The walkthrough (10 minutes, $0)
- Sign in with Google at arcadesandbox.com — two clicks, no credit card, no new password. New accounts start with ⚡ 5 free tokens.
- Pick 2D, pick a genre chip, type your prompt. A 2D build costs 4 tokens, so the welcome tokens cover it — your first game is genuinely free.
- 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 (5 welcome tokens − 4-token build), playing any shared link, publishing to the arcade, and keeping your games in your account.
- Not free: games beyond the first. Tokens come in packs from $9.99 for 10 — about $4 per 2D game, $8 for 3D, 3 tokens per revision. No subscription, and tokens never expire.
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. One genuinely free game to prove the magic, honest prices 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
⚡ 5 free tokens, 4-token build — your first game costs exactly nothing.
Make my free game →No credit card · ~2 minutes to playable · share it as a link, no installs for anyone.
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 costs 3 tokens 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
Is the first game really free — no card?
Really free: sign in with Google, get 5 tokens, spend 4 on a 2D build. No payment method involved.
Can I make a 3D game from a text prompt?
Yes — 3D builds cost 8 tokens (they run on a stronger model), 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 (3 tokens), or sharpen the prompt and rebuild. Specificity in, quality out.