Here's a teaser of the 2D cyberpunk pixel-art action game I'm working on.

This isn't the official trailer. It's just a teaser test to show a bit more of the game. There's still a lot of work and polish ahead.

Steam page coming soon. For now, I'm posting progress on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cityofanimals.game/ (more places coming later).

Any feedback is welcome!

Game:

https://claude.ai/artifact/X3gDbTefCY1wo5NCbqegvu

I was playing with some idea, I have bunch of ideas for some games, but as I don't have much time because of my main project and full time job, I just tried a rough prototype of the idea. If anyone thinks this is cool or even playable I might try to experiment a bit more with this.

Not here to sell anyone on AI tools. If you don't use them, this post isn't for you, and that's fine.

But if you or a contractor puts AI output into something you sell, the plan it was generated on decides what you're allowed to do with it. The landing page usually doesn't tell you, and some of the fine print is pretty sneaky.

I went through the pricing pages, terms and help docs for 36 AI tools people use in gamedev. For every claim I saved the vendor's exact sentence plus the URL and date. 212 claims matched the live page when I re-checked them this week. 39 I couldn't pin down, and those are marked unverified below instead of guessed.

This is the asset side (art, 3D, audio, voice, NPC dialogue). Code tools get one line at the bottom.

What actually surprised me

• Most free tiers can't ship in a paid game. Tripo, Sloyd, Scenario, Luma, Cascadeur, Recraft, Suno, AIVA, Soundful, ElevenLabs, WellSaid and Rosebud all say non-commercial or personal use on free.
• Upgrading later doesn't fix old output. Luma: Free/Lite content is personal use only and the watermark "cannot be removed, even if you later upgrade your subscription." Luma and Recraft both tie commercial rights to stuff made while subscribed.
• Paying isn't the same as being allowed to ship.
  • AIVA Standard (€11/mo) is "limited monetization" on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and Instagram, and AIVA keeps the copyright. You own it on Pro (€33/mo).
  • Mubert's pricing FAQ says Creator "is intended for non-commercial content." Pro ($39/mo) is labeled "Commercial Usage," but the same FAQ says to choose Ultra ($89/mo) for "music in apps or games." On every plan, their license page says "Mubert owns all the rights to the tracks generated."
  • Cascadeur Indie needs revenue or funding under $100k for the prior 12 months, checked at download and at every renewal.
  • Midjourney: if your business grosses over $1M a year you need Pro or Mega to use images commercially.
• Free often means public. Tripo free is the one that got me. Free models are public, and Tripo "retains all rights" in free users' outputs, including the right to license them and make money off them. Recraft free images go in a public gallery and Recraft owns them. Leonardo keeps a perpetual license to public images, and other users can use them too. God Mode AI's $29/mo plan is "up to 200 public generations."
• "Commercial use" and "you own it" are different rows. Meshy free is CC BY 4.0, so you can sell with credit, but Meshy owns the model. SOUNDRAW keeps the phonogram producer's neighboring rights and licenses the music to you. Sloyd gives you a license to use the models, not ownership. Charisma's TTS audio is sub-licensed, not yours.
• Nobody promises it's original. Meshy and Scenario both say they don't guarantee output is unique. Suno: "Suno makes no representation or warranty to you that any copyright will vest in any Output."

The table (checked Oct 15 to 21, 2026. Prices are what the page showed. Check before you rely on any of it.)

Mubert note: Pro ($39/mo) is labeled "Commercial Usage," but the pricing FAQ says "Choose Ultra for client and agency work, music in apps or games." Their page was flipping between two versions earlier this week (the older one sent games to a $199 Business plan), so check it the day you buy.

Code tools, one line: GitHub Copilot, JetBrains AI and Unity AI don't claim ownership of your code. GitHub says output can match code under open-source licenses and that's on you. Copilot individual plans may train on your prompts and snippets unless you opt out.

