Alongside writing article aboutusing ChatGPT , coming to terms with AI chatbot has been a major mission of mine for the past yr . I ’ve determine it useful for coming up with recipe theme from a list of ingredients , write playfulness alternate account estimation , andclarifying board plot rules . But I wanted to see if it could do something more impressive : teach me how to make a plot .
The first hurdle
I ’ve need to make a secret plan for a while now . I programme a bunch of canonical Flash games when I was a kid — if you could discover my Newgrounds profile , you could have a safe laugh at them — but I ’ve had a few mind check in my nous that have calcified into thoughts that will not budge . I ask to make them someday and perchance someday is now .
But knowinghowto start making a game is n’t prosperous . I did n’t really know what kind of game I was attempt to make , or what railway locomotive I should habituate , or how you actually start make a biz . Until late , I just had n’t done it . I ’d download Unity once , became intimidated , and uninstalled it .
So , the first pace in my game - making journey was to talk to ChatGPT about it . No fancycustom GPT , no plug - atomic number 49 , just me and my buddy — who I ’d asked to respond in an encouraging and understanding way — like it was teaching a nipper .
It talked me through the principal game engine , and after excuse my idea for a plot , it had some suggestion . It at last suggested I could make it in 2D and that although the big locomotive would be not bad too , I might be beneficial off with something like Godot or Game Maker Studio .
I did some external research and ultimately settled on Game Maker . It seemed like the most aboveboard . ChatGPT was unrestrained for me when I said I ’d settled on an engine , and then we got to work on outline my project .
Now what?
So , how do I actually make a secret plan ? ChatGPT suggested I learn the railway locomotive , which make a destiny of signified . But how do I do that ? There were a few approach it said could work , include doing a tutorial . That made gumption , so I observe a tutorial for Game Maker on YouTube and run through it in a couple of hours , making anAsteroidsclone that preteen Jon would definitely have enjoyed playing on the school computers rather of doing the work that had been assign .
But that only really instruct me the basics of where things were in the engine . I write in the Event logic that the TV gave me , and it worked ! corking . Now what ?
Most good advice I ’ve read from experienced developer was just to make another tutorial secret plan . And then another , then another , and keep snuff it until I was versed in the locomotive engine enough to understand it . And onlythenI could tackle my own game .
But I ’m not a complete noob operating by myself , am I ? I have a relative programming expert at my right helping hand whenever I have a question , or even require a code snip example to re-create and paste . I have ChatGPT . I can bound off that and go right to making my own plot . Or so I thought .
It’s all good — until it isn’t
I fuck off off to a flying start . With ChatGPT to walk me through what I needed to do , give me code examples when I was stuck , or make prompting about how I could do thing other than , I made fleet progress . Within a few hour , I had a scanty - finger cymbals prototype of the game .
So , I need ChatGPT how I could expand the plot to make it adult , longer , more fun , and it twist out that the prototype I had made was completely bespoke , with zero capability for enlargement without retool everything .
But that ’s OK . That ’s why it ’s a prototype , correct ? So , we start again , and this meter Ibuilt a CustomGPTthat ’s more forthcoming with what I necessitate and cognize what I ’m cultivate on . I made one that had noesis of all my in - game objects and scripts , some of their computer code snippets , variable gens — the works . And we start up again from the earth up , this fourth dimension using arrays and structs , which is compartmentalized , modular codification that ring to scripts and dynamically destroys example I no longer need , and so on .
But if I ’m honest , I do n’t really bang what most of that means . And on one particular night , I was tired , butreallywanted to get this minute finished before I had to take a couple days away from it for life and kids and everything else . So , I took a shortcut , letting ChatGPT actuallywriteme the code I require . To my delight , I plugged it in , and it worked . Great . Goodnight .
unluckily , what started as a one - off became a drug abuse all too quickly . I began using variable name ChatGPT had come up with , make it notice on the code to help me come back to it later on . I was learning lots about how to make a secret plan and starting to find actuate around the engine well-situated . The second paradigm was coming together , but then I bump off a stumbling block .
A major object just would n’t behave like I wanted it to . ChatGPT suggested some mend , but they did n’t work . I tried count on it out myself . For hours . And I contract nowhere .
I cease up copying the intact upshot code of every single in - game objective and every handwriting into ChatGPT and demand it to find the problem . It did . But the fixture did n’t work . And that was it . I had nothing . Nowhere to turn to .
I was n’t skilled enough to wiretap hunt it myself , and I had n’t used proper interlingual rendition command to wave it back . I had collide with a dead conclusion because of my own desire for speedy development at the price of discernment . I had n’t learned enough about how to make a game , so now that the game I ’d made was break , I had no idea how to fasten it .
The problem
The job with using ChatGPT to teach me how to make a game , and I ideate many other issue , is that ChatGPT doesn’tknowanything . It can access data , and it can write something that sounds like it jazz what it ’s talking about , but it doesn’tknow . So , when I ask it to aid me make something in a certain way , it help oneself me do it in that certain style , without explaining to me that there are better ways to do it .
I did n’t have fuss withhallucination , but I did have difficultness with the way ChatGPT does n’t have the latest Game Maker Studio manual of arms on hand , so it would often make suggestions for deprecated logical system that the Game Maker engine threw up all sort of crimson flags over .
My custom GPT , and even the more professionally promptedGrimoire coding wizard , are not nonrational . They ca n’t anticipate your problem , or imagine that your scope may change in the future , or what you might want or need several conversations from now . It just is n’t a serious reserve for a human instructor , or having the noesis yourself .
The solution
If I do n’t know how to do something , I ask ChatGPT to explain it to me in generalities , and then I use that information it render me to make my own changes in my own game . It ’s dull , but much more stable . When a trouble arises , I can fix it , because I ’m really learning how to make a game . Not just getting ChatGPT to make it for me while I ’m along for the ride .
My developer friends recall this is all very funny because , after having a modern AI as the lynchpin for my former flunk , I ’m just hear how to code like everyone else did . easy , and with lots of mistakes .
I should have require Grimoire about this from the scratch line . When I want to learn something , I learn it from the manual of arms . When I require to double - stop something , I have ChatGPT give it a once over to ensure I ’m heading in the right steering . I ’ve also implemented the GitHub screen background so if I ever go too far off any deep ends , I can quickly claw it back to where it all makes sense again .
I still think ChatGPT is an amazing tool that will continue to ameliorate in its ability to work as an expert coach that ’s available twenty-four hours and Nox , for comparatively little money , and with whatever musical note of voice you want to give it . Just consume it create a to - do list for me at the goal of a encipher session that also praises my efforts and list my accomplishment , is really supporting , as well as practical .
But it ’s not the definitivel solution I trust it would be . And that ’s fine . I ’m still going to keep making my game , and I ’ll still keep using ChatGPT to help me where it can . Hopefully , in a year or two , you ’ll see my colleagues here begrudgingly helping me to promote it . We ’ll see .
In the meantime , if you ’re concerned in creating something with ChatGPT , perhaps scale down your purpose . Instead , learnhow to make a custom GPT chatbot .
