One of the most exciting communities in game dev right now is one that most people pretend doesn't exist. Nobody's sharing their work, because they used AI. In an industry with real concerns about job displacement and creative integrity, that's enough to get you written off.
I joined the AI Game Dev Org Discord server after using Claude Code to develop my own game. I expected to find a mountain of slop. Instead, I found a quiet community of developers sharing their work, playtesting each other's games, and giving each other honest feedback.
There's something freeing about being on the outside. These devs don't need to fit into anyone's box. They're not trying to prove AI is the future or win an argument online. They just make games for the sheer pleasure of making games.
This community reminds me of what we tried to build at Rec Room, where I spent six years as a software engineer: a place where people just make things for the fun and love of it. Last week I played through a bunch of games from the server. None of them are ready yet. But a few had real charm.
Agent Arena is a web based roguelike built 100% autonomously with an AI agent. It's the most impressive game I played. You fight monsters in the crucible, collect loot, level up, and return to the war room to gear up for the next run.
The developer has TypeScript experience, and it shows. The UX and game design have a level of detail and visual taste that surprised me. It feels like a complete game. There's a title screen, login, stats tracking, an economy. All the pieces of something real are there. They don't quite fit together yet, but it's in the general ballpark. I'm curious to see how the game evolves as the developer iterates.
Beam Balance is a physics-based microgame where you balance a car on a beam as rocks fall and destabilize it. You can knock out a few rounds in minutes. It has that Flappy Bird energy. You play a few and you might find yourself thinking "one more, one more."
This developer's approach is to test and iterate on a few game mechanics weekly before they find something that clicks to invest real time in. Beam Balance was built in one night and it's surprisingly fun despite the janky aesthetic. The fun-to-effort ratio is great. I love that this person builds small, delightful things for the joy of it.
Shmup Golf is a small side-scrolling shooter written in 10 lines of code. You pilot a ship, weave through enemy bullets, and shoot back. The developer's goal is minimizing program size for the fun of it, like code golf meets game dev. The console aesthetic is cool and it feels like a legit little game. With some difficulty scaling it could really click.
I recommended they get the game running in the browser and they were able to do so successfully.
AI hasn't taken over game dev. These games make that pretty clear. But a human with taste plus AI can get all the pieces in place fast. What's missing right now is scale and the design sense to make everything fit together. That gap is closing. I think someone in a community like this is going to make something really special.