I Tried Coding a Game With ChatGPT, Here’s How It Went

howtogeek.com:

AI is the new buzzword that everyone seems to be talking about. Even phones are getting fully implemented AI applications, but there's a lot more you could do with tools like ChatGPT, including coding a game. I've been developing games for almost a decade, and have even released a few projects and participated in a couple of game jams on Itch.

When I discovered ChatGPT, the first thing I wanted to do was see if I could use it in game development. As always, ChatGPT is eager to help and almost feels like the world's most into-it intern.

Can ChatGPT Code a Game for You?

It's quickly apparent that GPT's willingness to teach you to code a game is well-meaning but requires you to understand a bit about what you're doing. As someone who's been an amateur game developer for more than a decade, I know a little bit about coding a game. In using GPT to help me, I was interested in seeing how sophisticated it was for producing a playable game prototype.

It Certainly Understands Game Engines

A game engine is what a developer uses to create a game. Several game engines are available, including Unreal Engine, Godot, and Unity. As someone who knows Unity well, I decided to use this as my development engine. I asked a few general questions (that I know the answer to) to ensure that ChatGPT wouldn't start hallucinating about my game engine.

After sorting out that it at least knew what it was doing, I decided to give the framework for my project, which included:

• Random generation of a scrolling background
• Having a player character controlled by directional buttons, with mouse buttons for firing
• A point system with a leaderboard
• An endless amount of enemies, so players can play casually

ChatGPT was very helpful in offering code solutions for some of the things I would need to create this game. For example, I asked it for some code for a projectile I would fire from the player's position when they hit the "Fire" button, and it gave me this: