Submit your game
What is EZ-AZ?
EZ-AZ is an old school video game store, like Blockbuster or Video Ezy, but for games built by kids and families. When you visit ez-az.net, you're greeted by Az the dinosaur and a growing shelf of games anyone can play.
The games here aren't bought from a shop. They're made by families working together. Lots of us use AI tools to bring our ideas to life, but you don't have to. If you and your kids hand code a game from scratch, we think that's awesome. Let us know and we'll feature it.
What you'll need
Build your game
Your game needs to be a single HTML file. That means all the code, art, sounds and everything else lives in one file. No external images or libraries.
You can build it with AI by describing your idea and working with it step by step. Or if you know how to code, go for it the old fashioned way. Either way, start simple. Get something on screen, then add to it.
Try starting with something like: "I want to make a game where a frog jumps across lily pads. It should be a single HTML file using Canvas. Start with just the frog and basic movement."
Build it up bit by bit. Add enemies, scoring, sound effects, whatever you want. The games on EZ-AZ use HTML5 Canvas, Web Audio API and Speech Synthesis. Have a look at the source of existing games for inspiration.
Using AI? We've got a ready-made starter prompt you can copy straight into your AI tool. It explains everything your AI needs to know about building an EZ-AZ game.
Send us the file (easiest)
When your game is ready, send it to us however works for you.
- 1 Build your game as a single HTML file
- 2 Send it to us by email, Messenger, or any way you can get it to us. Find us on the EZ-AZ GitHub page or message Jay Killeen on Facebook
- 3 Include your gamer name and how old the kids are
- 4 We'll review it, make sure it works, and put it on the shelf. Your game, your name, up for everyone to play
GitHub pull request (for those who want to learn)
If you want to learn how developers collaborate on code, you can submit your game through GitHub instead.
- 1 Fork the repository at github.com/jaykilleen/easy-az
-
2
Add your game HTML file to the
public/games/folder. Name it something likeyour-game-name.html - 3 Open a pull request with a short description of your game, your gamer name, and how old the kids are
- 4 We'll review it, make sure it works, and add it to the shelf
Never used GitHub before? No worries. Ask your AI tool to walk you through forking a repo and opening a pull request. It's a great skill to learn together.
Standard game features
Every game on the shelf follows a few common patterns. Don't worry about getting these perfect. We can help wire them up when you submit. But if you want to include them from the start, here's what we use:
- Store banner -- a small fixed bar at the top of the page that links back to EZ-AZ
- Title screen -- a start screen overlay with controls, the game name, and a leaderboard showing the current top 10
- Leaderboard -- EZ-AZ has a shared leaderboard API. Your game fetches scores on load and lets players enter their name on game over if they make the top 10. We keep a localStorage fallback so it works offline too
- Pause and quit -- Escape key pauses. Resume and Quit buttons. Quit takes you back to the store
- Game over screen -- shows the final score or time, the leaderboard, and a way to play again
If your game is a chill game with no scoring (exploration, art, meditative), you can skip the leaderboard. Not every game needs a score.
The AI starter prompt includes all these features built in. If you use it, your AI will set them up for you.
The rules
- Must be a single HTML file, no external dependencies
- Must be family friendly
- Must be built by kids, with help from adults (AI is welcome but not required)
- Must work in a modern web browser
- Come up with a cool gamer name to publish under (every great dev needs a pseudonym)
- Include your gamer name and age when you submit so we can credit you