How to Make a Game From a Template: A Beginner's Path in 7 Steps
From picking a template to a game with your name on it: the files you open, the changes that come first, and how to test, host or wrap it.
The fastest way to make a game as a beginner is to start from a finished one. Pick a game template, play its demo, read the manual, then change the texts, the art and the levels one file at a time, testing after each change, until the game is yours. After that you host the game folder on a website or wrap it as an app. No engine to learn first, no blank page.
This guide follows that path in seven steps, with real file names taken from our own templates' item pages and manuals, so you can see what "change the levels" looks like before you buy anything. It is written for people who have never shipped a game: a teacher, a marketer, a web developer trying games for the first time. Where a step needs Node.js or a code editor, we say so.
How to make a game from a template: the seven steps
- Pick a template that is close to the game you want.
- Play the demo until you know every screen.
- Read the manual and find the files it names.
- Change texts and languages.
- Change the art and the brand.
- Change levels, words or rules.
- Test, then host the game or wrap it as an app.
The order matters. Texts are the safest change, so you start there and learn how the files work. Rules come last because they can break a game in ways that take a while to notice.
Browse game templates to start from
Step 1: pick a template close to your idea
A template saves time only when you keep most of it. If you want a word game, start from a word game; turning a football game into a quiz is a rewrite, not a template job. Three questions narrow the choice.
- What does the player do? Tap pairs, trace words, aim shots, sort pieces. Pick the template whose core action matches.
- How will you change it? Some editions take most changes in one settings file; others are TypeScript projects you rebuild. The item page says which.
- Where will it run? Every one of our editions runs from a static website. Native apps and store publication are not included in any edition.
Prices in our store run from US$5 to US$59 at list price, and each item page has a live demo and a list called "Not included in this edition". Read that list as carefully as the features.
Step 2: play the demo like a tester
Play the demo for half an hour, not two minutes. Open every menu, finish a level, lose one, change the language, reload the page and check your progress is still there. Make a list of every screen and every piece of text you see. That list is your map for the next steps: each item on it lives somewhere in the files.
Also play it on a phone. If your players will use phones, the demo on a phone is the real test of the template, not the demo on your laptop.
Try the Tenguin demo, a number-pair puzzle
Step 3: open the package and read the manual
A template is a folder, not a program you install. In our packages you find the same parts, described on each item page:
- game/: the ready-to-host game, with index.html, artwork, audio and fonts. This is what goes online.
- Source: the readable code you edit. In some editions, such as Ricopop, the files in game/ are the source themselves, with no build step. In others, such as Gridspark, there is a separate source folder that you rebuild into game/.
- Documentation: an illustrated manual. Gridspark's covers installation, customisation, 20 FAQs and troubleshooting; Ricopop and Zabum also ship a START-HERE.txt.
- THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES: the notices for fonts and libraries. Our terms ask you to keep them with your product.
Read the manual's installation and customisation chapters before touching anything. They name the files, and each change below starts with one of those names.
Step 4: change texts and languages first
Texts teach you the file layout with little risk. Real examples from our item pages:
- Gridspark: interface text lives in src/locales.js.
- Pinloop, Trimora and Twirldrop: interface text is in i18n.ts, and brand.ts holds the game's name.
- Bodoku: text sits in the src/i18n dictionaries, and the page warns you to keep the interpolation placeholders intact.
- Golazo: texts are in the language dictionaries and teams in teams.js.
Placeholders are the trap. A line such as "Level {n} complete" needs the {n} to stay exactly as it is, in every language. Change the words around it, never the brackets.
Languages are part of the choice too. Most of our editions ship 14 interface languages; Letter River, Plop and Zabum ship 3. Removing a language is easier than adding one, and adding one means translating every line, not only the menu.
Step 5: change the art and the brand
The licence allows white label: you may replace the Polar Games name and logo with your own, and change the code, art and audio inside your product. How you do it depends on the edition.
- Tenguin: most settings live in one file, tenguin.config.js, next to index.html: title, logo path, accent colour, default language, rewards and prices. Edit a value, upload the file, reload. No build.
