# How to make a game with your kids

## Let them invent it and you type it: a hero they choose, a world they draw in words, and a game they can play a few minutes later. Small ideas, one change at a time, and a lot of "now make it so that...".

Children are excellent game designers: they know exactly what they want the dragon to do. Go Bananas turns a description into a playable browser game in a few minutes, so a child can see their idea become a game they can play and change. You hold the account (Go Bananas accounts are for people 13 and over), and they hold the ideas.

## Ask them three questions

1. **Who is the hero?** A cat, a robot, a dinosaur, their little brother as a superhero.
2. **What do they want?** Collect stars, reach the castle, escape the volcano, feed the fish.
3. **What's in the way?** Bees, lava, a grumpy crab, a timer.

Their answers are the game. Write them down in their words.

## Turn it into a description

Add how it's played and how it looks, and keep it small. For example:

> A game where a cat named Pixel jumps between clouds to collect stars, and avoids the angry bees. Arrow keys or tapping the sides of the screen to move, space or a tap to jump. Three lives; after 20 stars Pixel reaches the moon and wins. Bright cartoon colors, cheerful sounds.

Read it to them before you send it: "Is that your game?" Then make it together. It takes a few minutes, a good time to draw the cat on paper.

## The best part: changing it

Once it runs, let them ask for changes, one at a time, in their words: "make the bees slower", "give Pixel a jetpack", "make the stars rainbow", "add a baby cat that follows Pixel". Each change takes a minute or two, and seeing their idea appear is the point. If a change goes wrong, the editor's Version History brings back an earlier version.

## Sharing it with family

To send the game to grandparents or friends, publish it and share the link; they play in their browser, with no account. Publishing makes a game public: anyone with the link can play it, and it can appear in the games list. Keep children's full names, photos, school and anything personal out of it: "Pixel the cat" is perfect, "Emma Smith from Oak Street" isn't.

## Keep going

Ideas small enough for a first game are on the [game ideas](/game-ideas) page, and [game design basics](/guides/game-design-basics) explains why small games work better. Make a second game next weekend: the cat can go to space.