# Guides to building and marketing indie games with AI

Written by [Eduardo Orellana](/about/), who makes Flockbay.

Source: https://flockbay.com/blog/ · Updated 2026-11-01

## Start here

- [The indie game publishing guide: every job from Steam page to launch](/blog/indie-game-publishing-guide/) The Steam page, wishlists, trailers, devlogs, playtests and launch, in the order they matter.
- [Claude Code for Godot in 2026: connect it to your game, and what it builds](/blog/claude-for-godot/) Build a Godot game with your own Claude Code: the setups, what each can see, and what each costs.
- [Godot 4 answers, verified](/godot/) Errors, renamed classes and how-tos, each run on Godot 4.7.2 with its real output.

## Featured post

[Summer Engine pricing: a free app, and hosted AI from $20 a month](/blog/summer-engine-pricing/) Summer Engine's desktop app is free, and so is connecting your own AI agent to it over MCP; its hosted AI gives a free account 5 messages a day, up to 30 a month, and then costs $20 (Pro), $60 (Pro+) or $200 (Ultra) a month, or $16, $48 and $160 a month billed yearly. Everything here was read on Summer's own pricing page, terms and docs on 25 October 2026. Read featured post

## Most referenced

The essays the other 343 link back to most.

[The indie game publishing guide: every job from Steam page to launch](/blog/indie-game-publishing-guide/) Publishing an indie game is a set of jobs that start long before launch: a Steam page that turns visits into wishlists, a demo and a festival, a trailer and clips, posts, creators and press, a community, playtests, a website, sometimes ads or a publisher, and then the launch itself. This guide links every one, in the order a game usually meets them, with a guide per question. 23 min read · linked from 166 posts

[How to publish a game on Steam, start to finish](/blog/how-to-publish-a-game-on-steam/) To publish a game on Steam: sign up for Steamworks, sign the Steam Direct agreement, complete the identity, tax and bank forms (verification takes 15 to 30 days), and pay the $100 Steam Direct fee for the game, which comes back once the game earns $1,000. For your first few titles there is a 30-day wait between paying the fee and releasing. Build the store page and submit it for review (usually 3 to 5 business days; submit at least seven ahead); once approved it must show as Coming Soon for at least two weeks. Upload a near-final build and pass its review, also usually 3 to 5 business days. When both are approved you press Release App yourself. Valve pays monthly, about 30 days after the month of the sales, once that month passes $100. 8 min read · linked from 11 posts

[How to make a Steam store page, step by step](/blog/how-to-make-a-steam-page/) A Steam store page is built in Steamworks' Store Presence editor, section by section: basic info and links, the short description (plain text, a few hundred characters) and About This Game, at least five tags ordered by weight, the four required capsules (920x430, 462x174, 1232x706, 748x896) and the library assets, at least five 1920x1080 gameplay screenshots, a trailer (Steam cuts its hover microtrailer from your first video), languages, system requirements, and the content survey with its AI section. Every required section must be complete before you press Mark as Ready for Review, at least seven business days before you want the page live; review usually takes 3 to 5 business days, and once approved you press Post as Coming Soon. 6 min read · linked from 9 posts

[How to market an indie game](/blog/how-to-market-an-indie-game/) Marketing an indie game comes down to three things, done early and repeatedly. Know the one-sentence hook and who it is for, through five to ten comparable games. Put up a Steam page that turns visitors into wishlists months before launch. Then keep sending players to it: festivals such as Next Fest (the median respondent to How To Market A Game's February 2026 survey gained 806 wishlists in Next Fest week), creators in your genre, a demo, short clips, devlogs and, once the page converts, ads. Measure everything by wishlists, because launch week sells only a share of them: GameDiscoverCo's median for bigger launches was 0.15× first-week sales per wishlist. Start while you build, not when you finish. 6 min read · linked from 9 posts

[What is Steam Next Fest, and who can enter?](/blog/what-is-steam-next-fest/) Steam Next Fest is a week-long event Valve runs three times a year, in February, June and October, where unreleased games put up a free playable demo on Steam. Any game can enter once: it needs a public Steam store page, a demo that passes Valve's build review, and no release before that edition ends. The October 2026 edition runs 19 to 26 October; the next one runs 22 February to 1 March 2027, and its registration closes on 10 January 2027. 6 min read · linked from 8 posts

[The best AI tools for Godot in 2026, with a verdict on every one](/blog/best-ai-tools-for-godot/) The best AI for Godot is Flockbay if you want a whole game built and play-tested for free, because it runs the game it builds on the official Godot engine, on free AI to start or your own Claude or ChatGPT. If you already pay for Claude Code or Codex, give it a Godot MCP server such as the free Godot AI; Ziva puts a paid agent inside the editor, Summer Engine is a hosted-AI engine of its own, and Tripo, Meshy or PixelLab make the art. Below is every tool worth knowing, read on its own site on 1 November 2026, with a price and a one-line verdict. 11 min read · linked from 7 posts

