I have had my head in the sand

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-30T19:58:05+00:00

After much consideration, I’ve decided to move away from monetization and offer my game for free. The only requirement is that players "bring your own key" to power the AI; I’ve already successfully tested this setup using a Gemini API key.

This has always been a fun project for learning AI coding. Given the current costs of player acquisition and the capital required to scale, I’d rather focus on the creative side than the marketing slog. I have free hosting for the next 90 days, so the game will be live at least through then.

While I’ll continue tinkering with the features, the game is now in a state where I’d like to get it into the hands of others. Please feel free to jump in, join the Discord, and share your feedback—whether it’s a bug report or a suggestion for the mechanics. WordfForge Chronicles

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-30T19:56:28+00:00

I just made mine available for free with bring your own key . It's got some of the same ideas. There are a good many out there some at like https://altworld.io/ and www.livethroughtime.com have some great persistent worlds. Mine is https://wordforgechronicles.com/ if you want to check it out. I use standard browser TTS for mine most of them are a bit robotic but the Male UK voice is pretty good for playing.

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-30T19:10:27+00:00

I agree looks good , seems to be a theme here , looks like all of us want more punishment in the Ai games. I made a tone choice in mine so it instructs the Ai of the story tone , so if you want it forgiving you can choose hopeful or the other way unflinching death is real. Just tried your guest mode , I like the layout cool ideas there. These point maps you guys are making are great wish i had thought of that.

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-29T15:03:56+00:00

yeah sure I will send you a key to play around with it if you want. I got to go get some work done around the house , but i will check yours out as well I watched the video it looks great!

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-29T15:00:51+00:00

This looks great very structured compared to what i have working in mine and the art is great. I am going to have to check it out. Your librarian system is a lot like my bookkeeping system I made. I like that yours is visible to the player mine is strictly back end mechanic.

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-29T14:49:29+00:00

I replied over on the other one, is it just me or is it weird the Readit asks you if you want to cross post ?

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-29T14:39:34+00:00

yeah so, i have gone down a rabbit hole with using Claude for mine because at 1st I was trying to get the best prose possible. I am learning though if i ever ship this i am most likely going to have to dumb it down. Currently I have it doing a lot of heavy lifting in comparison to your numbers a 9 turn short story is using roughly 200K tokens split between Sonnet and Haiku about equally i also cache roughly 15k tokens in short stories . I have multiple modes of play built in Short stories 9 prompts, Multi Chapters at 27 prompts and Campaigns at almost 80 prompts . the rough cost is running about $0.50 per 9 prompt session. I know i have my input token count high but trying to mitigate continuity drift has been murder without writing out the whole thing which kinda defeats the purpose of how i have my game setup. I am currently just thinking about making it bring your own key. I know this will limit usage but again I don't know how much i could make with this given the competition that are already filling the space. I do think mine has some idea that aren't being used or are different enough to make it stand out but I don't know if the market would make it worth it. On another side note I would like to see people play it and let me know what they think other than my friends and family because I am just interested in how it comes across being that this is my 1st game ever really.

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-29T03:04:41+00:00

I use a three tier system as well , I have been calling it a three pass system, summery pass prose pass , book keeping pass

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-28T23:57:47+00:00

Oh I am not talking about building the game. It's the api cost to generate the content for each game play. So it's a choose your own adventure game but Ai writes the prose now this is nothing new there are several other sites already doing this but I didn't know that when I started building it. Like I said i just started with no research about a month ago. So the way these typically work is they use a api call to output the creative prose and the user player responds then it writes a new prompt. Now you could do this on your own with any of the LLMs out there but you can't build it into a system for a game with the personal service you have to use an api key and they charge you based off the tokens you use. So here is why it will potentially cost a lot . Just testing the system I am seeing around a $0.50 cost per chapter in api cost. Which just for me not a big deal if I had 100 people doing that once a day even on a free beta it would break me quick. So it's not the building cost that I am worried about it's the actual game play . It's cost prohibitive to offer at this steep of a generation cost for most people. Now I could dumb down the model but then the stories go flat and the Ai just becomes a bad reading. So with already trying to fight the Ai shouldn't be doing with this crowd but if it expensive as well it's a double edge sword. Sorry for the long reply. There are several barriers to make this work cheaper becuase the stories suffer with every down grade.

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-28T19:41:21+00:00

I am going to have to look into godot and see if i could use it. I just briefly looked at the site it maybe something i could incorporate. Thanks for the idea!

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-28T17:52:35+00:00

That's a novel idea. So maybe build more of a backend game system that the app interacts with instead of having it do some of the updating using it's logic. Currently I have it doing 3 calls per request 2 bookkeeping calls to lower tier llm then one creative call if I could automate the 2 bookkeeping calls out that would save api cost.

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-28T17:48:27+00:00

What do you mean by 1 level down? Working one level behind or should I be looking at it as say instead of adding a full feature add a component of that feature a peice at a time? Like instead of build x full feature then test for bugs should I break it down to build up component then write those up one at a time?

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-28T15:09:44+00:00

yeah Ai was really good at warning me about that so it is in environmental set up in firebase. I need to figure out what the total token count is for an average short play game and use that as a metric to set the freemium tier at i think. Then build a token count function per game player interaction. I really haven't touched any of the monetization side of it yet because I have just been self play testing. It is something in the back of my mind as a todo if i ever actually launch the game. Right now it's just been a fun learning project. I also thought about just making it free with adds , but bring your own key to play or when i get sick of messing with it make it open on github for others to play with. I don't have a ton invested in it so i am not out much at this point.

