Sorry for submitting the game in Compo with AI assistant’s help on coding and text translations without explicit declaration. I checked the rule carefully to avoid violation to the Compo rules. However the rules might be too ambiguous on “AI coding on Compo entries” for me, some developers think it shouldn’t be allowed but my understanding is that “it’s ok”. So I approve complete the rules to avoid this arguments happen again, while the AI tools are getting more and more OP for making a demo game currently.

At lease by my side (researching community), coding by myself means well designing everything by myself, and tools are not so important. I’m also not native English speaker, so I think the language gap is also a cause. Actually I checked the rules and considered to coding everything manually in this Compo before the theme is out, just because I think this should be cool and fun. However when I come out the mechanics and story I think “I love this idea! But I should do a lot works on it, I want to present a more complete story rather than delete part of them, and the rule allows AI in coding”, then I planned my work schedule including the Github Copilot tools. I didn’t realize that some participants in this community may hold different opinions on AI with me. And finally I stayed up a whole night to finish the game, I think I have made what I consider to be the effort.

Luckily (or unluckily), I won Overall #2 in this jam. And I noticed the AI arguments on the Overall #1 game. Then I realized that we may lead to a trouble, I should declare my situation. I believe the dev of Overall #1 have the same understanding of the rules with me, which possibly affected the community, even that it’s a “competitive” game jam. And there are even some language attacks on the #1 game although the developer believes the honesty, which I think is too bad for us. By the chance I think the rule should be more explicit on AI coding tools on Compo track, whether the result is “completely banned” or not.

My LD57 entry is made completly without AI (check the source code freely if you want), and I won Overall #4 and Audio #1 in this jam. You can check my own art style and trade-off strategy there, and, my honesty too. This what I can do without AI tools. I just enjoy making games with simple-style art, vibe musics and a lot of emotions. I’m not proud of using AI coding, just because in my understanding it’s ok for me to improve my completeness in this jam.

I still believe what make our games outstanding is our creativity and experiences, not tools. However I agree it’s really necessary to enact a fair rule on these “OP” tools in the competitive jam. I hope more interesting and amazing games can be born in the coming LD, and the friendly game-dev community can be there forever.

And thanks for discussants in this page, I really get the issue. As a “not so perfect” Overall #2 in compo I think I have the responsibility to call for the improvement of rules. I welcome friendly discussions and critics there.

UPD (May 14th)

I'm beginning to understand that, the divergence may comes from the varied understanding of the spirit of Compo too. I agree that Compo is a performance art of extreme development rather than a game jam, because the banning of assets is also seems uncommon in most jams. And I'm clear that I just enjoy this performance art! That's why I participate in Compo in all of my 3 LD jams. I believe the AI opponents also have similar understandings.

So due to the competitive spirit, banning AI is indeed reasonable. It depends on the organizer and community's understanding on whether AI coding conflicts the spirit of extreme development. I will continue participating in LD Compo no matter what the rules would be, just because I enojy it. I will show my honesty and passion in the rest of incoming jams.

UPD (May 15th)

I've already emailed Mike to explain the situation. Let's wait for good changes to happen.