## Steam and launch guides

- [The indie game publishing guide: every job from Steam page to launch](/blog/indie-game-publishing-guide/)
- [How to make a Steam store page, step by step](/blog/how-to-make-a-steam-page/)
- [When should you make your Steam store page?](/blog/when-to-make-steam-page/)
- [What a Steam Coming Soon page does for your game](/blog/steam-coming-soon-page/)
- [How much does it cost to put a game on Steam?](/blog/steam-direct-fee/)
- [How long Steam's store page review takes](/blog/steam-store-page-review-time/)
- [How to write a Steam short description](/blog/steam-short-description/)
- [How to choose Steam tags for your game](/blog/steam-tags/)
- [How many screenshots does a Steam page need, and which ones?](/blog/how-many-screenshots-steam-page/)
- [How to use GIFs in your Steam store description](/blog/gif-in-steam-description/)
- [Steam image sizes: every capsule, library and event asset, with templates](/blog/steam-image-sizes/)
- [Steam capsule art: sizes, rules, and art that reads small](/blog/steam-capsule-art/)
- [How to fill in Steam's content survey](/blog/steam-content-survey/)
- [Steam's mature content settings, explained](/blog/steam-mature-content/)
- [How to write Steam system requirements for your game](/blog/steam-system-requirements/)
- [How to localize your Steam store page](/blog/steam-store-page-localization/)
- [Which languages to translate your Steam page into first](/blog/steam-page-languages/)
- [Setting a release date on Steam: Coming Soon, a quarter, or a day](/blog/steam-release-date-coming-soon/)
- [How to move your Steam release date without losing momentum](/blog/change-steam-release-date/)
- [How to set up a Steam page for your demo](/blog/steam-demo-page/)
- [Steam page checklist: before you submit for review](/blog/steam-page-checklist/)
- [What the best Steam store pages have in common](/blog/best-steam-store-pages/)
- [How to update your Steam page as the game changes](/blog/update-steam-store-page/)
- [How Steam wishlists work](/blog/how-do-steam-wishlists-work/)
- [How to get more wishlists on Steam](/blog/how-to-get-more-wishlists-on-steam/)
- [How many wishlists do you need before launch?](/blog/how-many-wishlists-do-you-need/)
- [Steam wishlist conversion rate: what is normal](/blog/wishlist-conversion-rate/)
- [How to check how many wishlists a Steam game has](/blog/how-many-wishlists-does-a-game-have/)
- [Wishlist deletions: why players remove your game](/blog/steam-wishlist-deletions/)
- [Steam's Popular Upcoming list: what it is and how games reach it](/blog/steam-popular-upcoming/)
- [How many wishlists a day is good?](/blog/how-many-wishlists-per-day/)
- [How to get to 10,000 wishlists](/blog/10000-wishlists/)
- [Is 7,000 wishlists the magic number?](/blog/7000-wishlists/)
- [When Steam emails your wishlisters](/blog/steam-wishlist-email-notification/)
- [Wishlist velocity: why the rate matters as much as the total](/blog/wishlist-velocity/)
- [What is Steam Next Fest, and who can enter?](/blog/what-is-steam-next-fest/)
- [How to sign up for Steam Next Fest](/blog/steam-next-fest-sign-up/)
- [Steam Next Fest checklist: eight weeks out to the last day](/blog/steam-next-fest-checklist/)
- [How many wishlists does Steam Next Fest bring?](/blog/steam-next-fest-wishlists/)
- [How to livestream your game during Steam Next Fest](/blog/steam-next-fest-livestream/)
- [What to do after Steam Next Fest](/blog/after-steam-next-fest/)
- [Steam's themed festivals: what they are and how to get in](/blog/steam-themed-festivals/)
- [The Steam sale calendar, and how to plan a launch around it](/blog/steam-sale-calendar/)
- [How long should a game demo be, and what goes in it?](/blog/how-long-should-a-game-demo-be/)
- [A prologue or a demo on Steam: which one?](/blog/prologue-vs-demo-steam/)
- [How to update a Steam demo, and when to take it down](/blog/update-steam-demo/)
- [How to publish a game on Steam, start to finish](/blog/how-to-publish-a-game-on-steam/)
- [Steam release checklist: from three months out to launch day](/blog/steam-release-checklist/)
- [What day should you release your game on Steam?](/blog/best-day-to-release-game-on-steam/)
- [Steam regional pricing, explained](/blog/steam-regional-pricing/)
- [Should you use a launch discount on Steam?](/blog/steam-launch-discount/)
- [Steam's revenue share, explained](/blog/steam-revenue-share/)
- [Early Access on Steam: should you use it?](/blog/should-i-use-early-access/)
- [How to answer Steam's six Early Access questions](/blog/steam-early-access-questions/)
- [Steam refunds, from the developer side](/blog/steam-refunds-developers/)
- [How to plan your first Steam sale](/blog/first-steam-sale/)
- [How to get your game Steam Deck Verified](/blog/steam-deck-verified/)
- [How the Steam algorithm recommends games](/blog/steam-algorithm/)
- [Steam's Discovery Queue, explained](/blog/steam-discovery-queue/)
- [How Steam decides "More like this"](/blog/steam-more-like-this/)
- [Steam UTM links: where your wishlists come from](/blog/steam-utm-tracking/)
- [Steam curators: what they are and how to reach them](/blog/steam-curators/)
- [Steam events and announcements that get seen](/blog/steam-events-and-announcements/)
- [How to use Steam Broadcasting for your game](/blog/steam-broadcasting/)
- [How to make a game trailer, step by step](/blog/how-to-make-a-game-trailer/)
- [How long should a game trailer be?](/blog/how-long-should-a-game-trailer-be/)
- [Steam trailer requirements: format, resolution and order](/blog/steam-trailer-requirements/)
- [AI game trailer makers: what AI can and cannot do for a trailer](/blog/ai-game-trailer-maker/)
- [How to make a teaser trailer for your game](/blog/how-to-make-a-teaser-trailer/)
- [How to cut a 15-second ad from your game trailer](/blog/game-trailer-to-ad/)
- [How much does a game trailer cost?](/blog/game-trailer-cost/)
- [What is a devlog, and is it worth making one?](/blog/what-is-a-devlog/)
- [How to make a devlog video](/blog/how-to-make-a-devlog/)
- [How long should a devlog be?](/blog/how-long-should-a-devlog-be/)
- [Where to post devlogs, and how often](/blog/where-to-post-devlogs/)
- [Devlog titles and thumbnails that get clicked](/blog/devlog-thumbnails/)
- [How to make TikToks for your indie game](/blog/tiktok-for-indie-games/)
- [How to make YouTube Shorts for your game](/blog/youtube-shorts-for-games/)
- [What makes a gameplay clip go viral](/blog/viral-game-clips/)
- [How to market your game on Reddit, and on every other channel](/blog/reddit-marketing-indie-game/)
- [The best subreddits to post your indie game](/blog/best-subreddits-to-promote-indie-game/)
- [Screenshot Saturday: how to use it for your game](/blog/screenshot-saturday/)
- [How to market your game on itch.io](/blog/itchio-marketing/)
- [How to schedule social posts for your game](/blog/schedule-social-media-posts-game/)
- [How to market an indie game](/blog/how-to-market-an-indie-game/)
- [An indie game marketing plan, with a template](/blog/indie-game-marketing-plan/)
- [When should you start marketing your game?](/blog/when-to-start-marketing-your-game/)
- [How much to spend on indie game marketing](/blog/indie-game-marketing-budget/)
- [How to find your game's hook](/blog/game-hook/)
- [How to write a one-line pitch for your game](/blog/game-elevator-pitch/)
- [Indie game marketing tools, by job](/blog/indie-game-marketing-tools/)
- [How to get YouTubers and journalists to cover your game](/blog/how-to-get-youtubers-to-play-your-game/)
- [Key distribution platforms compared: Keymailer and alternatives](/blog/keymailer-alternatives/)
- [How to make a press kit for your game](/blog/game-press-kit/)
- [How to write a press release for your game](/blog/game-press-release/)
- [How to get your game into newsletters, curated lists and streams](/blog/indie-game-newsletters/)
- [How to build a community for your game, starting with a Discord server](/blog/discord-server-for-game/)
- [Which channels a game's Discord server needs](/blog/game-discord-channels/)
- [How to grow your game's Discord server](/blog/grow-game-discord/)
- [How to run a closed beta for your game](/blog/closed-beta-game/)
- [How to use your game's Steam community hub](/blog/steam-community-hub/)
- [How to run a game giveaway that brings real players](/blog/how-to-run-a-game-giveaway/)
- [How to playtest a game](/blog/how-to-playtest-a-game/)
- [How to find playtesters for your indie game](/blog/how-to-find-playtesters/)
- [Playtesting questions to ask, and the ones to avoid](/blog/playtesting-questions/)
- [How to run a remote playtest](/blog/remote-playtesting/)
- [Steam Playtest: how it works for developers](/blog/steam-playtest/)
- [Using itch.io for playtesting](/blog/itchio-playtesting/)
- [Blind playtests or guided playtests?](/blog/blind-playtesting/)
- [When should you start playtesting?](/blog/when-to-start-playtesting/)
- [Playtesting services compared](/blog/playtesting-services/)
- [How to turn playtest feedback into fixes](/blog/playtest-feedback/)
- [What does a game publisher do?](/blog/what-does-a-game-publisher-do/)
- [Do you need a publisher for your indie game?](/blog/do-i-need-a-game-publisher/)
- [How to find a publisher for your indie game](/blog/how-to-find-a-game-publisher/)
- [Indie game publishers on Steam, and what they have published](/blog/indie-game-publishers/)
- [How to pitch a game to a publisher](/blog/how-to-pitch-a-game-to-a-publisher/)
- [What to put in a game publisher pitch deck](/blog/game-publisher-pitch-deck/)
- [What revenue share does a game publisher take?](/blog/game-publisher-revenue-share/)
- [How to fund an indie game](/blog/how-to-fund-an-indie-game/)
- [Game development grants: where to find them and how to apply](/blog/game-development-grants/)
- [Does Kickstarter still work for video games?](/blog/kickstarter-for-video-games/)
- [How much does it cost to make an indie game?](/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-an-indie-game/)
- [Patreon for game developers: does it work?](/blog/patreon-for-game-developers/)
- [Do you need a website for your indie game?](/blog/website-for-indie-game/)
- [How to make a website for your indie game, for free](/blog/how-to-make-a-website-for-your-game/)
- [What to put on your game's website](/blog/what-to-put-on-a-game-website/)
- [Game landing pages that work: the patterns](/blog/game-landing-page-examples/)
- [The best website builders for game developers](/blog/website-builder-for-game-developers/)
- [How to embed the Steam widget and your trailer](/blog/steam-widget-embed/)
- [Should you run ads for your indie game, and how much to spend?](/blog/indie-game-ad-budget/)
- [Cost per wishlist: how to measure it and what is normal](/blog/cost-per-wishlist/)
- [How to run Meta ads for a game, and how to target players](/blog/meta-ads-for-games/)
- [How to run TikTok ads for a game](/blog/tiktok-ads-for-games/)
- [How to run Reddit ads for a game](/blog/reddit-ads-for-games/)
- [How to run Google and YouTube ads for a game](/blog/youtube-ads-for-games/)
- [Which ad platform works best for indie games?](/blog/best-ad-platform-for-indie-games/)
- [How to make an ad creative for a game from gameplay footage](/blog/game-ad-creative/)
- [Boosting a post or running a campaign: which for your game?](/blog/boost-post-vs-campaign/)
- [Steamworks reports, explained](/blog/steamworks-reports/)
- [How to read your Steam wishlist and traffic reports](/blog/steam-wishlist-report/)
- [How to estimate a game's sales and revenue from its Steam reviews](/blog/estimate-steam-sales-from-reviews/)
- [How many copies do indie games sell on Steam?](/blog/how-many-copies-do-indie-games-sell/)
- [What the median indie game earns on Steam](/blog/average-indie-game-revenue-steam/)
- [How many games release on Steam each year?](/blog/how-many-games-released-on-steam-per-year/)
- [How many sales one Steam review means](/blog/steam-review-to-sales-ratio/)
- [GodotSteam: setting up Steamworks in a Godot 4 game](/blog/godotsteam/)
- [Steam achievements in Godot with GodotSteam](/blog/godot-steam-achievements/)
- [Steam Cloud saves for a Godot game](/blog/godot-steam-cloud-save/)
- [Steam lobbies and multiplayer in Godot](/blog/godot-steam-multiplayer/)
- [Making a Godot game ready for Steam Deck](/blog/godot-steam-deck/)
- [How to put a Unity game on Steam](/blog/unity-game-on-steam/)
- [Steamworks.NET or Facepunch.Steamworks for Unity?](/blog/steamworksnet-vs-facepunch/)
- [Steam achievements in Unity](/blog/unity-steam-achievements/)
- [How to put an Unreal Engine game on Steam](/blog/unreal-engine-steam/)
- [Setting up Online Subsystem Steam in Unreal](/blog/unreal-online-subsystem-steam/)
- [How to put a GameMaker game on Steam](/blog/gamemaker-steam/)
- [How to put an RPG Maker game on Steam](/blog/rpg-maker-steam/)
- [How to put a Construct 3 game on Steam](/blog/construct-3-steam/)
- [How to ship a web game on Steam](/blog/html5-game-on-steam/)
- [How to upload a build to Steam with SteamPipe](/blog/steampipe-upload-build/)
- [Steam's AI disclosure, explained](/blog/steam-ai-disclosure/)
- [Can you sell a game made with AI on Steam?](/blog/ai-generated-games-on-steam/)
- [Using AI to write your Steam store page copy](/blog/ai-steam-description/)
- [AI capsule art on Steam: what is allowed, and what works](/blog/ai-capsule-art-steam/)
- [An AI game marketing workflow, end to end](/blog/ai-game-marketing/)
- [What an AI can do of a game publisher's job](/blog/ai-game-publisher/)

