Practical AI tools
for game devs
No hype. No replacement talk. Just honest tools and guidance for game developers figuring out where AI actually fits in their work.
Built by Joe Halper, game dev, not an AI company
Six tools.
One mission.
AI Tools Guide
Superpowers, no instructions included.
Born out of conversations at GDC 2026, where AI catches blame for a lot of what's going wrong in the industry. Fair or not, these tools exist and they're powerful. The problem is there are no instructions. This is an attempt to fix that.
Jun 9 — Google Veo 3.1 added for cinematics and trailers. NVIDIA RTX Spark and Unity AI open beta coverage added.
Perspectives
Same tools. Different realities.
The AI conversation in game dev is splitting into camps. Executives, creatives, engineers, indie devs, and enterprise are all reaching different conclusions about the same technology. This maps the divide so teams can actually talk to each other.
Apr 2026 — Full visual redesign. Added Experience vs. Exposure section and The Player Signal with the Crimson Desert case study.
Job Search Guide
Use the tools they fear to land the next gig.
Job searching as a game dev is scattered and overwhelming. Times are tough for a lot of reasons, but the same AI tools that over half the industry is skeptical about can give you an edge landing your next role.
Apr 20 — New section: Where Your Skills Transfer. Market data updated with six recent studio layoffs. Restructured intro.
MCP Guide
Connect the right protocols to your workflow.
Model Context Protocols are becoming the connective tissue between AI tools and game development pipelines. This guide surfaces the ones actually relevant to game developers — organized by engine, workflow phase, and complexity.
Jun 9 — Unity MCP (CoplayDev) added as primary Unity entry at 10,000+ stars. MCP spec 2026-07-28 update notice added.
Ship It or Skip It
Five questions. One honest answer.
That one-star review hurts more when you know AI content caused it. Before you commit to using AI on a task, five questions give you a clear verdict: ship it or skip it. Includes a Studio AI Use Policy template you can take straight to sign-off.
New — AI decision framework with forked logic for player-facing vs. pipeline use
Open toolNVIDIA GameDev Guide
80+ tools you didn't know you had.
GTC gets a lot of attention for robotics, autonomous vehicles, and enterprise AI. What gets buried is that NVIDIA has 80+ tools designed to work alongside your engine and your pipeline, not compete with them. Most game devs don't even know they exist.
May 1 — Nemotron 3 Nano Omni added to ACE. NTC SDK 0.9 numbers updated. Now 84 tools.
I've spent 25+ years developing games for entertainment, simulation, training, and enterprise across PC, consoles, VR, MR, and XR. When AI tools started flooding the industry, most of the guidance I found was either hype from people who don't make games, or fear from people who haven't tried the tools.
So I built these. Practical, honest, built on the position that AI augments what developers do. It doesn't replace them. Recommendations are grounded in real shipped examples where possible, not press releases.