My Journey into Game Dev

Back in 2012, I set out to learn how to make simple cartoons—think South Park or Beavis and Butthead style. I stumbled across Shade Muse from Martian Games, and under his wing I quickly fell down the rabbit hole of 3D modeling, character creation, and rapid prototyping. What started as a quest for animation turned into a full-blown obsession with game development.

Posting my progress on social media, jumping into game jams, and watching other devs stream their 48-hour creations on Twitch became the fuel that kept me going. Those weekend jams were pure magic—mini-games coming to life, hilarious bugs, beautiful experiments, and an incredible sense of community. To this day, I still hop into a jam whenever I can.

The Rise of AI-Powered Game Dev

Fast-forward to 2025, and the tools we have are mind-blowing. My absolute favorite is Unity Muse (now evolving into Unity AI).

Visit Unity AI

With Muse you can:

  • Prompt-to-animation – describe a walk cycle or sword swing and watch it generate instantly.
  • Generate textures on the fly from plain English descriptions.
  • Create AI behaviors for NPCs without writing a single line of code.
  • Chat-based narrative design – perfect for branching dialogue adventures.

These tools don't replace creativity—they supercharge it. I can prototype an entire level in hours instead of weeks, then spend the saved time polishing the soul of the game.

Advice for Aspiring Devs in 2025

  1. Master your tools – whether it's Unity, Unreal, Blender, or Godot, know them inside out.
  2. Harness AI wisely – use Muse, Claude, Midjourney, or any generative tool to accelerate production, not to skip the learning curve.
  3. Build in public – share devlogs, screenshots, and failures. Your portfolio is your strongest asset.
  4. Join communities – Discord servers, Seattle Indies, Ludum Dare, Twitch streams. Collaboration and feedback are priceless.
  5. Game jams are gold – nothing teaches rapid prototyping faster than a 48-hour deadline.
  6. Never stop learning – new AI tools drop every month. Stay curious.

Final Thought

In 2025, passion + speed + community is the winning formula.
Build what excites you, ship often, surround yourself with fellow creators, and let AI handle the grunt work while you focus on the magic.

Here's to another year of making weird, wonderful, and wildly fun games.

— Jenni Nexus
March 24, 2025