## Everything else

- [Free Unity AI alternatives: your own agent over MCP, Aura, Bezi, or Godot](/blog/unity-ai-alternatives/) Unity AI is not free: on the free Unity Personal plan its in-Editor assistant is a 14-day trial, then $10 a month for 1,000 credits, and Unity Pro, at $210 a month, includes 2,000 credits a month; only its CLI, MCP server and plugin for outside agents are free, by Unity's own pages on 1 November 2026. The free Unity AI alternatives are Flockbay, which we make and which builds Godot games with AI for free, on free AI to start or your own Claude or ChatGPT, and the coding agent you may already pay for (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or GitHub Copilot) connected to the Unity Editor over MCP; Aura and Bezi are paid assistants inside the Editor. Unity itself has retired the "Unity AI" name, and every other vendor here was read on its own pages on 25 October 2026. 6 min read
- [Cursor vs Claude Code for game dev: an editor or an agent, and what Godot and Unity need](/blog/cursor-vs-claude-code-for-game-dev/) Pick Cursor if you want to work in an editor and review every change as a diff, with models from several vendors; pick Claude Code if you want an agent in your terminal or beside your IDE on a Claude subscription. For Godot both work. For Unity, Claude Code beside Visual Studio or Rider is the smoother pair, because Microsoft's C# Dev Kit and Unity extension are licensed for Visual Studio Code only and are not on Open VSX, where Cursor gets its extensions. Neither one runs or sees your game by itself: both need an MCP server for the engine. Everything here was read on each vendor's own pages on 25 October 2026. 6 min read
- [How to make a game like Mario: start with the jump](/blog/make-a-game-like-mario/) A Mario game is a jump that feels right and levels that teach you how to use it. The jump is four small rules, none of them physics, and each one is a number you can measure. We built them in a Godot 4.7.2 CharacterBody2D and ran them headless, so this post gives the numbers, not adjectives. 4 min read
- [How to make a game like Wordle](/blog/make-a-game-like-wordle/) Wordle is two ideas: colours that tell you how close each guess was, and one puzzle a day for everyone. Both fit on one screen, and the whole game is a few hundred lines. The part most clones get wrong is a single rule about repeated letters, so this post runs it on Godot 4.7.2 before it says anything else. 5 min read
- [How to make a deckbuilder like Slay the Spire](/blog/make-a-deckbuilder-like-slay-the-spire/) Slay the Spire is a card game where the deck is the character sheet, and every card you take makes every other card rarer. That second idea is arithmetic, so we ran it: a ten-card starter deck in GDScript on Godot 4.7.2, drawn five a turn, and then the same deck with one card added. 4 min read
- [AI game music generators: loops, layers and the licence to check](/blog/ai-game-music-generator/) AI music tools write a track in seconds, and most of them write songs. Games rarely need songs. They need loops that do not tire, layers that change with the action, and a licence that lets you sell the game. Flockbay generates game music and loops into your Godot project as part of building it, from the free usage or your plan's. 5 min read
- [Godot vs GDevelop: code or events, and where each one ships](/blog/godot-vs-gdevelop/) Godot and GDevelop are both free, open source under the MIT licence, and good at 2D. They differ on one question: do you write your game's logic as code, or as rows of events? Most of the other differences, from 3D to exporting, follow from that. Facts about GDevelop here are from its own site and repository, read on 18 October 2026. 4 min read
- [The best games like Stardew Valley to play in 2026](/blog/best-games-like-stardew-valley-2026/) A decade after Stardew Valley, the farming game is its own genre with its own crowded shelf. The newer ones are not trying to replace it. Each picks one thing Stardew did lightly and makes it the whole point. 3 min read
- [Can AI Build a 500-Enemy Horde in Godot?](/blog/claude-opus-5-5-builds-a-500-enemy-horde-in-godot/) Five hundred enemies, two rooms, a narrow doorway, a wide gap and a dead end. One prompt to Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code: build the horde, and nothing may get stuck. No second model: a scorecard written before the first pass, eight things a shipped horde does. Then a bug report and a look brief. 1 min read
- [Can AI Solve Godot's Stairs Problem?](/blog/claude-opus-5-5-builds-a-godot-character-controller-for-stairs-and-slopes/) Can an AI model build a first-person character controller that walks stairs and slopes the way a shipped game does? Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code got a small Godot test course, twelve lanes of slopes, steps, two flights of stairs, a kerb, a low ceiling, bumps and a drop, and the character script Godot starts you with, which stops dead at a 20 centimetre kerb. One rule made it hard: no invisible ramps over the stairs. 2 min read
- [Opus 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol: Can AI Build a Save System?](/blog/opus-5-5-vs-gpt-6-1-sol-add-save-and-load-to-a-godot-game/) Can an AI model add saving and loading to a game that already exists, and get it right? Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code and GPT-6.1 Sol in Codex got the same finished Godot game, a small house with four doors, a key, a padlock, a crate and a guard on his round, and one job: F6 saves, F7 loads, and after a load the game carries on exactly as if it had never stopped. 2 min read
- [Opus 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol in Blender: One Cost 7x More](/blog/opus-5-5-vs-gpt-6-1-sol-build-a-rigged-character-in-blender-for-godot/) Last time, four AI models built this dwarf miner with no Blender, written out as text. This time the two best, Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code and GPT-6.1 Sol in Codex, get Blender, and they have to animate the walk themselves. Same prompt, same reference picture. Each ran Blender from scripts it wrote, exported the character, and made a small Godot game where he walks back and forth with his feet planted. 2 min read
- [Claude Haiku 5.5: Can the Cheapest Claude Build Celeste's Jump?](/blog/claude-haiku-5-5-builds-a-celeste-style-jump-in-godot/) Claude Haiku 5.5 just came out, and it's the cheapest Claude there is. Can it build a platformer jump that feels like Celeste's? One room in Godot, six things to get right: variable jump height, coyote time, jump buffering, a hang at the top, corner correction and a fast fall, each with a pass mark set before the first run and no stricter than Celeste. 1 min read
- [4 AI Models Build the Same Walking 3D Character in Godot](/blog/four-ai-models-build-the-same-walking-3d-character-in-godot/) Can an AI model build a game character that holds together when it walks? Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 4.5 in Claude Code, and GPT-6.1 Sol in Codex, got the same prompt and the same reference picture: a stocky dwarf miner with a braided beard, a helmet lamp, an apron and a pickaxe, built only with Flockbay's modeler, rigged so he can idle, walk and jog. No Tripo, no Meshy, no Blender. Each worked directly in the Flockbay app, on the Godot engine, looked at its own builds, and decided when it was done. 1 min read
- [Opus 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol: The Door Problem in Godot](/blog/opus-5-5-vs-gpt-6-1-sol-the-door-problem-in-godot/) Can an AI agent build doors that work the way doors work in a well-made game? Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code and GPT-6.1 Sol in Codex got the same prompt and the same reference picture: four doors in a small first-person house in Godot (a hinged door you open from either side, a locked door and its key, a door that closes itself, and a front door), solid while they swing, a crate you can push into a doorway, and a guard who walks a loop through the house opening the doors in his way. Both worked directly in the Flockbay app, on the Godot engine, pressed Play themselves, and decided when they were done. 2 min read
- [Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol Six-Legged Walker Game](/blog/sonnet-5-5-vs-gpt-6-1-sol-six-legged-walker-in-godot/) Can an AI agent build a six-legged walker that never slides a foot? Claude Sonnet 5.5 in Claude Code and GPT-6.1 Sol in Codex got the same prompt and the same three reference pictures: a walker in Godot whose legs find the ground with raycasts, stay planted, step in a tripod gait and bend at the knee with inverse kinematics, over boulders, a trench and a flight of rock ledges. No keyframed walk, no downloaded or generated 3D models. Both worked directly in the Flockbay app, on the Godot engine, pressed Play themselves, and decided when they were done. Then each got one more message: make it look as realistic as possible. 2 min read
