The Tool Is Not the Author (But It Will Help You Become One)
My Epic End of Year Final Entry
Every generation meets the next generation of tools with suspicion — with palpable fear.
The printing press was accused of killing memory.
Photography was accused of killing art.
Photoshop was accused of killing photographers and artists.
Synthesizers were accused of killing music.
The internet was accused of killing intelligence.
Hell, even the microwave was brought to trial for suspicion of intent to kill kitchens!
And yet — every one of those tools ended up amplifying whoever actually learned to use them.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.
Because once again, we’re standing at the edge of a shift that feels bigger than most people are ready to admit — maybe even bigger than the arrival of the internet itself.
The age of artificial intelligence.
What strikes me isn’t the technology (which is super impressive). It’s how familiar the resistance to adopting it sounds.
And if history has taught me anything, it’s that those who decide to surf the wave of every technological shift I’ve mentioned are the ones who end up making a living — and sometimes a killing — out of change.
I’m waxing my board as I write this.
The idea that “there’s no talent involved.”
That “a machine is doing the work.”
It’s the same energy I remember hearing in the early 2000s from people who said, almost proudly:
“I’ve never needed the internet. I never will.”
History wasn’t kind to that confidence.
So I’ll ground this in something personal.
I’m currently developing a game — and modern game development isn’t romantic. It’s brutal. It demands fluency across multiple disciplines:
Story.
Art assets.
Animation.
Programming.
Music and audio.
For most of my career, my role has lived exactly at that intersection — directing teams across those disciplines, translating vision into pipelines, aligning specialists, and hitting real deadlines with real constraints.
(At least on paper.)
That context matters.
Because when I realized I could design my development infrastructure around specialized AI systems — each trained, guided, and constrained by my methodology — something clicked.
Not replacement.
Opportunity.
For the first time, I could move into full production as a solo developer while retaining full authorship of every single asset — using AI as a specialized team operating in areas where human teams were once the only viable option.
How many great solo projects did we never get to see before this technology existed?
Independent game development has become a meaningful slice of the global gaming industry — winning Game of the Year awards, reaching the front pages of major outlets, and proving, year after year, that solo development is no longer a novelty.
What were once isolated news flashes of single developers releasing a hit product that sells millions of units in mere weeks has become a pretty common occurrence.
It’s a viable path — for those who are brave enough to sail those waters.
Let’s talk numbers.
1) The indie market is huge on Steam (units + revenue)
Video Game Insights / Sensor Tower’s Global Indie Games Market Report 2024 (data “as of 30 Sep 2024”) reports that on Steam:
• Indie = 99% of games released vs AA/AAA = 1%
• Indie = 58% of units sold vs AA/AAA = 42%
• Indie = 48% of full-game revenue vs AA/AAA = 52%
• The report also notes that indie games are making “as much money… as AAA and AA… for the first time ever,” and that indie revenue share has doubled since 2018.
That’s the clearest “viability” proof: indies aren’t a side show — they’re roughly half the commercial PC market on Steam by revenue.
2) There’s a clear “small team viability ladder” (not just miracle hits)
That same report segments the indie market by team size and typical performance:
• Solo Devs (1–2 devs): ~2k–20k units / ~$50k revenue
• Small teams (3–15): ~20k–200k units / ~$1M revenue
• Middle market (15–50): ~200k–1M units / ~$10M revenue
• “Triple-I” (50+): 1M+ units / $50M+ revenue
That matters because it shows a repeatable path where “viable” doesn’t have to mean “top 0.1% megahit.”
It can mean small-team $1M class — which is life-changing and studio-sustaining for many regions and cost structures.
3) Developers are increasingly funding and self-publishing (indie is a real employment mode)
• The GDC State of the Game Industry 2025 highlights “Indie resilience,” noting half of all developers are self-funding their games.
• The IGDA Developer Satisfaction Survey 2023 shows that among self-employed respondents, 54% identified as independent developers primarily self-publishing.
This supports the argument that indie isn’t just “a dream.”
It’s already how a meaningful portion of developers operate.
4) Platforms are paying indies real money (distribution + royalties are not theoretical)
Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program reports:
• 6,000+ indie titles launched
• 5,000+ partners across 100 countries
• $5+ billion paid out in royalties
There is an established pipeline where indie content is being funded and rewarded at scale.
5) Crowdfunding remains a meaningful financing route (especially for niche audiences)
Kickstarter’s 2024 recap reports:
• $220M pledged to tabletop games, with an 80% success rate
• 441 successful video game campaigns raising $26M
This is not “everyone will get funded.”
But it is proof that audience-backed financing is alive and functional.
The honest downside (also backed by data): discoverability is a war
PC Gamer, citing SteamDB, reports that in 2025 over 19,000 games launched on Steam — and nearly half had fewer than 10 reviews.
So: viable? Yes.
Automatic? Hell no.
The market is real. Distribution is the bottleneck.
The road may not be fully paved — but it exists, and there’s enough traffic on it to justify the trip.
So now that the why is clear, if money isn’t enough motivation, how about feasibility?
Because that’s exactly what AI is becoming:
a tool that bridges potential into feasibility.
AI is not automation replacing creativity.
It’s automation that allows creatives to reach their potential.
AI does not replace intent.
It may produce ideas, but they’re often not very good.
It may write for you, but the writing is usually robotic.
It may produce art for you, but it’s often overproduced and too perfect.
AI cannot replace taste, judgment, discipline, vision, or talent.
But it can sharpen them — if you already have them.
It accelerates process.
And it dramatically reduces margin of error within that process.
And now for some deep and beautiful analogies 😉
A hammer does not build a house.
A DAW does not write a song.
A camera does not make a photograph meaningful.
And AI does not create good work without a human operating it.
In a solo game developer’s shoes, AI is a weapon.
Just yesterday, Larian Studios — developers of Baldur’s Gate 3 — caught fire for admitting AI use during the concept phase. Brilliant, I say.
If one of the top studios recognizes its utility while actively hiring more artists (verifiable), then maybe the loudest critics simply aren’t operating at that level.
Whether AI will be part of creative work is no longer a debate worth having.
That question has already been answered.
The real divide is simpler — and older — than most people realize:
Those who learn to integrate new tools.
And those who spend their energy fighting history itself.
We’ve seen this before.
And we will see it again.
Now let’s get ready for 2026.
I’ve got a wave to catch.
— CBEVAN
Sources / References
• Sensor Tower (Video Game Insights) — Global Indie Games Market Report 2024
https://sensortower.com/resources/reports/global-indie-games-market-report-2024
• IGDA — Developer Satisfaction Survey 2023 (Summary Report)
https://igda.org/resources-archive/developer-satisfaction-survey-summary-report-2023/
• GDC — State of the Game Industry 2025
https://gdconf.com/state-game-industry
Coverage:
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/state-of-the-game-industry-2025
• Microsoft / ID@Xbox — Official statistics
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/games/articles/2023/01/id-at-xbox-january-2023-update/
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/03/20/id-xbox-developer-spotlight/
• Kickstarter — 2024 Was a Big Year for Games
https://updates.kickstarter.com/2024-was-a-big-year-for-games/
• PC Gamer / SteamDB — Steam saturation and discoverability
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-released-more-games-than-ever-2024/
https://steamdb.info/