Ask HN: Why I rarely see game dev startup here?

Games are idiosyncratic, creative, and funded mostly by knowledgeable insiders funding devs with track records. The failure rate is mitigated this way. Plus the revenue doesn’t favor the VC system. First investors aren’t given such extreme advantages, and seed money for proofs isn’t necessary. A demo costs much less than an app. I’m in game dev and VC is the last place I’d seek capital. AI is the last place I’d look for creative help (though AI is involved in the intricacies of baking and texture refinement).

Can you tell me about how you use AI for baking and texture refinement?

I’m a beginner making small 3d webxr experiences, so tooling is a bit scarce outside of blender. Recently started making my own models and doing stuff like ao mapping and lightmapping. Editing texture maps using AI sounds helpful.

I’m not sure how these work, but AI accelerates the refinement of realistic textures. As an example, we just switched to Metahuman for human rig building.

https://www.metahuman.com/en-US

The devs building the rigs use real people, and Metahuman uses AI to actually increase their imperfections.

We then shift into Blender where we construct hair and clothing. The hair uses internal AI that accelerates the process of individuating hair behavior we then export into unreal where the hair responds to physics.