stevekane / breakout

breakout game

#Hellmeier's Catechism ##What am I trying to do? I am building the game Breakout or Arkanoid in the browser. The game will feature 2d graphics rendered with webgl, audio played with webaudio, and will allow gamepad and keyboard input. The game will feature animated sprites, simple particle effects, and a basic tweening engine.
##How is it done today? Breakout has been built many times over its 30-year existence. The game is most often implemented using all the techniques described here. ##What's my new approach and why do I think it will be successful? My approach is to make a breakout game that plays directly in the browser. I have no explicit monetary goals up front, but intend to use these games to build a portfolio of experience and finished games to explore game design, game implementation, engine design, etc. I think having the game playable in the browser will allow me to show my work off easily and will cause me to favor completion over experimentation. ##Who cares? If it works, what difference will it make? I care. By implementing classic games, I will be teaching myself about the fundamentals of game programming and eventually game design. Implementing this game will provide me a playground to do testing/profiling etc with a real and completed game. This is critical for helping me develop an intuition for designing and implementing video games. ##What are the risks and the payoffs? ###Risks

1. I will get distracted by hypothetical scenarios and won't focus on building systems that solve an immediate need.
2. I will take a long time implementing this and will never actually complete the game.
3. I will fail. ###Payoffs
4. I will have my first complete game and will have learned about the essential systems needed to render 2d games in the browser. ##How much will it cost in time and money? I believe this game should be built in seven days. It costs no money to develop other than of course the ever-present opportunity cost. ##What are the midterm and final checks to verify success? ###Day One Sound system created. Basic rendering and update loop created and working.
   Basic assets can be loaded. ###Day Two Sprite graphics can be displayed in center of screen. Sprites support animations which are stored by name and can be played from console command line. User input can be processed from the keyboard only. Key mappings can be defined and the current frames keys are displayed in the console on every game update. ###Day Three Game objects are defined: These include Ball, Paddle, Brick. These should be stored in a VERY simple entity component system with an entity store that supports simple queries. Basic system for updating objects physics implemented. ###Day Four Collision detection system built. Should be a naive combination of broadphase (n^2) and nearphase where resolution happens. Resolution should be done first along the y axis and then repeated to correct the x axis. BP -> NPy -> BP -> NPx ###Day Five Input system should be built to move the paddle left and right within the bounds using left and right arrow keys. Space bar should launch the ball when the ball is stuck to the paddle. ###Day Six Game rules implemented:
5. when player loses all lives, game is over and restarts
6. when ball hits bottom of the screen, a life is lost and the ball is reset
7. when the ball strikes a brick, it should lose 1 health and bounce off
8. when the ball strikes a wall it should bounce off
9. when a brick has 0 life, it should die and disappear.
10. when all bricks in a level have been destroyed, the player has won and the game should reset.

In summary, game is over when all bricks are dead OR when player has no lives. ###Day Seven Polish the code base and implement some "juicy features" such as simple animation, tweens, and particle effects. Also be sure there is background music, sounds for various events, and a game over sound.