# 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](/guides/multiplayer-games), and [how to publish and share your game](/guides/publish-and-share) for the link, the QR code and the rest.