The walkthrough (10 minutes, $0)
- Sign in with Google at arcadesandbox.com — two clicks, no credit card, no new password. New accounts start with packs from $4.99.
- Pick 2D, pick a genre chip, type your prompt. A 2D build typically costs 🪙500–1,000 (about $0.50–1.00), so a $4.99 starter pack (🪙5,000) covers it many times over.
- Press build and watch. The AI (Claude — the details) writes the entire game live: code, art, controls, scoring. About two minutes.
- Play it. Then share the link with anyone — playing needs no account and no install, on any device.
That's the whole thing. No trial countdown, no watermark, no "export locked behind Pro."
What "free" honestly includes (and doesn't)
- Free: your first 2D build AND an edit or two — builds typically run 🪙500–1,000 and revisions 🪙250–400, so a $4.99 starter pack (🪙5,000) covers a game plus polish with plenty left over. Playing shared links, publishing, and keeping your games are free too.
- Not free: building beyond the starter pack. Pricing is dynamic and cost-based — you pay what each job actually costs the platform plus a margin, and the exact charge is shown when the job finishes: 2D builds typically 🪙500–1,000, 3D builds 🪙5,000–9,000, revisions 🪙250–400. Packs start at 🪙5,000 for $4.99 and never expire, so $1 covers about a game' worth of building; Arcade Pass is $4.99/mo for unlimited freeplay, or $4.99/mo with Arcade Pass+ for 🪙10,000 every month.
Why not unlimited free builds? Each build runs a frontier AI model end-to-end, which costs real money per game. Builders that offer "unlimited free AI games" are throttling quality, burning VC money, or selling you as the product. A concept card to prove the idea before you pay, transparent pay-what-it-costs pricing after — that's the deal.
The prompt formula: verb, pressure, feeling
The AI fills gaps with defaults, so a vague prompt gets a default game. Three ingredients prevent that:
- The verb — what the player does every second: dodge, slice, stack, herd, type.
- The pressure — what pushes back: a timer, a wave, rising lava, a shrinking screen.
- The feeling — frantic, cozy, sneaky, one-more-try. This tunes speed, palette, and tone all at once.
Weak: "a fun game about space."
Strong: "a frantic one-more-try game where I pilot a leaky escape pod through an asteroid field, patching hull breaches mid-flight — dodging is the verb, air running out is the pressure."
For the deeper method — and what actually happens between your sentence and the running game — see How to make games with AI and Text-to-game AI, explained.
▶ THE FREE ONE IS WAITING
A starter pack is $4.99 (🪙5,000, never expires); a 2D build typically costs 🪙500–1,000.
Make my free game →From $4.99 · ~2 minutes to playable · share it as a link, no installs for anyone. · from $4.99 one-time, or Arcade Pass $4.99/mo
After the first build: the revision habit
The prompt gets you 80% of the way; revisions are where games get good. Play your free build, then say what's wrong like you'd tell a friend: "the start is too hard," "more screen shake," "give the boss a health bar." Each pass typically costs 🪙250–400 (a dime or two) and takes a minute — and learning to see what a game needs is the actual craft you're picking up. Stuck on what to build in the first place? Spin CREATE1UP or raid the 50-idea bank.
FAQ
What does the first game actually cost?
Sign in with Google, pick a $4.99 starter pack (🪙5,000, never expires) or Arcade Pass ($4.99/mo) — a 2D build typically costs 🪙500–1,000.
Can I make a 3D game from a text prompt?
Yes — 3D builds typically cost 🪙5,000–9,000 (they run on a stronger frontier model, which genuinely costs more), so a 3D first game needs a token pack. Start 2D free, go 3D when you're hooked: what 3D-from-text can do.
Do I own the game?
Yes — you retain ownership of what you create; publishing grants us a hosting/display license. See the terms.
What if the build isn't what I imagined?
That's normal for prompt one — revise in plain English (typically 🪙250–400), or sharpen the prompt and rebuild. Specificity in, quality out.