Steam is a separate check

None of the above is Valve's rule. The Content Survey asks about "Pre-Generated" content: "Any kind of content that ships with your game and is consumed by players that is created with the help of AI tools during development." It also says efficiency gains from AI tools built into dev environments are "not the focus of this section." So Copilot in your IDE and a Suno track in your soundtrack land in different places. If content is generated live while the game runs (Inworld, Charisma style NPCs), the survey also asks what guardrails stop illegal output.

What I couldn't verify

Udio, Adobe Firefly and Convai: every commercial and ownership row is unverified. Either my checker couldn't fetch the page or I couldn't find a sentence that actually says it. Same for Ludo.ai's commercial terms, plus output ownership for Cascadeur, Cartesia, God Mode AI and WellSaid. If you know where a vendor actually states it, send the link.

How I checked, and the limits

• Every row is backed by a sentence copied from the vendor's own page (Valve's for the Steam part). A script re-downloads the page and checks the sentence is still there word for word. No LLM in that loop.
• A separate daily job diffs each pricing page and logs any change with the date. That's how Mubert's pricing page swapping versions showed up.
• I'm not a lawyer. This is what the vendor's own pages say, not whether a court would agree with them. Terms change. Check the plan you were on when you generated the asset.
• Practical thing that costs nothing: when you generate something you might ship, save the plan name and date with a screenshot of the terms, right next to the file.

Disclosure: I built a free site that tracks all this, RespawnStack. No signup, no affiliate links. The full table with the source link and copy date on every row is here: https://respawnstack.com/guides/ai-game-dev-tools-commercial-use-table

If a row's wrong, tell me which one and link the page. I'll fix it and log the date.

Personally, I love the jankyness and personality. But they are inconsistent and anatomically questionable to say the least. Down right ugly in places. 100% would be torn to pieces as AI.

As a fellow dev using AI to help build the game of my dreams, i just want to say: keep going.

The "AI slop" crowd wants you to stop. They think they are protecting art and human creativity. But what they are actually protecting is capitalism's cage. Most of us in this sub dreamed of spending our days building games. Being creative. Having fun. But capitalism demands we become a cog in the machine. It restricts our time so our creativity is restricted to mere hours per week. And it's the hours when our energy is most depleted.

Pre generative AI, a lot of us tried to use whatever spare energy and time we had to get our visions into reality. But damn it's hard. At every step you find there are some other obscure bits of knowledge or skill you're missing that now require many hours to master. To some that is the beauty in the making. But really, a lot of it is just thick mud you had to wade through in order to get to the vision.

Now we can bypass the mud. We can focus on the vision. Finally it is actually about human creativity and not about the mud. If you are doing this for the passion of games, keep going.

Does anyone have any ideas of game modes, or items or mechanics I should add?

I built a free, open-source MCP server that lets Claude control Aseprite. It places real pixels, animates frame by frame, checks its own work, and fixes things when you ask it to.

Unlike AI pixel-art generators, you get pixels on a real grid, a clean palette, and an actual .aseprite file with layers and animation tags, ready for your game.

Repo: https://github.com/diivi/aseprite-mcp

Bonus: aseprite-live by N7z lets you watch the agent draw live in your browser.

I work in enterprise software so not a dev, but I do design software customizations and I just recently started to hobby on a few game ideas through Claude.

Holy fuck guys. Making games is so much more difficult than doing my job.

When you make enterprise software, it:

1. Doesn't need to appeal to the user
2. Doesn't need to be fun
3. Doesn't need to make sense to anyone other than the user's boss

It's sooooo much harder to make a game, holy cow. I was working on this very simple game (a Bills Must Be Paid clone) for the past few weeks and it's about as good as anything I'm ever gonna make, easily 10x better than any customizations I've created in my 10-year career, and it still friggin' sucks compared to millions of free games you can find.

So yeah, just wanted to tip my hat to indie game devs. To have to make the look, sound, feel, mechanics, loops, progression, lore and any of the other dozen of other extremely important aspects, have to fit in a cohesive package is incredible. Being a hobbyist at this makes me appreciate how crazy it is that Stardew Village is a thing, how TF did rollercoaster tycoon ever came to life...

