You Don’t Need to Code to Build Games Anymore (And That Changes Everything)
I’m Joel Comm, an internet entrepreneur and AI enthusiast who’s spent more than 30 years watching technology reshape how we work and create. What I’ve built over the last few weeks has convinced me we’re at an inflection point—and it’s going to hit a lot of people by surprise.
I’ve never written a line of code in my life. Not in high school. Not in college. Not in any of the thirty-plus years I’ve spent building businesses online. When I look at code, I may as well be staring at Latin.
But I just built three working games. A daily puzzle game. An idle game centered around puppies. And a 3D shooter.
None of these would exist without Claude Code and some serious curiosity about what’s actually possible right now.
The Curiosity That Started Everything
It began over dinner. My wife Erin and I were talking about the New York Times daily games—Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, Strands. We play them every day. And one night I thought: What if I tried building something similar using Claude Code?
I wasn’t trying to become a game developer. I had no vision of starting a studio. I just wanted to test the limits of what AI could do when guided by someone with zero technical background.
So I built a game called Threads—a Connections knockoff. Then I thought: why not build more? Simple daily games. Original concepts. The kind people check in on every single day.
And they work. Actually work. You can play them right now: games.aiforeveryoneshow.com
The Moment Everything Clicked
After the first few games worked, something shifted in my brain. Not in the code. In how I thought about the process.
I realized I wasn’t actually building games the way a developer would. I was directing them into existence.
Instead of asking “How do I code this?” I started asking “How do I describe this clearly enough for AI to build it?”
That’s the radical shift nobody’s talking about yet. The skill that matters now isn’t syntax or algorithms. It’s direction. It’s being able to say:
- “Here’s what I want.”
- “Here’s how it should behave.”
- “Here’s what’s wrong—fix this.”
I spend way more time on that last one than you’d think. But it’s a different muscle than coding. It’s clearer thinking. Better description. Faster iteration.
Then I Got Ambitious
After the daily games worked, I wanted to try something that absolutely shouldn’t be possible for someone like me. So I built PupTown—an idle game where you manage a town full of dogs. You earn currency, upgrade buildings, watch your town grow while you’re away.
No game engine experience. No prior design background. Just iteration: prompt, test, adjust, repeat. What used to take a team became a conversation.
Then I really pushed it. I built PoundBreak, a retro 3D shooter inspired by Castle Wolfenstein 3D. The goal? Rescue kidnapped dogs by shooting water at the bad guys with a water gun.
Think about this: I built a 3D shooter—something that ten years ago would’ve required specialized knowledge, a team, probably venture capital—and I did it without knowing how to code.
Is it Call of Duty? No. But that’s not the point. The point is it exists. And a year ago, that wasn’t even on the table for me.
What This Really Means
This isn’t about games. It’s about access and imagination being decoupled from technical gatekeeping.
For decades, building anything digital required one gatekeeper skill: coding. If you didn’t have it, you needed to hire someone who did. That meant money. That meant constraints. That meant a lot of ideas never got built.
Now? That barrier is starting to collapse.
Not completely. Not perfectly. But enough that someone like me—who genuinely doesn’t write code—can still bring complex ideas to life.
And I’m not alone. My X feed is packed with people building games using Claude Code, Cursor, and other AI tools. Many of them are more ambitious than what I’ve done.
It won’t be long before someone who can’t code creates a best-selling, chart-topping game. I’d bet it happens in the next eighteen months.
The Two Wrong Conclusions
When people hear this, they usually jump to one of two conclusions.
Either: “This replaces developers.”
Or: “This isn’t real development.”
Both miss the mark.
AI doesn’t remove the need for thinking. If you don’t know what you’re trying to build, AI won’t save you. If you can’t describe it well, it won’t magically appear. What changes is how the work gets done.
And yes, it’s real. The games play. People are using them. The code runs. It’s just that the person who built it thinks about creation differently than a developer does.
What This Means for You
There are people sitting on ideas right now. Apps. Tools. Games. Products. Online courses. Entire businesses.
And the only reason they haven’t built them is because they didn’t know how.
That excuse is getting weaker every single day.
The question isn’t anymore: “Can I build this?” The question is: “Can I describe this well enough for AI to build it?”
For most people with a clear vision, the answer is yes.
If someone who doesn’t know code can build and publish games, what have you been putting off because you thought you couldn’t?
Ready to Stop Waiting?
This is the kind of story I love telling from the stage—real examples of what’s possible right now, not hype about what’s coming someday. If you’re curious about what AI can actually do for your business, your team, or your ideas, let’s talk. Reach out about my AI keynote talks or subscribe to get more stories like this direct to your inbox.