- [GPT-6.1 Sol vs Opus 5.5 Physics Truck Game](/blog/opus-5-5-vs-gpt-6-1-sol-physics-truck-game-in-godot/) Can an AI agent build a real physics vehicle? Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code and GPT-6.1 Sol in Codex got the same prompt and the same reference picture: an off-road hill climb in Godot, with a truck that has to be a real physics body on working suspension. No downloaded or generated 3D models. Both worked inside Flockbay over MCP, pressed Play themselves, and decided when they were done. 1 min read
- [The best game engine for beginners depends on one question](/blog/best-game-engine-for-beginners/) Every list of beginner engines ranks the same names in a different order. The order matters less than one question: do you want to learn to program, or do you want to make a game without learning to? The answer splits the list in two. 2 min read
- [The best free 2D game engines, and what "free" means for each](/blog/best-free-2d-game-engines/) "Free" means different things in different engines. Some are free forever, for anything. Some are free until you sell. Some are free with limits you hit at the worst moment. Here are the best free 2D engines, and the catch in each. 2 min read
- [The best free 3D game engines, and what they cost when you succeed](/blog/best-free-3d-game-engines/) Most 3D engines are free to start. The difference shows up later, if your game does well: some take nothing, some take a royalty, some ask you to upgrade. That later cost is the one to check before you begin. 2 min read
- [The best AI tools for making mobile games](/blog/best-ai-tools-mobile-games/) A mobile game has to reach Google Play or Apple's store, so the first question about any AI tool is whether it exports there. Several engines now have AI built in and do. The rest of the toolkit, art and sound, works the same as for any game. 2 min read
- [The best AI tools for game development, by job](/blog/best-ai-tools-game-development/) The best AI tools for game development depend on the job: Flockbay builds and play-tests a whole Godot game for free, coding agents such as Claude Code or Codex write code in your project, and generators make the art and sound. Here is which tool does each job well, and what it charges. 3 min read
- [Flockbay vs Ziva: Godot inside a free AI app, or an AI agent inside your Godot](/blog/flockbay-vs-ziva/) Pick Flockbay if you want a whole Godot game built and play-tested for free; pick Ziva if you want an AI agent inside the Godot editor you already run, on your own Claude Code or Codex subscription or on its hosted models from $20 a month. Flockbay's AI is free to start or runs on your own Claude or ChatGPT, on the official Godot engine. 9 min read
- [Flockbay vs Orca Engine, what happened to Orca, and a free alternative](/blog/flockbay-vs-orca-engine/) If you were looking at Orca Engine, Flockbay is a free alternative on Godot. Orca Engine was an AI game engine built on Godot, with an agent that edited scenes and code. Today its web address leads to Orca, a tool that makes Minecraft mods. 2 min read
- [Flockbay vs Moonlake: interactive worlds, where Moonlake went, and a free alternative](/blog/flockbay-vs-moonlake/) If you came to Moonlake to make a game, Flockbay is a free alternative. Moonlake AI came out of stealth in 2025 promising interactive worlds from a prompt, and it was widely described as an AI game maker. On 26 September 2026 its homepage described a world model for robots instead. 2 min read
- [Seele AI alternatives in 2026: free options, and when to stay](/blog/flockbay-vs-seele/) Yes, there are free Seele AI alternatives, and the best one depends on why you are leaving Seele. To own and sell the game with no paid tier, Flockbay builds a native Godot game for free, on free AI to start or your own Claude or ChatGPT; for a hosted browser game, Rosebud, with commercial rights from $30 a month; for no code at all, GDevelop; for the art and video alone, Ludo.ai. Here is each one with a checked price and a one-line verdict, as of 1 November 2026, and the cases where Seele is still the right answer. 6 min read
- [What is Godot MCP?](/blog/what-is-godot-mcp/) Godot MCP means connecting an AI agent to the Godot engine through the Model Context Protocol. It turns Godot actions into tools an agent can call, so the agent can run your game, read errors and change scenes on its own. 2 min read
- [Making games with Kilo Code and Flockbay](/blog/how-to-make-games-in-kilo-code/) Kilo Code is an open-source coding agent for VS Code that supports MCP servers, including local ones. That lets it drive Flockbay, the Godot editor, the running game and the scene tools, alongside the code it already writes. Here is the setup, step by step. 2 min read
- [A guide to Godot MCP servers: install, connect, and use one well](/blog/godot-mcp-servers-guide/) A Godot MCP server takes about two minutes to install and changes how an agent works with your game: it can run the project and read the errors itself. Here is the install, the first tasks to try, and the habits that avoid lost work. 3 min read
- [Prompt templates for your own agent in Flockbay](/blog/flockbay-mcp-prompt-templates/) When you connect your own agent to Flockbay, it gets the open Godot editor with undo, the running game to playtest, the scene tools for scenes and nodes, and the object library. These prompts give it the right context and one job at a time. Copy them and change the details. 2 min read
- [The best AI coding assistant for Godot is the one that knows Godot 4](/blog/best-ai-coding-assistant-for-godot/) Most AI coding assistants were trained on years of Godot 3 code, and Godot 4 changed a lot of it. The best assistant for Godot is the one that writes Godot 4 without being reminded. Here is how to test for that in ten minutes. 3 min read
- [The best AI for GDScript: what good output looks like](/blog/best-ai-for-gdscript/) The best AI for GDScript writes Godot 4 code, not Godot 3: on Flockbay's 15 checked Godot 4 tasks, Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol got every one right on the first try. You do not need to write GDScript to judge it; a handful of patterns tell you whether a model knows modern Godot or is guessing from old tutorials. 3 min read
- [The best AI for Godot: we ran 28 models on 15 Godot 4 tasks](/blog/best-ai-for-godot/) Twelve of 28 models passed all 15 Godot 4 tasks on the first try, every file run headless on Godot 4.7.2: Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol among them, and three of the five cheapest hosted models we measured. "AI for Godot" is also a second question, which kind of tool puts that model to work, and this page answers both. 5 min read
- [The best Godot MCP server in 2026: Flockbay's for a whole game, godot-ai for your own editor](/blog/best-godot-mcp-server/) The best Godot MCP server for building and play-testing a whole game is Flockbay's, because it is free with no sign-up and hands your agent all four things that matter: the open Godot editor, the running game, viewport captures and input events. For your own Godot 4.7 editor, godot-ai is the best free, open server; GDAI MCP is the polished one at $19 once; and Coding-Solo's godot-mcp is the simplest start. On 25 October 2026 we ran the same three tasks through Flockbay, Coding-Solo's godot-mcp, GoPeak and satelliteoflove's godot-mcp, and all four passed every one, so pick on what you want the agent to touch. We make Flockbay; every other server here is read from its own pages, with one verdict each and the case where it beats ours. 9 min read
- [The best LLM for Godot](/blog/best-llm-for-godot/) Twelve of 28 AI models passed all 15 of Flockbay's checked Godot 4 coding tasks on the first try, every file run headless on the official Godot 4.7.2: Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol as coding agents on 6 October 2026, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Ember-1, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview, Muse Wonder, Kimi K3, GPT-5.6 Luna, GPT-6 Luna, Hy4 preview and Pareto 26.10 through their APIs on 18 October. In game builds, Opus 5.5 finished ahead of GPT-6.1 Sol in three of five and cost 3 to 11.5 times as much at API prices: Opus for the hardest systems, Sol for everyday Godot work. Flockbay is free and runs them on your own Claude or ChatGPT, with free hosted AI to start if you have neither. 18 min read
