[FredrikNoren]

Hi HN. We want to make it possible for anyone to build games without first learning to code or make art, by giving them access to an “AI game studio”. It’s early days, but here’s what we’ve learned so far building this product. Would love to hear what everyone thinks, and see if we can find some alpha testers for this!

[EwanG]

Having done a couple indie games myself over the years, I think you're addressing many of the pain points of building such a game. However the REAL problem as an indie gamer is getting a marketing/get-the-word-out campaign such that said game produces enough income to cover the cost of making it.

Will you be adding a "marketing" add-on to this to help developers actually get their games noticed and played?

[FredrikNoren]

So far we've focused 100% on the creation side of things, but we're absolutely interested in helping people on the marketing side too.

Something we've discussed here is; since it's an online platform, could it be possible for creators to form communities around their games as they are being built (even more than now), with perhaps features to engage your community around what you create (imagine that your players can comment on things in the game as they play test it, for instance). This is quite speculative for now, but it's something we're interested in exploring.

[intended]

Same issue - who is going to play it?

There are many indie games that never got made, lots of iterations of the current hotness (the Vampire survivors era may almost be over?)

People still play CS:GO. People still play The Sims. There are an infinite number of alternatives.

Professional game devs will talk about marketing because thats the problem when it comes to selling games.

The alternative is to make game creation fun - which then gets you to Roblox territory. Have people make games and share them quickly with each other.

[Philpax]

> The alternative is to make game creation fun - which then gets you to Roblox territory. Have people make games and share them quickly with each other.

That's the plan :-)

[omneity]

Marketing is hardly something that can be done via an "add-on" or some mechanical approach.

It's more of a mindset, getting yourself and what you're working on known is something you need to do throughout the entire process, before, during and after the release of a game.

[sarahduck]

If you want people to be able to make games without having to "make art", I feel like you've misunderstood what video games are.

Part of me thinks this might be a good idea for children, as I grew up on simple game creators like Warioware DIY. But I also hate to think that children would grow up simply telling the computer what to generate instead of being encouraged to do it themselves in some capacity.

[ganzuul]

It looks like a new kind of sandbox game and it certainly is a very promising concept. It might allow for entirely new types of collaborative storytelling. e.g. if a player marks an item as 'important' the next level generated builds on that thread.

Personally I would love to have a dedicated tool for generating mods for established games like Minecraft and let simple drawings be given life in game worlds.

[ryanlbrown]

Is this like GameMaker but AI-based, or is it more lofty and at risk of biting the hand that feeds it?

[FredrikNoren]

I'd say it's something in that direction (GameMaker) yeah. One big difference (other than the AI part) is that both building and playing is multiplayer by default. (Though of course, you can choose to make things single player and to build solo). With biting the hand that feeds it; I sure hope not! :) I've built my fare share of obscure indie games, and we in the company have friends and family members who do now as well, so the aim is to build something that can help people like this.