How to make a video game: a step-by-step guide
Pick one small idea, describe it in plain words, play it, then improve it one change at a time. On Go Bananas the AI writes the code, and your first game is free.
Making a video game used to mean learning a programming language or a game engine before you could see anything move. You can now start from a description. This guide walks through the whole path, from the first idea to a game your friends can play from a link. It works whether this is your first game or your fiftieth.
1. Start with one idea and a core loop
Every game has a core loop: the few actions the player repeats over and over. In a platformer, it's run, jump, land, repeat. In a puzzle game, it's look, choose, see the result. In a racing game, it's steer, brake, overtake.
Before you write anything, finish this sentence: "The player keeps trying to ___ by ___." For example:
- The player keeps trying to reach the top by jumping between moving platforms.
- The player keeps trying to clear the board by matching three gems of the same color.
- The player keeps trying to survive the next wave by moving and shooting.
If you can't finish the sentence, the idea isn't ready yet. If you can, you have the heart of your game. Everything else (story, art, sound, menus) supports that loop.
2. Keep it small
The most common reason first games fail is size. A game with ten levels, a shop, a story and online play is a lot to get right at once. Go Bananas tells its AI the same thing we'll tell you: a finished small game always beats an unfinished big one.
Start with one level, one goal and one way to lose. You can add the second level, the boss and the high score table later, one change at a time. Small games are also easier to test, easier to fix and quicker to share.
3. Describe the game
Write a short description that covers:
- The genre: platformer, shooter, puzzle, racing, card game, quiz.
- The goal: what the player is trying to do.
- The controls: keys on a computer, and taps or swipes on a phone.
- Winning and losing: what ends the game.
- The look: pixel art, neon, cartoon, minimal.
A good description is usually two to five sentences. For example: "A side-scrolling platformer where a fox collects acorns and avoids hedgehogs. Arrow keys to move, space to jump, and on-screen buttons on phones. Three lives; you win when you reach the tree at the end. Bright cartoon colors."
There's a whole guide on this step: How to describe a game so the AI builds what you want.
4. Make it on Go Bananas
Go to gobananas.co and type your description in the Create with AI box. On a phone, tap Create in the bar at the bottom of the screen. The box takes up to 30,000 characters, so you can paste a long design document if you've written one.
Your first game is free and doesn't need an account. One free game is allowed per person and device, and if that first attempt fails you can try once more.
Making a game takes a few minutes, and a big one can take up to 10. You don't have to watch: if you close the tab, the game keeps being made and is saved to your games, and if you have an account you get an email when it's ready. You can make one game at a time.
Go Bananas gives its AI a set of rules so that games come out ready to play:
- A title screen with a "Play vs AI" button and an Easy, Medium and Hard computer opponent. Easy makes random moves, Medium follows a basic strategy, and Hard thinks a few moves ahead.
- Controls that work on phones as well as computers, with touch buttons at least 44 pixels across and layouts that fit screens as narrow as 320 pixels.
- Multiplayer support, so friends can join from a link.
- A score board and saved progress when the game has a score or progress worth keeping.
5. Play-test it
Play your game as soon as it's ready, and play it on the device your players will use. Then ask yourself:
- Is it clear what to do in the first 10 seconds?
- Does the core loop feel good to repeat?
- Is it too easy, too hard, or about right on each difficulty?
- Does anything break, overlap or feel slow?
Write down the two or three problems that bother you most. Fix those first. Better yet, hand the game to a friend and watch without explaining anything. Where they get stuck is where your game needs work.
6. Change it by chatting
Changes on Go Bananas are made by describing them, the same way you made the game. Open the game in the editor and type what you want: "Make the hedgehogs slower on Easy" or "Add a high score that shows on the game over screen." An edit usually takes under a minute. Changing a game, saving it and publishing it need a free account with a verified email.
A few things make editing safer:
- Versions. Every change is saved as a version. The Versions tab lets you look at an older version and restore it if a change went wrong.
- Nothing changed, nothing charged. If the AI's change can't be applied to your code, you aren't charged for it (up to 10 times a day).
- Big changes. When a request is too big for an edit, the AI can rebuild the game from a fresh description instead.
Be specific. "Make the jump higher" works, but "Raise the jump height from 10 to 14" works better. Make one change at a time so you can tell what each change did.
7. Add your own art and sound
You can upload your own pictures, sounds, music and 3D models and use them in your games. Type @ in the create or edit box to pick one of your uploaded files, and its name goes into your description in quotes, like: Use "forest-background" as the background. Go Bananas also has a free pack of built-in sound effects.
Each file type has its own page explaining what it's good for, the limits and how games use it: see all supported file formats, and the guide on sound and music.
8. Add friends: multiplayer
Games can be played with friends in real time or turn by turn. One player creates a room and shares a link or a six-character room code, and up to 16 players can join, depending on the game. The guide on multiplayer games explains how rooms, hosts and the different kinds of multiplayer work.
9. Publish and share it
New games are private drafts that only you can see. When you're happy, press Publish in the editor (this needs a verified account). Your game gets its own page with a link you can send, a QR code for phones, and an embed code for websites. Other people can then play it, rate it, comment on it and make their own remix of it.
More in How to publish and share your game.
What it costs
Playing games is free. Making and changing games uses tokens.
| What | Cost or allowance |
|---|---|
| Your first game | Free, no account needed |
| Free account | 150,000 tokens: 75,000 when you sign up and 75,000 after your first game (about 3 games) |
| A new game | Typically 30,000 to 60,000 tokens |
| An edit | Typically 10,000 to 20,000 tokens; more for big games, since the whole game is sent each time |
| Token pack | $4.99 for 150,000 tokens (about 4 games); bought tokens don't expire |
| Pro | $49.99 a month for 1,000,000 tokens a month |
Tokens you earn for free expire 120 days after you get them. A game that fails, gets cut off because it's too big, or turns out not to be a game generally isn't charged. If your game is cut off, simplify the description and try again.
You need to be 13 or older to make an account.
Without Go Bananas
The classic route is a game engine such as Unity or Godot, or writing an HTML5 game in JavaScript yourself. These give you full control and are worth learning if you want to make games professionally or build something large. They also take weeks or months of learning before a first game is playable. On Go Bananas you can open the code view of any game you make, so describing games is also a way to see how they're built.