Google on Oct. 7 opened Playground, an experimental website where people make their own video games by describing them in everyday language, with no coding. You type what you want, and the site builds a game you can test right away; Google says it takes minutes. Then you keep asking for changes: different physics, new rules, other characters or a whole new setting. Google says you can start from a blank page, from a genre such as trivia, tower defense or racing, or with step-by-step help.
Making a game has usually meant learning a game engine, the complex software used to build games. Google says that has kept game making to "a select group of people" with technical skills, and calls Playground a way to lower that barrier. Unity, which makes software for building games for phones, computers and consoles, is Google's partner on the project and says it shares the belief that AI can open game creation to anyone with an idea for a game.
The games run in a web browser, so they play on a phone or a laptop. A creator can keep a game private, send a link to friends or publish it to a public gallery, where Google says it highlights games based on player ratings and how often they are played. Some kinds of games let several people play together and compete on scoreboards, for players who sign in with a Google Play Games profile. Google says every published game goes through safety screening against its community rules, and players can report games.
For now, Playground is open only to adults 18 and over in the U.S., at playground.google. Google says how much each person can create will depend on their Google One plan, its subscription service, but it has not said what each plan allows. Later this year, Google and Unity plan to add Unity Spark, which they say will bring more advanced game features and detailed 3D graphics. Unity Spark is still in testing, with a small invite-only test coming soon and a waitlist on Unity's site.
Google calls Playground an early experiment, and its Playground page marks its screen images as simulated. Google has not said which AI model builds the games, how much each Google One plan lets people create, how complex a game it can build from a description alone, or when it will open outside the U.S.