- Bodoku and Frogdoku: artwork is declared in src/art/manifest.ts.
- Pinloop: brand.ts holds the title, colours, the 30 targets and the 12 backdrops; sound and music sit in public/audio.
- Ricopop: music and effects are MP3 files you can swap, and ricopop.config.js controls the tap-to-start screen and the full-screen button.
Keep the same image size and format as the file you replace. A logo twice as wide as the original will push the menu around in ways the code did not expect.
See Pinloop and its brand.ts file
Step 6: change levels, words or rules
This is where your game stops looking like everyone else's copy. It is also where testing tools help most.
- Ricopop: the 50 levels are text maps in src/levels.js. The optional tool node tools/validate.mjs checks that every level can still be won after you edit a map.
- Letter River: words and clues are in source/words/en.js, pt.js and es.js, and puzzle generation is in source/js/levels.js. node test/check.js validates the word lists and the 80 levels per language.
- Deepforge: chambers, picks, balance and text are in source/src/data/chambers.ts.
- Gridspark: rule constants and the colour palette are in src/config.js, and the puzzle rules in game.js, board.js, generator.js and shapes.js.
Rules are the riskiest change. Move one number at a time, play three rounds, then move the next. If the game feels wrong, go back to your "original" copy and compare.
See Letter River, a word puzzle with editable word lists
Step 7: test, then host or wrap
Test on a local server, not by double-clicking
Several of our item pages say plainly that the game does not run from file://, the address you get by double-clicking index.html. Test through a local web server instead: many code editors have one, and Ricopop's optional developer tools include one. Editions written in TypeScript need Node.js to rebuild: Gridspark, for example, runs npm test and npm run build to copy the playable files into game/; Pinloop builds into dist/, which you copy into game/.
Host it
Upload the contents of game/ to any static HTTP(S) host. Our editions need no PHP and no database to play; Zabum and Ricopop have optional PHP leaderboards, off by default. Keep every folder next to index.html, as the manuals say.
Or wrap it as an app
Tools such as Capacitor put a web game inside an Android or iOS project. Capacitor's getting-started page asks for a folder of built web assets with an index.html at its root, adds the platforms with npx cap add android and npx cap add ios, and copies the files with npx cap sync. That is a step beyond a beginner's first week, and none of our editions include native builds or store publication; we quote that work separately.
- Every screen on your list from step 2 shows your texts and art.
- Progress survives a reload.
- The game works on a phone, in the orientation you expect.
- The THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES notices are still with the files.
- You can explain what you changed, file by file.
What the licence lets you do with your game
Each purchase gives a perpetual, non-exclusive licence for one end product, yours or one client's. Players may access it free of charge or through advertising monetisation. You may change the code, art and audio, and replace our name and logo. You may not resell or share the template, its code or its assets on their own, as a template, kit or asset pack. Support lasts 6 months, or 12 with the extension, and covers installing and using the supplied files and reproducible defects. Customisation and new features are separate services, quoted before any work.
FAQ
Can I make a game without knowing how to code?
You can change a lot without code: texts, colours, images and some settings live in plain files. Tenguin keeps most settings in one config file. Changing rules or levels in a TypeScript edition needs basic code reading and Node.js to rebuild.
What do I need installed?
A code editor and a browser are enough for editions with no build step, such as Ricopop and Golazo. Editions in TypeScript need Node.js and npm to rebuild; each item page names the version.
Can I sell or publish the game I made from a template?
You can publish it as one end product, for you or one client, free to play or with ads. You cannot resell the template or its code on its own. For paid apps or in-app purchases, ask us first.
Why does my game show a blank page when I open index.html?
Usually because it was opened from file://. Run it from a local web server or upload it to a host, as the manuals describe.
How long does it take?
It depends on how much you change. Texts and a logo can be a day; new levels, art and rules take longer. Start with texts, publish a test version, and add the rest in rounds.
Start with one game
Pick one template, play its demo for half an hour and read its manual's customisation chapter. If the files it names look like something you can change, you have found your starting point. If you would rather have us make the changes, send the template and your list, and we reply with a quote.