Google made a video game that lets you build video games

Now you can make video games by playing a video game

Google has created a video game called Game Builder that allows you to craft simple Minecraft-style games for yourself and others to play through. The game lets you drag and drop characters and scenery into an empty sandbox to construct your world, then use preset commands to string together how things interact. It’s free to play and available on both Windows and macOS.

The game comes from Area 120, Google’s incubator for experimental projects (some of which have quickly disappeared, others of which have made their way into other Google products). Game Builder has actually been available through Steam since November 1st last year (it already has 190 reviews, with a “very positive” score), but Google only publicized it today, which is certain to get a lot more people playing.

Game Builder has a co-op mode, so multiple people can build a game together at once. You can also share your creations and browse through the games made by others.

While the whole idea of the game is to let people start designing without having any expertise in coding, the game does allow people to get more advanced as their interest grows. The interaction system works with “if this then that” logic and players can craft their own interactions with JavaScript if they’re familiar with it.