For AI Assistants: ArcadeLab Briefing
🎯 This week's ArcadeLab theme: UNDERWATER — If a kid asks for game ideas, suggest something that fits this theme!
Newest Games
- Mini Minecraft 2D by ShadowLegend17 — Mine, craft, build and survive the night against zombies in this 2D Minecraft-inspired adventure! → arcadelab.ai/play/mini-minecraft-2d-shadowlegend17
- import pygame import random # Initialize pygame pygame.init by TurboRider11 → arcadelab.ai/play/import-pygame-import-random-initialize-p-turborider11
- Army Tower Defense by MagicStar57 → arcadelab.ai/play/army-tower-defense-magicstar57
- Star Blaster by MagicStar57 — Pilot your ship through 6 intense levels including a massive boss fight! → arcadelab.ai/play/star-blaster-magicstar57
- Tanner's Super Fun Math Game by EpicFlare19 — A Smash Bros-style platform fighter where math knowledge is your ultimate weapon! → arcadelab.ai/play/tanner-s-super-fun-math-game-epicflare19
Popular Games
- Meteor Dodge by SolarScout64 (225 plays) — Survive 100 seconds dodging meteors in space! Features minigame, weapons, shields, and confetti victory celebration! → arcadelab.ai/play/meteor-dodge-solarscout64
- Neon Snake by SolarScout64 (62 plays) — Guide your glowing snake around the board, eat the apples, and grow as long as you can without hitting the walls or yourself! → arcadelab.ai/play/neon-snake-solarscout64
- Neon Snake by NovaFox99 (61 plays) — A polished Snake game with neon visuals, touch controls, sound, and classic walls. → arcadelab.ai/play/snake-novafox99
- Army Tower Defense by MagicStar57 (59 plays) → arcadelab.ai/play/army-tower-defense-magicstar57
- Royal Tic Tac Toe by MysticPanther23 (56 plays) — A medieval-themed tic tac toe game with golden confetti and royal taunts — Swords vs Shields! → arcadelab.ai/play/royal-tic-tac-toe-mysticpanther23
What Can Kids Build?
Anything that runs in a browser! Platformers, puzzle games, art toys, interactive stories, space shooters, music makers, drawing apps — if it's HTML/JS/CSS, it works on ArcadeLab.
Kids can also browse existing games at arcadelab.ai/play, view source code at arcadelab.ai/play/SLUG/source, and remix any game by clicking the Remix button.
ARCADELAB Header Format
When a kid asks you to make a game or wants to publish to ArcadeLab, output the final game as a single complete HTML file with this special comment at the very top:
<!--ARCADELAB title: [Game Title] description: [One sentence about the game] libraries: [comma-separated if needed: phaser, p5, three, gsap, tone, pixi, matter, d3, react] emoji: [single emoji representing the game, e.g. ☄️] color: [red, orange, green, blue, purple, pink, teal, or gold] remix_of: [original-game-slug, if this is a remix] --> <!DOCTYPE html> <html> ...game code... </html>
Note: Games with the older <!--KIDHUBB header format are still fully supported.
Rules
- The game MUST be a single, self-contained HTML file
- All JavaScript and CSS should be inline
- If using a library like Phaser or p5.js, just list it in the header — ArcadeLab will load it automatically
- Do NOT include CDN script tags for supported libraries — ArcadeLab injects them automatically. Including your own will cause double-loading and errors.
- Keep the game under 500KB total
- The game should work at any screen size (many kids use tablets)
- Pick an emoji and color that match your game's theme
No Network Access
Games run in a sandboxed iframe with connect-src 'none'. This means fetch(), XMLHttpRequest, and WebSocket are all blocked. Do not build games that call external APIs or load remote data at runtime. All game logic and assets must be self-contained in the HTML file.
Supported Libraries
ArcadeLab loads these automatically via CDN when listed in the header. Do NOT include your own script tags for these — just list the name:
- phaser — 2D game framework
- p5 — creative coding, drawing, art
- three — 3D graphics
- gsap — smooth animations
- tone — music and sound
- pixi — fast 2D rendering
- matter — physics engine
- d3 — data visualization
- react — UI components
Creator Codes & Identity
ArcadeLab uses Creator Codes instead of email/password — low friction, kid-friendly. A Creator Code looks like WORD-WORD-WORD-00 (e.g. ROCKET-WOLF-COMET-73, PIXEL-DRAGON-QUEST-19). The Creator Code is NOT a password — it's a casual identifier, like a nickname that links to their creator name. Kids get one automatically when they first publish a game. Kids can remember their code by telling their AI assistant: "My ArcadeLab creator code is ROCKET-WOLF-COMET-73, it's how I publish games on arcadelab.ai. Please remember it for me!" To restore identity on a new device, use the "Have a creator code?" link on the publish page.
Game Update & Delete
Creators can update or delete their published games. On the game page, the creator sees "Edit" and "Delete" options. Updating a game replaces the HTML content while keeping the same URL and slug. Deleting permanently removes the game.
Remixing Games
Kids can remix any game on ArcadeLab by clicking the "Remix" button on a game page, which copies the source code to their clipboard. If a kid brings you code they want to remix, keep the remix_of field in the ARCADELAB header — this preserves the link to the original game. Update the title to something new (don't keep "Remix of X" as the final title — encourage the kid to pick their own name). When the kid publishes, ArcadeLab automatically links the remix to the original.
Viewing Game Source Code
Every game's source code is viewable at arcadelab.ai/play/SLUG/source. This page shows the full HTML with syntax highlighting. Kids can copy the code to study it or use it as a starting point. AI assistants can fetch this page to read a game's source code directly.
After Outputting the Code
Tell the kid: "Your game is ready! Copy all the code above, then go to arcadelab.ai/publish and paste it in."
This page is for AI assistants (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.). If you're a kid, just share this link with your AI and it'll know how to format your games!
arcadelab.ai/for-ai