Getting Started

Before You Build Your First Game

This lesson gets your tools ready. By the end, you will have everything you need to start building browser games with Claude as your development partner.

No prior programming experience is required. If you have never written a line of code, you are in the right place.

What Is Claude?

Claude is an AIArtificial Intelligence assistant made by Anthropic. You type a message describing what you want, and Claude responds with text, explanations, or working code. Think of it as a conversation -- you describe what you want to build, and Claude writes the code for you.

Throughout this course, you will give Claude specific instructions (called prompts) and it will generate complete, runnable game files. Your job is to learn how to describe what you want clearly enough that Claude builds exactly what you have in mind.

Create a Claude Account

1. Go to claude.ai
2. Click Sign Up and create an account with your email or Google account
3. Verify your email if prompted
4. Once signed in, you should see a chat interface where you can type messages to Claude

That is all you need to get started with the basic Claude chat. You can use this to ask Claude questions, generate code, and learn concepts throughout this course.

What Is Claude Code?

Claude Code is a command-line tool that lets Claude work directly with files on your computer. Instead of copying and pasting code from a chat window, Claude Code can:

• Create new files in your project folder
• Read and modify existing files
• Run your code and see the results
• Fix errors by looking at the actual files

This is much faster than copying code back and forth. You type a prompt, and Claude Code writes the file directly to your computer.

Install Claude Code

Open your terminal (see the next section if you do not know how) and run:

macOS and Linux:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

No other dependencies are required. The native installer handles everything and will auto-update in the background.

After installation, close and reopen your terminal, then verify it works:

claude --version

You should see a version number printed.

Open a Terminal

A terminal is a text-based interface where you type commands. Here is how to find it on your system:

macOS: Press Cmd + Space, type "Terminal", and press Enter. Or find Terminal in Applications > Utilities.

Windows: Press the Windows key, type "PowerShell", and press Enter. Use PowerShell, not the older Command Prompt.

Linux: Press Ctrl + Alt + T, or find Terminal in your applications menu.

You should see a window with a blinking cursor where you can type commands.

Create a Project Folder

In your terminal, create a folder for your games and move into it:

mkdir my-games
cd my-games

This is where all the game files you build in this course will live. Each lesson will create new files inside this folder.

Run Claude Code

While inside your my-games folder, start Claude Code:

claude

Claude Code will start up and show you a prompt where you can type instructions. Try a simple test:

Create a file called hello.html that shows "Hello, world!" in large white text on a dark background.

Claude Code will create the file. Open it in your browser by double-clicking it in your file manager, or on macOS:

open hello.html

If you see "Hello, world!" in your browser, everything is working.

What to Expect

Here is how lessons in this course work:

1. Read the concept -- each lesson introduces a game development idea
2. Follow the prompts -- you will type specific prompts into Claude Code
3. See the result -- open the generated HTMLHyperText Markup Language file in your browser
4. Understand what happened -- the lesson explains what Claude built and why
5. Go deeper -- exploration prompts let you extend the game on your own

You do not need to memorize code. The goal is to learn how to describe what you want so that Claude builds it correctly. As you progress, your prompts will get more sophisticated and your games will get more complex.

You are ready. Move on to the next lesson to build your first game.