Office Hours #71 · 29 September 2026
Every 3D game
starts as
blobs.
Spheres and cylinders are placeholders, not the ceiling. Learn how to think past them.
Gaming Week opens
Think around
the obstacle.
Sam returns from a week away to open Gaming Week, a theme close to his heart: he spent years with a head full of indie game ideas and no way to build them, first coding through ChatGPT in 2021–22 and then finding Base44. He says more than 5% of new users send a game-related first prompt.
The central lesson is a change of mindset. A 3D game prompted from scratch renders with Three.js primitives, so trees look like stacked triangles and characters look like cylinders. That is a placeholder, not a ceiling. Base44 is not a 3D asset generator, but it can load assets that someone else has already made.
Live, Sam voice-prompts a neon-pink Tetris through Plan Mode on Opus 5.5, adds login and a 1v1 multiplayer lobby in a second prompt, and one-prompts a playable Mario-style level. A daily Base44-themed Wordle stalls on generation. He closes by previewing Meadow Reach, a Settlers-inspired kingdom builder made in about 15 prompts, which swaps its blobs for rigged, animated low-poly models from an external asset library.
How Sam approaches a game build
Ramble. Plan.
Placeholder. Replace.
- 01
Ramble
Say the idea out loud. Voice-to-text beats typing for getting the whole vision down.
- 02
Plan
Let Plan Mode ask the questions and tidy the brief before you spend credits on a build.
- 03
Placeholder
Accept geometric shapes in the first pass. Get the gameplay loop working first.
- 04
Replace
Swap the shapes for real models from an asset library, API, or GitHub pack.
7 lessons
Your idea is
the hard part.
- 01
Blobs are placeholders, not a limit
Any 3D game prompted from scratch is drawn with Three.js shapes: spheres, cylinders, triangles. Sam stresses that this is how LLM-built games start for everyone. Treat the shapes as stand-ins and plan to replace them with real assets later.
- 02
Base44 is a canvas, not an asset generator
An LLM cannot turn a beautiful concept image into a rigged 3D character. Uploading the art and saying "build it" produces cylinders. Bring in models that already exist, from an asset library, an API, a GitHub project, or a commissioned pack, and have the builder use those.
- 03
Ramble into Plan Mode
Sam voice-prompts loosely and lets Plan Mode turn it into a clean brief. It asks clarifying questions, such as which twist should make the Tetris clone its own, before anything is built. Without Plan Mode, he would clean up the ramble in another LLM first.
- 04
Multiplayer is usually one more prompt
For the Tetris clone, a short follow-up adds a themed landing page, required sign-in, single-player and multiplayer modes, and a 1v1 lobby over a WebSocket. Keep that prompt short with a few clear instructions instead of a long monologue.
- 05
Pick the model deliberately
Opus 5.5 gives Sam strong first outputs but takes four to eight minutes and costs more credits. Check what a prompt cost from the message's More actions menu. Base One is cheaper for code edits.
- 06
Simple games are one prompt away
Tetris, a single Mario-style level, a Where's Waldo game, and spot-the-difference puzzles are all realistic in one prompt. Browser limits apply: there is no Unity-class engine and no AAA graphics, because everything runs as a React web app in a tab.
- 07
Swap the assets to make it feel alive
For Meadow Reach, Sam screenshotted the blob villagers, asked whether a 3D library could replace the default Three.js shapes, and pointed to a React-friendly low-poly pack found with a quick search. One prompt gave him rigged models with walk cycles.
A week of games,
then a sprint.
As stated on 29 September 2026. Thursday's session later confirmed the Tel Aviv trip was cancelled.
- Update 01
Gaming Week runs Tuesday to Thursday
Tuesday is the beginner introduction, Wednesday is an open drop-in still themed on games, and Thursday is an advanced build. Sam plans to work on the game he would submit to the sprint if he were a user.
- Update 02
The Game Jam vibe sprint opens Thursday
A seven-day sprint begins at 18:00 BST on Thursday 1 October 2026. Entrants build a game and submit it to a dedicated Launchpad. Community votes surface the top ten, a panel of ten staff picks first, second, and third, and winners receive credits and a coloured role. Sam recalls the prizes as roughly 500, 250, and 150 credits; check the announcement for exact figures.
- Update 03
A much larger gaming event is pencilled in
Sam teases a bigger gaming week at the end of next month that might run longer than a week.
- Update 04
Redesign Rumble winners are being rewarded
Winners from Design Week should already have coloured names and credits on their balance. The winner will also be contacted about the $500 prize.
- Update 05
Planned Tel Aviv visit
Sam, Sam Schneidman, and Monica were due to visit the Base44 and Wix offices the following week. On Thursday Sam said the trip had been cancelled and Office Hours would run as normal.
Game questions.
Straight answers.
Every substantive question from the hour, including answers the hosts could not confirm.
16 of 16 answers
No. State in the first prompt that it is for mobile, or add a custom instruction such as "we are building for iOS, design mobile first". When you are happy with it, follow the Publish → mobile app flow.
Yes, from the model picker in the bottom left of the prompt box.
There is no fixed ratio. Premium models do more per prompt but cost more. Check a prompt's cost from the three-dot More actions menu and try it yourself.
On Opus 5.5, Sam estimates four to eight minutes for an initial prompt. Default models are quicker.
Not as a picture to recreate. Base44 cannot turn a concept image into rigged characters, so you will still get cylinders. Use existing 3D assets through a library or API instead.
You don't, inside Base44. It is not a graphics studio. Pull from the many asset libraries that already exist.
Almost any concept, but not AAA or Unity-class games. You are limited by what a browser tab can hold, because everything runs as a React web app.
Sam remembers a Reddit post about an MMO with a train-scene opening and suggests searching "MMO" in r/Base44. He did not have the link to hand.
Yes. A one-prompt Mario level was built live during the session.
Probably Base One.
A separate version of the app for changes you are unsure about. For example, you could turn the game into Scrabble on a branch, then merge it to main or leave it alone.
For serious projects, yes, often through Plan Mode or an external prompt tool. Guardrails matter most for visuals. Functionality usually works without them.
Play it as a user. Open the published app in an incognito window, look for holes and exploits, run the security scan, and ask Codex or Claude to pentest it. For production, pay a professional pentester.
Sam calls that a great idea question with no single answer. He warns that over-gamifying a routine tool with pop-ups and animations can put people off.
Yes, using access codes: generate a code for a session, and anyone who enters it on the landing page loads back into that session.
A Minecraft clone is one prompt: "Build me a Minecraft clone."
Watch the original
Tetris, Mario,
and a kingdom.
Open on YouTube Auto-generated captions mangle some names: "free.js" is Three.js, and the asset library is likely Kenney or Quaternius. Prize figures are as Sam recalled them live; the official announcement is authoritative. Wordle had not finished generating, so it is not presented as working.
Bring this to your next build
Don't stop
at the blobs.
- 01
Expect geometric placeholders in any prompted 3D game, then plan how you will replace them.
- 02
Use Plan Mode, or another LLM, to turn a voice ramble into a clean first brief.
- 03
Add login and multiplayer as a short, separate prompt once the core loop works.
- 04
Bring real 3D assets in from libraries or APIs instead of asking the LLM to invent them.
- 05
Test your game as a player in a private window before you share it.
Keep learning
Further reading.
- Three.js
- Quaternius free low-poly assets
- Kenney game assets
- Base44 Launchpad Game Jam
- r/Base44 subreddit
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