- [Claude Code for Godot in 2026: connect it to your game, and what it builds](/blog/claude-for-godot/) To use Claude Code with Godot, give it a way to run the game it edits: Flockbay runs Claude Code on your own Claude plan inside its app, or your own Claude Code connects to Flockbay's MCP server, free either way, and Claude builds in the Godot editor and playtests the game. Without Flockbay, Claude Code still edits your project's files from a terminal, and a Godot MCP server such as Coding-Solo's godot-mcp lets it run the game and read the errors. This guide covers every way to connect Claude Code to Godot, with the exact steps, what Claude can and cannot do in each, and what each costs, as of 24 Oct 2026. Flockbay is free, AI included: free hosted AI to start, or your own Claude, ChatGPT, agent or API key. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, on the official Godot engine. 13 min read
- [Cursor plus Godot vs Flockbay: two ways to make a Godot game with AI](/blog/cursor-plus-godot-vs-flockbay/) Both routes end in a Godot project on your disk. The difference is who is doing the engineering. With Cursor, you are a programmer with a very fast assistant. With Flockbay, you are a designer and the AI is the programmer. 3 min read
- [The 2026 Cursor Vibe Jam: what the rules asked, what won, and how to prepare for the next](/blog/cursor-vibe-jam-2026-guide/) The 2026 Vibe Jam ran through April and closed on 1 May. Its rules were short and strict: most of the code written by AI, playable in a browser with no login and no loading screen. Those two rules decide which tools can enter the next one. 3 min read
- [Does Godot have AI? Two different answers](/blog/does-godot-have-ai/) "Does Godot have AI" means two different things. Godot has plenty of game AI built in: navigation, pathfinding and animation state machines. What its editor does not ship is a generative AI assistant. For that, you add a plugin or a tool. 2 min read
- [Free Summer Engine alternatives in 2026: seven real options, and when to stay](/blog/summer-engine-alternatives/) Yes, there are free Summer Engine alternatives, and the best one depends on why you are leaving. To stay on Godot, Flockbay builds and play-tests the whole game for free on the official engine, on free AI to start or your own Claude or ChatGPT; Ziva puts a paid agent inside Godot's own editor; or connect the Claude Code or Codex you already pay for through a Godot MCP server. For a hosted web game, Rosebud; for Unity, Unity AI; for no code at all, GDevelop. Here is each one with a checked price and a one-line verdict, as of 24 October 2026, and the cases where Summer Engine is still the right answer. 8 min read
- [The best AI game maker, according to Reddit: what people actually say](/blog/what-reddit-says-about-ai-game-makers/) In April someone on r/aigamedev asked for something like Rosebud, but without the credit meter, and with a clean path to Steam. Every reply either named a different tool or explained why the thing they wanted does not exist. That thread is Reddit on AI game makers in miniature. 5 min read
- [What an AI 2D Game Asset Generator Actually Gives You](/blog/ai-2d-game-asset-generator/) Generating a picture and producing a game asset are two different jobs. The gap between them is alpha edges, exact sizes, pivots, palette agreement, and whether the thing still reads at the size players see it. 10 min read
- [AI 3D Game Asset Generators and the Topology Problem](/blog/ai-3d-game-asset-generator/) A generated 3D model is a shape. A game asset is a shape plus a wireframe, a UV layout, a material, a scale, an origin, a collision hull and, if it moves, a skeleton. Only the first of those comes out of the box. 12 min read
- [Why generated game dialogue falls apart as a conversation](/blog/ai-dialogue-generator-for-games/) Generated dialogue reads fine line by line and collapses as a conversation. The missing pieces are state, stakes and memory. Barks are the honest sweet spot. 9 min read
- [An AI enemy generator gives you a silhouette, not a fight](/blog/ai-enemy-generator/) An enemy is not a model plus a stat block. It is a behaviour the player can read and plan around. Generation gives you the silhouette; the fight is still yours to design. 8 min read
- [Cheap to generate a thousand game concepts, expensive to pick one](/blog/ai-game-concept-generator/) Concept generators are excellent at novel combinations and useless at judging which combination deserves months of work. The selection test is the whole job. 8 min read
- [Questions that separate one ai game maker from another](/blog/ai-game-maker-comparison-guide/) Every tool in this category advertises the same four things. Here are the questions that actually distinguish them, what each shape of tool is genuinely good at, and a test you can run in an afternoon. 10 min read
- [What an ai game maker is worth in a 48 hour jam](/blog/ai-game-maker-for-hackathons/) A hackathon is a scope problem with a clock attached. Generation genuinely buys you hours in some places and quietly spends them in others, and knowing which is which decides whether you submit. 9 min read
- [AI level generators versus classic procedural generation](/blog/ai-level-generator-vs-procedural-generation/) Procedural generation is a rule system you tune and can trust to stay consistent. A model producing a level is a one-shot draft you must inspect. Both are useful, for different jobs. 9 min read
- [Procedural Generation Only Works When Something Checks It](/blog/ai-procedural-generation-for-games/) A generator that can produce an unplayable level will produce one, on someone else, on launch day. The rules that reject bad output are not plumbing. They are the design, written down. 8 min read
- [What an AI quest generator actually gives you](/blog/ai-quest-generator/) A generated quest is an objective, a trigger and a reward hook. A memorable quest is a reason to care, a place it takes you, and a consequence you can see afterwards. 9 min read
- [AI Sound Effect Generators and the Repetition Problem](/blog/ai-sound-effect-generator-for-games/) Text-to-sound gives you one short clip at a time, and short clips are genuinely useful. The thing that determines whether your game sounds good is not the clip. It is what happens the fortieth time it plays. 9 min read
- [Why AI Sprite Generators Struggle With Animation](/blog/ai-sprite-generator-for-games/) One generated sprite can be excellent. Eight generated frames of the same character walking will not be the same character. Animation is a coherence problem, and coherence is exactly what per-image generation does not have. 10 min read
- [How to judge a game you did not code](/blog/how-to-judge-a-game-you-did-not-code/) Knowing whether a game is any good is a player skill, not a programming one. Here is a method for reviewing your own project and turning the verdict into changes. 8 min read
- [The smallest plan that is actually useful](/blog/how-to-plan-a-game-before-you-build-it/) Most game plans are either too vague to act on or too long to read. The useful version is four short answers you can write in an afternoon and change on Friday. 9 min read
- [The honest state of ai game making in 2026](/blog/the-honest-state-of-ai-game-making-2026/) A survey with the hype removed: what ai game making genuinely does well in 2026, what it still cannot do, and what only looks like it changed. 12 min read
- [What to build first in an open world](/blog/what-to-build-first-in-an-open-world/) The instinct is to build the map. The right first thing is a hundred metres of ground you enjoy crossing, because everything else in an open world is built on top of the crossing. 10 min read
- [When to stop prompting and start building](/blog/when-to-stop-prompting-and-start-building/) Asking for a change is so cheap that it is easy to keep asking long past the point where it helps. Here are the signals that the next useful move is to go and place things by hand. 9 min read
- [Why browser ai game makers hit a ceiling](/blog/why-browser-ai-game-makers-hit-a-ceiling/) A tab is the best on-ramp in software and a constrained place to finish a project. What browser tools genuinely do better, where the limit actually comes from, and how to decide which side of it you are on. 10 min read
- [Why your first AI-generated game is bad, and what to do about it](/blog/why-your-first-ai-generated-game-is-bad-and-what-to-do/) The first thing you build with AI usually works and is dull. That is not a tooling failure, and a better model will not fix it. It is a description problem, an averaging problem, and a judgement problem, and all three have concrete fixes. 10 min read

