So I've handcoded and released a couple dozen games in the past, but I'm now old with responsibilities and a day job of coding, and my brain just doesn't have the energy to mess about with it like it used to after a day of work, so I have started experimenting with letting A.I. agent code some things (and been surprised at how well it can work).

I'm aware of the gen AI stigma but it's either that or this damn game probably never gets released at this point (I basically let the game sit dormant all year last year, only recently picking it back up again), and I have a full graveyard full of unreleased projects the past decade and would like to finally get something out there again.

That being said, at least for the forseeable future, I won't use any A.I. generated art or music in the game (unless I inadvertently hire an artist that does use it, I guess), because there is still a huge (and somewhat justifiable) stigma against A.I. generated art and music assets.

So instead I'm just doing what I did in the past, and creating the art and music myself as best I can with Illustrator or Logic Pro, and keeping my games fairly simple and abstract so it doesn't seem too much like programmer art (I might at some point pay an artist or musician to improve things just before it gets released though).

I would like to try game development, only for personal satisfaction, and I will definitely be using coding agents and AI generated assets to help. I have very little free time and I am a decent enough programmer that I think I should be able to pick up what the agent is doing if I keep the chunks small enough and review each time. And this will be for my own hobby purposes and possibly for my children only.

But, if I were to make a game for commercial purposes I would very much either avoid using AI, or use it only for the code (and not reveal that), because as you rightly point out, the indie gaming community is massively against AI, and will reject your game if they know you used it.

If you're targeting desktop, Steam will be your primary distribution channel by a huge margin. Steam is AI-hostile. Don't use it.

If you're targeting something like mobile or web, do whatever you like with AI. Some will avoid it, but they're a vocal minority.

I 100% recommend that you avoid AI-generated assets in your game. The stigma around AI-generated assets is very real, and not going away soon. Although people might enjoy using AI for their own purposes, by and large they don't want to be subjected to other people's use of it. Moreover, while I don't have the data to back this up, I would have to think that among the segment of the population that plays indie games, the stigma around generative AI is even greater.

In the second part of the question you asked if you should just learn all of the skills...buddy, does that question not answer itself? Of course you should learn all of the skills. Obviously that's much easier said than done, but TBH I think the quality bar to producing something viable is not super high, so as long as you're not a perfectionist, you can probably do it.

Since I could be labeled as an "AI hater" based on those comments, I want to be clear that I'm saying all this to keep you from falling into a trap and not to further my own agenda. The generative AI route is not a magic shortcut to success, although it is being aggressively marketed as such. The shortcut only seems to lead to success if you ignore the fact that people don't want to be subjected to other people's AI content.

It's best to avoid using tools and innovations that maximize your productivity.

It's a transformative technology, you should definitely try it at a minimum, and long enough to get a feel for it. It takes time to learn what/where they are good/bad at and how to interact with them to get the most of out them.

I saw a GameDev talk on Ai where they showed a virtual pile of trash. It cost more than $10k, what if we go photograph trash piles and use Ai to turn them into assets?

The Steam label, maybe it means something now, but longer I think it fades. For me personally, if there is a good game than looks nice, I'm not really going to care how much Ai they used. Be mindful of where you derice industry sentiment from, and that sentiments are changing.