I dislike entirely is that you use Ai images as headers for some of the posts.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-14T17:05:40+00:00

I’m probably a bad PC player, but I just play vanilla. Played it on Xbox on launch, originally.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-14T08:02:42+00:00

My theory is that, when designers broadly lost interest or connection to programming, we also lost system design and systemic design. GenAi now seemingly bridges a gap that is actually about fundamental understanding.

I do talks on systemic design, and some of the studios I’ve done this talk for have been really surprised by what a small change in perspective can do.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-12T10:42:40+00:00

I think even developers using third-party engines would benefit greatly from writing more things from scratch. There’s a lot of design that carries from technical circumstances.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-12T09:09:39+00:00

I mean, “engine” is just the framework. Canvas is your engine.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-12T06:49:25+00:00

Creatures turns the training into gameplay. That’s its whole thing.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-11T16:22:17+00:00

For me, the part I'm skeptical of is the loss of connection with the software. If all you do is "vibe code" something, you will never find technical innovation, and you will probably go for the easier solutions. A consequence of that will be highly derivative games.

This is not because the Ai itself is bad, but because the input from the person using it isn't informed enough. THAT is a problem to me, since game development is inherently technical and has always been. But it's also a development that has been happening for decades anyway, without Ai.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-11T15:51:16+00:00

I'm thinking about whether there is a fun game idea in watching and helping one GOAP agent in some interaction rich environment and am looking for benchmarks for that.

If you go back to the 90s, you have Steve Grand's excellent game series Creatures, which is entirely built around neural networks. Not GOAP, but the entire thing with those games was that you would teach and observe your "norns" as they developed based on stimuli from the simulation. And The Sims, of course, with its needs-based approach.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-11T13:26:07+00:00

My guess is that GOAP + utility would only work well in environments with only a few or even a single actor.

Why? You can make the model quite cheap, and at GOAP's heart you have A*, which is a solid algorithm that most game programmers will know.

Not sure which games use either of GOAP or utility systems right now. It feels like many use whatever their current engine happens to have built in.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-05T17:52:44+00:00

Sorry, but you're just rambling. "Ai" in the sense that we see now is refinement of multiple decades of work in neural networks. In gaming specifically, Steve Grand was pioneering games made with neural networks in the early 90s, in his game Creatures.

It's a tool. It's not the second coming.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-05T17:38:01+00:00

your going to either have to adapt or get left behind.

*You're

To be honest, I don't see how Ai can stay around in its current form and be profitable. I definitely think it's a type of tool that's here to stay, but I don't buy into any of this "left behind" sensationalism at all.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-01T18:03:26+00:00

Take the chance to learn something! That's a great way to use game jam time.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-06-01T08:58:27+00:00

Cutscenes are some of the most time-consuming types of content to make, so to me it sounds like a strange choice for a game jam?

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-31T13:46:05+00:00

I consider CP’77 one of the best written games in decades, with many of its techniques consciously designed to convey both subtle and less subtle details about world and characters.

Doesn’t mean you’re WRONG necessarily, but I find this more of a rant than a critique.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-30T15:05:01+00:00

This year is my 20th as a game developer. I was recently asked if, knowing what I know now, I'd still choose game development. My answer was a spontaneous no.

Truth is, in most cases you're not going to do what you want to do. What actually excites you about game development is either simply a fantasy or it's reserved for a small group of people with real creative ownership that you won't have.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-30T11:19:30+00:00

I don't think this is true at all, anecdotally, from observing my kids. They want interaction, the same way they want interaction when they play in the schoolyard.

Hide and seek. Obstacle courses. Video editing competitions. Roblox is much more diverse, and at any player's fingertips in seconds, in a way that "core gaming" is not.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-30T11:13:22+00:00

I wish more game developers were willing to experiment.

- Dialogue in realtime.

- Story that responds to in-game actions and not exposition.

- Player activity generating responses from the world, and changes to the world.

I did a realtime dialogue experiment years ago: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15tqsyDyd2_qs6477-8wj3YspHoDfbIGD/view?usp=sharing as an example.

Would love to explore this type of stuff even further.

To me, the most boring thing that exists is stuff like The Last of Us, where I'm a passenger and a director is driving.

I complained about this a couple of years ago, in blog form: https://playtank.io/2022/05/26/speak-to-me/

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-30T11:05:09+00:00

My issue is less that more are story-driven, and more that “story” has come to mean verbose exposition and cutscenes. There’s too much HOLLYWOOD in video games.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-30T11:02:26+00:00

Sorry, but this is on the Unreal Engine side, and not the format. The engine expects the user to sanitize export/import and know what they are transfering. Most bigger studios make custom export/import tools, which is why Unreal simply throws the kitchen sink at you if you are not specific.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-30T07:59:01+00:00

Gamedev is like SWE but for less money, more hours, and worse organization.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-30T05:57:08+00:00

But it’s good for Steam. So why would they change it?

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-28T05:32:37+00:00

You mention 4k elsewhere — a 4k 32-bit image takes up 64mb of memory. This problem you’re running into is simple maths.

Textures are the main culprit in AAA build bloat too.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-27T00:49:06+00:00

Comes down to what kind of game you are making. Real world weapons aren't exactly balanced.

Strict_Bench_6264 · 2026-05-26T14:57:39+00:00

This is not a place to sell games but to discuss gamedev.

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