Bent Shaft Studios

Github Copilot and GPT-3 for Game Development

Added 2022-12-22 15:36:34 +0000 UTC

Howdy! Plourdy here, gonna give you a mouthful of AI goodness.

I've been using Github Copilot and OpenAI GPT-3 for speeding up my programming as well as inquiring about game design. They are both quite different from each other but extremely powerful in their own ways. I'll go over both and how they provide benefits below!

Github Copilot is a relatively new feature of Github that enables programmers to have an AI assistant 'copilot'. Basically, this is a neural net that trains on thousands of external repositories and your own code base. It provides enhanced intellisense in your IDE, reduces boilerplate code writing on the programmer's end, and can really speed up coding time as a result.

code example below. Grayed out 'DominantLevel' line is being auto-generated and suggested by copilot. (Notice how it maintains consistency with the preexisting code)

OpenAI GPT-3 is a much newer than Github Copilot and is drastically different. It enables anybody to have a freeflow, contextually memory cognizant conversation with a 'chatbot'.

The term 'chatbot' seems derogatory considering what this thing can actually achieve. It can generate code, lyrics, stories, plots, design criteria, gameplay loops, and MUCH more. I use it primarily for solidifying gameplay ideas and discussing potential pros/cons/limitations/downfalls/etc.

GPT-3 conversation below. I asked how to switch out colors in sprites in the Unity engine. I then prompted for only switching out certain colors while leaving others alone. GPT3 provided code and explanations to achieve the goal.

Hopefully this gives you a glimpse of the power and utility that these can provide.

If you want to use these yourself:

-Github Copilot requires a monthly subscription but gives 3 months free if you pay for the 1 year plan up front (and allow refunds in that 3 month trial period).

-GPT-3 is free to use, just sign up and access via their webpage: https://chat.openai.com/

Hope to see you experimenting, have fun!

-Plourdy