from paper prototype to playtest.
before the session ends.
Game design students prototype on paper because code is the bottleneck. MakeMode Games removes it: describe the mechanic and the feeling, watch a playable prototype build, and share one link the whole class plays on their phones — on European infrastructure your programme is actually allowed to deploy.
built for how game design is taught.
The canonical first exercises are the starting points: remix Pong, make a one-button game, take a paper prototype digital. Students bring the design question; the tool supplies the implementation craft.
playable, not a mockup
A real game loop, keyboard and touch, win/lose states, instant restart — the things a playtest actually needs, built in by default.
tune game feel by playing
Every game ships with live sliders — gravity, speed, spawn rate, screen shake. Students feel what each number does, mid-play, without touching code.
one link is the playtest
Publish and the whole class is playing on their phones a minute later. Iterate between rounds, not between weeks.
described in a sentence. playable in a minute.
"a one-button game — all the depth is timing" → a runner with hold-to-jump-higher and a tuning panel
"pong i can remix for a class exercise" → first to 7, with ball speed, paddle size and cpu skill as sliders
"a pico-8 cartridge" → a complete cart to paste into the free browser education edition
it speaks pico-8.
The fantasy console beloved by game design educators is a first-class output: ask for a cart and you get complete PICO-8 Lua — tuning constants commented at the top — ready to paste into the free browser education edition and run. Constraints included: 128×128, 16 colours, one mechanic. A proven workshop format, now with the build step removed.
approved across the whole cohort.
Student work and identity stay on European, GDPR-native infrastructure — nothing a foreign company can switch off mid-semester. One deployment serves every studio, and it's the AI build tool a games programme can actually clear with its data-protection office.