Astroblast

About the game

Your ship floats in the middle of a dark screen, and rocks of all sizes drift past it. Shoot a big one and it breaks into smaller, faster pieces; clear the screen and the next wave arrives with more rocks. Now and then a saucer crosses over and shoots back, so it pays to deal with it quickly.

The ship has inertia: it keeps drifting after you let go of the thrust, so you spend as much time turning around and braking as you do shooting. When a rock is about to hit you and there is no way out, a hyperspace jump throws you to a random spot. It is a gamble, because you can land right next to another rock.

The art is thin glowing outlines on a starfield, with synthesised sound effects. You get three lives and a best score that is kept in your browser.

Playing it here

Click Play and the game opens on its title screen. Press Play there to start. The sound can be turned off with the speaker icon in the corner, and the game also has a fullscreen button.

Controls

Arrows or WASD to rotate and thrust, Space to shoot, Shift for hyperspace. On a touch screen, an on-screen stick and buttons.

A few things worth knowing

Stay near the middle. Rocks wrap around the edges, so the middle gives you the most time to react.

Shoot in short bursts. Fewer bullets on screen make it easier to count what you have hit.

Save hyperspace. Use it when you are cornered, not as a habit.

FAQ

Is my score saved? Yes, the best score stays in your browser (local storage). It is not sent anywhere.

Credits and licence

Astroblast is one of the games in LittleJS Arcade by Frank Force, and it runs on his LittleJS engine. Both are released under the MIT licence; the licence text is linked from this page. The collection's repository includes notes for AI coding assistants, so the code was written at least in part with AI help. The graphics are drawn by the code and the sounds are synthesised, so the game loads no image or audio files. The source code is on GitHub.