Hey everyone, before I begin, I would like to mention that this post does not talk about using ChatGPT to generate code, but rather about its usefulness in assisting developers in brainstorming ideas for games to make or features to add. I would strongly advise against using ChatGPT to generate code for your game, as it not only tends to make a lot of things up but also means you won’t learn anything as you are just copying and pasting code made by ChatGPT.
Introduction
Coming up with ideas is arguably one of the most difficult aspects of developing a game. There are so many factors that you need to take into consideration, such as current trends, feasibility (if you’ll actually be able to make it), and if you will find the idea good enough to dedicate some time to work on it without getting bored and giving up. And although staring into your empty workspace on Roblox Studio for a couple of hours and trying to think of ideas can sometimes work, it is extremely inefficient and might lead you to forget some aspects of those important factors I mentioned earlier. Instead of doing this, it is much better for you to bounce ideas off other people. However, that can sometimes be difficult for solo developers, as they don’t have a team that can assist with brainstorming ideas.
Through this tutorial, I will walk you through generating an idea for a game, and you will learn how to utilize ChatGPT to assist in generating ideas for your own game and new features you could potentially add to it.
Step 1: Setting up your chat
ChatGPT processes the messages from the current chat to allow it to maintain a conversation with you, so you will need to create a new chat to start fresh. After creating a new chat, you need to help ChatGPT familiarize itself with what you are trying to do, which is what we will be covering in the next few steps.
Step 2: Choosing a Genre
There are plenty of genres of games on Roblox, ranging from story games to FPS games. However, what genre you choose is mostly dependent on what type of game you want to make and what you hope to achieve with your game, whether that’s making Robux or simply enhancing your skills in Roblox game development.
To begin, you need to help ChatGPT contextualize itself with what you are trying to do. As an example, I will be telling ChatGPT that I want to make a game on Roblox but am not sure what genre of game I want to make.
Prompt
Hey ChatGPT, I am currently thinking of developing a game on Roblox and need some help generating ideas for my game.
What are some popular genres that I could consider for my game?
As you can see, ChatGPT has provided me with a list of the top genres for Roblox games. After looking through all the genres, I have decided that I want to make a tycoon game.
Note
If you are still unsure of what type of game you want to make, you can always ask ChatGPT to think of more genres or elaborate on any genre you are somewhat interested in.
Step 3: Brainstorming
Now that you know what type of game you want to make, we can finally start brainstorming ideas. This process can take quite a bit of time, but it is important that you take your time with it, or you could end up with an unsuccessful game or one that you abandon mid-development. Additionally, make sure that you consider your own skill level when thinking of ideas. If you don’t feel like you can do something, either modify your idea, or tell ChatGPT that it’s too complicated and to help you come up with something that’s simpler.
Now that I have decided that I want to make a tycoon game, I will tell ChatGPT and ask it what type of tycoons I could make.
Prompt
A tycoon game seems interesting. What type of tycoon could I make?
As you can see, ChatGPT provided me with plenty of types of tycoons that I could potentially make. I really like the idea of a time travel tycoon, but even though I really want to make that my game, I need to keep my mind open, as if I realize it would be way too complicated, I need to be able to modify my idea or switch ideas completely, as otherwise I would end up wasting a lot of time.
Now that I have a potential idea, I need to tell it to ChatGPT and ask it to help me break down and list all aspects of the game for me.
Note
You could also add a unique twist to an idea you are somewhat interested in, and roll with that. Remember, you don’t have to stick to everything ChatGPT says; it’s just to help you bounce ideas off something.
Prompt
I like the idea of a tycoon about time travelling. Could you break down all the aspects of this game for me?
Step 4: Considering Potential Challenges
Haha, this is starting to remind me of an island in Poptropica if anyone played that game when they were younger. Anyways, this idea seems pretty cool! However, before I choose to select this as my final game, I need to consider potential challenges that I may encounter while making this game. This step is extremely important, as if I don’t properly consider the challenges that I may face, I might end up spending a bunch of time working on the game but instantly giving up when I run into a major problem that I can’t solve.
