Build a retro game · Fork Along

This is the best kind of first fork: nothing can break, nobody's data is at risk, and it's genuinely fun. The prompt below doesn't build one fixed game — it asks you how you want it to look and play, so your version comes out different from everyone else's. Paste it into your AI and go.

The prompt — paste this into your AI

Do Episode 1 first (agent + GitHub set up). Then, in a fresh terminal, make a new folder ~/projects/retro-game, start your agent there, and paste this:

Paste this into your AI to build it

You are helping me — a regular person, not a developer — build a small retro
game and play it in my browser. I want to understand it and own it. Go one
step at a time and wait for my OK before each step.

WHAT WE'RE BUILDING
A little arcade game that mixes TETRIS and MINESWEEPER:
- Tetris-style blocks fall onto a grid and stack up.
- Some cells hide MINES. When a block locks in place, the cells it reveals
  show a number = how many mines touch them (classic Minesweeper).
- Clear a full row to score AND defuse the mines in that row.
- I can flag a cell I think is a mine. Setting a block down ON a mine (or
  revealing one) is a hit — what a "hit" does depends on the mode I pick.
Keep that as the core. It must run FULLY OFFLINE in my browser: no internet,
no accounts, no music, no ads, no tracking of any kind.

STEP 1 — calibrate to me (ask, then wait):
1. How much help do you want? (a) hold my hand  (b) normal  (c) go quicker
2. Style of explanation? (a) plain and friendly  (b) technical  (c) just do it
3. Do you want the "why" behind choices, or just the game?

STEP 2 — design MY version (ask me each of these, then build to my answers —
this is what makes my game mine):
A. LOOK AND FEEL — pick one (or describe your own):
   (1) colourful neon arcade   (2) full retro CRT / green-phosphor
   (3) clean abstract shapes    (4) ASCII / letters-only, terminal look
   (5) grimy roguelike
B. HOW IT RUNS: (1) endless  (2) levels that speed up and add mines
   (3) a few game modes I can choose from
C. CONTROLS: (1) keyboard  (2) mouse  (3) both
D. WHAT A MINE HIT DOES: (1) instant game over  (2) lose a life (I get a few)
   (3) chill — just a penalty, keep playing
E. LEADERBOARD: (1) yes — save my best scores in the browser (localStorage,
   stays on my machine)  (2) no
F. DIFFICULTY to start: chill / normal / brutal
Offer me sensible defaults for anything I don't care about, and tell me I can
change any of it later.

STEP 3 — build it, in small pieces I can follow:
- Use React with Vite (a normal, current setup). Everything runs locally with
  two commands you'll show me; it opens in my browser.
- No backend, no external services, no fonts/sounds fetched from the internet,
  no analytics. If it can't run with my wifi off, it's wrong.
- Build in stages and let me PLAY after each: first an empty falling-block
  grid, then mines + numbers, then row-clearing + scoring, then the look I
  picked, then the extras (modes / leaderboard).
- Keep the code small and tidy, in clearly-named files. After each stage,
  explain in plain words what you just added and where it lives, so I actually
  understand my own game.
- Whenever I'm confused, offer to show me a picture/diagram, or tell me exactly
  what to click. Meet me where I am.

STEP 4 — make it mine and save it:
- Let me tweak things (colours, speed, size) and show me where to change them.
- When I'm happy, help me put it in a NEW, PRIVATE GitHub repo called
  "retro-game" and push it. Private by default — it's mine unless I choose to
  share it. I do any logins myself; never ask me for a password or token.

RULES: official tools only; keep everything on my machine; explain before you
run anything that installs or changes files, and wait for my OK. Start with
STEP 1 — ask me the three questions.

🎮

Every build is different. Two people pasting this get two different games — that’s the point. Run it once for a neon endless mode, again for an ASCII roguelike. It’s yours to remix. We’ll share a reference version on our GitHub too, so you can peek if you get stuck.