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BUILDING GAME USING AMAZON Q

BUILDING GAME USING AMAZON Q

Game building with the Amazon Q Developer CLI

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Om Patole
Published May 24, 2025

Setting Up Our Environment

This was easy, all we had to do was install the Amazon Q Developer CLI. We would then use the capabilities of this tool to work out what else to install and how to install it, including any of the other software we needed on our quest.The easiest way to get started, we found was to use THIS LINK, this excellent blog by Ricardo is a one stop shop on how to set everything up. Q Developer CLI is a coding assistant that brings generative AI capabilities directly to the command line. While not specifically designed for game development, we discovered it's remarkably effective when paired with Pygame.
Building a Hill Climb Racing–Style Game with Pygame and AI Assistance
With the rapid advancement of AI development tools like Amazon Q Developer CLI, it has never been easier to bring creative game ideas to life — even for solo developers or teams with limited game development experience.
In this post, we’ll walk through how to build a 2D physics-based driving game inspired by Hill Climb Racing using Pygame and AI-assisted coding. We’ll focus on rapid prototyping, iterating on game feel, and leveraging AI to speed up development.

Getting Started

For this we decided on Pygame which is a a free and open-source cross-platform library for the development of multimedia applications like video games using Python. I had previously been shown what Pygame could do and thought it would be a great fit. Its python so pretty easy to pick up and my son had very limited coding experience to begin with and installation was easy.
pip install pygame
Also, install Amazon Q Developer CLI to help accelerate boilerplate creation and solve technical challenges efficiently.

Game Idea: “Bumpy Racer”

We wanted to create a minimalistic driving game where a player controls a small car moving over bumpy, hilly terrain, balancing throttle and brake to avoid flipping, and managing a fuel gauge — much like the mechanics of Mountain climber.
The initial prompt to the AI was:
Write a Pygame game inspired by Hill Climb Racing, including car physics, hills, gas and brake controls, and a fuel meter.

Iteration 1: Adding Physics and Smoother Motion

We asked:
> Make the car have suspension-like behavior and smoother hill transitions.
The AI adjusted the car’s movement code, adding a basic suspension effect so the car body would tilt as it went over bumps. Suddenly, it felt a lot more like the real game.

Iteration 2: Gas, Brake, and Fuel

Next, we wanted to make the gameplay deeper:
> Add controls for gas and brake, and a fuel meter that runs out over time.
Boom — now we had acceleration, braking, and a fuel bar on the screen. It became a challenge to see how far we could go without flipping or running dry.

Iteration 3: Sprucing Up the Graphics

> Improve the graphics — give the car wheels, a body, and a background with hills and sky.
This was where things got exciting for my son. We played around with colors, shapes, and even added a little stick figure driver. The game transformed from blocks on a screen to something that looked like a real game.
Our "vibe coding" technique followed these principles:
  1. Focus on the game feel first
  2. Build the minimum viable prototype
  3. Use AI to overcome technical roadblocks
  4. Test frequently with our target audience (Kiddo's friends)
  5. Iterate based on immediate feedback
This approach proved perfect for our father-son project. Kiddo could focus on the creative aspects while I handled the technical, with Amazon Q Developer bridging our knowledge gaps.In the end we had this game looking quite nice and playing well

Lessons Learned

Here’s what stood out from this weekend:
  1. AI coding assistants are incredible accelerators — they help you skip the boring parts and jump straight into the fun.
  2. Pygame is still a fantastic platform for beginner game devs, especially when paired with a smart assistant.
  3. Parent-child coding works best when it’s creative and playful — when both sides can contribute ideas, not just code.

Conclusion

In just one weekend, we built a mini Hill Climb Racing–style game that we’re genuinely proud of. It’s not going to win awards, but it’s ours.
If you’re a parent looking for a weekend project with your kid — or just someone curious about making games — I can’t recommend this combo enough:
  • Pygame
  • Amazon Q Developer CLI (or your favorite AI assistant)
  • A playful mindset
 Download and install Amazon Q Developer CLI
 

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