I’m currently developing a short indie horror game for itch.io. I went to school for 3D animation and I’m fully capable at modeling, animation and all that. But I’m incompetent when it comes to programming. I tried Sololearn to see if I could learn c sharp, but I barely made it past the intro section. I also bought playmaker and Emerald AI hoping that would make it easier. But the documentation for playmaker is either limited or outdated. Emerald AI I do have a grasp on though. I wanted to code it myself, but based on my struggles, it seemed more and more likely that I’d have to get outside help.
I’d like to work on indie games with other people, but I’ve learned no one wants to take you on unless you can prove your skills in an already existing game. Which is a big reason for why I want this game made. I’ve signed on for many game jams only for my teams to flake out every time. I’ve met multiple coders on discord who were willing to help on my game in exchange for assets, who then ghosted me. I don’t have much money these days, so hiring is both unrealistic and excessive for a game that I need for portfolio reasons (wish I had spent that playmaker money on this instead.)
The game itself isn’t very complicated: player needs to flip four switches to unlock an escape door while avoiding patrolling enemies. So I don’t think these coders were turned off by the offer, especially when I was willing to make all the assets for an open world game.
At this point, I just want to have a completed game. I loathe the idea of resorting to AI (especially as an artist) but if I can’t find any other options, I may just have to go with it. I’d really rather it doesn’t come to that, so I need advice.
How should I proceed from here? Would it be unethical to use AI to just do the coding and correct it here and there with what little coding knowledge I have? What should I do to get this game done?
Edit/PS: I could spend the years it would take for me to learn coding, but that’s not my end goal. I want to be a game artist and learning to code seems like it would be a distraction from that. Is it wrong to think that way?
This might be overkill for your project but you already have the hard part of making a game in unreal figured out. You can model and animate. You can get really really far in Unreal without coding at all, just by using Blueprints(visual scripting). Look into making a game in Unreal Engine with Blueprints only.
I had considered transferring it to Unreal. I’m for sure going to be using Unreal for any future games I might make. The blueprint system looks great and has up to date documentation and tutorials. But it seems like switching engines might set my project back even more.
Switching engines sometimes is a good idea. If you can rough estimate the timelines for both engines you might be surprised. Just don’t absolutely commit with analysis. Your time estimates will be wrong but they both will be wrong based on the same assumptions.