l33t sk1llz

Like most things in my life, it started by asking, "I wonder what would happen if I …" Such a simple question with such life-altering consequences. And when I say life-altering, I don't mean permanent damage; I'm speaking specifically of a mind stretched by a new experience that never returns to its original dimensions. Is that the quote? Original size? Whatever.

Say what you will about AI — the dangers, the recklessness, the slop — I wanted to see what it could do. I like writing my own emails. I like writing my own books, drawing my own pictures, making my own art and music. So it was never going to do any of those things.

Here's what happened. I've been using AI since 2021, thanks to my son Keegan, who persuaded me to understand it and work with it rather than fear it. I would not be the person I am today without that encouragement. What he inspired in me was exploration — a thinking partner, then a research assistant, and eventually a creative outlet.

I gave myself a challenge: create a new world. Make a video game.

The first one I built had no name. It was a side-scroller in the spirit of Pitfall!, the 1982 Activision hit that eventually found its way onto the TRS-80. It was clunky and dumb and 8-bit fun. It ran in my browser and made me laugh that I could think and breathe this into existence. I have some programming ability; I understand a variety of common languages well enough to read and follow what they are doing — I am not a m4d l33t h4x0r sk1llz guy.

I called my second game Ducksmith™, and it was a step up. Keegan inspired me again, this time with a game he was modelling. Taking what I saw him attempting, I wanted to see if I could create a game in which the characters would learn from interactions with one another, where there were consequences for their actions. Welcome to DuckSmith™.

This is a section from the player's manual I built, which you can read at https://ducksmith.ai:

Long before the age of men and machines, there was a valley cradled between ancient hills where the grass grew impossibly green, and the ponds shimmered like liquid gold at dusk. The animals who lived there were unremarkable — except for the ducks.

They called the valley Featherhollow, and the ducks who nested there were different from any others in the world. They remembered things. Not just where the best mud was, or which pond had the fattest beetles — they remembered each other. They formed friendships that lasted lifetimes. They mourned their dead.

But Featherhollow was not safe. Beyond the fence line, the wilds teemed with predators: cunning foxes, circling hawks, grey wolves, and the great lumbering bears that feared nothing.

The old frogs, who had sat on their lily pads since time began, would say: "A duck who survives learns. A duck who learns becomes wise. And a wise duck? Well, a wise duck can change the world."

The ducks did learn, and they began to grow and change. If the farmer forgets to feed them, they turn carnivorous. If they watch a fellow duck get killed by a predator, some form groups and go looking for revenge, while others carry the story home to frighten the rest. Ducks fall in love and make new ducks, and if there are too many ducks, a culling comes — either from the depth of the pond or from an unexpected appearance out of the past.

Since Ducksmith™ I have started two new games, both a good deal further along than anything I'd built before. Because they are new and not fully formed, the best I can tell you is that the third is a 3D browser game where you can play either as a human escaping a bear, or a bear chasing a human. It is insanely stupid fun in uber-blocky 3D. Think early Doom, but with bears.

The fourth one has spun into something completely unexpected. The name will be revealed at some point, but for now it stays locked in secrecy, because of what it spawned: a novel.

I was using AI to build the video game, connecting it to the various tools and systems that would eventually let it be sold on Steam. Early in that process I realized it deserved a story. A great one.

So, AI tucked in for the night and Google Docs at my fingertips, I started writing the story behind the game, and I discovered magic. I am powered by the act of creating. This is my love language. And I love writing. Today, a character I wasn't expecting showed up at the end of a chapter, and she said, and did things beyond my control. She gave herself a name, a backstory, and for all I know, the ending of the book. I have no earthly idea how I will reconcile the things she put in motion, but I can't wait to find out. AI can't do that.