I Built a 2-Player Brain Game at a Google Community Event (and Then Leveled It Up)

A software engineering student at IMSciences Peshawar built Number Nebula, a two-player HTML5 Canvas brain game, during a Google AI Studio "vibe coding" challenge hosted by GDG on Campus. The single-file JavaScript game combines math and word puzzles with a space-shooter format, using Web Audio API-generated sound effects and a 60fps game loop, and was extended with power-ups, a boss battle, age-based difficulty, and a bot opponent. The developer's stated lesson was to make one change at a time and test it before moving on.

Today, I attended Vibe Coding with Google AI Studio , hosted by GDG on Campus in Peshawar . The session was about Google AI Studio and how it can turn a rough idea into a working app in minutes. At the end, the speaker gave us a challenge: build a game. The top 3 would get a surprise. 🎁 Here's what I built, what I learned, and how I took it further. 🎮 Play it first 👉 Play Number Nebula on CodePen https://codepen.io/Salman-Tariq-the-sasster/pen/01a1465d-e154-79f0-9507-43c0fea83afb Controls: Player 1 uses A D to move and W to fire. Player 2 uses the arrow keys. No friend nearby? Pick Cosmic Bot . 💡 The idea: Number Nebula I wanted a game that is fun for kids but still makes adults think . So I mixed a classic space shooter with puzzles: - Math Duel: solve the sum, then shoot the alien carrying the answer. - Word Builder: read a clue, then shoot letters in the right order to spell the word. - Brain Mix: both, taking turns. Two players share one screen, and every 3 correct answers in a row fires an attack Freeze, Fog, or Meteor Rush at your rival. 🔁 How I built it 1. Prompt: I wrote a structured prompt concept, controls, levels, scoring, visuals and gave it to Google AI Studio. It built a working version on the first try. 2. Iterate: I listed improvements and ranked them by impact. The biggest problem was that players never affected each other, so I added combo attacks. 3. Level up: I added power-ups, a boss battle, age-based difficulty so a 7-year-old and an adult can play a fair match , a bot opponent, and the Word Builder mode. My biggest lesson: make one change at a time, test it, then move on. Small steps beat one giant request. ⚙️ Under the hood - Pure HTML5 Canvas + JavaScript , one single file, no frameworks - Sound effects generated in code with the Web Audio API no audio files - A simple game loop : update positions → check collisions → draw, about 60 times a second 🚀 What's next - Online multiplayer , so two friends can play from different cities - Theme packs for Word Builder, starting with coding words like LOOP, ARRAY and CLASS - A global leaderboard I'm a Software Engineering student at IMSciences, Peshawar, and I'm building in public. Feedback is very welcome: what mode should I add next? 👇