User Stories: How AI Helped Me Develop a Mobile Game in Just a Few Days

Developing an indie game can be a daunting task, especially when working solo or with limited resources. As an independent "hobbyst-developer", I wanted to explore how artificial intelligence could assist me in different aspects of game development. This led to the creation of The Spear of Leonidas, a small game developed with Construct 2. The entire project was an experiment to see how AI could streamline and enhance the development process.

What is The Spear of Leonidas?

The Spear of Leonidas is a mobile-friendly game that is completely free to play. It features two main modes:

• Play Mode: The objective is to throw the spear as far as possible.
• Arcade Mode: Players must aim at objects placed at varying distances to score points.

The gameplay itself is simple, but the real challenge—and the core of my experiment—was integrating AI into different parts of the development process.

Using AI for Artistic Direction

I am not an artist, and one of the biggest challenges I face as a solo developer is maintaining a consistent and visually appealing art style. This is where AI became an invaluable tool. Instead of generating images directly, I used ChatGPT to define an artistic direction and suggest specific elements to include in the environment. For example, I asked questions like:

• What animals could appear in the background?
• What type of vegetation would fit the setting?
• What should the destructible vases and other objects look like?

By leveraging AI's ability to provide creative guidance, I was able to focus on a cohesive visual style without needing to generate art from scratch. Once I had a clear vision, I refined the assets using Photopea to fit my needs.

AI-Generated Music: A New Frontier

Another area where I experimented with AI was music creation. As someone without musical expertise, composing a soundtrack from scratch would have been a major hurdle. I tested various AI-powered music generation tools and eventually settled on ilovesong.ai to create background tracks for the game. While the results were simple, they complemented the game's atmosphere well.

Of course, AI-generated music isn't a perfect substitute for a human composer, but it provided a solid starting point. I still had to adjust and integrate the tracks manually to ensure they matched the gameplay experience.

What AI Didn’t Do

It’s important to clarify that AI didn’t handle everything. The core gameplay mechanics, scripting and overall design were implemented manually using Construct 2—a tool I was already familiar with from previous projects. AI acted as an assistant rather than a replacement, providing creative inspiration and assets that I could refine and integrate as needed.

Final Thoughts: AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement

The Spear of Leonidas remains an ongoing experiment rather than a definitive statement on game development with AI. My goal was not to demonstrate how to “replace artists or musicians” but to explore how AI could assist indie developers in overcoming creative and technical hurdles.

For solo developers and small teams, AI offers exciting possibilities for speeding up workflows and enhancing creativity. However, it’s still just a tool—one that works best when combined with human intuition, refinement, and vision.

If you’re an indie developer, I encourage you to experiment with AI in your own projects. Whether it’s for brainstorming ideas, generating assets, or assisting with music, it might surprise you how much it can streamline your workflow.

What do you think about AI in game development? Have you used it in your own projects? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Freank

Looking Back at 2024: Achievements and Progress

The 2025 started and it's time to reflect on the goals we set at the beginning of the 2024 and the incredible progress we've made together with our community. Our priority for 2024 was crystal clear: speed and operational excellence, and we're proud of what we’ve achieved so far.

Let’s break down how we delivered on our promises:

1. Speed as a Top Priority ⚡

Our commitment to making indiexpo faster and more responsive has paid off:

• Significant site speed improvements were implemented across key areas like Levels, User Pages, and through the use of advanced caching systems.
• Server upgrades further boosted performance, ensuring a smoother browsing experience.
• Lazy loading for comments, news, and notifications was introduced to improve page loading times.

2. Enhanced Mobile Experience 📱

While the app is still under consideration, several updates have made the mobile experience much better:

• A revamped slideshow, fully optimized for mobile with modern animations and easy navigation.
• Online game sections optimized for mobile users, making it easier to enjoy games on the go.