Respect.

You can try the free smash alpha test game mode today on itch . I recommend downloading to desktop if you can.

A nerfed web version is available for those who cant run it on desktop.

Some cool things I like about this project.

1. The soft body physics of the pumpkin feel pretty good but definitely where the perf takes a dive. This is where most of the optimization effort is focused. Its not worth building in my opinion if the pumpkins smash like ceramics.
2. All the pumpkins that you destroyed stay on the farm and rot so you can see the after math of your destruction on the patch.

https://mobicat.itch.io/pumpkin-patch-smash

I made a post here a few days ago about trying to deslopify the animations in my game and there were a lot of very helpful (and some mean lol) comments pointing out why I did not make as much progress as I thought I was.

Most of the feedback was about the skating of character movement and the weightlessness of the attacks. The skating I was aware of but just kind of brushed off as something that happens in games, but the weightlessness I was fairly blind to.

Here is my attempt to fix those! Still a work in progress of course, but thought I'd share because the last round was very constructive for me. What I changed:

• more mechanisms to match player movement with animations and lock feet
• knock back animations with back steps instead of just sliding enemies
• directional camera shakes
• wind up slow downs and accelerated swings
• hit stops (still need to mess with this a bit, some of the faster weapons appear too glitchy)
• more exaggerated blood/directional sprays

I toyed with weapon trails but decided against it, I didn't like the look of it with the rest of the style (please tell me if I'm wrong here)

Any additional feedback (or if you wanna tell me it still looks like shit lol) welcome of course, thank you!!

If you're curious, the game is 100 Bodies in the Grass, a Hero wave defense set in Vietnam during the time of the 3rd Mongol Invasion

A lot of people loved my prototype idea, I honestly didn't even know that that there were games similar to that and many people said that they got reminded from some older games that they used to play in the past. It took me by surprise since all I wanted to see is if general idea was nice enough. But since so many people liked it I proceed to make a polished version which will most likely be for the phone. I'm leaving newer version here, but old link should also lead to newer version now... I took a lot of feedbacks into consideration. I have several more things to fix including balance (maybe as u/TheReservedList said entirely removing upgrades). Also in the process of fixing how line is being deleted, because wrongly drawing a line in early levels is very punishing, while eraser in chapter 2 onwards is too hard to use fast.

Link to test play: https://claude.ai/artifact/A8o6kLHiYQ2DdU69aFBVxH

I was thinking about making a game called You Piece Of Ship, maybe a chaotic multiplayer game where every player handles a different part of a ship.

I think it's a pretty neat idea, and I'd be super curious to see what you guys could come up with in a few days. It would be fun to have something like the Photoshop requests that used to exist.

I’ve been working on something that combines two things I love: classic RPGs and AI-assisted development.

Fallout 2 came out in 1998, and while it still has an active modding community, creating mods traditionally requires learning a bunch of specialized tools and game-specific systems. Back in the day I was literally changing bits in hex editors and praying the game didn’t crash.

So I built RerunReactor, a tool that exposes Fallout 2 modding capabilities to AI assistants through MCP.

The idea is simple: instead of manually writing scripts and editing game files, you describe what you want to create, and the AI uses the available tools to build it.

You can check it out at https://www.rerunreactor.com
I’d love feedback from anyone experimenting with AI agents, procedural content generation, or AI-assisted game development.

If you want to try the MCP you can here — https://rerunreactor.com/mcp

What would you try building first?

I’m a solo developer who picked up game development again as an old hobby. I use AI in my workflow, including generated artwork, and my game has a demo on Steam.

A recent comment on its Steam forum said I was drowning out real indie games and helping ruin Steam Next Fest. I’m leaving out the username and link because I want to discuss the concern, not send people after the commenter.

I saw the broader Next Fest discussions here. My question is about what to do when that criticism lands directly on your game’s forum.

