Refining the gameplay this week. While there are still things that need improvement, I really plan to wrap up refining by the end of this week and start testing. For the background work, I’m aiming for a slight cyberpunk garnish over the actual COEX for the exhibition hall and outdoor areas, while for deeper places like non-preservation zones, I want something more industrial, similar to the manga BLAME! with a hard-edged aesthetic. Manually placing all entities is challenging, so I’ll be using a program to place most of them. Just feeding it prompts, voice prompts, photos, illustrations, or even a suitable kitbash set, and having it fill in background spaces accordingly would be ideal.
In the past, when I got stuck in programming, I used to turn to Unreal forums and API documentation, but the forums often lacked answers, or the answers provided were too risky or simply incorrect, mixed with the right ones, leaving things feeling uncertain. The API documentation also felt cumbersome after moving to Unreal 5, as searching for 4.27 documentation became awkward. The Unreal Assistant in ChatGPT seems quite decent in comparison. There are still hallucinations, of course, but personally, it feels better than the forums. Compared to when I first started solo development, though it has only been three years now, the development environment has changed immensely thanks to AI. Character voices are also done with AI, making modifications and additions quick and easy (though the quality falls short of actual recordings, but given the almost non-existent cost, it’s a blessing for indie developers). The advertising images and videos used in the game backgrounds are also created using AI. Back in the prologue, I only had placeholders for signs and couldn’t muster the resources to create the actual images. Some sound effects are also made with AI, and simple FX textures can be generated reasonably well. I recently watched a video of GTA 4 reimagined with AI, and it feels like I’m manually doing that myself. Ultimately, I hope it becomes possible to work quickly with low-poly to establish the big picture, and then have AI filters in the engine to upgrade the quality and adjust the tone. That way, I could make one game every one or two months, like writing or serializing a novel or manga. I have so many stories I want to tell, and I really hope it becomes possible.