Guess I’m “That Guy” Now…
When AI becomes efficient enough to do our work; what do we do? That seems to be my question-du-jour as recent developments in AI have demonstrated the potential I have seen used to describe the technology since 2022. In the weeks following the release of Anthropic’s Claude 5.5 Opus model, which seems to exhibit superhuman coding capabilities, the internet has been a fascinating place for tech and gaming news. Between witnessing the exponential development of a free Open-Source Adobe Creative Cloud replacement, watching viral videos of “game mashups” made in a single afternoon, reading announcements from Epic Games regarding AI implementation for their new Unreal Engine & Epic Games Store, and seeing Microsoft’s recent announcement of a new “vibe-coding” division of Xbox; it’s clear that the computing power of AI is no longer a promise of future capability but a product that can be used right now.
In this blog entry, I will explore these developments through my personal experience & discuss what I think it could mean for the future of lush.wav
Dipping My Toes
I’m a bit of a geek, but ultimately, I am an artist. I have an affinity for understanding systems and the functions that cause something to work or do what it does, but truthfully; coding and scripting has just never stuck. There are countless ideas for tools, software, and games floating around in my brain, but I have never gotten far on my own. I’ve really been dreaming small as a result lately… However, after seeing some of the new advances with Opus 5.5, I think I might be able to dream big again! To understand the capabilities of the new Claude model, I wanted to try it out for myself: A small project that I could’ve made by hand, as a test and point of comparison. I asked the model to help me create a small Minecraft mod that adds a Biome based on the Amalfi Coast to the game, something I could do quite easily by hand with a few days and the existing guides / tools. I figured that it wouldn’t be an impossible task for the AI, given the simplicity of world generation rules in Minecraft (ultimately just numbers within a text file).
Immediately, it got to work. It asked me some questions about my idea, wrote a guide based on my style requests, and presented me a project outline. If I approved of its plan, I just had to click a button and would apparently have a working mod on the other side of it all. And I did. In that process, it took only a few minutes for me to realize that the AI game of today is vastly different than what it has been over the course of this decade so far: See, the ChatGPT-of-it-all never really impressed me. I saw it and similar LLM technologies as glorified, glamorized chatbots. I used Cleverbot and played Façade as a kid; this new “AI” merely reflected the advances in information storage sizes over the course of the century thus far. More data, less space: Better chatbot. But it seems that these models are not simply generating text anymore but are acting on it as well. Following its creation of my biome, a task that took minutes and maybe a few back-and-forth revisions after testing in game, it’d go on to help me create new items, assets, and structures that could generated within the biome as well; incorporating my in-game designs and handmade assets. It’s not ready yet, but I plan to implement my own ambient track for the biome too. It was shocking: For the first time in my life, as a creative with big ideas, I was able to hand off every unfamiliar piece to someone else and focus on the creative aspects I find joy in. For once, I didn’t have to wear every hat… Talk about a game changer!
A view of the “Amalfi Biome,” featuring custom structures, lemon groves, and an overworld quartz ore
Following my small experiment with the Minecraft Mod, I’m truly intrigued. Letting the AI handle the technical aspects gave me not only the time to work on art assets myself, but it also opened space for creativity in my mind: I would’ve skipped the new blocks and structures if I did it all by hand. See, in these projects of mine, I find myself battling between the artist in me and the “game dev.” I’ve dedicated countless stressful hours trying to understand and implement my assets into various games in the pursuit of designing my own experiences through game modding (I have 68 hours in Mario Kart 8 simply testing my music and assets, for reference). I get into a flow state doing that type of work, sure, but it is an irritated haze compared to the feeling of mist I blend into when working on music, writing or environments. I’d work knowing every creative task meant (at least) three technical tasks for myself later, so it even impacted my ability to experience and produce the stuff that matters. With this in mind, it was quasi-magical getting to experience the flow of my creative contributions while dealing with none of the technical hassle throughout the project.
Here To Stay
Truthfully, I am very excited to start implementing this technology into my workflow for lush.wav. For the first time in a long time, I feel capable of working towards some of the projects I used to imagine when I was younger. The tools that will allow me to bridge the gap between what I’ve made of lush.wav so far, and what I know it can be now exist; so, I ought to use them. I have only just given myself permission to dream big, so who knows where this will take me; but for now, my plan is to use this technology to create the tools that will allow me to create lush.wav experiences. I still value my craft and human creativity; I would like to use this tech to allow me to lean into those things. I picture an environment designer that’s built to my preferences and exact needs, audio plugins that will allow me to bend the sounds of my music in weird ways that I think up in a dream, and the tools that will let me bring it all together to finally create a true interactive lush.wav experience. There is no art like a video game: No other art can tangibly speak back to the ways you interpret it. This fact fascinates me and I want nothing more than the ability to create and share that form of artistic expression with the world, myself. I will expand the website to showcase any software I create for myself, whether through this blog or a new section of the site.
Creatively, I had accepted a life where I have to wear every hat. Likewise, I adjusted my creative expectations based on the knowledge of my limitations. But what if I could just wear the hats I like? the ones that fit me? I dream of my own games as a way to showcase music and environmental design: lush.wav, a studio. I don’t love automation and still find myself uncomfortable thinking about AI-generated images and music; but when I watch the AI reason and build the software in front of me, I hesitate to think about it the same way as some of the generative slop that the technology has become known for. So yeah, I’m intrigued! I truly do think that we stand in a new place. I don’t think that I’m going to magically have Claude build me my dream MMO in one day, but that isn’t what I’ve ever been aiming for. Instead, I’m picturing a future suite of personalized tools: The Lush Suite. I think I could reasonably break my ideas down into the pieces of development and workflows required for a given task; which is enough to at least get started building programs for myself. I’m excited in this regard; as with the right set of tools that allow me to work comfortably and intuitively, I know can do anything.
Turning Inward & Looking Forward
So… what do we do? Personally, these advances have allowed me to start imagining a future where I get to do what I love… And so, if we’re optimists, I guess we find our passion! You know, I’ve always felt called to be a Renaissance Man. Before the “real” world clicked in my brain (and we could argue it still hasn’t), I wished not to work; but instead, to experience and create. I wished to read, to write, to learn, to build, and to play. Throughout my entire life, I have always just wanted to be the most creative, cultured, and intelligent man that I could be. If I had the time, the money, and ability to do so from my own will alone: my “work” would be this. I certainly wouldn’t be killing myself trying to get and keep a job that pays less than 20/hour while dealing with the stress and mental health issues that come with it. So, while I hate to be “that guy,” I think I’m an AI fan now. For my entire life, I have begged fate for the resources, freedom and ability to be who I’ve dreamed to be. And well, after years of isolation and disappointment, I might finally get that wish granted. Thanks to Claude.