You generated a game with AI. It plays well, your friends like it, and now you want it on the Google Play Store with your name on it. This guide walks through the entire journey: what you need, what it costs, how long it takes, and the traps that catch first-time publishers. No step is skipped.
Google Play does not accept websites. It accepts Android app packages (AAB files) that are cryptographically signed by you. Your AI-generated game is an HTML file, so the job is to wrap it in a native Android shell. The standard free tool for this is Capacitor: it takes your web game and produces a real Android project you can build into an installable app.
Game Studio's Store Agent exports a starter package for exactly this: your game plus a manifest, a Capacitor configuration and a publish guide. It is a starting point, not a magic button; you will still run the build yourself. Anyone promising one-click Play Store publishing is selling something.
This is the one unavoidable cost. Google charges a one-time $25 fee for a Play Console developer account. It requires identity verification, which can take a few days, so do this first while you polish your game. There is no way around it and no legitimate discount; treat any "free Play publishing" offer as a scam.
Using the exported starter package:
Test the built APK on a real phone before going near the Play Console. Install it, play every screen, rotate the device, and check it behaves with no internet connection if your game is offline-capable.
Your listing is your shop window, and Google has strict requirements. You need:
This is where most indie developers stall, staring at a blank description box. Game Studio's Store Agent writes the listing text for you and captures screenshots at exactly the required sizes. For the craft of writing listings that convert browsers into installers, read our dedicated Play Store listing guide.
New developer accounts must run a closed test with a minimum number of testers before production release (Google has tightened this over the years; check the current Play Console requirements when you apply). This means finding real people to install your test build and actually play it. Plan for this; it takes one to two weeks including the time to recruit testers.
Do not fake this. Coordinated fake installs or review exchanges can get your developer account terminated, and Google is unforgiving about reinstatement. Legitimate testing with real feedback is both the rule and genuinely useful.
Upload your signed AAB, complete the content declarations (data safety form, target audience, ads declaration), and submit. Review typically takes a few days. Common rejection reasons for first-timers:
Fix and resubmit; rejection is normal and not the end. Most apps pass within a couple of rounds once the paperwork is honest.
Every app now needs a data safety declaration, and first-timers find it intimidating. It's simpler than it looks. The form asks: what data does your app collect, and what do you do with it? For a typical AI-generated arcade game, the honest answer is usually "nothing": no accounts, no analytics, no ad SDKs, no data collection at all.
The critical rule: the form must match reality. If your game is genuinely offline with no SDKs, declare that confidently. If you later add analytics or ads, update the form first. Mismatches between the declaration and the app's actual behaviour are one of the most common rejection reasons, and they're entirely avoidable. When in doubt, collect less; every data type you declare is a liability you own.
Should your first game be free or paid? For a first-timer, free with no ads is almost always the right call. Your goal is learning the pipeline and getting players, not revenue. A paid game with zero reviews faces an impossible conversion battle; a free game gets played, reviewed and improved.
If the game finds an audience, monetisation comes later: a tasteful ad implementation, a paid sequel, or a "pro" version. But version one is a portfolio piece and a learning project. Price it accordingly: free.
Realistic timeline for a first-timer: identity verification 2–5 days, packaging and testing 1–2 weekends, closed testing 1–2 weeks, review a few days. Call it three to five weeks from finished game to live listing. The game itself, thanks to AI generation, is the fastest part of the process. Everything after it is logistics, and logistics reward patience.
Apple is a separate, stricter world: a $99/year developer account, a Mac or build service for compilation, and review guidelines that reject thin repackaged websites under guideline 4.2. Your game needs to feel like a real app, not a bookmark. It is doable, but go into it with eyes open; Android first is the sane order.
Publishing an AI-generated game is absolutely achievable for a solo creator in 2026. The AI removed the hardest part, making the game. What remains is a well-documented administrative process: $25, a signing key, honest paperwork, real testers. Thousands of indie developers do it every month. Follow the steps, don't cut corners on testing, and your game can sit in the store next to everyone else's.
Want the full weekend plan? See from idea to Play Store in one weekend for the compressed version, and our about page for what Game Studio's publishing tools cover.
Most first submissions get rejected at least once. It's routine, not a verdict. The common causes: broken functionality, any button that does nothing or any screen that shows placeholder text; fix by testing every path on a real device. Data safety mismatch, covered above; fix by making the form match the app exactly. Missing privacy policy; fix with a real URL. Misleading listing, screenshots or descriptions showing things the app doesn't do; fix with honest assets. Target audience errors, like a children's-looking game declared for general audiences without the right answers; fix by answering carefully.
Read the rejection email fully; Google tells you the policy section violated. Fix precisely that, resubmit, and move on. Developers who treat rejection as debugging ship faster than those who treat it as judgement.
Before publishing anything, hand your game to three people and watch silently. Don't explain, don't help, don't defend. You'll discover in ten minutes what a week of solo testing missed: the button nobody finds, the rule nobody understands, the difficulty wall you can't see because you built it. This is the cheapest, highest-value testing in existence, and most beginners skip it from nerves.
Record what confuses them, not what they praise. Praise feels good and teaches nothing; confusion is a precise bug report for your design. Fix the top three confusions and test again with different people. Two rounds of this does more for your game than a month of solitary polish. Then publish with confidence, because real humans have already survived it.
Start with the game itself.
Generate it free, then follow this guide to the store.