Rompemuros

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 brick breaker game with a paddle and a ball for the browser, with original art.

- The paddle moves along the bottom and the ball bounces off the walls, ceiling, paddle and bricks. The bounce angle depends on where it hits the paddle: straight up in the center, diagonal near the edges.
- Normal bricks (1 hit), tough bricks (2 hits, they change color) and unbreakable ones.
- Sometimes a power-up drops that lasts 10 seconds: wider paddle, 3 balls or slow ball.
- 3 lives and 8 levels; the ball gets a bit faster each level. Make sure a fast ball never goes through a brick.
- Screens: title, the game with level/lives/score, level cleared, game over and final victory.
- Controls: mouse or arrow keys on desktop; drag your finger 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 "Rompemuros".

La idea: el clásico de romper ladrillos con una paleta y una pelota, con arte original.

Mecánica:
- La paleta se mueve abajo. La pelota rebota en las paredes, en el techo, en la paleta y en los ladrillos.
- El ángulo del rebote depende de en qué parte de la paleta pega: en el centro sale recta, en los bordes sale en diagonal.
- Hay ladrillos normales (1 golpe), duros (2 golpes, cambian de color al primero) e irrompibles.
- A veces un ladrillo roto suelta una mejora que cae: paleta más ancha, multibola (3 pelotas) o pelota lenta. Si la atrapas con la paleta, se activa por 10 segundos.
- 3 vidas. Pierdes una si todas las pelotas caen por abajo.
- 8 niveles con distintas formas de muro. La pelota va un poco más rápida en cada nivel.

Pantallas: título con Jugar; el juego con HUD (nivel, vidas, puntaje); nivel superado; fin con reintentar; y victoria final.

Controles: en PC, mouse o flechas para mover la paleta, y Espacio o clic para lanzar la pelota. En celular, arrastrar el dedo en cualquier parte de la pantalla mueve la paleta, y tocar lanza la pelota.

Estilo: estilo neón sobre fondo azul noche, ladrillos con brillo, estela detrás de la pelota, partículas al romper y una sacudida leve de pantalla al perder una vida.

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 long a level should last (for example 60-90 seconds). Without that, on a phone held upright a level takes 3 to 5 minutes.
• Say what happens when multiball ends: which ball do you keep?
• Ask it to check that a fast ball never goes through bricks: it's the classic bug of this game.

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

• Cámbialo a gatos: que la pelota sea un ovillo de lana y la paleta una pata de gato, sin tocar la mecánica ni la dificultad.
• 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