this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2025
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So I'm in two minds about this. I am a software engineer by trade and have an idea for a game I'd like to try making.
The problem is that I don't even really know how to make games, not do I have any artistic abilities myself. I can't afford to pay a load of artists for work for a game that might never be finished and might never make money.
So I'm stuck in this hard decision of do I try and make my game, invest a lot of money and potentially lose it all, or do I try and find a publisher who can front the money but lose creative control of my game? Or do I use AI to give me a head start in building something that I can use to garner interest in, in the hope that enough people like it that I can fund the development?
Essentially, AI offers me a way to create something that I would not otherwise be able to create and that's really hard to accept.
The 20-80 rule really saves your ass when you're a solo dev.
Be really good at the one thing, nail the game mechanics, and then learn the 20% you need to be 80% good at everything else. If the game is kick ass, it'll be forgiven if everything looks like stick figures(but well drawn stick figures, mind)
Yeah I've never been able to draw in my entire life, believe me I tried. I have an eyesight impairment and that doesn't help.
My guy you can literally use MSpaint and circle tool and eraser to clear some lines to make a guy. I conceptualized and drew this in like 5 minutes. Some angel platformer fighter character. I imagine the bandana flowing and trailing behind the character as they jump. Could probably use the halo as a weapon or something. The hardest part was the bandana which was the only part I did free hand. This is obviously a first draft concept art and needs to be seriously polished and prepped for animation, but in the second picture I shrunk it down to 64x64 and a lot of the flaws disappear. You just need to learn some technical stuff about composition and color theory to make something that's even half decent and it will be enough. Or hell, literally steal this character idea because I'm not doing anything with it. Here's you're written permission.
Make a cool game and put MSpaint art in it! (but actually use a better program because MSPaint kinda sucks.)
I don't know. I think you used a computer. That is going to put people out of work. As a former graphic artist, this really shits on my field. That no longer exists, because computer.
I kind of am joking around, but I really used to do this stuff and we debated what was acceptable using "clip art" books vs hand drawings. That was a physical thing back in the day, and people worried about mass produced clip art ruining everything.
Yewahh.... How does that help?
I'm just showing you there's ways around limitations.
I appreciate that, but that isn't really a solution for a saleable game. Concept art sure but that's it.