Back from the Void
Back from the Void
Coding, AI, and Cosmic Synthesizer Journeys
It has been quite a while since I last posted here. I’m happy to share that I’ve finally managed to recover my Hashnode account after losing access to my original email address – it feels great to be back in the loop!
For the past few years, I’ve taken a break from active software development, but recently, I’ve started exploring the new frontiers of AI-assisted programming. I’ve been diving deep into tools like Google’s Antigravity to see how they can streamline development workflows. I've tried several other services, but Antigravity is currently my spice of choice.
So, I am writing this post simply to get back in touch and share what’s been happening.
The Return to Code: thengine
My first real project utilizing AI-assisted development is my game engine, thengine. It is a 2D game engine implemented in C++ using the SDL3 library. My original goal was to learn how to incorporate agentic coding into my software development process, and this project is the vehicle for achieving that.
This is my go-to process for learning anything new: I study the basics, then pick a project to build while learning the topic in depth. Whenever I get stuck, I study more. This way, I gain real practical experience while building something tangible, and I end up with a final product created during the learning journey.
My goal with this project is to keep the architecture clean, extendable, and maintainable. Interestingly, there are zero hand-written lines of code in it – it is pure "Antigravity love." It already supports 2D texture sprites with full transformations and a 2D camera system. I'm excited to see where this project goes as I continue the step-by-step implementation.
GitHub repository for thengine
Cosmic Shift: From Code to Sound
While coding has been a huge part of my life, the last year has been heavily focused on music production. I have found that AI tools are just as powerful for creative work as they are for programming.
Even though I have integrated AI into my musical endeavors, I refuse to abandon the "authentic creative struggle." I compose my music in FL Studio using VST synths and plugins to build the core, only augmenting my vision with AI tools when necessary.
Whatever you are creating—especially when it involves art—you must establish a vision first. What is your goal? What do you want to convey? For me, every album begins with a story arc and a clear plan for the emotions I want to evoke. Without a clear (or even a "fuzzy!") vision, the output will never truly resonate.
People often say AI will produce slop, that it will steal our creative work, or that it will be the end of artistry. My take? You will get slop if you act like a slop-machine. I came up with this saying of my own a few months ago:
"A tool is just a tool — and a tool by itself is never a fool, but the one wielding it can become one."
Think of it this way: Do you blame a shovel if someone uses it to hurt their neighbor? Of course not.
For me, in whatever I do and use AI for, it's not just a tool—it's a team member that happens to have a slightly larger knowledge base than I do. But I am still the captain of the ship.
That real DAW - FL Studio
I’ve been using Image-Line's FL Studio as my primary DAW for composing and producing music. I don't have Windows at all anymore, my OS spice is Linux and with Bottles the Windows version of FL Studio works rather painlessly. I've been creating music videos for my tracks using the ZGameEditor visualizer plugin. This naturally led me back to coding: I’ve started a new development project to create my own custom visualization effect. It is a fractal-based visualizer where the Mandelbrot set is calculated entirely on the GPU, with support for zooming into both Mandelbrot and Julia sets.
It feels good to combine my love for C++ design with the creative energy of music. I’m looking forward to sharing more updates on both the engine and the visualizer as they progress.
If you want to check out the music I’ve been making, take a deep dive into my channel or Spotify. I release music under my artist name, Signal Sanctum.
Latest album - Voyage, Voyager
Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
Which path are you taking with AI tools – are you using them as a hammer, or as a team member? Let me know in the comments!
