Patita Firme

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.

haz otro juego de tower defense con animalitos como protagonistas como gatos perros loritos etc etc

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.

• The prompt was short on purpose; the session added the site standard (leaderboard, flag, bridge, test bench). In a tower defense, ask from the start for the balance to be tested with bots: here a bot using a single animal can't beat the last map, and one that mixes wins 18 of 20 levels.
• Ask for a fixed simulation step separate from drawing: then 2x is just two steps per frame, and the game plays the same at 30 and at 144 frames per second.
• If you want a specific visual style (isometric view, lighting, shadows), say it in the first prompt: changing it later means redrawing every sprite.

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

• que sea lo mas bonito posible en cuestion de arte, trata de buscar filtros o algo que se vea mas como un fake 3D top down o isometrico o algo asi pero que la calidad visual sea mucho mejor

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