Can't code? Who cares — you can publish your own Flappy Bird clone today with Appy Pie's Game Builder

I just spent 10 minutes transforming into a game developer, and you could do the same.

Cloud-technology company Appy Pie is opening up its Game Builder tool to everyone, and this free application enables just about anyone to design a simple mobile game for iOS or Android in minutes. Once you have a finished app, Appy Pie will even upload it to the Google Play and App Store markets for you. This means that you and your friends can download your simple creations to your smartphones and tablets, and it may also lead you down a path of wanting to learn more about making games.

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While Game Builder is live today, it was previously in a testing phase that started in January. The company reports that a small group of people used it to make over 500 games. Naturally, most of them are a lot like Flappy Bird. In fact, Game Builder only gives you six gameplay mechanics to choose from. While designers can upload their own art, they’re going to have to stick to these set genres, which include casino games, tic-tac-toe, basketball, and more.

“Appy Pie’s driving mission is to make the entire app creation process effortless and enjoyable, where anyone can create a mobile app in 3 easy steps,” Appy Pie founder Abhinav Girdhar said. “The public launch of Game Builder is an extension of that goal, and we’re looking forward to seeing the plethora of mobile games generated on our Game Builder platform, the world’s first cloud-based mobile game creator with HTML5 technology.”

Game Builder really is simple. I made this game in about two minutes — and I use the word “made” loosely:

Once you have an app of your own, Appy Pie will upload for free to its site. If you drop some money, the company will also enable you to upload it to iOS App Store, Google Play, or the markets for Blackberry and Windows Phone. Not only that, but you can put push notifications into your software as well as ads and, eventually, in-app purchases. That’s right, you can fully monetize your game.

Appy Pie’s tools are much more powerful than something like Code.org’s Flappy Bird game that teaches people how to code a clone of the popular mobile title, but it may lead to a similar result. While it’s unlikely that someone will make the next big hit using Game Builder, the tool is a great way to show people how easy it is to release a product for millions of people. Several resources have popped up to teach people (mostly young) how to code — it’s a whole movement. If people can see how simple the process of publishing apps has become through Appy Pie, it’s possible they may take the next step and boot up Code.org to start learning the other parts of the process.