How to Make a Video Game With Cmd

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Written by Jack Lloyd

Last Updated: May 13, 2023 Tested

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This wikiHow teaches you how to make a simple, text-based game in Command Prompt on a Windows computer.

Steps

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1
Open Notepad. Notepad is a free text editor which is pre-installed on all Windows computers. You'll use Notepad to input your code. To open it, do the following:
- Click Start
- Type in notepad
- Click Notepad at the top of the window.
2
Add the title text for your game. Copy the following text into Notepad—making sure to replace "[Title]" with whatever you want to name your game—and then press ↵ Enter:^{[1]
X
Research source}
```
@echo off
title [Title]
```
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3
Choose a color for your game's text and background. Command Prompt offers several different colors of text and background which you can trigger by inputting a color-specific code in "0A" format where "0" is the color of the background and "A" is the color of the text. Codes for common colors include the following:^{[2]
X
Research source}
- Text Colors — Use A, B, C, D, E, or F to refer to light-green, light-aqua, light-red, light-purple, light-yellow, or bright-white, respectively.
- Background Colors — Use 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 to refer to black, blue, green, aqua, red, purple, yellow, white, grey, or light-blue, respectively.
- For example, the standard black-and-white Command Prompt interface would use the code "0F".
4
Set your game's colors. Enter the following text into Notepad—making sure to replace "0A" with your preferred background and text combination—and then press ↵ Enter:
```
@echo off
title OnlineCmag Game
color 0A
if "%1" neq "" ( goto %1)
```
5
Create the game menu. This is essentially the game's startup menu. Enter the following text into Notepad, then press ↵ Enter:
```
:Menu
cls
echo 1. Start
echo 2. Credits
echo 3. Exit
set /p answer=Type the number of your option and press enter : 
if %answer%==1 goto Start_1
if %answer%==2 goto Credits
if %answer%==3 goto Exit
```
6
Add an "Exit" option. This is how players will be able to exit the Command Prompt. Enter the following text into Notepad, then press ↵ Enter:
```
:Exit
cls
echo Thanks for playing!
pause
exit /b
```
7
Add credits for the game. Enter the following text into Notepad—making sure to replace "[Title]" with your game's title—then press ↵ Enter:
```
:Credits
cls
echo Credits
echo.
echo Thank you for playing [Title]!
pause
goto Menu
```
8
Create the "Start" code. This is the code which will allow players to start a new game:
```
:Start_1
cls
echo Oh no! You're surrounded by enemies.
echo There are five of them, and they're all armed.
echo If you fight them, you are having a high chance of winning.
set /p answer=Would you like to fight or run?
if %answer%==fight goto Fight_1
if %answer%==run goto Run_1
pause
```
9
Add the action code. Finally, you'll enter the following code to dictate the action of the game:
```
:Run_1
cls
echo You live to fight another day.
pause
goto Start_1
:Fight_1
echo Prepare to fight.
echo The enemies suddenly rush you all at once.
set /p answer= Type 1 and press Enter to continue.
if %answer%==1 goto Fight_1_Loop
:Fight_1_Loop
set /a num=%random%
if %num% gtr 4 goto Fight_1_Loop
if %num% lss 1 goto Fight_1_Loop
if %num%==1 goto Lose_Fight_1
if %num%==2 goto Win_Fight_1
if %num%==3 goto Win_Fight_1
if %num%==4 goto Win_Fight_1
:Lose_Fight_1
cls
echo You were defeated. Play again?
pause
goto Menu
:Win_Fight_1
cls
echo You are victorious!
set /p answer=Would you like to save? [y/n]
if %answer%=='y' goto 'Save'
if %answer%=='n' goto 'Start_2'
:Save
goto Start_2
```
It's in the top-left corner of the Notepad window. A drop-down menu will appear.
It's in the File drop-down menu. Doing so will open a Save As window.
12
Enter a file name followed by the ".bat" extension. In the "File name" text box that's near the bottom of the window, type in whatever you want to name the game followed by .bat to ensure that the game will save as a Command Prompt file.
- For example, to name your game "Dungeon Crawl", you would type in Dungeon Crawl.bat here.
Click the "Save as type" drop-down box at the bottom of the window, then click All Files in the resulting drop-down menu.
Click Desktop in the left-hand sidebar to do so. You may first have to scroll up or down on the sidebar in order to find the Desktop folder.
It's in the bottom-right corner of the window. Doing so will save your game as a BAT file.
16
Run your game. Double-click the BAT file to open your game in Command Prompt, then follow the on-screen prompts.
- For example, you'll press 1 to start the game.
17
Experiment with the code. Now that you have the basic groundwork laid out for the game, you can edit the code to change the in-game text, add options, and more.
- To edit your game's code, right-click the BAT file and then click Edit in the drop-down menu. You can then press Ctrl+S to save any changes.
- Make sure you read through the code to understand what each line of text does.

Community Q&A

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Question

Do I need to put a quote mark before and/or after echoing something?

Community Answer

No. After echoing, make a space and write what you want to display in a single line.

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Question

What is a bat file, and where do I put it?

Community Answer

A bat file is a batch file, and it runs on cmd (command prompt). You can put it on your desktop to make it easier to test your stuff.

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Question

When I click to open the game it opens and immediately closes. Why does it do that?

Community Answer

It is because the coding is wrong. Actually there are few lines on the codes that are to instruct us and make us understand, but which are not supposed to be written on the source code(code area). So just scan through the code lines and delete those unnecessary lines. Doing this should make your game work.

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Tips

If you'd like to use a more advanced code editor, you can download and install Notepad++ and then use it to create a BAT file rather than using Notepad.

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Whenever you want something to be seen by the player, you have to type echo in front of it.

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Play your game along the way, even if you don't have the whole thing done; doing so will help you to see how what you type corresponds with what shows up in Command Prompt, and it will also allow you to catch bugs or typos early on.

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Tips from our Readers

The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

Make sure there are no spaces before your commands, that can cause the file not to launch.

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Warnings

Always proofread your code before distributing your BAT file.

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Never download and run BAT files from any source you don't trust, as they can be used to harm your computer if they're malicious.

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