Why you can’t show your work anymore | AI and game development

AI was sold to indie game developers as the thing that finally closes the gap. The same technology is now being used to kneecap them, and this goes well beyond games.

The pitch was simple. Whatever deficiency you thought you had, large language modeling evened the score. The smaller guy finally got a chance. The problem with that line of thinking is that people stopped at the spectacle. I can make something visually stunning. I can make something that technically works. What did not get considered was commercial viability, the economics, and most importantly that the exact same technology can be used unethically against you.

Go look at social media right now. Independent developers are getting their stuff cloned. You market your game the way you are supposed to, you post your progress, and unethical copycats take the idea and generate their own version. Sometimes it lands on a mobile store before yours does.

Then there is decompiling. What used to take months, long enough that your game could run most of its cycle, now happens in days.

And I am not talking about the ethical people here. I am talking about the ones who are perfectly happy to sit and wait while you do the hard work of bringing an idea to life, then come take it, or just derail the market altogether.

The second problem is the flood. Look at the sheer volume going up on Steam and how much of it is AI generated. Those numbers are going to keep climbing. When a market gets flooded, people do not go hunting for the unique thing. They revert back to factory settings. They stick to what they know. Which means the marketing advantage swings right back to the mainstream, because they already have the familiar name and the established base. That is the moat. It was never just the technical marvel.

So now, as an independent, what does marketing even look like? If showing your progress is what gets you cloned, you are incentivized to keep everything tight to the chest. But keeping it quiet is how you never get discovered. That is the trap.

Meanwhile the big dogs are leaning in, exactly like I said they would. Epic and Tim Sweeney have been open about where they stand on acceleration. Xbox is standing up a lab. They are trying to get ahead of the conversation, and because they are first in and best dressed, they have the name, the marketing, and the perceived legitimacy. Indies have none of that.

None of this is a case for being a doomer. It is a case for being a realist, because you cannot find solutions to a problem you will not admit exists. I understand wanting your ideas to come to life and wanting to feed your family doing it. But you cannot look at this landscape through your own lens and assume everybody else is operating in good faith. A significant number of people are looking for an advantage and they will take unethical means to get it.

Stop thinking about the people who think like you. We have to start thinking about this more critically.