Brick Breaker

Brick Breaker is a classic arcade game — bounce a ball off a paddle to clear all the bricks at the top of the screen. Clear every brick to win, or lose a life if the ball falls past the paddle.

Move the paddle with your mouse, a touch drag, or the arrow keys (←→). The ball bounces off the paddle and walls, and bricks disappear and add to your score when hit. Losing the ball past the paddle costs one life; the game ends when all 3 lives are gone.

Your score and best score are stored only in your browser (localStorage) and are never sent to a server.

When the ball hits the paddle, this tool converts where on the paddle it landed, measured from the paddle's exact center, into a value from −1 (far left) to +1 (far right), then multiplies that by up to 60 degrees (π/3 radians) to set the bounce angle. Hit dead center and the ball bounces back almost straight up; hit near an edge and it flies off at a steeper angle, up to that 60-degree maximum. The ball's speed (magnitude) stays exactly the same through the bounce — only the direction changes — so catching the ball with the edge of the paddle is a deliberate way to redirect it.

Besides mouse movement, touch drag, and the arrow keys (←→), the code maps A and D as separate paddle controls, so you can keep your left hand on the left side of the keyboard. Pressing an arrow key or A/D moves the paddle in steps of 5% of the board width each press, while mouse and touch input snap the paddle's center directly to your cursor or finger, which feels noticeably faster. The bricks form a 5-row by 8-column grid — 40 bricks total — worth 10 points each, so clearing the whole board is worth a theoretical maximum of 400 points. You start with 3 lives, losing one each time the ball falls past the paddle.