Dulce Fila

Ask for it like this

Copy this prompt, paste it into Claude or ChatGPT, and that's it. It's the short version: the minimum for the game to come out playable.

Make me a match-3 candy game for the browser, in the style of the candy games, with original art.

- 8x8 board with 6 different candies, each with its own shape and color.
- I swap two neighboring candies; if they make 3 or more in a row they disappear, the ones above fall and new ones come in. If they don't make anything, they go back.
- Matching 4 in a row creates a candy that clears its row or column; matching 5 creates a bomb that clears every candy of one color.
- 10 levels, each with a target score and a number of moves. The board never starts with matches already made and always has a possible move.
- Screens: title, level map, the game with level/target/moves/score, level cleared and out of moves.
- Controls: click two neighbors or drag on desktop; tap or swipe on mobile.
Technical: a single HTML file with the CSS and JavaScript inside, no libraries and no external images, everything drawn on canvas. It should fill the window and be playable with a finger on a phone and with keyboard or mouse on a computer.

Getting it as an HTML file

A game like this is a single file you open with a double click. These four steps are the same in any AI.

1. 1. Ask for the whole file

   Add this line at the end of your prompt: Give me a single, complete HTML file, nothing cut out, ready to save as index.html and open in the browser. Without it, you often get the code in pieces.

2. 2. Copy all of the code

   In Claude the game shows up on the side, already running, with a button to copy or download it. In ChatGPT, copy the whole code block: it has to start with <!DOCTYPE html> and end with </html>.

3. 3. Save it as index.html

   Paste it into Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit in plain text mode (Mac) and save it as index.html. Watch out for .txt: if the file ends up as index.html.txt, it won't open as a page.

4. 4. Double-click to open it

   It opens in your browser and it's ready to play, with nothing to install and no internet needed. To share it, upload it to any web host or send it by email: it's just one file.

If the game shows up blank, go back to the AI and paste the error from the browser console (right click → Inspect → Console). With that text it fixes it fast.

The full prompt, the one actually used

Longer and more specific: numbers, screens and style details. It's the one that produced exactly this game, unedited. Use it if you want to fine-tune the result.

Diego wrote it in Spanish and it stays in Spanish on purpose: it's the honest record of how the game was made, and a translation would be a prompt nobody used. Claude and ChatGPT understand it as is; add "Answer in English" if you want the game's text in English.

Hazme un juego de navegador llamado "Dulce Fila".

La idea: un juego de combinar 3 dulces iguales en un tablero, al estilo de los juegos de caramelos para celular, pero con arte original y sin marcas.

Mecánica:
- Tablero de 8 x 8 con 6 tipos de dulce, cada uno con color y forma distintos (para que se distingan también sin ver el color).
- Intercambias dos dulces vecinos. Si se forma una fila o columna de 3 o más iguales, desaparecen, los de arriba caen y entran nuevos por arriba. Las cascadas encadenadas multiplican el puntaje.
- Si el intercambio no forma nada, los dulces vuelven a su lugar.
- Juntar 4 en línea crea un dulce rayado que borra toda su fila o columna. Juntar 5 crea una bomba de color que borra todos los dulces de un color.
- 10 niveles. Cada uno tiene un puntaje objetivo y un número de movimientos. Ganas si llegas al objetivo antes de quedarte sin movimientos. De 1 a 3 estrellas.
- Si no quedan jugadas posibles, el tablero se mezcla solo.
- Si el jugador no hace nada por 5 segundos, una jugada posible parpadea como pista.

Pantallas: título con Jugar; mapa de niveles (los siguientes se desbloquean al ganar); el juego con HUD (nivel, objetivo, movimientos, puntaje); nivel superado con estrellas; y sin movimientos, con reintentar.

Controles: en PC, clic en un dulce y luego en uno vecino, o arrastrar. En celular, tocar dos vecinos o deslizar un dulce hacia el vecino.

Estilo: colores de caramelo sobre un fondo rosado suave, dulces con brillo, animaciones de caída con rebote, destellos al combinar y un número de puntaje que sube flotando.

Técnico:
- Un solo archivo HTML con todo el CSS y el JavaScript dentro. Sin librerías, sin CDN, sin imágenes externas: todo dibujado en canvas.
- Tiene que llenar la ventana y adaptarse a cualquier tamaño, de celular a pantalla grande, sin deformarse.
- Tiene que jugarse completo desde celular (solo con el dedo) y desde PC (teclado o mouse).
- Tiene que funcionar dentro de un iframe con sandbox="allow-scripts". El récord va en localStorage dentro de try/catch para que el juego no se rompa si no hay acceso.
- Se pausa solo cuando la pestaña no está visible.
- El texto del juego va en español.

For ChatGPT, add the line from step 1 at the end: it tends to hand over the code in pieces.

What this prompt was missing

What became clear once the game was finished. If you're making your own from this one, add these from the start: fixing things later costs another round.

• Say how 2 and 3 stars are earned (moves left over, extra points): the prompt asked for stars but not for their rule.
• Ask for the board to use the full height on a phone held upright; otherwise there is dead space above and below.
• Ask that every level can be won by playing well, and that it checks this with a bot before handing it over.

What was asked after the first result, in Diego's own words (Spanish):

• Que los dulces se distingan por su forma, no solo por el color, y que el rayado y la bomba se entiendan de un vistazo.
• Agrégale un menú de pausa, un botón para cambiar entre español e inglés, y que el récord no se pierda al recargar.

It works in any AI

Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot: the prompt is the same and so is the method. What changes is where you see the result. Four things that hold in all of them:

1. Ask for a single file

   "A single HTML file with everything inside, no libraries or CDN." That way the game works with a double click, with nothing to install, and you can upload it to any website.

2. Ask it to tell you what it assumed

   End with: "before writing the code, tell me in 5 lines what you assumed". That's where the gaps in your prompt show up, while fixing them is still cheap.

3. One fix per message

   Say what happens and what you expected. If you ask for three changes at once, one usually undoes another.

4. Ask it to test, not to promise

   "Check that every level can be won and tell me how you checked." That's how the games on this page found their bugs before going live.

The 6 parts of a good prompt, with a template to copy