I'll acknowledge that there's definitely an element of "well I had to do it the hard way, you should too" at work with some people, and I don't want to make that argument. Code is also not nearly as bad as something like image generation, where it's literally just typing a thing and getting a not-very-good image back that's ready to go; I'm sure if you're making playable games, you're putting in more work than that because it's just not possible to type some words and get a game out of it. You'll have to use your brain to get it right. And if you're happy with the results you get and the work you're doing, I'm definitely not going to tell you you're doing it wrong.

(If you're trying to make a career of software engineering or have a desire to understand it at a deeper level, I'd argue that relying heavily on AI might be more of a hindrance to those goals than you know, but if those aren't your goals, who cares? Have fun with it.)

What I'm talking about is a bigger picture thing than you and your games; it's the industry as a whole. Much like algorithmic timelines have had the effect of turning the internet from something you actively explored into something you passively let wash over you, I'm worried that AI is creating a "do the thinking for me" button that's going to be too tempting for people to use responsibly, and will result in too much code becoming a bunch of half-baked AI slop cobbled together by people who don't understand what they're really doing. There's already enough cargo culting around software, and AI will just make it more opaque and mysterious if overused and over-relied on. But that's a bigger picture thing; just like I'm not above laying back and letting TikTok wash over me sometimes, I'm glad you're doing things you like with the assistance you get. I just don't want that to become the only way things happen either.