Meta Introduces Horizon Create and Horizon Studio AI Game Tools

Meta introduced Horizon Create and Horizon Studio, two AI game-creation tools built on the Meta Horizon Engine, at Meta Connect, according to a Meta for Developers post dated September 24, 2026. Meta said the tools let creators turn an idea into a complete 2D or 3D mobile game, and early access is rolling out gradually through an open waitlist.

Meta said the pair draws on the engine’s agentic creation capabilities to produce games with progression systems, balanced difficulty, art direction, and multiplayer support, which creators then refine element by element. The company set the products against conventional game development, which it said demands months of work, expensive hardware, and specialized skills, and can leave creators struggling to find their first players even after a game ships. “If you have a great idea for a game, you should be able to build it and get it in front of players without spending months navigating tools, hardware, and marketing,” said Saxs Persson, Meta’s VP of Horizon.

The Horizon Create Mobile App

Horizon Create is a standalone mobile app in which users describe the game they want in their own words and the agentic engine builds it. Creators can start from a blank canvas or choose a ready-made template, and Meta said both paths produce a complete 2D or 3D game ready to publish. Art style, characters, story, and progression are adjusted by describing the desired changes.

According to Meta, the app’s flow matches how people already use their phones: a creator describes an idea, plays the generated build, requests changes, and repeats. A build can generate in the background while the user plays other titles, with a notification when it is ready to playtest, and the app can run multiple projects at the same time.

Horizon Studio in the Browser

Horizon Studio is a browser-based creation environment that requires no installation and no gaming PC, and it acts as a single place to manage a game’s lifecycle. It combines the same natural-language prompting used in Horizon Create with full visual editing: creators can place scenes manually, swap out individual assets from a browsable library, adjust script parameters to change how elements behave, and rework spatial layouts by hand. A change can be described in words when that is faster or made directly for precise control, and Meta said one prompt can apply a new style across a scene’s environment, character, and lighting together.

Because the two tools share a common backend, games built in Horizon Create move into Horizon Studio and vice versa, carrying assets, systems, and iteration history with them. Meta said Studio resumes a project exactly where the creator stopped, and a Studio project can begin from an idea alone, with no existing game required.

Distribution, Discovery, and Monetization

Publishing from either tool makes a game eligible for native distribution across Facebook, Instagram, and Horizon. Meta said an Instagram user who taps a clip of a game can be in a multiplayer session within seconds, without installing an app or leaving the feed, because games published through the tools live natively in the places where people already discover content.

Meta said discovery for these games turns on whether they hold players: titles that are engaging, stable, and culturally relevant, and that keep players coming back, earn more reach, while those that do not are deprioritized and fade from discovery. As a game’s reach grows, the company said, so do its revenue opportunities through in-game monetization and the Meta Horizon Creator Fund, with more details on monetization options to come.

Safety Review and Early Access

Meta said every piece of generated content passes through its content safety systems before reaching players, with guardrails built into the creation flow itself, and that games are reviewed before publishing and distribution. Every published game receives an automated age rating and is gated into age-appropriate tiers before going live. The company said youth protections, including parental supervision through Family Center, carry over from Horizon’s existing safety framework, which it has built across Facebook, Instagram, and Horizon over years.

Horizon Create and Horizon Studio are in testing with Meta’s creator community, with broader access opening soon, and the early-access waitlist is open for sign-ups. Meta also pointed creators to Meta Connect session videos covering the new creation tools, discovery and growth on Horizon, and the Meta Horizon Creator Program.