For me, getting an image I like has only been one part of the work. Making the art fit the game, fixing bugs, testing controls and tuning the balance still take work. But that doesn’t answer every concern about AI, and I don’t want to brush off questions about artists or games struggling to get noticed.

My instinct is to reply once, calmly: acknowledge their concern, be clear that I use AI, respect their choice not to play, and welcome specific feedback. I don’t think arguing about who counts as a “real” developer will help.

Have you had comments like this on your own game? Did replying help, or was leaving it alone better? What would a fair response from a developer look like?

And on the wider point, what do you think is fair criticism here? Is the main concern the use of AI itself, how it is disclosed, the quality of the game, or the number of releases? I’d like to hear different views, including from people who use AI but still have concerns.

AI vibe coded project.

I've been working on this game for the last 3 weeks, putting in 12+ hours a day. Throughout this time, I was extremely enthusiastic. I was planning to make a demo by the end of this month and publish it on Steam, but... today, I feel like I've lost all my motivation.

I love how this game looks, how it feels, and how it sounds. I've put so many interesting mechanics into it that I can't even fit them all into a single video. But I guess I'm not capable of pushing this game to the finish line.

The main problem is the concept. I didn't even have one initially; I only came up with it along the way. In theory, it sounds kinda interesting: "A cozy action-adventure where you explore 8 different, unique realms, searching for energy shards to bring these places back to life."

It's not a revolutionary idea, but I think it could work well if it were wrapped up properly. The problem is, I can't do that.

Creating 8 different realms, each with 4–5 unique creatures, a boss fight, and small quests, would take an enormous amount of time and effort. And realistically, the potential profit wouldn't justify that investment.

Overall, this has been an incredibly valuable experience. I've learned a lot, but now I feel like I should try something else. Maybe a different direction, maybe a different genre, or maybe game development just isn't for me.

I'm not looking for a motivational speech. I just wanted to share this with someone before closing this chapter of my life. But I'd also appreciate some honest feedback on what I've done so far and how well I've done it.

Edit:
I'm genuinely confused by some of the hate and insults I'm getting.

I never said I expected game development to be easy, nor did I say that three weeks is a long time to work on a game. I never complained about how long it took or said anything like, "Why is this taking so long?" I'm fully aware that making games takes years of hard work, and I'm not trying to belittle anyone who's been working in this industry for years.

I simply shared my experience with this particular project, explained the challenges I've encountered, and admitted that I'm considering moving on to something else.

It's not about how much time I've spent on it or whether I've used AI. Sometimes, it's just about priorities. Not every project is worth pursuing, right? Sometimes you just have to move on, and you might have your own personal reasons for doing so, even if they seem silly to other people. That doesn't mean you deserve to be insulted for your decision.
I just wanted to share my thoughts and hear some honest feedback.

I'm genuinely curious: what exactly about my post is upsetting people? I'm open to criticism, but I don't understand the personal insults.

Im working on a Empire Earth like RTS an firstly lett claude opus 5.5 on max build the graphic in three.js, what came back was low poly graphics. Then i let it use blender to creat models himself, the models where better but still no where near good quality. Now i trie to use meshy, tripo, and so on. Yeah the graphic is better but still nowhere als beatiful as some things i see here. Im working between 8-15K triangles per modell. Any tipps?

Type a motion ("makes a peace sign, then opens both hands"), and a rigged character performs it a few seconds later.

How it works

1. A video model (FLUX 3 Max on fal) generates a short clip of a person acting out the prompt, always from the same full-body, static-camera setup. You can also use you own webcam, real videos, or any other video model.
2. On my GPU, GVHMR recovers the 3D body motion and WiLoR tracks both hands (all 15 finger joints per hand).
3. That gets retargeted onto any Mixamo rig in the browser, and you can export a .glb for Blender/Unity.

There's also an instant MediaPipe preview while the HQ pass runs. The HQ pass is ~4–5s per 5s clip on a 4090, fingers included.

