Alright, the claim is a bit of a bait — things aren’t exactly as they seem, but it’s not entirely untrue either. Let me explain. Every year, for a friend’s birthday, I try to come up with a unique gift. One year, I took up woodworking and built an arcade cabinet from scratch. Another year, after remembering at the last minute, I quickly threw together a video greeting with a song and dance. This year, thanks to a well-timed vacation, I had a different idea. I wondered: could AI create a video game from scratch? Since I had plenty of time before the birthday, I figured the only way to find out was to give it a try.
I started with the idea of making a Pac-Man-style game, but with the character drinking beers instead of eating pellets. I used the paid version of ChatGPT, model 4. My intention was to create the game as someone completely ignorant of the subject, letting the AI handle everything. The start was promising — AI generated all the code, divided it into files, and provided explanations. Within half an hour, I had a basic version, albeit without graphics, just squares and rectangles. Unsurprisingly, the maze was a mess. I repeatedly asked the AI to fix it, but each attempt made it worse. I decided to move on and revisit it later. Adding the ghosts was easy. The next step was to make them move. And that’s where things fell apart. After two hours of prompting, the AI still couldn’t produce anything decent. It was frustrating. I realized that my intervention would have been crucial to improve things, so I abandoned the Pac-Man project.
I tried something different — a Mario Bros.-style platformer. I started from scratch again, and this time, thanks to my improved prompting skills, it was much smoother. I created a character, obstacles, platforms, and gaps for the character to fall into. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. There were frequent bugs that I had to correct, but if I was precise in my prompts and bug descriptions, the AI handled things fairly well without me needing to dive into the code. With DALL-E, I created some images for characters and background elements, and with Suno, I generated music. The AI guided me on how to integrate them. And so, little by little, prompt after prompt, I managed to create a minimally playable game, albeit full of bugs and incredibly simple.
Total time spent: around 15 hours, over two days. Hence, the bait in the opening sentence.
So, can someone who knows nothing about programming create a video game from scratch? Yes, if they are a power user. Even without programming knowledge, it’s possible. However, the product will never be anything remarkable. But I’m a programmer — I don’t settle for less. I decided to improve the game in my capacity as a programmer. I took the buggy code, suggested fixes to ChatGPT, added a few tweaks myself, organized the code more logically, and made it possible to have multiple levels. In short, I created something a bit more polished, something that could actually pass as a birthday gift. The AI also helped me create an Android app using Cordova.
The total hours invested increased significantly, though I didn’t keep track. It took me a month, working in my spare time. If I had focused solely on this, it might have taken about a week. The game isn’t pixel-perfect, the code is still somewhat messy (I didn’t even use a linter or prettier), there are no tests, and a few bugs remain (I’m aware of at least one). But as an MVP, it’s more than adequate.
And here’s the finished product: iii-bros
If anyone is curious, I’ve made all the code open-source: iii-bros GitHub. I’ve also shared the entire chat with the AI in the readme, in case anyone wants to see how much effort went into this small project.
Motorcycle rider
American football player
DIY enthusiast
Web developer on free time