From Decrypt · By Jose Antonio Lanz
In brief
Google launched Playground on Oct. 7, a browser-based tool where U.S. adults describe a game in plain language and get a playable, shareable version, with creation access tiered by Google AI subscription.
Google's announcement did not name the AI models behind Playground or give pricing, and it calls the tool "an early experiment."
Unity Spark, a more advanced tool with 3D graphics and professional-level mechanics, will plug into Playground; Google and Unity say it arrives later this year.
Google launched Playground on Wednesday, a web platform where anyone can describe a game in plain language and get a playable version back without writing code. Users then refine the result by chatting, asking for different physics, rules, characters or settings, and can share it with a link, per Google.
“Today, we’re introducing Playground, an experimental gaming platform that lets you create, play, and share custom games,” Google wrote. “Playground lowers the barriers to creation, so bringing game ideas to life can now be as easy as describing it through a few prompts—no coding experience required.”
Myriad: Which company will have the best AI model? Click to make your prediction.
Playground is live for U.S. users 18 and older, with tiered creation access rolling out based on a user's Google AI subscription. Google's announcement did not include prices or say which AI models power the tool.
Games run in a web browser on phones and laptops. Creators can keep them private or publish them to a community gallery, where every game goes through a safety screening, and some genres support leaderboards and multiplayer.
Google calls Playground "an early experiment designed to make game creation more approachable." It preaches the gospel of vibe coding. "If you can think it, you can play it."
That said, Playground goes beyond the simple things you can do vibe coding on your Google Gemini session. It seems to be capable of using some of the same tools and resources that experienced game makers use in their daily jobs.
The upgrade path runs through Unity Spark, which Google says Playground will soon integrate for creators who want professional-level mechanics and high-fidelity 3D. Unity makes a game engine, the software toolkit studios build games with, and its then-CEO predicted in 2023 that generative AI would cut the time needed to build game worlds by five to ten times.
DeepMind, Google's AI research lab, unveiled Genie in 2024, a model trained on more than 200,000 hours of gameplay video that could turn an image or text prompt into a simple 2D platformer. It had 11 billion parameters, the adjustable values where an AI stores what it learned.
In January, Google opened Project Genie to AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S., built on Genie 3, a so-called world model that generates an interactive world in real time as you move through it. Sessions were capped at 60 seconds, and Google warned that worlds might not follow prompts or real-world physics.