Make games with Gemini: 3 routes, step by step

Gemini is Google’s family of AI models, and you make a game with it through one of three Google tools: Canvas in the Gemini app, Build mode in Google AI Studio, or Google Antigravity. Each has a free start. Tool facts below are as of September 2026 and link to their sources.

Which Gemini route should you take?

Take Canvas for a first playable page, Build mode for a game you keep editing and publish from Google, and Antigravity for your own files and engine.

Route	What it is	Cost to start	Good for
Canvas in the Gemini app	A workspace that turns a prompt into a working, shareable app or game	Included in the free Gemini plan	A first playable page and a share link
Build mode in Google AI Studio	A prompt-to-app builder with live preview, code editing and GitHub sync	AI Studio usage is free of charge	A game you refine by chatting, then deploy or download
Google Antigravity	An agentic development platform: an IDE with an agent manager, a CLI and an SDK	Free for individual developers, with weekly limits	Your own project folder and engine

Sources: Canvas, Gemini plans, Build mode, Gemini API pricing and Antigravity.

Gemini CLI, Google’s earlier terminal agent, is being replaced by Antigravity CLI (Google Developers Blog); the FAQ below has the dates.

Route 1: Canvas in the Gemini app

Canvas builds a playable game from a description and runs it in a panel beside the chat. Google says it generates “the code that brings your idea to life as a working, shareable app or game” (Canvas). The steps, from Gemini Apps Help:

1. Go to gemini.google.com, click Add Files below the text box and choose Canvas.
2. Enter your prompt and submit it. The game appears in the Canvas panel.
3. When something breaks, click Show console at the top right of the panel for errors and logs from the preview. Code, then Show recent changes, shows what changed in the code.
4. To share, click Share & export, then Share, and copy the link.

Read Google’s warning before step 4. Anyone with a public link can view and edit data associated with the app, and shared apps can save data across sessions and share it between users.

Route 2: Build mode in Google AI Studio

Build mode turns a prompt into a full-stack web app, or a native Android app, with a live preview beside the code. Google’s docs say the Antigravity Agent powers it (Build mode).

• Web apps get a React front end and a Node.js runtime for API calls, databases and npm packages. The Gemini API key stays a server-side secret, so a game that calls Gemini while you play, for a talking character or a level generator, doesn’t expose it.
• Android apps are Kotlin and Jetpack Compose projects that you preview in a browser-based emulator, install on a phone and publish to the Play Store.

You iterate by chatting, by annotating the interface or by editing code in the Code tab, and two-way GitHub sync is built in. To publish, deploy to Google Cloud Run, where pricing applies, or download a ZIP and host it yourself. Since Google I/O 2026, one click moves a whole project into Antigravity for local development (I/O 2026).

Gemini calls from a shared app count toward your usage limits, and paid models may cost money.

Route 3: Antigravity on your own project

Antigravity works on your own files and engine. Google calls it “our agentic development platform” and lists an IDE with an agent manager and artifacts, a terminal-first CLI, an SDK, and Antigravity 2.0 for running several local agents in parallel (Antigravity).

Its launch post describes agents writing code, using the terminal to launch the application and then using the browser to test it. They leave artifacts such as task lists, implementation plans, screenshots and browser recordings, so you can check the work without reading tool logs (launch post).

Google’s own demo is a 3D wizard game in a castle, with puzzles and textures generated with Nano Banana. Google says “Gemini 3.8 Flash built this game with a simple prompt using a looping instruction in Google Antigravity” (Gemini 3.8 Flash post).

The free plan for individuals has basic weekly rate limits, and Google AI Pro and Ultra add more generous limits and an AI credit pool. The agent can also run Claude Sonnet and Opus 4.6 or gpt-oss-120b, so an Antigravity game is not always a Gemini game (pricing).

A first prompt for Gemini

Give Gemini one small game it can finish in a single answer. Paste this into Canvas as it is; Build mode makes a React project anyway, so there you can drop the first sentence.