## Earlier essays

- [Her Story is a search box](/blog/how-her-story-turns-video-clips-into-clues/) Sam Barlow, 2015. The whole case is already on the machine. The play is which word you type next, and the game never tells you the right one. 8 min read
- [The first dungeon was a maze](/blog/the-legend-of-zelda-and-zelda-iis-dungeon-design/) Nintendo, 1986 and 1987. The Legend of Zelda hands you an underground you are not taught. Zelda II turns the dungeon into a side-on fight. Both habits stuck. 10 min read
- [Cuphead bosses teach, then cheat](/blog/how-cupheads-bosses-try-to-kill-you/) Studio MDHR, 2017. A Cuphead boss is a pattern you are allowed to learn, and then a second pattern that uses the first one against you. 9 min read
- [The JRPG starts at a table](/blog/the-birth-of-the-japanese-rpg/) Dungeons and Dragons, the mid-1970s, is the template. Dragon Quest, Enix, 1986, is what happened when that tabletop loop was forced through a menu. 9 min read
- [Ages and Seasons disagree](/blog/the-legend-of-zelda-oracle-of-ages-and-seasons-dungeon-design/) Capcom and Nintendo, 2001. The Oracle games shipped the same day. One is about time puzzles. The other is about action. They are not editions. 9 min read
- [The dotted line ate the trip](/blog/following-the-little-dotted-line/) Fallout 4, Bethesda, 2015, will walk you from marker to marker. Turn the quest off and what remains is the trip the marker replaced. 8 min read
- [Roguelike vs roguelite: permadeath names two rules](/blog/roguelikes-persistency-and-progression/) A roguelike keeps nothing when you die; a roguelite lets something survive the run, such as upgrades, unlocks or currency. That one rule decides whether a failed run is wasted time or a payment toward the next, and it changes how the whole difficulty curve has to be tuned. 9 min read
- [Aether is several worlds, not one](/blog/the-world-design-of-metroid-prime-2-echoes/) Retro Studios, 2004. Echoes is not one continuous planet. It is distinct places, each meant to be finished, and a hub that admits the cut. 10 min read
- [Catalyst chopped up its own city](/blog/what-mirrors-edge-catalyst-should-have-learned-from-burnout-paradise/) DICE, 2016, fixed a lot about Mirror Edge and still lost the run. Burnout Paradise, Criterion, 2008, kept every event on the same streets. Catalyst did not. 8 min read
- [The desert arrived after the moves](/blog/making-ori-and-the-will-of-the-wisps-best-level/) Ori and the Will of the Wisps, 2020. The Windswept Wastes began as a list of movement problems. The sand was hired later to hold them. 11 min read
- [Mario hides a second difficulty](/blog/super-marios-invisible-difficulty-settings/) Mario has to work for a first-time child and for someone who has played since 1985. The two difficulties share a level and do not share a route. 13 min read
- [A manual cannot stop a reload](/blog/playing-past-your-mistakes/) The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Bethesda, 1996, asked players not to replay the save. They did. A habit survives any paragraph that scolds it. 8 min read
- [Built to Scale was a trap](/blog/the-best-games-from-the-2024-game-jam/) A 2024 jam gave everyone the phrase Built to Scale. The words stretch in a dozen directions, which is why so many games could be about size and still disagree. 13 min read
- [Jusant makes you place each hand](/blog/how-jusant-makes-rock-climbing-more-immersive/) Dont Nod, 2023. Most game climbing is a stick held forward. Jusant is immersive because the grip is a resource you place, not a cutscene you ride. 10 min read
- [Breath of the Wild retired the key](/blog/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wilds-dungeon-design/) Nintendo, 2017. The Divine Beasts are puzzles you can see whole, and the shrines are the old dungeon chopped into single ideas. The key hunt is what left. 12 min read
- [Teach the system after it matters](/blog/can-we-improve-tutorials-for-complex-games/) Strategy and city builders lose people in the tutorial, before anyone has a reason to learn. Spread the lessons, and make each one a problem. 12 min read
- [Spelunky was two failures glued](/blog/how-to-combine-video-game-genres/) Derek Yu, around 2008, did not set out to invent a genre. A platformer and a roguelike each failed alone. Together they produced Spelunky. 9 min read
- [Downwell gives every part two jobs](/blog/downwells-dual-purpose-design/) Ojiro Fumoto's Downwell, 2015, stays deep because almost nothing has a single purpose. The gun is the jump. The gems are the health. 6 min read
- [A badge is not a deduction](/blog/the-3-types-of-detective-game/) Plenty of games hand you a badge and a witness. The ones that are actually detective games make you hold a theory the interface did not write for you. 11 min read
- [DOOM fits inside one arena](/blog/the-4-ps-of-dooms-amazing-combat/) Doom, id Software, 2016. One room holds the loop: push in, swap weapons, finish a demon, take what it drops. The campaign is that room again. 7 min read
- [Vanquish is a brawler with a gun](/blog/depth-mastery-and-vanquish/) PlatinumGames, 2010. Vanquish belongs with Bayonetta, not with cover shooters, because the family trait is depth of action, not melee. 9 min read
- [Access options are the design](/blog/how-accessible-were-2021s-games/) Accessibility is not a checklist added after the fun. It is the work of removing the obstacles between a person and that fun. 12 min read
- [The save was the design choice](/blog/how-to-think-like-a-game-designer/) Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly, 2014, nearly saved the ordinary way. Changing that one assumption changed the fear. Design is noticing which assumption. 9 min read
- [Difficulty is a place you choose](/blog/whats-the-point-of-hard-games-anyway/) Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry, 2025, is not hard because Metroidvanias are hard. The strain sits in the bosses, on purpose. Fairness is the condition. 8 min read
- [The overworld writes the dungeon](/blog/the-legend-of-zelda-a-link-between-worlds-dungeon-design/) Nintendo, 2013. A Link Between Worlds lets you rent the items and choose a dungeon. The temples have to be fair in any order, which the map decides. 12 min read
- [Rayman spends one trick for a world](/blog/breaking-down-the-best-world-in-rayman-legends/) Rayman Legends, Ubisoft Montpellier, 2013, does not retire a mechanic after one level. 20,000 Lums keeps the sneak until the world is fluent in it. 8 min read
- [Dead Space 3 spent the audience](/blog/the-design-of-dead-space-part-3/) Visceral Games, 2013. The action sequel had sold. The third game pushed further, into co-op and a wider net, and the original promise got thinner. 9 min read
- [One unfair puzzle convicts a genre](/blog/point-and-click-puzzle-design/) Broken Age, Double Fine, 2014, is charming, and a few puzzles were enough to make players decide the whole genre was broken. Fairness is the repair. 8 min read
- [The plateau teaches the whole map](/blog/how-nintendo-solved-zeldas-open-world-problem/) Breath of the Wild, Nintendo, 2017, does not solve an open world with a trail of markers. It solves it with a first hour that contains every verb. 6 min read
- [Super Mario 3D World's level design teaches in four beats](/blog/super-mario-3d-worlds-4-step-level-design/) Super Mario 3D World gives each stage one mechanic and a four-step arc: introduce it safely, develop it with real danger, twist it into something new, then end with a final test. Director Koichi Hayashida has linked the pattern to kishōtenketsu, a four-part structure from East Asian storytelling. 7 min read
- [The stylus redrew the dungeon](/blog/the-legend-of-zelda-phantom-hourglass-and-spirit-tracks-dungeon-design/) Nintendo, 2007 and 2009. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks were built for a touchscreen, so the dungeon became something you draw on, not just walk through. 9 min read
- [The swing is a skill you earn](/blog/does-spideys-web-swinging-make-you-feel-like-spider-man/) Insomniac's Spider-Man, 2018, does not hand you the fantasy at the title screen. The web becomes Spider-Man only after the physics start answering you. 8 min read
- [Wind Waker temples are too straight](/blog/the-legend-of-zelda-the-wind-wakers-dungeon-design/) Nintendo, 2002. The Wind Waker gets the sea, the art, and the tone right. Its dungeons are the awkward part: short, guided, and over before they become places. 9 min read
- [Lock the game, then polish](/blog/the-final-steps-before-releasing-a-game-on-steam/) Content lock is the day you agree the game will gain no new mechanics. Every hour after that is for the build you already have. 6 min read
- [Randomness has two jobs](/blog/the-two-types-of-randomness-in-game-design/) A shuffled deck and a missed shot are both random, and they are not doing the same work. One is a generator of situations. The other is a fog on execution. 10 min read
- [Mario levels teach by changing one tile](/blog/analyzing-mario-to-master-super-mario-maker/) Super Mario Maker, Nintendo, 2015, is a design school. The classic levels work because each one mutates a single idea instead of announcing it. 10 min read
- [Echoes of Wisdom hides in a list](/blog/can-zelda-echoes-of-wisdoms-ui-be-fixed/) Nintendo, 2024. Zelda copies objects into the world, then buries that power in a menu. The fix is fewer steps between the idea and the copy. 12 min read
- [2015 hid its best ideas in sequels](/blog/5-bits-of-good-game-design-from-2015/) Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V, Splatoon, Ori and Life is Strange each staked a year on one sharp rule, not on being new. 7 min read
