Your first game, in four messagesRead the guide
Creator Academy · Lesson 3
Let Scotty develop your idea
Three words and two taps was enough to reach a game with a real twist. Here is how to use that.
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Scotty fills in what you didn't say, so a thin idea arrives already shaped — sometimes flagging a value as its own pick, though not every filled row is flagged. Ask for a twist and it tends to answer with directions rather than a single idea. In the session below it offered four — the mechanic, the reward, the world, or how it ends — and picking one landed it in the sketchpad.
Three words, two taps
A real session. The only thing typed was "a fishing game".
Scotty shapes it before you say anything else
Idea, what-you-do and vibe all came back filled. The verbs row arrived as exactly that — three verbs — cast, wait, reel — and the vibe, "peaceful and meditative", was marked as Scotty's own pick.
Tap "Ask Scotty for a twist"
It sits on the Twist row of the sketchpad. Tapping it sends "Give me a twist" for you — no typing.
Scotty answered with directions, not one idea
It proposed an inversion — the fish pulling you toward the water — then asked whether the twist should come from the catch, the setting, or the way the game ends instead. Four directions, in this session; the reply is free-form, so treat the shape as an example rather than a menu you can count on.
Pick one and it lands
One tap on "something unexpected in the catch" and the Twist row filled in: each catch is unexpected — fish, objects, or creatures. Complete concept, nothing typed after the first three words.
Where a twist can come from
The four it offered in this session, and what each one changes.
- Mechanic
- the fish pull you toward the water instead
- Reward
- something unexpected in the catch
- World
- the setting or world around you
- Ending
- how the game ends or scores
Every great game started as a doodle someone refused to throw away.
- Mechanic
Invert the verb. The sharpest of the four, and the one people never think of: keep the activity and reverse who is doing it to whom.
- Reward
Change what you get. The loop stays identical; the payoff stops being predictable. Cheapest to build, because nothing about the controls changes.
- World
Move it somewhere strange. The same verbs somewhere unexpected — a rooftop, a dream, a flooded office — read as a different game entirely.
- Ending
Change how it ends. What you are scored on decides what players actually do. Change the win condition and you change the whole game without touching a single control.
Three ways to give Scotty room
Did I leave anything deliberately open?
A row you don't fill is a row Scotty fills. It sometimes flags one as its own pick, but not every filled row carries a marker — so read the values, not just the labels. Leaving the vibe open cost nothing and produced something usable.
Have I asked for a twist before I've settled?
The twist button is most useful while rows are still soft. Once everything is decided, a twist has to fight the rest of the sketch.
Did I say no to the first suggestion?
The four directions are offered together for a reason. Rejecting the obvious one is usually how you find the game you actually wanted.
When your idea hits an edge
Six requests that don't fit — each with the version that does, and is usually the more interesting game anyway.
- Can’t
Two players moving at the same time, on one screen or online.
Ask forA turn-based version of the same idea, plus a single-player mode against the computer.
Online play is turn-based only — players alternating moves. One signed-in player starts a match and shares a code, and the second seat only works once the game is published.
- Can’t
A friends-only leaderboard, a custom score screen, or name entry.
Ask forA score worth chasing, and a run that ends cleanly enough to post one.
Makermint owns the board and the identity on it. It ranks highest-first, so a fastest-time game needs a score that goes up. The board goes live when you publish — it isn't playable while you're still building.
- Can’t
Tilt controls, motion controls, or a game controller.
Ask forControls that work with a thumb — taps, drags, and an on-screen stick.
Published games don't get a phone's sensors, and no generated game wires a controller. A design that quietly assumes a keyboard won't be playable on a phone.
- Can’t
A specific song, a licensed track, or a recognisable voice.
Ask forA mood — tense, cosy, frantic, triumphant — and a sound on every action that matters.
Nothing in the audio palette is chosen by name. Describe the feeling and the music is matched to it.
- Can’t
An interactive tutorial or a guided first level.
Ask forA How to Play screen, plus an easier opening level.
How to Play is one screen carrying the objective and the controls. Pairing it with a gentle first level does the job people want a tutorial for.
- Can’t
Deleting art you're unsure about, so you can try something else.
Ask forThe change itself — a recolour, a redraw, a resize, new animation frames.
Scotty cannot bring the original back — it can only make you something new. Version History can: restoring a version from before the removal recovers the artwork, at the cost of rewinding everything you did after it. Editing stays the cheap move.
A refusal is a redirect. Hand over the goal instead of the mechanism. "A leaderboard where only my friends show up" gets a no; "I want players to have a reason to beat their best run" gets a working board and a game built around chasing it.
Put it to use
That's the series — your first game, reading the sketchpad, and developing the idea itself. The Creator Academy covers prompting, design and publishing more broadly.
The fastest way to test any of it: type three words and ask for a twist.
Frequently asked questions
It sits on the Twist row of the sketchpad and sends the message "Give me a twist" for you. What comes back is an ordinary reply, not a fixed menu — in the session on this page it suggested one twist and offered several directions to choose from instead.
No. In the session described here the only thing typed was "a fishing game", and the idea, the mechanic and the vibe all came back filled in — with Scotty's own choices marked as its picks so you can see what was guessed.
Say so, or pick one of the other directions it offers. The suggestions are options, not decisions — nothing is committed until you choose to build.
Yes. It is most useful early, while rows are still open — once everything else is settled, a new twist has to fight the rest of the sketch.
Scotty says so plainly and offers the nearest version that works — turn-based instead of real-time play, a mood instead of a named song. The six most common cases are on this page.
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