A dev trained robots to generate “garbage” slot machine games—and made $50K

Enlarge / Two indie devs explain how they used automation, a single Google Play account, and a single slot-machine template to create and distribute over 1,000 slot machine apps. (credit: Alex Schwarz)

SAN FRANCISCO-This year's Game Developers Conference saw two game makers emerge with a possible chapter in a future dystopian sci-fi novel: the story of making money by letting robots do the work. In their case, that work was the procedural generation of smartphone games.

A single "game jam" event led to a data machine that ultimately pumped out a decent amount of cash: $50,000 over a couple of years. Years later, with that data (and money) in hand, the makers of this game-making machine, which focused entirely on "garbage" free-to-play slot machines, used GDC as a wake-up call to an industry where the "right" messages often revolve around listening to players, sidling up to publishers, and racking up critical acclaim. In their case, eschewing all of that worked a little too well for their comfort level.

Winning the "race to the bottom"

In 2013, two video game makers had been trying for years to make it in the burgeoning mobile games space. One of them, Alex Schwartz, had helped get the solid mobile swiping-action game Jack Lumber off the ground. (In a past life, I gave that game a good review at the now defunct tablet-only magazine The Daily.) The other, Ziba Scott, had put together a fine mobile-friendly puzzle game, Girls Like Robots.

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