Indie Game Developer / @artblocks_io Artist. Made #ThatDragonCancer, #AreaManLives. Lectured at @JohnsHopkins ❤ @amynoelgreen. ❤ my kids
Colorado
Joined July 2009
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What if AI could help you make tools that made AI-assisted creation optional? I'm using this mindset to build a new type of game engine.
When designing GatherGameStudio.com @gathergamedev I determined early on that I like doing the game scripting, I just don't like the way traditional programming languages make me do it. So I designed a new scripting language and runtime with AI.
I love making games, but learning to build commercial web-games from scratch requires either confusing configurations, terminals and project deployments or game engines that aren't web first and rely on deep web language knowledge to be successful. So I designed a new web-based IDE and publishing platform with AI that makes building, publishing, and modding multiplayer games simple and shareable.
I love making art and painting by hand, but in games, art has always been a collaborative technical effort. You don't have to use gen AI in Gather, but if you do, attribution is tracked and prompts are shared. You don't have to make art from scratch but you can in Gather with integrated art tools. And you don't have to make art at all, if you're a coder you can build games on top of other artists work that they've opted-in to share.
I love learning new technology but every creators learning styles are different, that's why I built Gather to allow creators to build collaboratively with live-editing, record tutorials with built in recording and streaming features, and write and share tutorials for the benefit of others. If AI is used to help solve problems, or debug code, or write new code, then the authors of the articles and documentation that taught the AI get credited, and teaching creators can be compensated.
There are ways to keep human-centered creativity at the heart of technology while allowing technology to augment our creativity. That's my aim with Gather.
Does this screenshot peak your interest? Let me know in the replies.
Opus and I built a note taking companion app yesterday for my friends' AI-powered true crime podcast. It's an ARG you can play with fellow listeners. Listen and take notes with my app. Question the Guests yourself on the podcast site. And figure out who dunnit.
Digital Alchemy & "Hand — Made" Games
(see what I did there? m-dash in hand made? maybe I'm trying to be too cute, but trust the post below was typed by me... by hand.)
When I turned eight, I was gifted the one and only video game system I owned when growing up. The GameBoy. I loved how that little handheld window transported me into a magical safe place where puzzles could be solved, dragons could be slain, and AI boss battles could be switched off when it was time to come back to reality.
Video games made me want to become a programmer. And I've been a coder now for a long time. It's heady stuff. Using technical esoteric words to say "let there be" and for there to be worlds to explore. It never gets old to revel in the fact that I created them with my hands on a keyboard.
Agentic coding in 2026 has caused my identity as a coder to be completely refactored. Making video games is no longer limited to technical alchemists spinning words and symbols into machine code, everyone can use their words to manifest worlds.
There's a safety in holding esoteric knowledge; of being a member of a small order that knows how to wield that knowledge. But there is both a reckoning and a new abundance when that secret knowledge is made plain for all to wield.
It's an uncertain time, and debates rage on on what it means for a video game to be hand made, but I've chosen to believe in the potential for abundance in this reckoning. So, I've chosen to lean into the rewrite of what it means to be a game programmer, as anyone who's had a conversation with me in 2026 can attest... for better or worse. 🤓
Gathering to Make Games Together
As I've been building the Gather game engine with agentic AI in my personal time, I've found myself returning to questions of what I love about building games. What will I reserve for myself? How will I build differently with this new found abundance?
If you had the original GameBoy you know the pain of the monochrome unlit display, that multiplayer meant physical link cables, and making games was out of the question. Making was reserved for their hands... the hands of digital alchemists.
These days everyone has access to handheld devices. So I decided that making and playing games on those devices should capture the mystery that I felt when I was 8. But that unlike when I was 8 playing game, alone, in 2026 they should be made and enjoyed together.
There's something magical about pressing play and having my modern handheld spring to life in full color, wifi networks, and so much compute.
But sometimes making small things together in new ways is where magic can happen.
Sometimes bad news arrives when you’re on a boat. The future is uncertain; waves are crashing; you’re staring at the horizon while the earth continues to fall through space at alarming speed. But then you remember “at least I’m on a boat”
2026 y’all. How are you coping with uncertainty? Sometimes all I can do is to just keep making stuff cause boats tend to keep floating even if I’m not at the helm.
As an indie game dev I love the act of making. So why are these platforms all trying to sell us our replacements? What do you wish folks built AI tools to do in art, design, narrative, code, or sound?
"An image generator could make a finished image in less time than I could alone. But I can take that generation and improve it with my own taste and control."
"The idea that you'll be able to resist AI workflows forever - on someone else's dime - is quite frankly, foolish. Consider how likely you would be to hire a plumber at 10x the price because he refuses to use a pipe inspection camera."
I have found this in coding as well. The cost of coding by hand is often 10x lower than what it would take me to do it by hand. I can't justify using other people's money that way, and I wouldn't justify spending my own money that way. However, AI in the hands of a novice coder could end up costing much more with much more risk. As a professional software engineer, I have to strike that balance of speed, efficiency, and responsibility when approaching tasks. And somewhere in the middle is the right answer IMO.
Making games by yourself can be lonesome. Making games as an ai/human centaur more lonesome still. What does ethical game making look like in the age of ai?
We're all centaurs now.
"The joining of humans and technology moves the locus of identity somewhere else. And we have to negotiate that 'else' with every technology we adopt."
Wrote an article this weekend reflecting on cowboys and ai code.
I love how expressive this tool is. I've tended to take a collaborative posture with AI lately (giving them personas and perspectives) and working like I would another human member of the team. This feels like the same kind of conversation and I'm here for it.
Indie Dev Campfire Hot Take 🔥
"Vibe coding games is dangerously fun."
You start flowing…
Next thing you know it’s 3 a.m., your eyes are fried, and you’re laughing at your own creation like a mad scientist. It's also dangerous, one compromised npm and your hosed...
What's the most fun or worst experience vibe coding?
(drop it below 👇)
Indie Dev Campfire Hot Take
AI doesn’t just speed up game dev.
It finally lets strange little games *insist on themselves*.
No publisher approval.
No focus group.
No 50-person team.
Just one weird idea that refuses to die.
I’m building a tiny web-first 2D engine so strange little games can live in multiplayer without fighting bloated tools.
What’s the weirdest game idea AI has helped *you* bring to life?
(drop it below 👇)
