??? stay tuned... 🛠️ Former Creative Tools Designer for @FNCreate @EpicGames
Eugene, OR
Joined April 2010
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Day 8 of UI/UX Skills
Learned a lot by adding this frame. Lots of little lighting and shaping tricks. I started to freehand without the tutorial near the end to start creating the effect I wanted. Really starting to feel the understanding. 😊😊😊
Open for Verse/UI work
I actually haven't had this experience really. Just been teaching it from the ground up how to code like I do and it's been phenomenal. 😊😊😊
Worst case is UEFN's launching/loading systems not accurately representing itself 😭😭😭
RayBenefield retweeted
Played around with Unreal Engine this weekend.
I always thought Unreal was for the AAA gamedevs but turns out UE is pretty vibe-code friendly once I got the set up done. This prototype is done entirely from Claude Code with CLI, so I didnt have to open up the UE editor at all.
I also found a lot of nice assets from the Fab store (like the ones used in this prototype) and the quality is actually pretty good!
Devs in UGC ecosystems have no idea how good they have it... the indie life can be REALLY tough. 😭😭😭
A lot of entrepreneurial success is based on the shotgun approach with multiple shots and only needing to connect one for success. So spending your time on things that allow you to do the thing more often and faster in different ways to learn from is best folks 💖💖💖
You should have moved onto the next one. Marketing a failed game for a year is crazy work.
Most games fail. Buy as many lottery tickets as you can. The decision space is too complex to nail down a formula. It's mostly luck. See my post here:
xitter.cf/SyntheticBeef/status/2…
RayBenefield retweeted
This morning I saw a post by @DanFessler. It was so damn awesome that I had to start working on this literally while still lying in bed.
Finally it is working. It actually makes a difference and keeps things clean in UE5.
RayBenefield retweeted
Developers have always had the option of creating their own engine. Now it’s going to get a lot easier, especially for games with simpler needs. There are also permissively licensed alternatives like Godot. Everyone should do whatever is best for their particular game.
This looks absolutely phenomenal. Well done @GuessWhatGG ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Building a City Tycoon Rougelike in UEFN where you hit 5★… then start over, harder. WIP.
#UEFN #FortniteCreative #Skylinedevlog
@FNCreate
RayBenefield retweeted
Building a City Tycoon Rougelike in UEFN where you hit 5★… then start over, harder. WIP.
#UEFN #FortniteCreative #Skylinedevlog
@FNCreate
I agree with this to an extent. I think another large part is the survivability. AI is a POWERFUL tool, that enables those with resources. More often than not, those with resources lack the care for others to help enable survivability.
Capitalism is the problem with AI 😔😔😔
The REAL reason people hate AI:
they feel threatened and are scared that they don’t know where they will fit in this new world. Like many of us, they have attached their identity and worth to their skill.
There is also cognitive dissonance. To watch something you spent years mastering replicated by a robot in seconds.
All to say is the AI debate is simply a struggle of human emotion. I am certain that if these same people truly invested in it, they would find that their creativity would expand.
RayBenefield retweeted
My prediction for software engineering over the next 3 to 5 years.
AI won't replace software engineers. It'll drive even greater demand for them.
A team of 5 experienced engineers using AI will outperform a team of 20 pre-AI.
Which will dramatically reduce the cost of building software.
I think we'll see Jevons paradox in action. As something becomes cheaper and more efficient to produce, demand for it can increase dramatically.
Thousands of software projects that previously weren't economically viable will become worth doing.
The winners will be companies, big and small, that behave like Google, Amazon and 3M, with a culture of experimentation, a willingness to try lots of ideas and the discipline to kill their darlings.
TL/DR: Smaller engineering teams, more innovation, more software products, and potentially more software engineers than ever.
What do you think?
RayBenefield retweeted
The worst read in the gaming industry RN is the hate on @TimSweeneyEpic .
He fought platforms like Apple charging 30% fees which cost gamers and devs. This includes steam who BANS Developers if they offer their games cheaper on other stores who take less cut.
He buys forests just to turn them into nature reserves.
Epic store is not NEARLY as good as steam yet. But they take WAY less money from developers and literally hand out free AAA games each months. Does it need time to expand features? Yes. Are any of those factors something that is motivated by 'evil' no.