Repo: https://github.com/blendi-remade/prompt2rig

Happy to answer any questions!

It’s pretty fun. I got some good advice in another thread about CPU riders. That’s been the hardest part. I’ve spent probably a week trying to get CPU riders and the actual race to be fun.

Right now it’s on iOS. Certainly way easier to play the game with actual controls. I’m like two times better in the simulator on my computer using a keyboard.
I

I'm working on a little solo dev project for a pretty simple game (can't say much more it would be an easy idea to copy) and one of the most important things for me is going to be to nail the artstyle.

I'm looking at other games I admire for their vibe and strong art direction and trying them out by testing out what dust 2 would look like in that style. Made with Nano Banana via DaVinci AI, haven't really experimented with all the different models. If anyone knows which models work best for game concept art like this (ingame render style) let me know. If anyone has any pointers on how I could come up with something interesting for my project let me know, I wanna do something really interesting with the visuals.

Regular gamer here.

I've seen some insane builds here and I'm just curious: how do you guys do it so well?

I'm neither a software developer nor a game designer. I honestly never even considered making games before because of the huge technical gap and learning curve. But now, thanks to AI, it feels like something I can actually get into, and I would love to give it a proper go.

The idea is to hopefully monetize my creations at some point. Not as a TokenMaxxer^TM pumping out pure automated slop, but as a fellow gamer who finally gets to make things. A passion project that could hopefully make a couple bucks over time, you know? Like someone making art in their bedroom and taking a few commissions on the side. Although, seeing how negative parts of the gaming community seem to be about AI-assisted development, I do wonder how viable that side of it would be.

Anyway, I'm currently making a Frutiger Aero incremental game for the web. It started as a super simple 2D browser game, something I could put on CrazyGames or similar sites. It quickly evolved into a 3D game with more content, more complexity, and increasingly chunky game files. So I'm also trying to figure out how much depth makes sense for what was supposed to be a simple browser experience.

My current stack:

• I tell Claude Code what I want to do (the concept and a couple mechanics)
• Godot engine, because I want to make web games first
• Blender for asset generation
• that's it. After that, just playtests and iterations.

And this is where I'm hitting a wall: getting something working is one thing, but making it actually look good and feel fun is another.

I know there's a ridiculous amount to learn, but what exactly should I be focusing on? How do you get from decent to good? How do you figure out what's missing, what would make it more fun, or why it doesn't look quite as good as what you had in mind? I guess a lot of this is game design rather than coding, and you can't shortcut your way to good taste.

I'd love to hear about your creative process. Where do you draw the line between what you do and what AI does: the game idea, mechanics, assets, aesthetic choices? And how does that translate into your actual technical workflow?

As an optimization freak, I'm also curious about the 80/20 of all this. What fundamentals have made the biggest difference for you, and which tools or workflows have actually saved you time? Obviously I'm not expecting to one-shot a sick game without any creative or strategic input. I'm fine with learning from the start, while also making use of the shortcuts these tools offer. I'm trying to understand where to put the effort, and where AI can meaningfully help.

Any good resources or communities where people exchange tips, share their process, and help each other improve would be very welcome. Would love to connect with other people figuring this out too.

Thanks in advance, much appreciated! And keep posting your stuff, I love seeing it. It's honestly what made me want to try.

I'm a former AAA game dev now focused on building solutions for game developers. I'm doing some discovery work on what problems game devs, especially those using AI, run into.

I'm looking for folks to take a quick survey, as well as for people who are interested in participating in a short 30-minute interview to dive deeper into the challenges you face (you can opt in at the end of the survey).

https://forms.gle/DJmGCvXQ3evrcog68

(This is my first post here, so let me know if this post belongs somewhere else!)

What began as a desire to feature parts of my country in a video game has evolved into a dedicated project to develop a complete shooter, perhaps prioritizing originality over strict realism at some point after gettingthe basics right

Claude relied on github for grass and sky

Animation packs by burner from Sketchfab.