Build a browser game in one HTML file. The player is a robot vacuum in a top-down room and steers with drag or arrow keys. Collect dust for 60 seconds while dodging a rolling ball, then show a score screen. It must run on a phone and use relative paths only.

Then change one thing per message, for example “the ball speeds up every 15 seconds” or “add a second room behind a door that opens at 20 dust”. In Antigravity, end the prompt with a check loop in the spirit of Google’s demo.

After each change, launch the game, play it in the browser, take a screenshot and fix what looks wrong before you report back.

Test and publish the game

Test on a phone before you share: 19 of the 24 Google-made games we list are flagged as playable on mobile. A Canvas share link is the quickest way to show a friend.

To host the game yourself, itch.io takes a zip with index.html at the root and needs relative asset paths (itch.io docs). GitHub Pages serves HTML, CSS and JavaScript files straight from a repository (GitHub docs).

Then submit your game. The editorial policy lists what we accept, and every game is reviewed before it’s listed. If you plan to charge for it, read selling AI-made games.

What the catalog’s Google-made games show

Data note: as of September 30, 2026, the catalog lists 404 games, and 367 of them are Vibe Jam 2026 entries (jam rules: at least 90% of the code written by AI). Creators name the tools themselves, mostly in the jam submission form. We don’t verify them.

A Google tool appears on 24 games. 16 name Antigravity and 8 name the Gemini app, well behind Claude Code (169), Cursor (86) and Codex (73). For AI Studio and Gemini CLI the count is 0, and the Gemini app entries don’t say whether Canvas was used.

Measure	Antigravity games	Gemini app games	All 404 listed games
Listed games	16	8	404
Use Three.js	13	5	266
Playable on mobile	13	6	256
Online multiplayer	3	1	173

17% of the Google-made games have online multiplayer, against 43% across the catalog. At Vibe Jam 2026, Demolition Drive placed 74th and Scavender 81st of 945 entries.

The examples below cover a 3D demolition simulator, a point-and-click adventure, a neon tightrope balancer, a survival runner with a hostile AI and a Phaser brick breaker. Browse them all on the Antigravity hub, the Gemini app hub or games made with Gemini.

Models and cost, as of September 2026

Google’s model list tells new projects to use Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or Gemini 3.8 Flash. Google introduced 3.8 Flash on September 2, 2026 and offers it in AI Studio, in Antigravity and, for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, in the Gemini app (announcement). The free Gemini plan lists 3.6 Flash and varying access to 3.1 Pro.

Model	Google’s description	Status
Gemini 3.8 Flash	“Our most intelligent Flash model, engineered for long-horizon software engineering, autonomous agents, and complex enterprise workflows”	Stable
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite	“Our fastest, most cost-effective 3.5 model for high-throughput execution”	Stable
Gemini 3.1 Pro	“Advanced intelligence, complex problem-solving skills, and powerful agentic and vibe coding capabilities”	Preview
Nano Banana 2	“Powerful, high-efficiency image generation and editing, optimized for speed and high-volume use cases”	Stable

Google AI Pro costs $19.99 a month and Google AI Ultra starts at $99.99 (plans). Building a game in Canvas, Build mode or Antigravity falls under those plans, not under API prices.

If your game calls the Gemini API, 3.8 Flash has a free tier. On the paid tier it costs $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens through December 31, 2026, then $1.50 and $7.50. Nano Banana 2 has no free API tier and costs $0.067 per 1K image (API pricing). For making sprites and textures, see game assets with AI.

Keep building

• Cursor game development and make games with ChatGPT: the same question for two other tools.
• Claude Code vs Codex for game development and best AI for game development: the coding agents side by side.
• Best AI game makers: seven tools by type and price.
• How to make a game with AI and vibe coding a game: the tool-neutral basics.
• Hubs: Google games, Three.js games and the Vibe Jam 2026 archive.