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. It runs 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 that no 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.