- [Liberty City arrives in slices](/blog/how-rockstar-fit-an-entire-city-into-playstation-2-memory/) Grand Theft Auto III, Rockstar North, 2001. Liberty City could not fit in memory. It was streamed in around the player, which is what made the city possible. 10 min read
- [Ten years of games, one real lesson](/blog/10-game-design-lessons-from-10-years-of-analysis/) A decade of pulling games apart keeps returning to the same correction: the verb decides the feeling, and the feature list does not. 8 min read
- [The Swindle charges you for failure](/blog/is-the-swindle-the-first-great-heist-game/) Size Five Games, 2015. A heist is decoration if getting caught reloads a checkpoint. The Swindle makes the loss stick, which is why the job feels real. 5 min read
- [The companion spoke too soon](/blog/why-do-god-of-wars-characters-keep-spoiling-puzzles/) God of War, Santa Monica Studio, 2018. A hint that names the solution before you have looked is not accessibility. It is the puzzle being skipped. 6 min read
- [Until Dawn is not a flowchart](/blog/is-until-dawn-a-good-horror-movie/) Supermassive Games, 2015. Counting branches is the wrong test. Until Dawn makes you complicit in the next scene, whether or not the plot forks. 8 min read
- [Ico cut until the walk remained](/blog/ico-and-design-by-subtraction/) Team Ico, 2001. Ico shaped later games by removing the interface, the combat, and the chatter until a held hand was the whole action. 7 min read
- [Music can be a rule the player hears](/blog/adaptive-soundtracks-in-games/) Battle music is the dull version of an adaptive score. The useful version tells you where you are, what you risk, and when a system just changed. 8 min read
- [Capcom keeps the sensation](/blog/why-capcom-is-the-king-of-remakes/) Capcom remakes, Resident Evil 2 in 2019 among them, do not copy the feature list. They protect the feeling and let the old buttons go. 9 min read
- [Kaizen is a puzzle that answers](/blog/how-event-0s-ai-puzzle-assistant-works/) Event[0], Ocelot Society, 2016. You type at a shipboard intelligence named Kaizen. The puzzle is what it understands, not how human it sounds. 9 min read
- [Shepard was written before you](/blog/commanding-shepard/) BioWare's Shepard, 2007, has to be yours and already someone. Push either side too far and the performance, or the choice, goes hollow. 17 min read
- [Locator withholds the answer](/blog/a-detective-demo-inspired-by-geoguessr/) Geoguessr scores a pin at once. Locator, a mystery about a missing archaeologist, confirms nothing until three pins are right together. 5 min read
- [Each temple has a character](/blog/the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess-dungeon-design/) Nintendo, 2006. Twilight Princess dungeons are remembered as places with a personality and one moment you describe later, not as a checklist of keys. 9 min read
- [Campaigns forgot to argue with the gun](/blog/finding-the-fun-in-fps-campaigns/) By the mid-2010s many shooter campaigns felt interchangeable. The gun was fine. The levels had stopped asking it to do a new job. 10 min read
- [Lives are a second checkpoint](/blog/are-lives-outdated-game-design/) A life counter is not an antique. It is a harsher checkpoint sitting on top of the ordinary one, and it only earns that harshness in a short run. 9 min read
- [Overcooked fails if you stay quiet](/blog/how-overcookeds-kitchens-force-you-to-communicate/) Ghost Town Games, 2016. The cooking is easy. The kitchen is built so two players must talk, or the orders pile up on purpose. 9 min read
- [Juice is how a hit explains itself](/blog/secrets-of-game-feel-and-juice/) Two games can share a move and feel nothing alike. The difference is the instant of feedback that tells your hands the move happened. 8 min read
- [Nintendo starts with the hands](/blog/nintendo-putting-play-first/) Nintendo tends to settle how a game is played before it settles what the game is about. Story, technology, and theme come after the verb. 7 min read
- [Blow uncovers a puzzle, then builds it](/blog/how-jonathan-blow-designs-a-puzzle/) Jonathan Blow has said Braid, 2008, felt discovered rather than invented. The feeling is not an excuse to skip the room that teaches the rule. 7 min read
- [Mosa Lina has no intended answer](/blog/a-puzzle-game-where-your-tools-are-completely-random/) Stuffed Wombat built Mosa Lina so a room has tools, not a solution. The designer cannot have meant the route you found, and that is the point. 7 min read
- [Banjo-Kazooie's world design: small and full](/blog/the-world-design-of-banjo-kazooie/) Banjo-Kazooie's worlds are small on purpose. Each of its nine worlds is compact enough to hold in your head, built around landmarks you can see from most of it, with 100 notes and 10 Jiggies packed in, so you always know where you are. Banjo-Tooie grew every world and linked them, and paid for it in backtracking. 9 min read
- [Hyrule score stays out of the way](/blog/the-music-of-breath-of-the-wild/) Nintendo, 2017. Breath of the Wild is quiet on purpose. A heroic theme would tell you how to feel about a ruin you were meant to interpret yourself. 6 min read
- [ODST fired the power fantasy](/blog/the-tragedy-of-halo-3-odst/) Bungie, 2009. Halo meant Master Chief, armored and nearly unkillable. ODST removes him. The city is interesting. The absence is the design. 8 min read
- [The HUD is part of the design](/blog/the-power-of-video-game-huds/) Treat the interface as trim and you waste it. A health number, a marker, a dimmed ability: each one is an instruction about what matters right now. 8 min read
- [A trailer owes one difference](/blog/how-to-make-an-indie-game-trailer/) A trailer exists to show the one thing your game does that the others do not. Mood, logos, and a montage are how that job gets avoided. 8 min read
- [The warning has to be visible](/blog/making-games-better-for-deaf-and-hard-of-hearing-players/) A footstep, a reload, a monster off screen: if the only version of that information is sound, some players are playing a harder game than you designed. 9 min read
- [Snake Pass deleted the jump](/blog/how-snake-pass-became-a-platformer-without-jumping/) Sumo Digital, 2017. Snake Pass is a platformer that refuses the jump, and the whole genre has to be rebuilt around a coil instead. 9 min read
- [Miami is a place with two jobs](/blog/making-hitman-2s-best-level/) IO Interactive, 2018. The Miami level in Hitman 2 works because the racetrack and the building were already busy before you arrived with a target. 10 min read
- [Psychonauts is the mind levels](/blog/what-made-psychonauts-special/) Double Fine, 2005. Psychonauts is not the tidiest platformer of its year. The levels are minds, and the platforming is how you walk through them. 7 min read
- [Hitman's Sapienza expects the first run to fail](/blog/hitman-and-the-art-of-repetition/) Hitman is designed around replaying the same level. Your first run through Sapienza usually goes wrong, and that is the point: each attempt teaches a guard's route, a target's schedule or a disguise, and by the fifth run you are planning the hit like an expert instead of improvising it. 8 min read
- [Metroid Dread steers you and calls it freedom](/blog/why-you-probably-didnt-get-lost-in-metroid-dread/) You rarely get lost in Metroid Dread because the game closes doors behind you. One-way passages, collapsing floors and abilities placed a few rooms from the locks they open keep the search area small, so a world that looks like a maze plays like a route. 10 min read
- [A choice can skip the menu](/blog/the-power-of-invisible-choices/) A dialogue list is the obvious choice. The stronger ones are actions the story remembers: a door you forced, a person you spared, with no menu in sight. 10 min read
- [Ocarina gave the dungeon a height](/blog/ocarina-of-times-dungeon-design/) Nintendo, 1998. Moving Zelda into 3D did not just add a camera. It turned a flat lock-and-key maze into a volume you can get lost in upward. 9 min read
- [A meter is not a moral choice](/blog/morality-in-the-mechanics/) A good-and-evil bar with two power sets is a costume change. Morality lands when it is a consequence of rules you were already using. 8 min read
- [Death is still a rewind](/blog/redesigning-death/) Most games still resolve failure the way they did decades ago: fade, reload, play the minute again. The costume changes. The rewind often does not. 8 min read
- [Mario jump grew extra results](/blog/the-secret-of-marios-jump-and-other-versatile-verbs/) In Donkey Kong, 1981, the jump is one result. Later Mario jumps steer, stomp, and reach. A verb gets interesting when it stops meaning only one thing. 10 min read
- [Rain in Hyrule is the argument](/blog/the-rise-of-the-systemic-game/) Breath of the Wild, Nintendo, 2017. Rain is not weather. It touches climbing, fire, and stealth. That reach is what systemic means. 10 min read
- [Baba Is You fences one sentence](/blog/how-baba-is-you-makes-brain-busting-puzzles/) Hempuli, 2019. The game looks like it will let you rewrite anything. The stages that work are built backward from one sentence you are not meant to find first. 10 min read
- [One verb carries Shovel Knight](/blog/shovel-knights-signature-moves/) Yacht Club Games, 2014. Mario has a jump, Madeline a dash. Shovel Knight has a downward dig that is attack, bounce, and personality at once. 11 min read
- [Why Metro Exodus is immersive: menus become objects](/blog/why-metro-exodus-is-so-immersive/) Metro Exodus feels immersive because almost nothing lives on a menu screen. The map is paper in Artyom's hands, time and your filter supply are on a watch, weapons are modded on a workbench in your backpack, and a cracked gas mask is a problem you can see. The world keeps running while you use them. 12 min read