3. New Ways to Reward Players and Developers 🏅

We introduced new user medals, encouraging participation and rewarding milestones. Players can also now track their progress through improved event leaderboards and access challenges directly from game pages. And new medals are coming!

4. Usability and Engagement Improvements 🌟

We rolled out several updates to make indiexpo more intuitive and engaging:

• An advanced search system now ranks games by ratings, helping users find top titles quickly.
• Improved language and content filters for personalized game discovery.
• Markdown enhancements made content sharing easier and more dynamic.
• ARIA attributes were introduced as part of our effort to make the platform more accessible.

Looking Ahead to 2025 🚀

We’re thrilled with the progress made during the 2024 but are already looking forward to what's next. Here's what we aim to achieve:

• More Blog Content: We want to share more articles to keep you informed about updates, trends, and community highlights.
• Increased Challenges for Players 🏆: With more games supporting leaderboards, we plan to launch many more Challenges to keep players engaged and competitive.
• New Features Finally Coming to Life: There are some features that have been in the works for a while, and we’re determined to introduce them this year.
• Enhanced Security and Performance: We’ll continue to improve the site’s stability and security.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Together, we continue to make indiexpo a better platform for gaming, creativity, and community. Here's to an exciting year ahead!

Mobile Gaming: Is It Really the Future of Gaming Industry?

The mobile gaming industry represents an incredibly lucrative market, being the leading gaming platform in terms of both player numbers and revenue generated. However, on the other hand, it is also the most challenging area to invest in as either you can achieve great success or risk a rapid collapse. Nevertheless, the trend is clear: all major publishers want to try their luck and have moved accordingly in recent years.

It is important, therefore, to understand what the mobile market is today. According to the analysis company Newzoo, the mobile segment was worth $92.2 billion in 2022, which is 50% of the overall industry revenue. For comparison, the console market is worth $51.8 billion. Even a national perspective allows us to give more context when we talk about this vast market.

The reason is evident: almost everyone has a smartphone, while far fewer people have a console or a gaming PC. It is not surprising, therefore, that more and more companies are looking at mobile gaming in light of the incredible commercial opportunity. But it would be a serious mistake to believe that the mobile world is easy to explore. "For various reasons, mobile is probably one of the most expensive platforms to develop on today," says Mauro Fanelli, CEO of MixedBag, which has published Forma.8, Futuridium, and, exclusively for Apple Arcade, Secret Oops on Android and iOS. "The cost of mobile development and launch is different. Beyond the quality of the game, there is a matter of maintenance, user acquisition, and how a mobile game works. It requires constant investment."

The mobile market can be divided into two major categories. On one side, there are free-to-play games in constant update, the live services. Here, the difficulty is evident: an entire team of developers must constantly work to produce new content, engage users with events and novelties, and maintain the game's quality. "The whole free-to-play model is based on game-as-a-service: first, launch the game, and then the team must produce content weekly," explains Fanelli. "Constantly balancing, changing the meta to keep users engaged: the game never ends. On mobile, this is extreme, much more than on console. It is continuous development, and the team must always work on the same game. It's a constant investment."

Otherwise, especially for an independent developer, the mobile world is an endless sea but full of sharks. "The number one platform for indie games is still Steam, followed by Switch and other consoles," according to Fanelli. "Then, way down the list, there is mobile. There is always the illusion that it is easy, but then the market is complicated. Even games promoted by platforms may not succeed." This is where the consolidation that many major publishers are carrying out begins.

When entering a market like mobile, which has different dynamics from PC and console, there are two ways to engage: developing an internal specialized department over time or acquiring a consolidated entity with the competencies and technologies needed to create new mobile titles.

The Badges also on Mobile

The badges are very important for a game. They show the goals and the successes achieved.

We're still improving the mobile version of the website... so now the gamers can see them also on their smartphone !

New Mobile Design

Improved Mobile View of the Games !

We improved the view of the games on the mobile version. Now, if you see a game from your Smartphone... you will see the games like the pictures posted up !