Make a Mini-Game

Every great game starts as an idea on paper. Before you write a single line of code, you decide what the game IS — who the player controls, what they are trying to do, and how the game ends. A good design plan turns a vague idea into a buildable mini-game with clear rules.

The Five Game Design Questions

Answer these five questions and you have the skeleton of a working mini-game. Skip any one of them and the game will feel half-finished.

1. Game name — what is it called?
2. Goal of the player — what are they trying to do?
3. Main character — who or what does the player control?
4. How the player wins — what triggers the WIN screen?
5. How the player loses — what triggers the LOSE screen?

Game Elements Map to Code Concepts

Every part of your game becomes a piece of code. Knowing which code concept matches which game element makes building the game much faster.

• Score — a variable that goes up when the player does the right thing.
• Hero moves — an event triggered by a key press or tap.
• Enemy spawns over and over — a loop that repeats while the game runs.
• Game over screen — a condition checked every frame ("if health = 0 then stop").
• Player presses a key — an event handler that listens for the key and runs code.

Win and Lose Conditions

A condition is just a yes/no question the game asks: "Is the score 10 or higher?" "Is health zero?" When the answer flips to YES, the game responds. Without these checks, your game has no end and no goal.

• Win condition — the rule that ends the game in success (e.g. score reaches the goal, all enemies defeated, level finished).
• Lose condition — the rule that ends the game in failure (e.g. health hits 0, time runs out, player falls).
• Both conditions are checked every loop, every frame.