In this screencast tutorial, I'll take you through the process of building an entire Asteroids game, from scratch, using the free GameSalad Creator tool. No previous programming or game development experience is required, and you can follow along whether you're on Windows or OS X!

Play the Game

You can play this game on the GameSalad Arcade.

Use the arrow keys to manoeuvre your ship, and the space bar to fire bullets. Destroy all of the asteroids to win - but watch out for the UFO!

Download GameSalad Creator

GameSalad Creator is a tool for creating games without needing to write any code. The free version allows you to develop games for the web (as seen above) and for Mac - and even for the iPhone App Store, if you have an iOS Developer account.

There's also a paid version, which lets you export your games for Android, add iAds and in-app purchases, tweet players' scores to Twitter, and more. For this tutorial, all you need is the free version.

Download the free version here. It only requires an email address and confirmation that you are over 13, and is available for Mac OS X Lion (and above), Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

Watch the Screencast

Build a Neon Asteroids Shoot-'em-Up From Scratch

Watch in full screen at 720p (use the Cog icon) for best quality. Don't like streaming? Download the m4v.

Download the source file zip for this tutorial - it contains the graphic files, image files, and final project files for the game.

What's Next?

Congratulations on completing your game! Here are some ideas for how to take it further:

• Continue the game at a higher difficulty level after the player destroys all the asteroids.
• Add a "hyperspace" button to jump the ship out of danger (that is, teleport it to a safe position on the screen).
• Add special power-ups: these might improve your firing rate, or add a shield to your ship.
• Create a better interface - the one we have now is functional, but pretty basic.

Thanks for reading! If you do create your own version of this game, please share a link in the comments below - I'd love to see it.