Put your game in the Arcade

What the Arcade is

The Arcade on arena54.com is a feed of games people play right in their browser, then swipe to vote on. Any game that runs in a web browser can go in. Arena54 keeps the files and serves them: you need no server and no website of your own.

01
Sign in
Open the developer dashboard with your Google or X account.
02
Register
Add your game: its name, and tick Hosted.
03
Get it ready
Have an AI assistant prepare the folder, or check it yourself.
04
Upload
Tick Show in the Arcade, then upload the folder.
05
Play
Once Arena54 approves it, it is in the Arcade.

What you need

A game that runs in a web browser. Anything that can export for the web works: Construct, GDevelop, Godot (Web export), Unity (WebGL), Phaser or Three.js, or a game an AI assistant made for you. In the end it is a folder with a file called index.html inside.
A computer. The upload picks a whole folder, which phones cannot do.
Only if you want to use an AI assistant to get the folder ready: one that can open the folder on your computer, such as Claude Code (or the Code tab in the Claude desktop app), Cursor or Codex. A chat in a web page cannot see your files, so it can only give advice.

1. Register the game

Open the dashboard and sign in.
Go to Games and open Register a game. Type its name and tick Hosted. You can leave everything else empty.
Press Register.

2. Get the folder ready

The easy way: open your game’s folder in an AI assistant that can work with files, copy the prompt at the bottom of this page, paste it in, and let it work. It explains what it changes in plain words, makes a folder called arcade-build, checks it, and ends with “Upload the arcade-build folder”. It never uploads anything or asks for a password.

Checking it yourself:

Export your game for the web (HTML5). In Godot, switch thread support off. In Unity, set Compression Format to Disabled.
Open the folder the export made. index.html must be right there, not inside another folder.
File and folder names use only letters, numbers, dots, dashes and underscores. No spaces.
The game must not use pop-up message boxes: in the Arcade they never appear. Sound may start only after the player’s first tap. On an iPhone with the silent switch on, a game hears nothing unless it asks for game sound. The prompt fixes all three.

3. Upload it

In the dashboard, open Games and your game, and scroll to Arcade.
Tick Show in the Arcade and press Save Arcade settings.
Press Upload the built game folder and pick the folder itself (arcade-build, or the folder your export made), not the files inside it. The size limits are written under the button.
Wait while every file uploads. You then see either “It’s live in the Arcade”, or that it goes live once Arena54 approves it. Approval is a person playing it to check it works and is fit to show.

Then open arena54.com/arcade, find your game and press Play. Try it on a phone too.

Updating your game

Upload the new folder the same way. Players keep the version they have until the new one is approved, so the game is never missing.

Sign-in, saves and leaderboards

None of these are needed for the Arcade. To add them, tick the modules you want for the game, add https://play.arena54.fun under Where the game runs, and make a publishable key for it (it starts a54_pub_). The Hosted games guide has a prompt for an AI assistant for each of them. Never put a key that starts a54_test_ or a54_live_ in a game: those are secret.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What it means
“The folder needs an index.html at its top level”	You picked the folder above it, or the export has no index.html. Pick the folder that has index.html directly inside.
“Skipped … files of a type we don’t serve”	Some files have a type or a name the Arcade does not keep. The game may then load blank: run the prompt, or rename and convert them.
“The build is over … MB” or a file is too big	Make the images and sound smaller. The prompt can do it.
A black or empty screen in the Arcade	Usually a file the game looks for at the wrong address. Run the prompt: it checks every path.
No sound on some iPhones	The silent switch. The prompt makes the game ask for game sound.
A message box never appears	Pop-up boxes are blocked in the Arcade. The prompt replaces them with the game’s own.
“refused to connect”	The game was opened from its file address. Play it from arena54.com/arcade.

Build it with AI

Paste one of these into Claude Code, Codex or another coding agent, inside your project. It carries the real contract, so the agent does not have to guess.

Add an Arcade-ready build

# Add an Arcade-ready build to this project

Goal: Turn this game into one folder I can upload to the Arena54 Arcade, where people play it on arena54.com and swipe to vote.

You are a coding agent working inside my project. Do the work. Do not ask me anything you can find out by reading the project. Do not invent an endpoint, a field or an error code that is not written below.

## 1. Look at the project first

- Find the framework and language, how the project is run and tested, and how the game is built for the web, which folder that build lands in, how it starts its sound, and whether it shows any alert, confirm or prompt box.
- I am not a programmer. Do every step yourself, and explain what you found and what you changed in plain words, with no jargon.
- Find what the game is made with: plain HTML and JavaScript, a library or bundler (Phaser, Three.js, PixiJS, Vite, webpack…), Godot, Unity, Construct, GDevelop, or something else.
- If the game cannot run in a web browser at all, say so plainly and stop.
- If the project already has an Arena54 client or key variable, reuse it.
- Tell me in two or three lines what you found and what you will change, then carry on.

## 2. The contract

The Arcade serves the build exactly as uploaded, as plain files, from an address like `https://play.arena54.fun/b/<build id>/index.html`, and shows it full screen inside a frame on arena54.com. Nothing runs on a server.

