Our approach to AI, game development, and the people behind it

I want to be direct about how we build our games. We use AI in development, including for some player-facing assets. The vision, direction, decisions, and responsibility remain human.

ioio.dev has worked in code and systems development for years. We combine manual coding with agentic engineering. Not vibe coding.

What does that mean? It means a highly caffeinated human defines what the system needs to do, directs the work, reviews the code, and checks the results. It also means spending an unreasonable amount of time telling an AI that it did something wrong and asking it to follow the actual instructions this time.

The tools help us build. They do not decide what we are building or what meets our standards.

Our game-development experience began with the logic engines behind the scenes. Some of that work has been used by larger studios. Systems, simulation, and the machinery that makes a world behave are familiar territory for us.

Graphic art is a different story.

We have never been a team of graphic artists. We are learning, but if you saw some of the assets I have produced while arguing with Blender at three in the morning, you would understand why we need help.

We purchase assets where appropriate, make what we can ourselves, and use AI-assisted tools when those options do not get us where we need to go. We approach that work with guardrails intended to respect copyright. AI assistance does not remove our responsibility for what we put into a game.

These tools have made it possible for us to pursue a creative direction we once thought was beyond our reach. They have helped us move from building the systems underneath a game to building a world players can experience.

My goal is to hire an art team: talented people who bring their own imagination, judgment, and craft to that world. People who help shape its visual identity, not simply polish someone else’s output.

Right now, our game-development budget cannot support that team. As a business owner and engineer, I have to work with the resources we actually have. The math does not yet math.

So our plan is to use the tools available to us to launch games worth playing. Games with compelling stories, sophisticated systems, and worlds where your decisions matter. If players connect with that work and their support makes it sustainable, I am committed to bringing paid artists into the team and taking the visual experience further.

That is the future I want to build: strong engineering and distinctive human artistry, with a business capable of supporting both.

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss a voluntary, credited collaboration on art or graphics, I would love to hear from you. To be completely clear, I cannot currently offer payment for that collaboration. If that still interests you, reach out at im_in@ioio.dev and let’s talk.

This is me wearing my heart on my sleeve. I believe in these games and the work behind them. Give us the chance to show you what we are making, and judge it by the experience we deliver.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout our development years. Seeing that support carry into this new gaming chapter means more than I can properly express.