Frequently Asked Questions

No. That's the whole point. You describe the game you want in plain English, and ArcadeBox builds it. There's no engine to learn, no scripting, no setup. If you can type a sentence, you can make a game.

ArcadeBox makes 3D arena-style games — real 3D worlds you move around in. Today that covers a wide range, including:

• Shooters (including first-person / FPS)
• Races and time trials
• Boss fights and wave survival
• Collect-the-thing and defend-the-base games
• Arena brawls and dodge-'em-up challenges

You shape all of it by prompting: the theme, the goal, the enemies, the weapons, the look. We're honest about scope — ArcadeBox is brilliant at the "arena on a ground plane" family of games and gets broader all the time, but it isn't an everything-engine yet. Open-world RPGs, deep story games, and complex custom rules are on the roadmap, not in the box today. If BIT can't build exactly what you pictured, it'll get you something close and you can keep modding it.

In the Studio — a chat on one side, a live preview of your game on the other. It works like a conversation:

1. Type what you want ("a neon space arena where I dodge asteroids and shoot drones").
2. BIT builds it and it appears in the preview, ready to play.
3. Keep going. "Make the drones faster." "Add a boss at the end." "Change it to a jungle." Each prompt mods your game.

Most great games come from many prompts, not one — you're refining, not gambling. Building (and modding) a game spends Coins (see below).

BIT is your box-bot host — the friendly character who builds your games, cheers you on, and takes the blame when a build fizzles. BIT is the voice you'll see throughout ArcadeBox: building, celebrating, and nudging you when you're ready to level up.

Arcade language for the basics:

• Your cabinet = your saved games. Each game you make is a cabinet you own and can come back to.
• The Arcade = the public gallery, where creators share their cabinets for anyone to play and remix.
• Free Play = our free tier (daily free Coins).
• Coins 🪙 = the in-app credit you spend to build.

Coins are how you build. Building a new game costs 10 Coins. Refining a game you've already made costs 3 Coins. Generating Custom Art (real 3D models from text or an image — see below) costs 15 Coins per item. You always see the cost before you spend, you get Coins from your plan, and you can buy one-off Coin packs anytime.

Plus one-off Coin packs (these never expire):

Payments are handled securely by Stripe — we never see or store your full card details.

Plan Coins and bought Coins roll over and never expire (as long as your account is active). The only exception is the daily Free Play Coins, which reset each day and don't stack up.

Anytime, both ways, and you can cancel whenever you like. Upgrade and the new Coins land right away; downgrade and you keep the Coins you've already banked.

You don't pay for it. We charge the Coin when a build starts and automatically refund it if the build fails — for any reason, including a game that's technically valid but won't boot. A dud costs you nothing; BIT re-rolls it free. Reliability is the product, so this is built into the plumbing, not just a promise.

You do — your creative work is yours. That means:

• Your prompts and the game design they produce
• The game's GameSpec (the structured blueprint of your game)
• Any assets you upload or generate for your game
• The playable builds you download (Web build and Windows app)

On any paid plan (Pro or Studio) you get a commercial licence to sell the games you create. Pro also lets you build and download your games with no watermark; Studio adds team seats, the most Coins, and early access. Free Play games are for personal, non-commercial use only and carry a small ArcadeBox watermark.

One important clarification about how ArcadeBox works: unlike some tools, ArcadeBox does not generate a separate pile of game code for each game. Every ArcadeBox game runs on a single, hand-built runtime engine that ArcadeBox owns. Your game is the design (your prompts + GameSpec + assets) plus the playable builds — the engine that interprets it stays ArcadeBox's. So you fully own and can ship your game; you don't receive or own the underlying ArcadeBox engine. When you download a Windows app, it's a complete, standalone game you can run and distribute — it just runs on our engine under the hood.

Yes, on any paid plan (Pro or Studio). Both paid plans include a commercial licence, so you can sell and distribute the games you download (the Windows app and Web build) however you like: your own website, Steam, itch.io, anywhere you can publish a build. Free Play games are personal, non-commercial only.

What's not here yet: ArcadeBox does not have its own in-app store where players buy games from creators. So there's currently no revenue cut, because there's nothing on-platform to take a cut of — selling happens off-platform, and that money is entirely yours.

A few ways, depending on plan:

• Reference images (all plans): attach an image in the Studio to steer the look and vibe of your game.
• Custom Art / real 3D models (paid plans): turn text or an uploaded image into an actual 3D model that appears in your game — "that's literally my character, in my game." This uses the Meshy AI 3D-generation service behind the scenes.

Some building-block assets are shared, openly-licensed (CC0) pieces that ArcadeBox provides. You're licensed to use those in your game, but you don't own them exclusively — other creators can use them too, and AI generation may produce similar-looking results for different people. Anything you upload stays yours.

Anything you upload is yours. We don't hand your uploaded files to other creators to use in their games.

To generate and run your game, your prompts and any attached/uploaded images are sent to the third-party AI services that power ArcadeBox (OpenAI for game generation, Meshy AI for 3D models) — that's how the game gets made. ArcadeBox does not train its own AI models.

No. You're responsible for making sure your game — including anything you prompt for, upload, or generate — doesn't infringe someone else's copyright, trademark, or other rights. Don't ask BIT to build "Mario" or use logos, characters, music, or art you don't have the right to use.

Also worth knowing: whether AI-generated content can be copyrighted at all varies by country and is still unsettled law in many places. If you're planning to build a business on a game you made, it's worth a chat with a lawyer about what you can protect. (This FAQ isn't legal advice.)

Yes, on paid plans. You can download:

• An installable Windows app (.exe) — a standalone game that looks noticeably better than the browser preview, because the download is built with the full game engine (proper lighting, shadows, effects) and supports a controller.
• The Web build — a version that runs in a browser, which you can host or share.

To be clear about what "download" means here: you get the playable game, not the ArcadeBox engine's source code. There's no per-game source code to hand over — your game is the design plus these ready-to-run builds. (See "Who owns the games I make?" above.)

• In any modern web browser — instantly, via a share link, no install.
• On Windows — by downloading the installable app.
• On stores like Steam or itch.io — by publishing the build yourself.

One-click publishing to stores and mobile (iOS/Android) versions are future plans, not available today.

Yes — ArcadeBox supports real-time online multiplayer rooms, so you and your friends can jump into the same game together. Online co-op is available on every plan, including Free Play.

Yes — you can play with keyboard and mouse or a game controller. Controller support shines in the downloadable Windows app.

It's built for them. If you've ever thought "I wish someone made a game where…" but you can't code, this is for you. Start on Free Play, type an idea, and you'll have something playable in about a minute.

Yes. It's a fast, code-free way to explore game design, iteration, and creative problem-solving — describe an idea, see it run, change it, learn what makes it fun.

Yes. Every paid plan includes a commercial licence to sell what you make, and the Studio plan adds more Coins, up to 5 team seats, a shared workspace, and early access to new genres. It's a quick way to prototype 3D arena games, share builds with a team, and ship something playable — bearing in mind the current scope (3D arena-style games) and that downloads run on the ArcadeBox engine rather than handing you engine source.

No passwords. You sign in with Google, GitHub, or a one-tap magic email link. First time in, your account and Coin wallet are set up automatically (with a few welcome Coins to start).

Your account, games, and Coin balance live in Supabase (database and storage hosted in the EU). Payments run through Stripe. Game generation uses OpenAI; 3D model generation uses Meshy AI; ArcadeBox is served and run on Cloudflare. See the Privacy Policy for the full detail on what's processed and by whom.

BIT's human team is at support@arcadebox.ai. For anything about your data or your account rights, see the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.