The folder:

- One folder with `index.html` directly inside it, not in a subfolder.
- Every path relative: `./assets/game.js` or `assets/game.js`. Never `/assets/game.js` (that points outside the build) and never an address on this computer.
- File and folder names use only letters, numbers, dots, dashes and underscores. No spaces, no accents. Other names are skipped at upload.
- Only these file types are kept; anything else is skipped at upload: .html .js .mjs .css .json .wasm .map .txt .png .jpg .jpeg .webp .gif .avif .svg .ico .woff .woff2 .ttf .otf .mp3 .ogg .wav .m4a .mp4 .webm .glb .gltf .bin .pck .data .unityweb
- At most 500 files. The size limits are shown under the upload button in the Arena54 dashboard; keep images and sound compressed.
- No pre-compressed copies that need the server to unpack them (.gz, .br): they are sent as they are.
- No PHP, no server code, no database: everything happens in the browser.

The frame it plays in:

- It allows scripts, the game's own storage (localStorage, IndexedDB), pointer lock, full screen, gamepads, and opening a link in a new tab.
- `alert()`, `confirm()` and `prompt()` silently do nothing there. Use the game's own on-screen messages and buttons.
- It cannot take over the browser tab or submit a form.
- Sound may only start after the player taps, clicks or presses a key. A tap counts when the finger lifts (pointerup, touchend or click), not when it lands.
- On iPhones the ring/silent switch mutes web sound unless the game asks for playback: where `navigator.audioSession` exists, set its `type` to "playback" during that first tap.
- Most players are on phones. The game should fill the frame (all of its width and height), work in portrait, and work with touch alone.

Engines:

- Godot: the Web export, with thread support switched off (the Arcade does not send the extra headers threads need). Keep the exported .pck, .wasm and .js files next to `index.html`; rename the exported page to `index.html` if it has another name.
- Unity: a WebGL build, with Compression Format set to Disabled, or Decompression Fallback switched on. Unity's `index.html` goes at the top, next to its Build and TemplateData folders.
- A bundler such as Vite: build with relative paths (for Vite, `base: './'`).

## 3. Do this, in order

1. Make the game's web build the way the project already makes it. If it has no build step (plain HTML), the game's own files are the build.
2. Put the finished build in a new folder named `arcade-build` at the top of the project (copy it there if the build makes another folder, such as `dist`). Do not change how the project normally builds or runs.
3. In `arcade-build`, make every path relative and rename any file whose name the Arcade would skip, updating whatever refers to it. Remove files the game does not use. If the game needs a file of a type the Arcade does not keep, tell me which and why.
4. In the game's own files, replace any alert(), confirm() or prompt() with an on-screen message, or a button that has to be pressed twice. Then make the build again.
5. Make sure sound starts on the first tap, click or key press, with the iPhone playback setting above. Make sure the game fills a phone screen and works with touch in portrait.
6. Only if I ask for it: sign-in, saved progress and leaderboards on Arena54 need the game registered in the Arena54 dashboard and a publishable key. Use the separate Arena54 prompts for those at https://developers.arena54.com/docs/hosted-games, and remind me to add `https://play.arena54.fun` under “Where the game runs”.

## 4. Prove it works

Check the folder itself, the way the Arcade will see it.

- List the top of `arcade-build`: `index.html` is there.
- Count the files and add up their size. Show both, and the largest file.
- Search every .html, .js and .css file in `arcade-build` for paths that start with `/` or point at this computer. Show anything you find.
- List any file whose type or name the Arcade would skip. There should be none.
- Serve it from a sub-path, as the Arcade does: copy `arcade-build` to `arcade-test/b/check/`, run a static web server in `arcade-test` (for example `npx serve arcade-test` or `python3 -m http.server`), open `/b/check/index.html` in a browser, and check the game starts with no errors in the console. Then delete `arcade-test`.

Show me the output of each check.

## 5. Rules you must not break

- Never delete or rewrite the game. Change its own files only for the dialog, sound and screen fixes above, and tell me each change.
- Never put a secret key (one starting `a54_test_` or `a54_live_`) anywhere in the game. Only a publishable key, starting `a54_pub_`, may be in a page.
- Do not upload anything, sign in anywhere or ask me for a password. I upload the folder myself.
- Keep what you tell me short and plain. I am not a programmer.

## 6. Done when

- `arcade-build/index.html` exists, and the game runs from a sub-path with no errors in the console.
- Every file in `arcade-build` has a kept type and a plain name, and the totals are within the limits.
- No alert, confirm or prompt is left, sound starts on the first tap, and the game fills a phone screen.
- Your last line tells me exactly what to do next: “Upload the arcade-build folder.”

Then give me a short list of the files you changed and anything I must do by hand.

For a person, not needed for this task: https://developers.arena54.com/docs · This prompt: https://developers.arena54.com/prompts/arcade-ready.web.md

Raw markdown, for “read this address”

Not yet tried end to end in an agent. The contract in it is generated from the reference.