Building with Banjo - Oct 23

Welcome back, builders, to the latest edition of "Building with Banjo" – where each month we merge curiosity with creativity. This edition spotlights how I harness generative AI when it comes to building!

From harnessing Amazon Bedrock for applications, crafting game assets with DALL·E 3, to the magic behind writing this very newsletter using custom ChatGPT instructions!

And, of course, I'll keep you in the loop about the latest community buzz, from AWS Community Day DMV to the much-awaited AWS re:Invent.

Ready to jump in? Let's get started!

AI

First up, Amazon Bedrock is now live for everyone! This tool offers a range of foundation models via a serverless API, making it a breeze for builders like us to dive into Generative AI. For those who want to get hands-on building, I've developed a workshop that takes you through several modules to show you how you can generate context, chat with documents, and build agents. You can start building with the workshop here.

https://github.com/aws-banjo/intro_bedrock_workshop

When we talk about integrating generative AI into daily tasks, finding ways the AI can tackle mundane parts brings immense value. Writing content stands out for me. I've enjoyed exploring AI's potential in this space. With ChatGPT's "Custom Instructions", the challenge of starting with a blank page and editing becomes smoother. Instead of a generic "AI style" writing, I've tailored the model to understand my writing preferences and learn a bit about who I am.

Here's the custom prompt I rely on for my regular writing:

I will often ask you to edit my writing. I want my writing to:

1. Be concise and actionable with a conversational tone.
2. Use simple words that get straight to the point. 
3. My guidelines for titles are to be short, informative, and honest. Use sentence case and avoids using ":"
4. Do not use superfluous adjectives, and do not use words such as "delve", "unwavering", "unleashed" or "ensure".
5. My content should flow seamlessly and have great transitions between sections.
6. My target audience is software developers. Make the content relatable to them by using analogies in software engineering and AWS, focusing on actionable insights and practical tips.
7. Use bullet points for listing steps and include code snippets where they can make explanations clearer.
8. End each post with a compelling call-to-action that encourages readers to engage with the content or take a specific action.

Take a deep breath and think through everything before responding.        

It's crucial to remember that while custom prompts are handy, the AI can occasionally drift from the intended narrative (like it did for this newsletter). You might need to nudge it back on track and refine the results. To give you a glimpse, here's how I wrote this newsletter, iterating and refining through prompts.

https://chat.openai.com/share/5a82b818-4bad-4e7f-84e8-e41c5685a60d

Gaming

Exciting updates on my tactical RPG game! When I embarked on this project, I assumed learning C# would be my main challenge. But with AI tools at my disposal, coding has turned out to be the easiest part of the journey. The real maze? Navigating the plethora of tools and settings in Unity.

While we're still on the lookout for a dedicated "co-pilot" for game development, the current coding tools, when used with the right prompts, are impressive. Amazon CodeWhisper has been my go-to in VSCode for refining and suggesting code. Meanwhile, ChatGPT shines when it comes to generating foundational code, like computing the distance between objects on a grid or refactoring code.

Want a sneak peek? Check out this chat session where I introduce an "attack tile" to the grid map upon unit selection.

https://chat.openai.com/share/633b6216-964f-4eb9-9eac-887a112f3943

With DALL·E?3 release, we've unlocked a new horizon for Game Asset creation. Instead of needing to know how to use tools like Photoshop, we can just use a text prompt to create entire sprite sheets for characters just with a prompt.

Here's an example of my high fantasy Knight Captain.

I'd like to generate character designs set within a high fantasy school RPG context. This will be for a 2d RPG game such as Fire Emblem.

Let's make a 2d sprite sheet for the character. The character is of African descent and has green hair. Make sure they have a sword equipped.        

Honestly, I wouldn't have known where to start if I wanted to craft a custom sprite sheet from scratch. While the builder community is in the early stages of experimenting with asset generation, the potential of AI in art is vast. We're just getting started!

Community

Whew, what a whirlwind these past weeks have been! From the exhilarating European bus tour to AWS Community Day DMV and DC Startup Week, it's been a blast connecting and building with you all!

Heads up for this week: Generative AI DC is hosting a Meetup on Thursday, October 26, diving into transfer learning with open-source LLMs. [Details here]

And there's more in store. I'm excited to announce I'll be taking the stage at AfroTech on Nov 3. Plus, the anticipation is building for AWS re:Invent on Nov 30. Join me for sessions packed with insights on building with Generative AI.

As we wrap up this month, remember: that every project is a new adventure waiting to be explored. Keep building, stay inspired, and I'll see you in the next edition!