So, let’s ask ChatGPT to think of some potential challenges we may face while making this game. However, even though ChatGPT might be able to help come up with challenges that you may encounter while making this game, you also need to use your own experience and knowledge to think of potential difficulties. Additionally, you should consider any limitations in Roblox’s game engine while thinking of these, as sometimes ChatGPT might overlook them.
Prompt
What are some potential challenges or difficulties that I could face while making this game? Keep in mind that this game is on Roblox.
After looking through its response, I feel like it wasn’t as specific as I would have liked it to be, so that is exactly what I will tell it.
Note
If at any point you don’t feel like ChatGPT’s response was good enough or you are simply looking for it to come up with more information or ideas, you can always tell it to elaborate or just say “more”.
Prompt
Your response wasn’t as specific as I would’ve liked. Could you please help me come up with potential technical difficulties that I may run into while making this game?
Hmm, the first one seems a little bit complicated, which is generally what I was a little concerned about when I chose this topic. Let’s get it to elaborate more on that.
Prompt
Could you please elaborate on the first one?
Now, even though this seems extremely complicated, I need to think about this: do I even need to consider creating a fully-working time travel system? After all, earlier, ChatGPT told me that for my tycoon game, I could just “send” people to different dimensions (perhaps to collect artifacts), and the players would simply act as managers. This would radically simplify the mechanics of the game and eliminate the need for complex time travel mechanics while still adhering to the theme of the tycoon.
As you can see, I was able to modify the game slightly to make it much simpler for me to make.
Step 5: Engagement
Ultimately, the key thing to consider is how you are going to make your game engaging. By engaging, I mean getting players to not only join but stay for a long period of time and come back. If we just have a tycoon game with no progression, people will get bored and move on to a different game.
Also, if you haven’t already, make sure to outline what your game will be about to make it clear to ChatGPT what it needs to give feedback on.
Prompt
Okay, so I have decided that my game is a tycoon game about time travel, where players act as “managers”, where NPCs are sent to different time periods and collect artifacts to bring back, making the player money.
How can I make the game more engaging?
Again, some of this is somewhat unrelated, but I think the second idea is really good. The idea of “customizing” the time traveler could be turned into upgrades for the time travellers, which will allow NPCs to collect more valuable artifacts and sell them for more.
Note
Remember, you don’t have to follow exactly what ChatGPT says. Rather, you should take what ChatGPT says as a suggestion and evolve it into what you want. After all, it’s your game, not ChatGPT’s.
Step 6: “Constructive Criticism”
It’s quite obvious that ChatGPT tries to be nice and as inoffensive/uncontroversial as possible, and I’m sure many people reading this have tried to get ChatGPT to say some, well, “morally questionable” things. However, while brainstorming ideas and developing games in general, the idea of “constructive criticism” is extremely important. What I mean is that someone (or, in this case, ChatGPT) should be able to provide you with feedback that critiques your idea and helps you improve. However, ChatGPT won’t do this by itself, which is why you need to prompt it to do so.
Prompt
What do you think of my game? I need constructive criticism, so the more you criticize, the more helpful your response will be.
Step 7: And Beyond
While developing your game or even coming up with updates, you can always come back and ask ChatGPT for suggestions on how to do something, such as whether or not to allow a player to do something, potential gamemodes, etc. For example, if I were to come up with an update for my time travel tycoon game, I could ask ChatGPT whether I should allow a player to time travel themselves and how the mechanics of that system could work.
Conclusion
AI, in general, is not at the point where it could overtake the role of a developer. The concept of being a developer is simply too large for AI to handle, which means it can fail a lot, even in something seemingly so simple as coming up with an idea. This is why ideation with ChatGPT is not just about getting ChatGPT to think for you. It’s about getting it to help you come up with ideas for your game. And to get the best results, you need to guide ChatGPT in the direction you want it to go.
I think that idea of a time travel tycoon was pretty cool, and it would be interesting to see it come to life, so if anyone wants to take that idea and make it into a game, go ahead! But anyways, I hope you found this tutorial useful! If you have any questions or suggestions for things for me to add to this or write about, please leave a reply!
Have a great day!