Games where you can make your own games
Some games hand you the tools. You build a level, a minigame, sometimes a whole new game other players can try. Here are eight real ones, what you can make in each, and what device it needs.
Eight games that let you build
- Roblox. You play on almost anything, but you build whole games in Roblox Studio on Windows or Mac. Roblox Build, a prompt tab in the mobile app, is in a public alpha that began in New Zealand in July 2026.
- Fortnite Creative. Build islands with Epic's prefabs and devices inside Fortnite. For deeper work, Unreal Editor for Fortnite runs on PC.
- Minecraft. Worlds, redstone machines and command blocks for minigames. Add-ons on Bedrock and mods on Java go further.
- Super Mario Maker 2. Nintendo, Switch, 2019. You build and share Mario courses, not new kinds of games.
- Dreams. Media Molecule, PS4, 2020. A full creation suite for games, music and art, with a steep learning curve. Live updates ended in 2023.
- LittleBigPlanet. Media Molecule, PS3, 2008. Platformer levels with a deep logic toolkit. The online servers are now shut down, so levels stay on your console.
- Game Builder Garage. Nintendo, Switch, 2021. Teaches visual programming with characters called Nodon.
- Roam. A free iPhone app. You describe a whole game in a sentence and play it, with friends in it.
Levels or whole games?
Most of these let you make levels inside someone else's rules. Mario Maker courses are still Mario. LittleBigPlanet levels still play like LittleBigPlanet. That limit is also why they are easy to start.
Roblox, Dreams and Fortnite's editor let you make genuinely new games, but they ask for real time and, for Roblox and Unreal, a computer. Roam sits at the other end: the whole game from a sentence, on a phone, with less fine control.
Which one to start with
- You have a Switch. Game Builder Garage to learn, Mario Maker 2 for quick fun.
- You have a PC. Roblox Studio or Fortnite's editor, if you will put in the hours.
- You only have an iPhone. Roam. Type the idea, play it, change it by asking.
Make a whole game on your iPhone with Roam
Not a level inside another game. Your own rules, your own world, friends in it.
Try: "castle siege, I defend the walls, my friends are the attackers, 5 waves, catapults"Questions people ask
What game lets you make your own games?
Roblox, Fortnite Creative, Dreams and Minecraft go furthest. On a phone, Roam makes a whole game from a sentence.
Can you make Roblox games on a phone?
Not in Studio, which needs Windows or Mac. Roblox Build, a prompt tab in the Roblox mobile app, is in a public alpha that started in New Zealand.
What is the easiest one to start with?
Super Mario Maker 2 on Switch, or Roam on iPhone, where you only write what the game is.
Keep exploring
- Game makers for kids, by age and device
- The best app to make games: an honest phone-first list
- The best AI game maker, compared by what you get
- Scratch alternatives, including ones that work on a phone
More on Roam: All Roam games Games to play, by kind