01 Play one now

Fourteen real games. All made in NutHouse.

Every one of these is a normal NutHouse game, exported as a single web page. Use the arrow keys, Space to jump, fire or open doors. On a phone or iPad, touch buttons appear. Then open it in NutHouse and change the rules, or play them all in the Arcade with high scores and stars.

Made in NutHouseChocobreak←→SpaceOpen full size

02 How it works

Draw. Build. Rules. Play.

Four steps, and you have a game. NutHouse copies the way the classic game makers worked, so the ideas you learn are real programming ideas: conditions, actions, values and loops.

1

Draw your sprites

Pixel by pixel in the sprite editor, or pick from 103 ready-made characters, animals, enemies, coins, vehicles and tiles. Give them animations: walking, jumping, exploding.

2

Build your levels

Drag sprites onto the level. Pick a background, set gravity, make walls solid, jump-through or ladders. Make it bigger than the screen so it scrolls, or paint a 3D maze. Add as many levels as you like.

3

Write the rules

Rules read like sentences: When the Ball collides with a Brick, destroy the Brick and bounce the Ball. Pick them from a grid. No typing, no syntax errors.

4

Press Play

Your game runs right away. Change a rule, press Play again. Everything can be undone with ⌘Z.

Sprite editor: Hero

03 The real editor

These are real screens, not mock-ups.

Every picture here was taken from NutHouse itself. What you see is what you get, in light and dark.

The Levels tab showing two levels of Coin Quest as thumbnails — **Every level at a glance.** Live thumbnails, with size, object count and rule count. Add, duplicate, reorder, delete. All undoable.

The level editor with the hero selected and its properties on the right — **Drag, drop, snap.** Select a sprite and set how it moves: arrow keys, platform, bouncing ball, patrol, chase, racing car, first-person, path or mouse. 15 built-in backgrounds, or use your own picture. Layers keep big levels tidy.

The event grid: rows are rules, columns are objects, ticks are actions — **The event grid.** Each row is a rule. Each column is a thing in your game. A tick means “do something here”. It is the same idea the classic game makers used, and it still works brilliantly.

The same rules shown as When … Do … sentences — **Or read them as sentences.** Switch to List view and every rule reads as “When … Do …”. Great for checking your game makes sense.

Sprite editor: Hero

Pixel art, properly. Pencil, eraser, line, box, circle, fill, colour picker. A 32-colour palette. Animations with frames, speed and a facing compass. Flip, turn, resize, import a picture or a sprite sheet.

The condition picker listing what can happen to the Ball — **Pick, don’t type.** Choose what the rule is about, then what has to happen. Search for “collides”, “key” or “timer”. One-off triggers are marked in red so you learn the difference.

The formula helper with objects, game values and functions — **Formulas, when you are ready.** In Advanced and Expert mode, any number can be a formula like `10 + Speed("Ball") * 2`. The ƒx helper shows every object, value and function with an example.

The object library with characters to add — **103 ready-made objects.** Heroes, animals, slimes, ghosts, zombies, coins, gems, spaceships, cars, rockets, keys, doors, scenery and tiles, all drawn in NutHouse’s own pixel style. Search by name or by what it does, keep favourites in My library, or draw your own from scratch.

The 3D map editor: walls and doors painted on a grid, sprites placed in the rooms — **Paint a maze, walk inside it.** Press **+ 3D level**, paint walls and doors on a grid, drop in crystals and ghosts. Play it in first person: ↑↓ walk, ←→ turn, Space opens doors.

Treetop Trek playing: the hero next to a ladder, coins above, hearts for lives — **Levels bigger than the screen.** The screen follows your hero across a long level. Climb ladders, hear the music, press P to pause. Score and lives stay put in the corner.

04 Go bigger

3D mazes. Scrolling worlds. Two players.

NutHouse started with bat-and-ball and platform games. It now does the whole 1990s game-maker box of tricks, and the ideas are still the same: sprites, levels and rules.

Crystal Maze 3D in first person: stone walls and a wooden door ahead — **3D levels.** Paint a maze on a grid and walk through it in first person. Doors slide open, locked doors need a key, ghosts chase you round corners.

