AI Is Making Engineers Obsolete - It’s Not What You Think

AI is getting very good at writing code. So what does that mean for software engineers?

After months of building the Untold Engine using Claude and ChatGPT, I realized AI isn't just a faster way to code — it's changing what engineering actually means. The developers who ignore this are going to fall behind. Fast.

In this video I break down why the value of writing code is collapsing, what AI still can't do, and how I use Claude as an intern — not a replacement — while building a game engine from scratch. If you're a software engineer trying to figure out where you fit in an AI-driven world, this one is for you.

Untold Engine is a Swift + Metal renderer and engine focused on XR, streaming, and real-time rendering for Apple platforms.

Untold Engine: https://github.com/untoldengine/UntoldEngine

I Had To Stop Thinking Like A Graphics Engineer

I spent years thinking that if the rendering was good enough, the engine would speak for itself.

Better visuals. Better performance. More advanced rendering features.

But eventually I realized something uncomfortable: great rendering alone doesn’t make a great engine.

In this video, I talk about the mindset shift that changed how I approach the Untold Engine — from thinking purely like a graphics programmer to thinking about the full developer experience.

I share:

  • Why rendering wasn’t enough anymore
  • The hidden importance of tooling and user experience
  • How friction prevents people from trying your engine
  • Why I started simplifying workflows and lowering the barrier to entry
  • The lessons I learned building systems around the renderer, not just inside it

This wasn’t a technical breakthrough. It was an engineering realization.

If you're building a game engine, renderer, toolchain, or any developer-facing software, this might save you from the same mistake I made.

Untold Engine is a Swift + Metal renderer and engine focused on XR, streaming, and real-time rendering for Apple platforms.

Untold Engine: https://github.com/untoldengine/UntoldEngine

If you enjoy engine development, rendering architecture, XR rendering, or graphics programming, consider subscribing.

The Debugging Systems I Built for My Game Engine

Building a game engine has completely changed the way I think about debugging software.

For a long time, my workflow was simple: Open the code editor, add breakpoints everywhere, inspect variables, and hope I could eventually find the root cause of the problem.

That worked when the engine was smaller.

But as the Untold Engine grew more complex — with rendering systems, tile streaming, texture mip streaming, and XR features — I realized I was debugging blind.

So I started building diagnostic and instrumentation systems directly into the engine.

In this video, I walk through:

  • Engine performance instrumentation
  • Render target debugging
  • Tile streaming visualizers
  • Texture mip streaming debuggers
  • Rendering diagnostics for SSAO, SMAA, G-Buffers, and more
  • How these tools changed my development workflow

I also talk about the biggest realization I’ve had as an engineer over the past few years:

Modern debugging is less about staring at code… and more about building tooling that gives you visibility into what your application is actually doing.

The Untold Engine is a Swift + Metal renderer and engine focused on XR, streaming, and real-time rendering for Apple platforms.

Untold Engine: https://github.com/untoldengine/UntoldEngine

If you enjoy engine development, rendering architecture, XR rendering, or graphics programming, consider subscribing.

The Hidden Cost of Building a Game Engine Editor (Why I Scaled Mine Back)

Building a game engine taught me something unexpected:

The hardest part isn’t always writing the renderer, implementing XR support, or optimizing performance.

Sometimes, the hardest part is deciding what NOT to build.

In this video, I talk about why I decided to dramatically scope down the Untold Engine Editor, the mistakes I made, and the engineering tradeoffs that come with maintaining complex tooling as a solo developer.

We’ll talk about:

  • Why I removed scripting from the editor
  • The hidden cost of maintenance
  • Why building an engine and building an editor require completely different skill sets
  • And why simplifying the editor was ultimately the right decision for the future of the Untold Engine

Untold Engine is a Swift + Metal renderer and engine focused on XR, streaming, and real-time rendering for Apple platforms.

Untold Engine: https://github.com/untoldengine/UntoldEngine

If you enjoy engine development, rendering architecture, XR rendering, or graphics programming, consider subscribing.

I Thought Unit Tests Would Slow Me Down… I Was Wrong

When I started building the original C++ version of the Untold Engine back in 2013, I focused on building systems from scratch:

  • Rendering
  • Physics
  • Collision
  • Math libraries

But there was one engineering practice I completely ignored:

Unit Testing.

At the time, I thought tests would slow development down.

Instead, the opposite happened.

As the engine grew, regressions became part of the workflow. Features would randomly break, bugs would reappear, and I would spend days re-debugging problems I had already solved before.

So when I rewrote the Untold Engine in Swift, I made testing part of the workflow from day one.

Today, the engine has over 1000 unit tests covering rendering, streaming, physics, animation systems, and more.

In this video, I talk about the engineering lesson I learned building a renderer and game engine for over a decade.

The Untold Engine is an open-source Swift + Metal renderer and engine focused on XR and Apple platforms.

Check out the Untold Engine: https://github.com/untoldengine/UntoldEngine