# Game design basics for your first game

## A good first game has one clear goal, one loop the player enjoys repeating, controls that fit the device, a challenge that grows, and feedback for every action.

Game design is the work of deciding what the player does, why it's fun, and how the game reacts. You don't need to write code to practice it. On Go Bananas you describe your design and the AI builds it, so the quality of your game depends mostly on the quality of your design. This guide covers the ideas that matter most for a first game, with a sentence you can type for each one.

## The core loop

The core loop is the short cycle of actions the player repeats for most of the game. Collect, upgrade, collect again. Aim, shoot, dodge. Draw a card, play it, react. If the loop is fun for 30 seconds, the game has a chance. If it isn't, more levels won't save it.

A good loop has three parts:

1. **An action** the player chooses: jump, shoot, place a tile.
2. **A result** they can see right away: the jump lands, the enemy falls, the tiles match.
3. **A reason to go again**: a higher score, the next obstacle, a new upgrade.

Try it in one sentence: "The player dodges falling rocks and grabs the gems between them; every gem makes the rocks fall faster."

## Goals, winning and losing

Players need to know what they're trying to do. State the goal on the start screen or in the first seconds of play, and make the ending clear:

- **Win conditions:** reach the exit, collect 20 coins, survive 2 minutes, be first to 10 points.
- **Lose conditions:** run out of lives, run out of time, let something reach the bottom.
- **Endless games:** no win, just a score to beat. These pair well with a high score table.

Try: "You win when you reach the castle at the end of level 3. You lose if you fall in the water three times."

## Controls that fit the device

Controls are where many browser games fail on phones. A game that needs six keys won't feel good with thumbs. Design for both from the start:

- **Keyboard:** arrow keys or WASD to move, space to jump or fire.
- **Phone:** on-screen buttons big enough for a thumb, or simple taps and swipes. On Go Bananas, the AI is told to make touch buttons at least 44 pixels across, and to give 3D games a joystick on the left and drag-to-look on the right.
- **Fewer inputs:** if you can design the game around one or two actions, do. "Tap to flap" games work everywhere.

Try: "Arrow keys to steer and space to boost; on phones, tap the left or right half of the screen to steer and a button to boost."

There's more in [Games on phones](/guides/games-on-phones).

## Challenge and the difficulty curve

A game should get harder as the player gets better. Too easy and it's boring; too hard too soon and they quit. The usual shape is a gentle start, a steady rise, and short breaks after hard moments.

Ways to raise the challenge:

- More enemies, or faster ones.
- Less time, or fewer lives.
- New obstacles that need a new skill.
- Smarter opponents.

Go Bananas asks the AI to give games a computer opponent at three levels: Easy makes random moves, Medium follows a basic strategy, and Hard looks ahead. That gives every player a level that fits. You can tune each level by describing it: "On Easy, the enemies move at half speed."

Try: "Each wave has two more enemies than the last, and every fifth wave has a boss."

## Feedback and game feel

Feedback is how the game tells the player that their action mattered. Without it, even a well-designed game feels flat. Good feedback is quick and clear:

- **Sound:** a coin sound when you collect, a thud when you're hit. See [Sound and music](/guides/sound-and-music).
- **Animation:** things bounce, flash or shrink instead of just appearing and disappearing.
- **Screen shake:** a short shake on a big hit or explosion.
- **Numbers:** "+10" floating up from the coin you just grabbed.
- **Smooth movement:** movement should be based on the time between frames (called delta time), so the game runs at the same speed on a slow phone and a fast computer.

Try: "When the player gets hit, flash the screen red, shake it briefly and play a hit sound."

## Scope: finish something small

Scope is how much your game tries to do. Small scope is the best friend of a first game. Go Bananas tells its AI that a finished small game always beats an unfinished big one, and that's good advice for you too.

A good first scope:

- One level or one arena.
- One player character with one or two abilities.
- One or two kinds of enemy or obstacle.
- One clear goal.

Once that works, add one thing at a time: a second level, then a boss, then a shop. Each addition is a short edit, and each one can be undone from the Versions tab if it doesn't work out.

## Play-testing with friends

You know how your game is meant to work, so you can't see what a new player sees. Hand it to someone else and watch:

- Don't explain anything. Note where they hesitate.
- Watch their face more than the screen. Boredom and frustration are easy to spot.
- Ask what they think the goal is. If they're wrong, your game didn't say it clearly.
- Ask what they'd change first.

Fix the biggest problem, then test again. On Go Bananas you can send a published game as a link or QR code, so friends can test it on their own phones.

## Iteration

Games get good through many small rounds of change and test. A typical round:

1. Play the game for two minutes.
2. Pick the one thing that bothers you most.
3. Describe the change precisely: "Lower the jump height from 14 to 11."
4. Play again and check it actually improved.

On Go Bananas, an edit usually takes under a minute, and an edit that can't be applied to your game isn't charged (up to 10 a day). Precise numbers make edits more predictable than words like "a bit" or "much".

## A checklist before you share

- Can a new player tell what to do within 10 seconds?
- Is there a clear way to win, lose or score?
- Do the controls work on a phone as well as a computer?
- Does every important action have a sound or visual response?
- Does the game get harder over time?
- Is there a way to play again without reloading the page?

## Related

- [How to make a video game: a step-by-step guide](/guides/how-to-make-a-video-game)
- [How to describe a game so the AI builds what you want](/guides/how-to-describe-a-game)
- [Games on phones](/guides/games-on-phones)
- [Sound and music](/guides/sound-and-music)
- [Multiplayer games](/guides/multiplayer-games)
- [3D games](/guides/3d-games)
- [Publish and share your game](/guides/publish-and-share)
- [Make games from ChatGPT or Claude](/guides/chatgpt-and-claude)