React on Rails HN RSC Demo

It's now clear what the problem is with vibe coded remakes, remixes and games in general.

This looks very interesting. But in the past couple of days I saw at least 5 interesting vibe coded games worth, in theory, spending hours on. There's no way I could consume this amount of content.

Secondly, when I say "looks interesting", I mean that based on graphics and descriptions, it looks promising. Before AI, the visual quality was a great proxy for effort, and we could reasonably assume that the effort was spread around graphics, sound and gameplay. If not equally, gameplay would get at LEAST a bit of attention.

Making good games requires attention to small details. And I have no idea if the author cared about these details at all. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.

With so many alternatives and the loss of quality proxies, the rational choice is to, unfortunately, pass.

cheschire 1d ago

So basically what happened to video once Netflix started making its own content and YouTube production values started to match some tv shows.

There’s just so much creative content these days that it’s impossible to consume it all.

And therefore highly unlikely that we will share many experiences anymore

yoz-y 1d ago

If the AI gets to the hypothetical perfection we will share precisely none of experiences.

vigilantpuma 1d ago

Eh, maybe, maybe not. We’re obviously past the age of “everyone tunes in to see Friends at 7 o’clock on Wednesday” or whatever, but humans tend to share things they like within their networks.

Fantosism 1d ago

I'd say that these networks are a lot smaller than they were back in the days of Friends, and they're only getting smaller.

mcphage 1d ago

> we will share precisely none of experiences

How miserable that sounds. And how limiting.

yoz-y 1d ago

It does right? On the other hand I don’t believe that AI will reach the hypothetical perfection. Not in the state it is in now.

bigwheels 1d ago

I played it for awhile on Saturday. It's fun for what it is, yet certainly not in the same realm as actual Diablo II. You are mostly making level tree selections.

It is more interesting as a data point highlighting the velocity and trajectory of games in this new era. See for example, the newly formed XBox Labs department at MS.

https://www.theverge.com/news/1010406/xbox-labs-game-decompi...

kregasaurusrex 1d ago

The attention to detail of Solomon with Valve's new game Deadlock is neat, how the developers pulled historic chess games and incorporated them into the character's reload animation. While I'd like to think this is an example where a small detail (supposedly) was facilitated by agentic coding I also think a less scrupulus company would take the time save at face value and not apply it as creatively as Valve did.

minimaxir 1d ago

> But in the past couple of days I saw at least 5 interesting vibe coded games worth, in theory, spending hours on. There's no way I could consume this amount of content.

That choice paralysis isn't anything new in gaming, especially in the 2010's with the rise of higher-quality indie games or 2020's with services like Game Pass.

gaiagraphia 1d ago

I'm more and more wondering whether the internet will splinter in our lifetimes. Security risks, a rejection of globalism in the face of unemployment, bots everywhere, 5th columnists undermining society, etc.

Maybe it won't be such a bad thing. Every nation could potentially have the capability to have its own Hollywood and AAA game companies. A splintered internet would mean more jobs to go round, a bigger chance for the little guy achieving success, and the ability to reel things in to become a bit more human again. I mean, playing an AI game from someone the other side of the world feels a bit weird, but if it's someone in your city whose launch party you just attended...

I'm starting to think maybe AI isn't a problem, but global scale is. We're all just so lost, tiny and meaningless in this endless sea of infinite capabilities. Maybe gating things up a bit more actually humanises these new developments and champions people?

It wouldn't be without precedent. One theory for the Bronze Age collapse is the advent of the new tech of iron allowing every tribe to be a serious military threat, as opposed to needing to be plugged in to the global tin supply. Maybe we'll be heading the same way.

Tossrock 1d ago

This already happened quite a while ago. China is functionally on a different internet than the US.

brindleth 1d ago

Or, you know, play it for 5 mins and see if it’s good?

yoz-y 1d ago

To me a lot of similar games are fun for 5 minutes. But they become rote after a couple of hours. One could say that it’s nice to have spent a few hours having fun, others would get a feeling of regret.

marak830 1d ago

As someone who has worked in the games industry and is getting closer to releasing his own game... I'm concerned the already difficult to enter market is going to become near on impossible to get noticed now.

I thought I had enough on my plate but now I'm going to have to figure out advertising a lot better than I currently know :s

Liuser 19h ago

Played this for a handful of hours as a Barbarian and made it to Hell. Frenzy, whirlwind and axe throw melts enemies.

I used to be a big D2LoD fanatic. This is a nice different take where you don’t settle on a particular singular build type but maybe a couple/few hybrid builds because you’re still purposely limited to a maximum skill (10 slots at Hell)

dj_gitmo 20h ago

This was more playable than I expected. I went all the way through 5 acts in about 2 hours with a hammerdin.

Diablo 2 Survivors (d2survivors.lol)