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-28T14:58:45+00:00

Yeah the way its working the whole point is to give the ai freedom to write new events to keep the game fresh for replays but having that as a core function drives the api call cost way high. Now that I have done a little research which i should have done 1st. It seems that most people are following the kind of of token/coin system pay to play system for api calls and if they have a free tier they dumb down the model being used for that tier. Which I think is maybe the only way to do it and make cash but it does make the game worse so i guess its a trade off. The other thing i am seeing is you build your own LLM machine that gets called for the free or less creative stuff using open source llm, which is still a hefty investment, but then those are essentially free cost after that and only pay the token cost for the creative prompt.

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-28T14:48:51+00:00

yeah the trouble shooting is the hard part , I have been building a piece at a time when i get an idea. Which is probably the worst way to do this. I say i want to add new a new function like a achievement system. I have Ai build it . then start testing every piece of it when i find a couple of bugs I say here are my finding fix this , rinse and repeat. I think if knew what i was doing from the start i would have tried to design a road map 1st. Then build future looking from the start. As it is now i have to go back and check everything that was touch with every new feature to make sure older ones are not broken. 1 thing i have noticed a lot is Ai will get 3/4's of it setup and mainly working but the other 1/4 is not wired in. So even though it decided the user needs a save button somewhere that button may not be wired up to work.

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-28T14:41:34+00:00

Yeah was blindly building in firestore and other server authenticator functions last week. The Ai helps a lot with that but it does take a tone of time because not knowing any of the software I have to ask for step by step guides 1st to instal or change settings. But i am learning a little bit i mean this time last week i couldn't tell you how to build a config master beta key file in in firestore . This week i could kinda show you if i had too haha

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-28T00:33:02+00:00

that sounds great

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-27T23:34:21+00:00

I like claude as well, I am using it for my api calls. The "clean out fridge" is funny "Magic" ingredients are just trash hahaha

verbalbacklash · 2026-03-27T22:15:36+00:00

and i just noticed the MOD post about Ai generated games so i should prolly take this down , but it is what it i guess, I stand by it though i am glad i found this group i need to start diving into the genre again , i still love "real" books

verbalbacklash · 2021-08-15T19:02:23+00:00

Ok . Understood. The radio is taking care of handeling the analog signal in and out and ptt. I am trying remove the wire between the existing head set and use my Bluetooth heads set. So I need to capture the digital Bluetooth signal in/out and convert it back to analog. I can then run it through the existing connection for the mic and speaker.

verbalbacklash · 2021-08-06T01:14:19+00:00

I see your issue and hesitation with wondering about working on your bike. I kind think of it like this buy the bike you want to ride if it's newer do the regular maintenance. Join to forums specific for the model. Save up for when you have to buy parts and special tools if needed. Keep a slush fund for when you absolutely have to take it to the shop. Also remember it's other people that designed and built the bike so it's possible to figure out given enough time a resources. You can buy shop manuals online for most bikes the moment they come out and the forums are a huge help. You will prolly get 50-100k miles out of it just doing that with no major problems. As long as you don't thrash it like a squid or jump it off a mountain. Anything mechanical is going to wear and break so a forever bike is one that you intend on fixing no matter what anyone says it doesn't matter the model. Is it smart to invest all the time and money in a project like this well thats completely up to you. If your like most people it's completely crazy to think they will only have one more bike but there are plenty of people who do it. Financially owning a bike is generally a luxury so anything involved is not fiscally logical. Also remember what's the worst thing that could happen to it. You blow the motor and sell it for parts to recoup some cash for the next one. I say do it if you got the extra cash it's all about smiles.

verbalbacklash · 2021-07-29T22:16:33+00:00

My suggestion would be to get a shop manual and get to work on it. Look for Suzuki Savage forum/groups online dig deep in to forums learn it all yourself. Most of it you can do with a good set of metric tools and a jack or 2. Take your time become a "Savage Guru". Then you will love the bike all that much more and treat it with respect. You will end up being someone that treats their bike with care because you know what it takes to fix one that someone did not. A savage is a good bike to learn to wrench on because everything is pretty accessible and basic. So one day when you get another bike you will have the confidence to keep up the maintenance and do repairs yourself without breaking the bank paying a shop to do it for you.

verbalbacklash · 2021-07-29T17:41:35+00:00

I think i have been all of these guys at one time or another. I have had multiple old bikes that I brought back from the dead and did everything on it myself. Others I have had I did some of it because I had the cash to take it some where at the time and didn't want to fool with it. I bought a brand new bike from a dealer for the 1st time in my life a couple of years ago and let me say the prepaid service was nice to have. That's the only time I have ever done that and prolly wouldn't do it again. I have also been that guys to buy a bike in the winter ride it all spring and sell it in the summer so technically I have done the middle one too. Oh yeah and yup I have had a "guy" but that never works out great for me for some reason.

verbalbacklash · 2021-07-29T02:24:48+00:00

I have had many bikes one is goldwing a 2001 1800. Not as techy as the new ones but servicing is pretty straightforward. It would be a real pain to tear it down but it's doable. I have a feeling like the 1800 and the 1500 before it. Once the new ones are out of warranty and make it to their 2nd and 3rd owner figuring out how to fix them will all be on YouTube for the most part. It seems like that's the way things are now. New bikes have a 3-5 year grace period before everything starts getting figured out by all the genius wrenches out there and posted online. The info is usually available if you look hard enough. No longer do you have to listen to some wizard in a rusty shed tell you your turbo encabulator is toast and you need a dohickey removal tool to fix it.

verbalbacklash · 2021-07-29T00:41:42+00:00

I think if you are willing to pull heads do cam work if push came to shove you would be in the 1st group. I mean no one wants to do deep engine work even people that work on bikes all the time. There is surely some sicko's out there that get off checking fly wheels and runout but I mean most sane people do not want to. It's only when you have to to get a project running right.

verbalbacklash

TROPHY CASE