As part of my exploration of JavaScript and browser-based development, I created a modern version of the classic Asteroid game. This project involved implementing fundamental game development concepts including physics, collision detection, rendering techniques, and responsive controls within a web browser environment.
Implemented a physics system that handles velocity, acceleration, and inertia for realistic space-like movement of the player ship and asteroids, with proper rotation and directional thrust.
Designed an efficient collision detection algorithm using circular hitboxes to handle interactions between multiple game entities (ship, asteroids, projectiles) with proper response handling.
Created a rendering system using HTML5 Canvas for drawing vector-style graphics, managing frame rates, and implementing screen wrapping for objects that move beyond the game boundaries.
Developed a responsive control system that adapts to both keyboard input for desktop play and touch controls for mobile devices, with event listeners for smooth gameplay.
Throughout this project, I encountered several technical challenges that required creative problem-solving:
The initial implementation suffered from performance issues when many objects (asteroids and projectiles) were present on screen simultaneously.
Implemented object pooling for projectiles and particle effects to reduce garbage collection, and used a spatial partitioning system to optimize collision detection by only checking objects in proximity.
Game behavior was inconsistent across different browsers, particularly with regard to animation timing and input handling.
Adopted the requestAnimationFrame API for consistent frame timing and implemented browser-specific input detection to normalize the control experience across platforms.
This project was instrumental in developing my understanding of: