From a prompt to a playable game

Orbfall is a small 3D arcade game. A coding agent built it with DriftEngine from the one prompt below, in about 14 minutes, starting from the command that starts every new project.

The prompt

Make me a small 3D arcade game that runs in the browser. You pilot a hovering orb across a floating island at dusk, collecting glowing crystals while rolling boulders try to knock you off the edge. A run lasts 60 seconds; show the score, the time left and the best score, and let me restart. It should play with the keyboard, a gamepad or a touch screen, and have sound for pickups and hits.

As it was given, kept in the game's repository as PROMPT.md.

What its log says

Time
About 14 minutesFrom the first line of the agent's own log to the last, rounded to the minute.
Checks
4 runs of npm run check, and every one passedEach one a typecheck, the rules' tests in Node, and a picture of the game on WebGPU and on WebGL2.
Looks
3 more runs of npm run lookThe pictures alone, without the typecheck and the tests, each taken to see what one change did.

Play it

Orbfall: the orb, the crystals and the boulders on the island at duskPlay Orbfall

It loads the game into the page. Sound starts with your first key or tap.

How to play

Keyboard
WASD or the arrows to steer, R to restart, Space or Enter to play again.
Gamepad
The left stick to steer, Start to restart, A to play again.
Touch
A thumb on the left half steers, a tap on the right plays again.

What the agent had

Three things, all of them written into the folder by npm create @driftengine@latest.

The project's AGENTS.md

The file most coding agents read when they open a folder: the commands, the rules a compiler cannot check, and what done means there, which is a passing check and both pictures looked at.

The driftengine skill

The shape of a program, and where every page of the manual and every example is, at the version the project installed. It is written where Claude Code, Codex and Cursor look for skills.

npm run check

A typecheck, the rules' tests in Node, then the game photographed on WebGPU and on WebGL2 with the machine's own GPU. It is how the agent saw the island it was building, and the log says what each picture showed.

Working with a coding agent

Its own record

The repository holds the game as the agent left it, its commits from the first request to the finished game, and its build log, written as it worked: every check, and every time it opened the pictures and what it saw in them.

Start your own

npm create @driftengine@latest my-game

It asks nothing and installs nothing, so an agent can run it unattended. Then npm install, npm run dev, and a prompt of your own.

Get in touch

Join the Discord Ask questions, share what you are building, and talk with other developers.

info@driftengine.dev