> I don’t really understand why making a game has to take years.
Well, be prepared to find out. You're firmly in the "those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it" zone right now.
And before you reflexively reply that you're using AI in a fashion that nobody else has before you, I want you to consider just how much the average "big budget" game has ballooned in size and budget despite decades of advancement in tooling designed to streamline and speed up the development process. The increased scope of modern games has far more than counter-acted any sort of productivity gains we've experienced, leaving us with the multi-year development cycles you lament. And the scope of your game is, by your own admission, infinite, so basic math tells us that if there's even a tiny non-zero amount of effort involved in creating it, the development time required will be infinite as well. Consider strongly setting yourself some firm limits ASAP.
And not just for the sake of your development budget! Consider also this: a game in which you can do anything with anything to anything, with no limits, no restrictions, only utter personal player freedom? That's not a game anymore. It doesn't even sound fun; it's basically an imprecise artist's palette. This may be briefly amusing to tinker with, but it'll never be FUN.
Games are fun largely because they have very deliberate limits that we have to learn and exert mastery over to overcome. Defining and fine-tuning those limits, and the tools the player is provided is at the root of game design, and you have punted on it entirely, leaving you with not a game, but a toy. (And, to my personal taste, a not very fun toy, though you could always turn that around with the judicious application of some excellent taste, instead of an abdication of same.)
I know this is a very grumpy comment, but boy it really gets my goat when someone says "I don't know why this thing is this way" and then doesn't bother to try to find out, and instead just assumes everyone else is an idiot who hasn't bothered to think about or try anything new. Sometimes it do in fact be that way, but you have to do at least the bare minimum of investigation to find out if it is, and in this case, you clearly have not.
Let me leave you with one last thing to think about: you mention Minecraft in other comments here, but consider the explosion in popularity it enjoyed when it introduced Survival mode -- a mode that contrasted the existing Creative mode by the addition of... limits. And to this day, that is the most-frequently played mode, almost to exclusion.
Players prefer limits. That's where the game is found.
I don't find your comment frustrating at all. I really appreciate it.
To give you a bit of personal background, I'm a heavy gamer and I absolutely love the games I mentioned. I also fully understand why limits exist in games and why they are essential. It's one of the reasons I still enjoy those games.
However, I don't believe that the need for years of development is inherently tied to the existence of limits in a game. Whether or not a game has limits, if it doesn’t take too long to make, that's a good thing. Here, the point isn’t about the presence or absence of limits, but rather about the process of making, launching, and improving a game itself.
That said, as you mentioned, of course, my game will need rules and limitations. After all, that's what makes it a game. Your point about Minecraft's Survival mode was a great reminder and inspiration. Thanks for the valuable feedback, I’ll definitely give it some deep thought.
Lastly, I’ve never thought of anyone as a fool. If that’s how I came across, I apologize. I simply question the way things have always been done and explore different approaches. I’ve certainly looked into why things are done the way they are, but it seems that my intentions weren’t fully conveyed in my writing or the game itself.
Well, be prepared to find out. You're firmly in the "those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it" zone right now.
And before you reflexively reply that you're using AI in a fashion that nobody else has before you, I want you to consider just how much the average "big budget" game has ballooned in size and budget despite decades of advancement in tooling designed to streamline and speed up the development process. The increased scope of modern games has far more than counter-acted any sort of productivity gains we've experienced, leaving us with the multi-year development cycles you lament. And the scope of your game is, by your own admission, infinite, so basic math tells us that if there's even a tiny non-zero amount of effort involved in creating it, the development time required will be infinite as well. Consider strongly setting yourself some firm limits ASAP.
And not just for the sake of your development budget! Consider also this: a game in which you can do anything with anything to anything, with no limits, no restrictions, only utter personal player freedom? That's not a game anymore. It doesn't even sound fun; it's basically an imprecise artist's palette. This may be briefly amusing to tinker with, but it'll never be FUN.
Games are fun largely because they have very deliberate limits that we have to learn and exert mastery over to overcome. Defining and fine-tuning those limits, and the tools the player is provided is at the root of game design, and you have punted on it entirely, leaving you with not a game, but a toy. (And, to my personal taste, a not very fun toy, though you could always turn that around with the judicious application of some excellent taste, instead of an abdication of same.)
I know this is a very grumpy comment, but boy it really gets my goat when someone says "I don't know why this thing is this way" and then doesn't bother to try to find out, and instead just assumes everyone else is an idiot who hasn't bothered to think about or try anything new. Sometimes it do in fact be that way, but you have to do at least the bare minimum of investigation to find out if it is, and in this case, you clearly have not.
Let me leave you with one last thing to think about: you mention Minecraft in other comments here, but consider the explosion in popularity it enjoyed when it introduced Survival mode -- a mode that contrasted the existing Creative mode by the addition of... limits. And to this day, that is the most-frequently played mode, almost to exclusion.
Players prefer limits. That's where the game is found.