one problem ive seen with these game ai projects is that you have to constantly tweak it and reset training because it eventually ends up in a loop of bad habits and doesnt progress
you're correct that this is a recurring problem with a lot of machine learning projects, but this is more a problem with some evolutionary algorithms (simulating evolution to create better-performing neural networks) where the randomness of evolution usually leads to unintended behaviour and an eventual lack of progression, while this project instead uses deep Q-learning.
the neural network is scored based on its total distance between every bullet. so while the neural network doesn't perform well in-game, it does actually score very good (better than me in most attempts).
so is it even possible to complete such a project with this kind of approach as it seems to take too much time to get anywhere without insane server farms?
the vast majority of these kind of projects - including mine - aren't created to solve a problem. they just investigate the potential of such an algorithm as a learning experience and for others to learn off of.
the only practical applications for this project would be to replace the "CPU" in 2 player bullet hell games and maybe to automatically gauge a game's difficulty and programs already exist to play bullet hell games automatically so the application is quite limited.