And MOST of all. He's 100% correct that its not 2016. Like it or not AI is existing. And the reason you only see the 'anti AI' comments are because the 95% of developers who ARE using it RIGHT NOW are just scared of the backlash.
This doesnt mean they're just vibe code 1-shotting games. They're utelising it to create workflows that streamline otherwise time consuming (and ultimately not 'player experience' defining factors). Stupid 1-shot assets/entire code bases are not what AI is actually being used for. But there are thousands of talented developers using it in a very thoughtful, structured way which gives them full creative control.
We all are 'scared' by AI - and what it means for jobs, creativity, and creation as a whole. But it DOES NOT change the fact that Tim sweeney isnt wrong.
He's just the person with the balls to actually say what is true.
RayBenefield retweeted
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RayBenefield retweeted
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Slice eggs, chain huge combos, hatch 140+ animals.
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RayBenefield retweeted
AI in video games are a confusing topic to me.
@TimSweeneyEpic recently got a lot of flak for pushing AI in game development.
There are opinion pieces left and right condemning AI use in game development.
Here I am, having worked for ~6 months on a game I released on Steam last week. And my sin, apparently, was using AI and disclosing it.
The comment section was pretty clear on that.
It's confusing to me. AI is a tool. IDE is a tool. A programming language is a tool. A graphics API is a tool. We're just using tools.
I've been writing software for about 3 decades now, I'd like to think that I know what I'm doing and am pretty good at it. I see AI as an incredible productivity booster.
It does some things that I pride myself on being good at, such as teasing out a math formula or optimizing an algorithm better than me most of the time (with a lot of handholding, granted), but for the most part it makes things I find tedious - fast.
As I software engineer, and a game maker, I take relatively little pride in knowing a programming language, or remembering 100 shortcuts in an IDE, or knowing a programming language spec by heart.
I remember the first time I needed to make an animated 3d model, almost 15 years ago now, and it took me about a week of full-time effort to get anywhere. I didn't feel particularly proud, I felt frustrated, I had a clear idea, but the tool and its complexity were getting in the way. Well, the tools are better now. Blender is better, animation tools are better, and there are AI models that keep improving at an incredible pace.
Ultimately, when I write a piece of software, or work on a game - I rarely think about the tools, they are a means to an end, not the point in itself.
RayBenefield retweeted
I think a lot of people were immediately upset that this MegaJam originally required the use of AI, which I believe was intentional from the start.
However, they quickly pivoted to give everyone a chance to participate, which I think was a fair middle ground.
I've seen people claiming they're being forced to use AI, but the reality is that nobody is forcing anyone to participate in the MegaJam.
Personally, I believe the reason this MegaJam was originally centered around AI was to encourage more developers to experiment with their new tools and MCP integrations.
If you haven't realized by now that we, the developers, are essentially the beta testers and QA teams for these products, you might need to open your eyes.
I completely understand why some developers are against AI, and I respect their right to that opinion.
But I don't believe this was some attempt to force AI adoption or push an agenda. I think it was a way to encourage a large number of developers across the industry to give these new tools a chance.
And what better way to stress test new technology than to have thousands of developers using it simultaneously, discovering bugs, identifying limitations, and providing feedback?
To me, this seems less about forcing AI on developers and more about encouraging adoption while gathering valuable real world testing and feedback.
RayBenefield retweeted
Our FAQ originally said you had to use AI for the MegaJam. That’s our mistake.
You can use as little or as much AI as you want. We’re updating the FAQ and rules to make that clear.
itch.io/jam/2026-epic-ai-meg…
Vibe your way to 50K.
The 2026 Epic AI MegaJam begins Nov 12: epic.gm/epic-ai-megajam-2026
ALT Red pill or blue pill meme from The Matrix, about choosing between two paths. Two open hands are held out on a black background. The red pill is labeled “Ship awesome games in a weekend.” The blue pill is labeled “Wait months to prototype.”
100% this... relates to my comment on AI can't take away the "Polish is 10% of the work that takes 90% of the time". Only YOU can put in that 90% of the time to better design the game and focus on making it better.
Just cuz you can make a game fast, doesn't mean it's good 😜😜😜
