As far as I understand, the best any AI was able to get to until now was being able to produce blue science which is like level 2 or 3 of a science tree like 10 levels deep.
To me who has maybe put 20-30 hours into Factorio, this is even more impressive stuff than some of the Blender videos I've seen... just mind-boggling.
While we have you here - I've seen this discussion multiple times - does @dang "do" anything to get your attention, or did you just happen to see it because you were scanning the comments manually, and therefore email is better for letting you know something?
Two weeks ago, I released the tactical map-based WW2 submarine sim Silent Shark (which I got feedback on from HN for beta test a few months ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48180924 ) and it's gone extremely well for a side project - I've had over 100 Steam reviews, 99% of them are positive, and I have sold a few thousand copies so far.
I began working on this game just 6 months ago and have only worked on it in my spare time in evenings and on weekends, instead of playing computer games. I made the early decision to use Codex for 100% of the coding, that has been a phenomenal experience.
The only Image Gen AI I've used has been to clean up 2 old and weathered historical maps I found, to make them readable.
Still have over 25,000 Steam wishlists and growing. I'm super thankful and having a blast.
Thanks! I've been into submarine sims since I was a kid and my dad showed me Silent Service 2. Later I got into Silent Hunter 4 and I started thinking that it would be fun one day to distill the core tactical stuff to just a simple map (so that you could practice the geometry stuff of approaching ships with uncertain data).
That idea bounced around in my head for ages until I decided back in February to give it a shot and make a prototype. It turned out that the prototype was a lot of fun so I kept going :)
Thanks for trying it out and for the feedback! I used to have the red arrows be pulsating and got feedback that it felt "too much" and kind of out of place in the game... probably need to find a middle ground.
I'd also like to hear what AI smells you are picking up in the game.
The only AI graphics in the game (as described on Steam) are literally just clean-up jobs of existing historical maps. That is it.
This is very much a hand crafted game. The design is my own - what I heavily used AI for was the coding side of things as well as for creating my own tools for myself to design things like ships, instrument dials, shipping lanes, etc.
Not OP. I can't claim whether it's AI or not, just why it could possibly raise such concerns.
I think the UI elements and layout look very similar to how LLMs like to create them. It's hard to describe, but something about the rounded-edge, thick outline buttons equidistantly placed on the side bars, and heavily dependent on tabbed layouts in sub-menus. I'd argue there's parts where menus have too much empty space, which typically hints that a menu hasn't been thought out completely. It's also the most common type of game/dashboard view that LLMs are capable of: canvas in the middle with interactive buttons on the sides.
For an example of an immersive and good looking UI I'd look to something like Sunless Sea. It's a different type of game and is more narrative driven, but it doesn't have any of the more web-like UI qualities.
Wow, hadn't heard of Sunless Sea till now, what I'm seeing of it looks gorgeous, thanks.
For Silent Shark, the map being kind of the "protagonist" if you will and then having the trays of buttons or instruments on the side was also kind of the idea in my head from the beginning.
Till now at least from sub sim fans I've heard nearly only praise for the design. But to be fair, most of the more famous submarine sims aren't necessarily known for beautiful clean UI anyways, so it's not like there are high expectations I suppose. :)
I just wanted to say that I too got the AI vibe. Which doesn't mean I would hate it! I don't care how you code. But it probably does send a slight signal of the level of effort and professionalism.
I think part of it is the UI/website text: AI tends to be verbose. And the look just feels slightly off, like the parts don't fit together. (I think AIs are better at image generation than at visual UI generation right now.)
You've got a promising product... could you hire someone to polish the UI side?
Sure, I completely understand that UI has different needs from a sim's perspective. Given that I haven't tried a sub sim before, I have yours bookmarked to try out :)
Nearing the release of my first game ever - Silent Shark, a tactical, map-based WW2 submarine sim releasing this Wednesday on PC, Mac, and Linux! I'm at about 17,000 wishlists on Steam and I'm having such a blast. Very impressed with Steam so far.
I designed Silent Shark to be the sweet spot of minimalism meeting realism of dials and procedures (like a simulated Torpedo Data Computer) that scratches my simmer geek itch without being impossible to write the game myself.
Such a beautiful tribute. You get such a sense of his urgency at really wanting as many as possible to understand how precious and wonderful this woman was to him.
To me who has maybe put 20-30 hours into Factorio, this is even more impressive stuff than some of the Blender videos I've seen... just mind-boggling.