How Far Can Vibe Coded Games Actually Go? | Nate Pacyga

Nate Pacyga is an agentic engineer, product builder and the technical founder of Game Monument, where he is building products focused on funding, engagement and community building in the games industry. He has spent more than 20 years combining software engineering with product and technical leadership across games, web applications, developer tools and prototypes. He also documents the products he is building on his YouTube channel.Before Game Monument, Nate was a Technical Director at Scopely, where his work included WWE Champions and an unannounced title, and held Chief Technology Officer roles at Game Taco and Gank. His earlier career includes engineering roles at KIXEYE, Kabam and DeNA, as well as time as an owner, engineer and game designer at Super2Games, whose city building game Turbo Town reached more than one million plays. Nate has also taught programming as an adjunct professor, spoken at conferences and code camps, and mentored engineers throughout his career.Chapters:01:51 Nate's story04:20 The ChatGPT moment06:24 What you still need to learn09:23 Do you need college?11:05 How to get started15:44 Gravity Refinery demo18:35 When AI gets it wrong21:01 How to write better prompts24:53 Which tools to use28:00 Nate's multiplayer tool29:03 Why multiplayer was so hard30:45 Rebuilding a cancelled game in six hours31:39 Bringing old games back35:41 When AI took his job37:21 How we got here40:06 Why starting feels hard42:47 Building a game in a chat44:08 We build a game live48:01 Flash game nostalgia49:39 The Ready Player One dream51:46 The creator economy52:44 Make your own TV episode55:48 The next ten years58:24 Claude of Duty demo1:01:23 What this means for MMOs1:02:35 How dev teams are changing1:04:47 Nate's advice1:07:48 Where to find Natehttps://www.youtube.com/@UC_RElGW8kk1eMCQkWIPcmDw https://www.linkedin.com/in/natepacyga/