This looks awesome! From the isometric perspective, how did you do the walls or vertical stuff in general? I have done a few game like that and always find it to be a struggle in 2D.

Thanks! The vertical axis is also broken down into a grid in a sense. Each "cell" is placed in a specific floor as far as the engine is concerned.

So like (C++):

   vector<uo_map<int, ObjStruct>>

Each vector element is a floor. You just need to move the sprite up in screen space to position it.

Though I wish I went with a vector<vector<vector<ObjStruct>>> approach now a days <chunk_id>, <floor>, <object>

I’m sure it would speed you up tremendously, would the output be the same though? Someone with no commercial ambitions doesn’t really need to worry about that, but if you do it is definitely worth measuring the trade offs. I’m not including coding in that statement, I think that for programming everyone should use it as long as you are still learning how to use the engine.

I agree, as someone who has the goal for commercial purposes it seems like AI generated assets are a no go. As for people who make games for pleasure, unless you have a personal issue with AI I don’t see the issue. As for the coding part, I can’t imagine any game dev is not using any form of it to code.

I also have a personal stigma against AI art (for commercial purposes) because I don’t see the cost vs the value doesn’t add up to me. I am trying to see if my own bias was negatively effecting my progress or if staying hand drawn was what the average age dev was doing. As for programming, I find it does help aid when I know what I want but can’t quite find the syntax, it’s the balance between that and still learning that I struggle with.

Yes true, I have not even tried out the AI imaging tools for game dev specifically, I can imagine there are issues though. As for programming, I use it as a tool to assist, I haven’t gone full bore vibe coding for multiple reasons, one being that I want to learn the engine well and I feel like that is much harder vibe coding.

> In the second part of the question you asked if you should just learn all of the skills...buddy, does that question not answer itself?

Yes I agree, I don't think I worded my post well. I want to learn all the skills and such, because I enjoy learning. My post was more centered around if I was behind the times and thinking in the past by not using it.

> Since I could be labeled as an "AI hater" based on those comments, I want to be clear that I'm saying all this to keep you from falling into a trap and not to further my own agenda

I don't think AI hater label would be fair, you're making a similar point that I was trying to make which is that specifically for art in video games, it might be to someone's detriment.

Yes I agree for the most part, I do wonder about the customer sentiment. Maybe it is a vocal minority, it would be interesting to see the impact on sales.

There could be a difference depending on the game dev, eg. AAA studio versus solo-indie

Also, if the Clawd Spam hasn't reached Itch, there will be a backlash after it does, trend to keep an eye on

While I get where your sarcasm is coming from, you either didn’t read the post or are ignorant to the point. AI is severely different in the gaming industry, where the goal isn’t to make a software where “maximized productivity” is the most important metric. Also, you seem to ignore the point that it is looked down upon whether you agree or not.

Yeah, using generative AI to boost productivity (i.e., with coding assistants), and using it to literally generate artistic assets for the the game, are very different propositions. Steam's AI tag also very clearly distinguishes between the two.

Does it clearly distinguish? We're in an era where AI being used to generate unused textures would get the whole game flagged as AI generated.

After checking, it looks like they just revised the policy in 2026.

Did you build this for a school project? I go to a college where this was submitted as a senior capstone and was wondering if this is the same project.

Nah, I just built this as a fun personal project.