Google and game developer Unity announced today that they are partnering on an AI-powered gaming platform aimed at letting people create playable games with natural-language prompts.
Key to this agreement is Playground, an experimental browser-based platform Google launched today that allows U.S. users age 18 and older to generate and customize games by describing what they want to build, according to the search giant’s blog post.
No coding experience is required, and users can modify elements including game rules, characters, environments and physics through a conversational interface. The platform uses Google foundation models including Gemini, Nano Banana and Lyria, according to The Verge. Completed games can be shared by link or published to a gallery where other users can play them.
The Google-Unity platform will build upon Playground to create Unity Spark, a more advanced platform that offers professional-level game mechanics, high-fidelity 3D capabilities and Unity’s Runtime, which powers games and interactive experiences across devices. Games created with Spark will be shareable through Playground.
The partnership comes as AI tools increasingly move into game creation. Meta and Roblox have also introduced tools designed to let users build games or interactive experiences with AI, increasing competition over how generative AI will change game development and who can participate in it.
Unity CEO Matthew Bromberg told the Financial Times that the company has no intereste in “one-shotting,” or creating games in an instant. While Unity will use AI to generate assets, Spark will also draw on those created by human artists in its Asset Store and credit and compensate the creators.