How to make a game as a gift
A birthday, a thank-you or an inside joke, as a little game your friend plays from a link: describe it with their name, their favorite things and a message at the end.
A card gets read once. A game made for one person gets played, replayed and shown to everyone else in the room. You don't need to code: describe the game to Go Bananas, wait a few minutes, and send the link.
Start from what they love
The best gift games are small and full of details only the two of you get. Before you write anything, list:
- Their name, or the nickname everyone uses.
- Two or three things they love: their dog, a sport, a food, a city, a band.
- An inside joke or a story from a trip.
- The message you want them to read when they win.
Then pick a simple kind of game for it: collect things while dodging others, a race, a quiz about your friendship, a puzzle that reveals a picture.
Describe it
Put the details in the description. For example:
A birthday game for my friend Maya. Maya rides a bike through Paris collecting croissants and avoiding pigeons. 30 seconds per level, three levels, faster each time. When she finishes the third level, confetti and the message: "Happy 30th, Maya! Croissants on me on Saturday." Cute cartoon style, works on a phone.
A quiz works well too: "A quiz about our trip to Lisbon: 10 questions, one of them is 'Who lost the car keys?' (answer: Tom)."
You can add your own pictures, such as their dog's photo as the hero, and name them in the description. Then change the game by chatting until it's right: "make the pigeons slower", "put the message in bigger letters", "add a cake at the end".
Send it
To send a game, you publish it, and then share its link in any chat app. Your friend plays in their browser, with no account and nothing to install.
Publishing makes a game public: anyone with the link can play it, and it can appear in the games list. Keep it to things you'd say in a card: no addresses, phone numbers, or anything your friend wouldn't want strangers to see. A photo of the dog is fine; a photo of their passport isn't.
Make it a party game
If the gift is for a party, make it a game everyone can play at once: "a quiz about Maya for up to 8 players, everyone answers on their own phone". See how to make a multiplayer game, and how to publish and share your game for the link, the QR code and the rest.