FoundryInk Academy Academy / Making your work
Making your work

Build a playable game

FoundryInk isn't only for comics. The Game asset kind lets you build a playable 2D game, an arcade shooter, a puzzler, a platformer, or a full point-and-click adventure, that readers play right in the browser, no downloads and no code. Here's how one comes together.

Read time about 7 min

1Create a game, pick a genre

In the create wizard, choose the Game type ("A playable 2D game, arcade, puzzle, platformer, or adventure, online only"). Then Pick a starting point: start blank, or seed a ready-made game you can edit and play right away. The genre you choose shapes the toolset, arcade, puzzle, platformer, top-down, RPG, or point-and-click adventure (that last one has its own deeper tutorial). You also pick a Spatial mode here, how the world is drawn, which the next section covers.

The New asset step with the Game kind selected.
The New asset step with the Game kind selected.See the full screen
A seeded platformer game open in its editor, on the World 1-1 start scene.
A seeded platformer game open in its editor, on the World 1-1 start scene.See the full screen
Games are online only: they can't be printed or downloaded, they run only in the Player. So there's no trim size or PDF to worry about, just the game itself.
Pro note
Seed a template first, even if you'll gut it. Playing something on minute one teaches you the editor faster than a blank canvas ever will.

2Side-scroll, top-down, or isometric

A game has a Spatial mode, how its world is drawn, set in the create wizard and changeable later in the game's Settings. There are three. Side-scroll is a side-on world with gravity and jumping. Top-down is a bird's-eye world with free eight-direction movement and no gravity. Isometric is a three-quarter diamond world, where tiles and characters sit on an isometric grid with real depth, and you author the level flat, from above, while the game projects it into the diamond view for you.

Starting from a blank world is fine, but you do not have to. Open the Template packs tab and hit Download pack for your mode: you get a labelled spritesheet to paint your own art into and a ready-to-play level file to edit and re-import. The pack is a leg-up, not a requirement, the plain coloured-shape starter already plays.

The mode is separate from the genre: genre sets the kind of game, mode sets the camera and projection. And a useful honesty about Isometric: it is a true projection with real depth and picking, but underneath the world stays a flat plane, so movement and collision work the clean, gravity-free top-down way. It looks three-quarter and plays like a tidy top-down, which is exactly what you want for most iso games.
Pro note
Match the mode to the feeling: side-scroll for jump-and-run, top-down for exploration and shooters, isometric for a diorama look. You can switch later, but it reshapes how a level reads, so choose early.

3Build it: scenes, objects, rules

The game editor is organized into tabs. Scenes are your screens or levels; you set a start scene that the game opens on. Objects are the things in a scene, the player, enemies, pickups, platforms. Rules wire up behavior without code (what happens on a hit, a collect, a key press). Media holds your art and sound. You assemble the scene, then wire up behaviour with rules.

The game editor's row of tabs, open on Scenes, with World 1-1 as the start scene.
The game editor's row of tabs, open on Scenes, with World 1-1 as the start scene.See the full screen
The Rules tab: a rule with a When trigger and a Then action, and Add rule.
The Rules tab: a rule with a When trigger and a Then action, and Add rule.See the full screen
Pro note
Get one scene fully playable before you build ten. A single loop that feels good is worth more than a big empty world.

4Settings, and checking it works

In Settings you set the canvas (games default to a tidy 960 by 540) and the control scheme. The Validate tab is your pre-flight: it won't let a broken game go out. A game is publishable only once it has at least one scene and a start scene that points at a real scene, and Validate flags anything missing so you can fix it before readers ever see it.

The Validate tab reporting the game is structurally valid and ready to publish.
The Validate tab reporting the game is structurally valid and ready to publish.See the full screen
The Play tab, testing the game exactly as a reader will play it.
The Play tab, testing the game exactly as a reader will play it.See the full screen
Use the Play tab constantly. It runs your actual game in the editor so you can feel every change immediately, the tightest loop you'll have.
Pro note
Play-test after every rule. Games break in tiny ways, and catching it now beats a reader finding a dead end later.

5Publish and let people play

Publishing a game is like any asset: set access and pricing (free or paid), then publish. Because it's online-only, readers play it inline right on your public page, or open a full-screen play view. A free, published game can even headline your studio. And it's safe by design: the Player only ever interprets your authored data, it never runs code, so it plays in any reader's browser without a worry.

The game's Publish view, with the Play in feed toggle and the Publish button.
The game's Publish view, with the Play in feed toggle and the Publish button.See the full screen
Project Settings, Presentation: Pinned to project page, for one free, published asset.
Project Settings, Presentation: Pinned to project page, for one free, published asset.See the full screen
Pro note
A game readers can play in one click, with no install, is a strong hook. People share 'you have to try this' faster than almost anything.

Ship your first game

From idea to playable. Links into the app. Saved on this device.

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Quick questions

No. Games are built with scenes, objects, and no-code rules. You wire up behavior with the Rules tab, not a programming language.

No. Games are online-only and play in the browser, inline on your page or in a full-screen play view. There's no download, print, or file to install, which also means no piracy of a game file.

The Validate tab. A game needs at least one scene and a start scene that points at a real scene; validation flags anything missing before you can publish.

Games default to 960 by 540, adjustable in the Settings tab. There's no print trim, since a game is never printed.

Whatever fits your idea: arcade, puzzle, platformer, top-down, RPG, or point-and-click adventure. Adventure unlocks an extra story-and-rooms toolset and has its own tutorial.

A playable game, start to finish

Scenes, objects, rules, and a game readers play in a click. Want a story-driven one? Build a point-and-click adventure next.

Point-and-click adventures →