The object library searched for “enemy”: bat, bee, blob alien, drone, ghost, skeleton, slime and more — **A library you can search.** Type “enemy” and every baddie turns up, each with a movement already picked. Star the ones you love and they follow you into every game.

Scrolling levels

Make a level wider or taller than the screen and the screen follows your hero. Backgrounds repeat along as you go.

Two players

One keyboard, two sets of keys, two scores, two lives. Race a friend or team up.

Teach me

Press Teach me while playing. When two sprites touch and no rule says what should happen, NutHouse stops and asks you, then writes the rule.

Saving and high scores

Rules that save the game and load it back. A high score table that asks for your name.

Ladders, music, pause

Climb ladders in platform games, loop a tune, pause with a key, fade levels in and out.

Questions, text boxes, buttons

Ask a question with answers to pick, let the player type a name, tick a box. Enough to build a quiz before tea.

See all of it on the features page

05 Rules you can read

If you can say it, you can build it.

A NutHouse rule has two halves. When something happens, do something about it. That is the whole trick, and it is the same trick inside every game ever made.

WhenBallcollides withBrick

DoDestroy BrickBounce BallAdd 10 to score

92 things a rule can wait for. 129 things it can do. Mix them any way you like.

See every condition and action

Hazel the squirrel pointing at a glowing rule card: a ball hits a brick, then the brick shatters

06 Grows with you

Start simple. Switch on more when you are ready.

Three modes change how much NutHouse shows you. Nothing you make is ever hidden; the modes only trim the menus.

MODE 1

Simple

Just the main pieces. Great for starting out.

Sprites, blocks, score, lives, text, timers, buttons, questions, high scores and spawners. The rules that matter: collisions, key presses, leaving the screen, timers, music, pause, scrolling, two players.

MODE 2

Advanced

More events, movements and objects.

Counters, health bars and text boxes. Racing cars, first-person 3D, paths, follow-the-mouse. Compare positions, speeds and animations. Saving, global values, shake the screen.

MODE 3

Expert

Everything: formulas, values, switches and groups.

Every object gets its own values and switches. Group rules and turn them on and off. Write formulas with Random, Distance and friends.

0

ready-made objectsin 13 categories, plus 13 kinds of thing to make

0

ways to movearrow keys, platform, bouncing ball, patrol, chase, car, first-person, path, mouse, still

0

conditions and actions92 things to wait for, 129 things to do

0

sample games2D and 3D, with every rule to read, plus the 30-step tutorial

Hazel the squirrel in a graduation cap teaching Chocobreak on a chalkboard

07 Learn by making

Make Chocobreak in 20 minutes.

The built-in tutorial walks you through a whole bat-and-ball game, one step at a time. A spotlight shows exactly what to click. Stuck? Press Do it for me, watch it happen, then press ⌘Z and try it yourself.

30 short steps, each one a real part of the game
Hints when you want them, never nagging
Every rule explained in words a 10-year-old can read
It ends with “You made a game! 🎉” and a Share button

1Let's make Chocobreak!2This is your level3Add a paddle4Move it to the bottom5How does it move?6Try it!7Add the ball8Put the ball above the paddle9Speed up the ball10Add a brick11Build a wall12What happens now?13Rules make the game14When the ball hits a brick…15…smash the brick16…and bounce the ball17Test your first rule18Bounce off the paddle19Keep the ball on the screen20Keep the paddle on the screen21Keep score22Points for every brick23Three lives24Losing a life25Game over26A message for winners27Winning!28Play your game!29Save it30You made a game! 🎉1Let's make Chocobreak!2This is your level3Add a paddle4Move it to the bottom5How does it move?6Try it!7Add the ball8Put the ball above the paddle9Speed up the ball10Add a brick11Build a wall12What happens now?13Rules make the game14When the ball hits a brick…15…smash the brick16…and bounce the ball17Test your first rule18Bounce off the paddle19Keep the ball on the screen20Keep the paddle on the screen21Keep score22Points for every brick23Three lives24Losing a life25Game over26A message for winners27Winning!28Play your game!29Save it30You made a game! 🎉

Make Chocobreak · Step 3 of 30

The tutorial panel asks you to add a paddle while a spotlight circles the Add object button

08 Share it

One file. Send it to anyone.

