Thomas Mahler, CEO of Moon Studios and lead creator of the Ori series, believes it remains unrealistic for AI alone to create complete, mature games in the coming years. He also stated that AI tools can be effective when used by capable developers.
Mahler posted on social media that he has seen many people believe AI will produce complete, polished games within the next few years, but he thinks this scenario is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Generative AI models have already produced gameplay demos that look quite impressive. However, Mahler believes most demos showcasing AI's game-making capabilities fall short; if such content were released as a game, it would struggle to gain traction in the market.
In Mahler's view, creating a game that people actually want to engage with is itself an act of creation. He believes current AI-generated content fails to address this point. As for the use of AI tools, he emphasized that they still require guidance from skilled developers.
Thomas Mahler's tweet:
I'm certainly not an AI hater, but... I see a lot of posts here from people who firmly believe AI will build complete, refined games within the next few years.
I don't think that's likely. I've been extensively experimenting with all the cutting-edge models, and we are clearly far from reaching that level.
Interestingly, we haven't even reached that goal in writing yet. Why? It's just text, right? Given that these AI models have been trained on every existing book, it shouldn't be impossible for them to write a short story like a good writer, should it?
But right now, it definitely is.
Even the best top-tier models still can't write a single page of proper prose that carries the kind of creative intent you see from Hemingway, Shakespeare, and others.
Something is still missing there. Talented humans can achieve it without superintelligence, but even the absolute top-tier AI models simply cannot. And every more complex art form—such as games—that blends multiple artistic disciplines together only makes this issue more pronounced.
I see so many people online proudly posting "AI made this game in one shot!" but those things are still absolutely terrible, and no one would seriously consider paying for them. Even for those not made in one shot, 99% of them... well, they're just not good.
Now, don't get me wrong, I do think these tools are a blessing in the hands of truly creative people, enabling them to accomplish far more than before.
But it still very much needs to be in the hands of people who truly know what they're doing.
People will still want to play those crazy achievements where certain creatives have invested thousands of hours, where you can see that every component was poured over with immense love and effort—just as they always have.
I think many people excited about LLMs creating their own personal World of Warcraft—perhaps only achieving 15% of that—will then discover that the second part, actually creating a product that excites people and makes them willing to pay, is basically an art form in itself.