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From the installer to a game you can send

About ten minutes: install, make your first project, connect your AI assistant in one step, play, change something, and export it.

For testers · The download comes with your tester invite. Testing is covered by the Beta tester terms and the Privacy notice.

Known issues Coming in the next release

What you need

  • Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
  • A graphics card with current drivers (DirectX 12 or Vulkan).
  • About 1 GB of free disk for the launcher, one engine version and your first projects.
  • The installer you were sent (an .msi) and its SHA-256.
  • For the AI part: Claude Code or another MCP client. No compilers, SDKs or source code needed.

  1. Install

    2 minutes
    1. Check the file first: in PowerShell, Get-FileHash .\<installer>.msi must print the SHA-256 you were sent with it.
    2. Double-click the installer. Windows says "Windows protected your PC" because the installer is not code-signed yet: choose More info, then Run anyway. It installs for your account only, with no administrator prompt.
    3. Start the Talos Engine Launcher from the Start menu. Press Sign in on the Projects tab, where it opens, and approve it in your browser with the account your invite was sent to. Then open the Engine tab and press Install. The offline installer needs no sign-in: it has already installed the engine.

  2. Make your first project

    2 minutes
    1. On the Projects tab, choose New project.
    2. Pick a Type (2D, 3D or 3D HD) and a Template: Collection course is a small playable game, Starter is a floor, three boxes and a player, and 2D starter is a small side-scroller.
    3. Give it a Name and press Create. The project opens in the editor.

  3. Connect your AI

    Next release
    1. In the launcher, select your project on the Projects tab and press Open with AI.
    2. Choose where you run Claude Code (a Windows terminal, or WSL) and press Connect. Nothing outside the project folder is changed. To skip the approval questions in this project, tick "Let Claude use the Talos Engine tools without asking" before you press Connect.
    3. Copy the line it shows for your shell and paste it into that terminal. Claude Code starts in your project with the Talos Engine tools loaded. The first time, it asks whether you trust the folder: choose Yes.
    4. Unless you ticked the box, Claude asks before each Talos Engine tool it uses, so a first small change can take ten or so approvals; choose "Yes, and don't ask again" for a tool you trust. Any other MCP client can use the same connection.

  4. Play, change something, play again

    4 minutes
    1. Press F5 (or Play on the toolbar) to play. Shift+Esc stops; plain Esc belongs to the game.
    2. Click something in the viewport and move it with W (the move tool) and the arrows, or change a value in the Inspector, or ask your assistant to. Ctrl+S saves and Ctrl+Z undoes.
    3. Press F5 again. Play runs the scene as it is now, unsaved changes included; it does not save them for you.

  5. Export a game you can send

    2 minutes
    1. Press Export on the toolbar. The panel names the build it will export and anything it leaves out.
    2. Choose a folder (by default one beside the project) and export. You get one .exe that runs on a Windows PC with no Talos Engine installed; Open Output shows it.
    3. To share it, send that one file with a file-sharing link or a USB stick: many mail services refuse .exe files, even inside a .zip.

If something goes wrong

"Windows protected your PC"
The installer and exported games are not code-signed yet, so Windows warns the first time. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Started from a terminal or a .zip, Windows shows a different prompt instead: choose Run.
Claude Code does not show the Talos Engine tools
In Claude Code, /mcp should list the Talos Engine server as connected. If it does not, quit Claude Code and start it again in the project folder: it reads the connection only when it starts. If Claude Code is not installed, the Open with AI dialog says so and links to its install page.
The tools fail to start from WSL
A long-lived terminal (tmux, say) can lose its link to Windows, and then no Windows program starts from it. Open a new WSL terminal and start Claude Code there, or run wsl --shutdown in Windows and open WSL again.

Something else? Known issues lists every problem we know about in this build, with a way round each one.

Then

Ask your assistant to build something: it can create scenes and scripts, play and capture the game, test it and profile it. See what the AI editor does, or the roadmap for what comes next.