Press Share… and NutHouse makes a single web page with your whole game inside: the engine, the pictures, the sounds. It opens in Safari, Chrome, on a phone, on Grandad’s laptop. No internet, no app store, no account.

Plays from a double-click
Nothing to install for the person you send it to
Usually under half a megabyte

Hazel the squirrel tosses an acorn capsule with a tiny game inside across the meadow to a friend

For grown-ups

Why NutHouse exists.

Some of us learned to program by making games in the 1990s with tools like The Games Factory. The ideas were simple and the feedback was instant. NutHouse brings that back for a new generation, right in the browser, with original art.

Real programming ideas

Conditions and actions, values and comparisons, timers, counters, loops through groups of objects. Kids learn how programs are built without fighting a text editor.

Private by design

You can start making straight away with no account and no sign-in. A grown-up can choose to make an account later, and even then a game stays private until you share it. No adverts, no tracking scripts, no chat. Read the privacy page.

Hard to lose work

Autosave every 30 seconds and when you close the page. Undo and redo for everything, including deleting a level. The Welcome screen offers to get unsaved work back.

Nothing to install

It runs in any modern browser, on a laptop, a Chromebook or an iPad. Keyboard shortcuts, undo, and touch controls for tablets are all built in.

Original art only

Every sprite, background and sound in the library was drawn and synthesised for NutHouse. Use them in your games however you like.

Kid-friendly words

Levels, not frames. Sprites, not actives. Rules, not event sheets. Every hint is written for a reading age of about ten, in plain British English.

Get started

Free, and online.

NutHouse runs in your browser, so there is nothing to install. Open it, start with the Chocobreak tutorial, and make your first game in about twenty minutes.

Make Game

Works in Safari, Chrome, Edge and Firefox, on a computer, a Chromebook or an iPad.

Welcome to NutHouse

NutHouse's welcome screen: learn with the tutorial, start a new game, or open a sample

Questions

Things people ask.

What age is NutHouse for?

It was made for an eleven-year-old, and the words are kept at about a ten-year-old’s reading level. Younger children do well with a grown-up alongside. Simple mode hides the complicated parts until they are wanted.

Does it need the internet or an account?

It needs the internet, because NutHouse runs in your browser at app.playnuthouse.com. It does not need an account to start. A grown-up can make a free account so games are saved online, shared with a link, put in the gallery, or played with a friend over the internet.

Can we use our own pictures and sounds?

Yes. Import a picture or a whole sprite sheet into the sprite editor, use your own picture as a level background, and import your own sound files. There are 23 built-in sounds and tunes too.

Does it work on Windows, iPad or Chromebook?

Yes. The whole editor runs on anything with a modern browser, including Macs, Windows laptops, Chromebooks and iPads. Games you share are single web pages, so they play anywhere, and on a touch screen they show an arrow pad and buttons.

Where are my games saved?

Online in My games when a grown-up has made an account. Without one, Save keeps a .nuthouse file on your computer: plain JSON, easy to back up and keep forever. NutHouse also autosaves every 30 seconds in case something goes wrong.

Can we make a 3D game?

Yes. A 3D level is a maze you paint on a grid, then walk through in first person, like the corridor games of the 1990s. Doors, locked doors, keys and chasing ghosts all work. Try Crystal Maze 3D above.

Can two people play at once?

Yes. Tick Two players on one keyboard in the game settings. Player 2 gets their own keys, score and lives, and their own column in the rules.

Is the built-in art ours to use?

Yes. All the sprites, backgrounds and sounds were made for NutHouse. Use them in the games you make and share.

Stop wishing. Start making.

Open NutHouse, do the Chocobreak tutorial, and send your first game to someone before dinner.

Make Game Play the samples

Make your own games.For real.