3 rules to make a polished game with AI
Hugo -
Excuse my typos. I'm writing all of this by hand.
So in my previous blog post, we made a real GBA game using GPT-6. I spent some time polishing it and going back and forth with the LLM, so I wanted to share the few rules that helped me make it look polished.
1. Make iteration easy
Nowadays, modern LLMs such as Fable 5.1 and GPT-6 Astra are very, very smart. There is almost no point in messing around with MCPs, terminals, custom AI assistant chatbots, or complicated workflows: Just use your LLM.
If you need external services, just send your LLM the documentation or API reference link. It will be able to figure it out from there.
Some other tips:
- Focus on small requests. Fix things one by one rather than sending a whole to-do list of fixes.
- Ask your LLM for previews, recordings, comparisons, and even custom visualizations. This is super useful when comparing assets, for instance.
Ask your LLM to use APIs
You
Use the Sprite Fusion API to create a goblin with a hammer (idle + smash), wooden crates, brass coins, a spinning fan, and a steaming pipe in a chunky dieselpunk pixel art style.
Codex
Here's the matching asset set, including the goblin animations and animated props.
2. Don’t compromise on asset quality
If you want to make your game look great, you must aim for high-quality assets, period.
I myself tried a bunch of AI pixel art generators and ended up pairing with a friend to train a pixel art model from scratch, as the existing solutions were just not quiet usable for game development.
But spoiler: it's not magical. AI is here to help, not to do everything for you. You still need to try a few things, refine your art direction, ask for some edits, etc.
Judge assets at gameplay size, next to the rest of your art. Check readability and pixel scale. For the flying creature in my frog game, I asked for several variations with different shapes and colors to compare side by side.
Exploring flying creatures
You
I like the purple moth, but let's explore five alternatives with different shapes and colors. Keep the frog's pixel art style and show them beside the original.
Codex
Here are a few options! Which one’s your favorite?
3. Exaggerate your motion and effects
Studying motion design for years turned out to be immensely helpful for game development.
But to keep it short: exaggerate your motion and effects. Don’t make everything bounce and explode, of course, but when in doubt, exaggerate a bit more.
Motion principles
Squash & stretch
Stretch in flight. Squash on contact.
Anticipation
A small wind-up before the jump.
Slow in & slow out
Gray: linear. Gold: eased.
Arcs
Follow a curved path through space.
Follow-through
The tail keeps moving after the ball stops.
Exaggeration
Push the bounce, stretch and impact.
Conclusion
I'll be short here:
- Your setup should be leaner. Making a polished-looking game is a highly iterative process, so make your feedback loop as short as possible.
- Care about your game assets. If you don't care, why should anyone else?
- Study motion design.
Hugo