Smash champion Hungrybox says he feels more confused than ever about AI in gaming after saying a week ago that it has no place there
Can I be honest for a sec? Regarding LLMs in gaming, I feel more confused than ever. And I would like my peers and other people who are familiar in this field to chime in. It’s barely been a week since I made my post about distancing myself from a vibe coded project made by my friend in Smash. I even said “AI has no place in gaming”. After I made that post, I was reached out to by multiple colleagues in the space and people hired full time in software development. They educated me severely on the topic and I feel dumb now for my earlier sentiments. I was informed by my colleagues that it is now the norm to do 90% (and this is low estimate apparently) of all your coding with AI assistance or vibe coding. 75% of all new code at Google is made by AI and engineer approved. The vast majority of all the apps we use now are updated or maintained with AI coding - I imagine that also goes for Twitter, the very app you’re reading this on. So I figured okay - it’s here to stay in all software development - but where does that leave video games? I saw the posts from Epic Games, XBOX, and other publishers that seem to embrace the new era instead of rejecting it. In the last week I’ve been sent about a dozen different projects like this one that dissect and reintegrate Melee in multitudes of creative ways. One of them is even a build of Melee that runs natively at 120FPS and one of them simulates the feeling of a CRT almost perfectly. Some of them feel silly and useless, like low effort projects someone probably gave a single prompt and an ISO of Melee to build. Actual slop. And yet some feel like legitimately useful things that the community or people practicing could benefit from. I’m doing my best to navigate what is clearly a rapidly changing sector, especially when we regard the question of “Are Video Games Art?” And since they clearly are art, does that render AI in its development a bastardized amalgamation of what’s been “learned” from people with actual original ideas? Or is it strictly optimal to use AI in game development because games ARE software and therefore a necessary tool to wield in this day and age? I am making this post because I need more guidance on this topic and I feel open discussion on it might be the best way to do that.
Context
A top esports figure reversing course in public shows how unsettled the debate over AI in game development has become, even among players.
This is an opinion post from Hungrybox, a professional Super Smash Bros Melee player. The statistics he cites, such as how much code at Google is written by AI, came from colleagues and are not sourced.
Deep dive
On October 17, Hungrybox, who describes himself as a three time number one Super Smash Bros Melee player in the world and a co owner of Team Liquid, asked his peers to weigh in on LLMs in gaming. He quoted a post from the indie developer walz showing Melee remade as a 3D arena fighter.
Hungrybox wrote that barely a week earlier he had distanced himself from a vibe coded project made by a friend in the Smash community and said AI has no place in gaming. Since then, he said, colleagues and full time software developers educated him on the topic and he now feels dumb for his earlier view.
He wrote that he was told it is now the norm to do 90% of coding with AI assistance, and that 75% of all new code at Google is made by AI and approved by engineers. He said he had seen Epic Games, Xbox and other publishers embrace AI, and that he had been sent about a dozen projects that rework Melee, including one that runs at 120 frames per second and one that closely simulates a CRT screen. Some, he said, are low effort slop, while others seem genuinely useful for practice.
He asked whether AI in game development is a bastardized amalgamation of other people's ideas, given that games are art, or a necessary tool because games are software, and said he wants open discussion. The post passed 690,000 views.
What to expect next
Watch how the Smash community and other esports scenes respond to AI made fan projects, including whether tournament organizers or Nintendo take a position on them.
Also watch the wider fight over AI in games, as publishers such as Epic push AI tools and some developers and players push back. Questions about crediting original work and labeling AI use are likely to keep coming up.