first-game.md

Make your first game

Start small: one screen, one enemy, one way to win. Get it playable before adding more art and levels.

Install the kit

You'll need Docker running, Git, CMake, Python 3.11+, a host C compiler and a C++20 compiler. On macOS, install Homebrew LLVM if Apple's compiler is too old.

git clone https://github.com/codebase/amiga-game-kit.git
cd amiga-game-kit
tools/setup
export PATH="$PWD/tools:$PATH"
agk doctor
agk new ~/games/mygame
cd ~/games/mygame

No Kickstart ROM? Set these two lines in the new game's agk.toml to use the free AROS profile installed by setup:

profile = "a500-aros"
test_profiles = ["a500-aros"]

If you own a supported Kickstart ROM, put it in the kit's roms/ directory and choose the matching profile instead. agk doctor shows what's available.

Give your coding agent a game to make

Open ~/games/mygame in your coding agent. The project includes AGENTS.md and an MCP configuration; enable that server if your client supports it. The same tools work from the command line.

Try this prompt:

Read AGENTS.md and make a one-screen Commodore Amiga arena shooter. You're a little combat robot defending a reactor from drones. Give it chunky pixel art, a copper-gradient background, animated enemies and punchy sound effects. Use joystick movement and fire, with a score, three lives and restart after death. Keep it within the selected machine profile. Build it, inspect gameplay screenshots, and test movement, collisions, restart and frame timing before calling it done.

Build, test, play

agk unit
agk build
agk test --update              # inspect these first baseline screenshots
agk test                       # compare subsequent runs with the baseline
agk run -s "press right 20" -s "screenshot moved"
agk play

agk play needs FS-UAE. On macOS: brew install --cask fs-uae-emulator. It configures arrow keys and Space as a joystick. The bootable game disk is build/mygame.adf.

Only update screenshot baselines when the new pictures are intentional. Ask your agent to compare repeated runs and a fresh boot (agk run --fresh) too.

For a bigger machine and more colors, see the A1200 / AGA guide. For working examples, browse the demos and small technique projects.