- [Build the question, not the game](/blog/whats-the-point-of-prototyping/) Final art is the expensive part, which is why it is the wrong place to learn the idea is dull. A prototype answers one question, and it should look ugly. 11 min read
- [One rule holds the Roman city](/blog/how-the-forgotten-city-creates-the-perfect-mystery/) Modern Storyteller, 2021. The Forgotten City kills everyone the moment one person sins. The mystery works because that single rule never bends. 11 min read
- [Two Metroid 2s, two arguments](/blog/how-am2r-and-samus-returns-remade-metroid-2/) Metroid II, 1991, got two remakes that do not agree. AM2R in 2016 and Samus Returns in 2017 each picked a different half of the hunt to protect. 13 min read
- [Melee is not one combat system](/blog/what-makes-a-good-combat-system/) Golden Axe and Dark Souls are both close-range fights. They do not share a decision. Combat is the choice you make every second, and the seconds differ. 13 min read
- [The Sims cannot be fully piloted](/blog/the-genius-ai-behind-the-sims/) Maxis, 2000. A household is too much to steer by hand, so the people have to want things on their own. That want is the design, not a gadget on top. 14 min read
- [Blue Prince drafts against its clues](/blog/blue-prince-can-a-random-puzzle-game-actually-work/) Dogubomb's Blue Prince, 2025, stacks a clue hunt on a house that redrafts every day. The randomness is the puzzle's enemy unless the notes can outlast a run. 11 min read
- [One theme, thousands of games](/blog/the-best-games-from-the-2021-game-jam/) A 2021 jam theme, Joined Together, drew more than 21,000 sign-ups and over 5,800 finished games. The interesting part is what the phrase forced. 14 min read
- [Playtesters invented GLaDOS](/blog/valves-secret-weapon/) Valve, around 2007. A year into Portal, testers kept saying the tutorial was over and the game had not started. The personality is what answered them. 13 min read
- [One castle replaced the stages](/blog/the-world-design-of-castlevania-symphony-of-the-night/) Konami, 1997. Castlevania had been a parade of stages. Symphony of the Night turns the parade into one castle you learn, and the map is the reward. 12 min read
- [Dead Space 2 was given an order](/blog/the-design-of-dead-space-part-2/) Visceral Games, 2011. The first Dead Space had not sold the way EA hoped. The sequel was steered toward action, and the horror had to survive the steer. 12 min read
- [Link Awakening hid the template](/blog/the-legend-of-zelda-links-awakenings-dungeon-design/) Nintendo, 1993. Link Awakening is remembered for the dream. Under it is the dungeon shape the series kept: a tool, a lesson, a lock that needs the tool. 10 min read
- [Cohen owns every room in it](/blog/why-we-remember-bioshocks-fort-frolic/) Irrational Games, 2007. Fort Frolic works because one man owns the exits, the radio, and the taste of the place. The level is his performance. 10 min read
- [The Gloo Cannon is a verb](/blog/the-genius-of-preys-gloo-cannon/) Arkane, 2017. Prey is full of systems. The Gloo Cannon matters because it talks to all of them: a bridge, a freeze, a ladder, a stop. 10 min read
- [A fighter starts as one sentence](/blog/how-a-super-smash-bros-fighter-is-designed/) A Super Smash Bros. newcomer is chosen long before the punches. The sentence of who they are has to survive contact with the rest of the roster. 15 min read
- [Tough is not the same as smart](/blog/what-makes-good-ai/) Bungie, on the first Halo, kept the AI identical and raised the damage. Players calling the aliens very intelligent jumped from 8 percent to 43. 11 min read
- [A puzzle is two rules in conflict](/blog/what-makes-a-good-puzzle/) Every puzzle starts as rules the game will not bend. The puzzle is the moment those rules contradict the obvious plan. 16 min read
- [A guard must show what he knows](/blog/how-stealth-game-guards-see-and-hear-school-of-stealth-part-1/) Stealth starts from concealment. It falls apart when the player cannot tell what a guard saw, heard, or is about to do about it. 9 min read
- [The camera serves two masters](/blog/the-challenge-of-cameras/) A game camera owes the gameplay a readable space and owes the picture a composition. Those debts are often collected at the same moment. 10 min read
- [Players will take the dull win](/blog/how-game-designers-protect-players-from-themselves/) Give people a slow, safe, repeatable way to win and many of them will take it. Protecting them means closing that path, not scolding them. 12 min read
- [Doom can be brilliant and still lose you](/blog/how-to-keep-players-engaged-without-being-evil/) Doom, id Software, 2016, has some of the best fights in the genre, and a player can still drift off before the end. Attention is a design problem. 19 min read
- [Ape Out kept the accident](/blog/the-games-that-designed-themselves/) Gabe Cuzzillo set out to make a stealth game. The grab was fun, the stealth was not, and Ape Out, 2019, is the grab with a gorilla attached. 8 min read
- [Rapture explains itself in the props](/blog/how-level-design-can-tell-a-story/) Irrational Games, 2007. Strip BioShock of its radios and diaries and the city still tells you what happened. The rooms were built to do that job. 15 min read
- [The jump is the whole contract](/blog/why-does-celeste-feel-so-good-to-play/) Celeste, Maddy Makes Games, 2018. Nothing else in the mountain matters until the jump is short, steerable, and willing to assume you meant the ledge. 15 min read
- [Make the player show the work](/blog/what-makes-a-good-detective-game/) A good detective story is the work: interviews, a scene, a theory. A game that only lets you pick a name from a list has done the work already. 11 min read
- [Mystery is a distance you set](/blog/what-makes-a-game-feel-mysterious/) Breath of the Wild, Nintendo, 2017. A dragon crosses the sky and is not explained. Mystery is how long you can stand to withhold the answer. 17 min read
- [A win that feeds the next win](/blog/how-games-use-feedback-loops/) A feedback loop turns the result of the last action into the odds on the next one. The design question is when success should compound, and when it should stop. 15 min read
- [Health systems in games tell you where to stand](/blog/how-games-do-health/) A game's health system decides where players stand. Regenerating health lets them take a hit and hide, health packs make them manage a resource and explore for it, and hybrids such as Halo's recharging shield over a health bar sit in between. Pick the rule for the behaviour you want, not out of habit. 10 min read
- [Hollow Knight trusts you to be lost](/blog/the-world-design-of-hollow-knight-boss-keys/) Team Cherry, 2017. After a thin decade for the genre, Hallownest is a map you are allowed to misread. The benches and the stag are kindness, not a guided tour. 17 min read
- [A speech check skips the scene](/blog/can-we-make-talking-as-much-fun-as-shooting/) Charisma as a dice roll deletes the conversation. Talking becomes play when a read, a fact, or a favour is something you can spend. 10 min read
- [The pad decides which games exist](/blog/controllers-control-everything/) A controller is not a neutral pipe. The buttons you can reach decide which games are cheap to build, quick to explain, and comfortable to play. 10 min read
- [A decorative clock is not a system](/blog/clockwork-games-and-time-loops/) Most day-night cycles wait for the player. A time loop only works when the schedule runs without you and you can learn it. 13 min read
- [One reload broke Gears of War](/blog/how-game-designers-solved-these-11-problems/) Epic, 2006. Active reload was a small timing trick that warped the whole gunfight. Most design problems are that size, and they are solved one at a time. 13 min read
- [Celeste's Assist Mode is a tone of voice](/blog/what-makes-celestes-assist-mode-special/) Celeste's Assist Mode lets you lower the game speed to as little as 50%, turn on infinite stamina, extra or infinite air dashes and invincibility, and skip chapters. What sets it apart is how it is offered: the game says plainly that it is meant to be hard and that taking help is fine, then gets out of the way. 16 min read
- [The spark is the easy half](/blog/how-to-find-amazing-game-ideas/) Every game starts as an idea. The hard part is whether that idea is a verb you can play tomorrow, not a premise you can describe. 16 min read
- [Sequence breaking in Toki Tori 2: the lock is knowledge](/blog/sequence-breaking-with-toki-tori-2/) Toki Tori 2 has no keys, no new abilities and no upgrades. You get two actions, whistle and stomp, and the next area opens once you understand a creature you have already met. Because the lock is knowledge, sequence breaking is not a bug here; it is a legitimate way to play. 10 min read
- [Skyward Sword leads you through](/blog/the-legend-of-zelda-skyward-swords-dungeon-design/) Nintendo, 2011. Early Zelda dungeons were mazes. Skyward Sword dungeons are routes, with a warden and a door that opens when the route is understood. 13 min read
- [A prize can spoil the play](/blog/this-psychological-trick-makes-rewards-backfire/) A 1970s drawing study paid some children in advance. They drew less afterward. A reward can move attention off the thing you wanted them to enjoy. 10 min read
- [Nova-111 kept a bug on purpose](/blog/3-lessons-from-a-real-time-turn-based-game/) Nova-111 was a turn-based crawler until a bug let enemies move between turns. The hybrid is only good when that accident stays the point. 7 min read