My dive into "vibe coding"
Vibe Coding and Game Dev Updates
Over the past week, I’ve been figuring out what the AI bros call vibe coding. I did a bit of this in 2023 by creating an eternally free portfolio website on GitHub. Now, since AI continues to make leaps and bounds, I've been making video games.
Trash Catcher
I started last Friday with a simple game where you catch trash in an office setting, styled like flash games during the AOL era of the internet. You can actually play that game here if you're interested.
Bearly Alive
After seeing how easy it is, I'm now working on a game called Bearly Alive, where an unnamed man with infinite ammo survives a world-ending apocalypse caused by a horde of bears. In concept, it's an ammo-management, top-down arcade-style shooter with rogue-lite elements and a heavy metal, 80s-style atmosphere. The goal is to make a game you can complete in a 10–12 minute session while trying to beat your own high score. I'm not trying to get overly complicated for my first "real" game.
You can see a demo of Bearly Alive here.
Since this initial demo, I've added:
- 5 levels
- an ending
- 2 more bear variants
- adjusted power-ups
I'm learning that sometimes things that sound good on paper don't feel good to play. For example, I tried changing the gun to a 60-round machine gun instead of a 6-shot gun that does 10 damage. The shots no longer felt impactful, removing a lot of the tension that the 6-shot gun created.
Building the Game with AI
To develop Bearly Alive, I’ve been using:
- Grok 3 for coding
- GPT AI and Photoshop for assets
- Suno AI for music
- Free sounds from Pixabay
Although coding a game with AI is much simpler than writing it yourself, there is still definitely a learning curve. However, doing the following can speed up the process:
- Asking the right questions
- Deciding which tasks to tackle first
- Troubleshooting errors effectively
I should be back with another update on the game.
