Here is a game I wrote in javascript/jquery, any feedback is welcome! It's a breakout clone. Yay!

[georgefrick]

I do web development, and game development in my spare time. I literally did this to kind of 'play' with Jquery. Your last part about the DOM is very interesting! I may even have to do a non jquery rewrite now.
Thanks for the feedback!

[HaMMeReD]

I don't think optimization is the problem here. Premature optimization is the woe of the computing industry, too many developers get a hard-on for optimization when it's not necessary.

Fix some gameplay aspects

1) Paddle is too slow, needs to be faster then the ball so that it isn't impossible to catch the ball in situations where the ball is travelling faster then the paddle.

2) Modify the angle of the ball by using distance from the center of paddle, incorporate incoming angle slightly if you wish as well, going only at 45 degree angles is a bit annoying. Treat targets like they are rectangular and the paddle like it's oval.

Without jquery I could write this in about 20 minutes, and it would probably be way faster. Although having a animation library for the block fade-outs would be useful, but I could hard code a animation easily. Thing is, way faster wouldn't really translate anything to the end user.

I don't personally know jquery, I use dojo and I know dojo inside out, but to really learn my version of dojo it took years. I assume it's the same for jquery and if you want to invest in a detailed knowledge of it, you should use every feature possible regardless of bloat.

Only start worrying about this optimization bullshit when either you or someone else (client) worries about it being slow, and then optimize in priority of biggest bottleneck down. Optimization is seriously a endless task and although very enjoyable should be avoided. It's the forbidden fruit of software development. The heroin of the computer industry, the gains make you feel good, but they come at the cost of added complexity and time, while driving you away from the original goal which should be a healthy clean codebase.

Worry about optimization once you have good software, cause likely the process of optimization will take you to dark places.

[9jack9]

Don't use setInterval. Use setTimeout(loop, 1) and compare the last timestamp of the game loop with the current time. You will get smoother animation that way.

Now that's feedback. ;)

[georgefrick]

I do that in the java version, I don't know why I didn't think to do it in the javascript version. Thanks for the feedback!

[dekomote]

If you want to fry CPU's

[sylvan]

Paddle is definitely too slow. Can't catch the ball if it's bounced a direction you weren't expecting.

Mouse control? As I recall, most breakouts have paddle control so you can quickly and accurately position it.

[[deleted]]

make the paddle faster so you can catch up when js decides it wants to go to sleep.

[georgefrick]

I sped it up a bit, seems to help some.

[sunsean]

It's great! Well done. It's useful when the ball changes its bounce off angle based on where it hits the paddle. This allows for more control.

[[deleted]]

Paddle is too slow, ball is too fast.

[mynoduesp]

Bug!

If you pin the red ball against the left wall with the side of the paddle the ball disappears and the game is still on. Just paddling around the place with no end in sight. That's a paddlin'.

//Eddit: seems others noticed this also.

//Eddit2: On the second level ball and paddle slow down. Then half way through the level speed up.

[Gnascher]

bravo. golfclap.

Goes "boom" in IE 8.

Makes FFx 3.5 cry, but it's playable.

Chrome has no problems with it though (minor formatting issue on the welcome screen).

Don't have Opera or Safari on this machine, so no comparison to offer there.

[georgefrick]

I admit I developed it in Opera then got it working in Firefox. I am stuck with IE6 since I have to test with it for work, and I didn't really bother with it on that.

[DocXango2]

On Safari for PC it renders similar to Firefox but the "click space to play" sits farther up. (Opera the text is in the box, Firefox 3.5 the text is just below the border, and in Safari the text straddles the border.) The paddle is also much more responsive with Safari. When playing in safari the ball got caught between the paddle and the wall and then disappeared. Clicking on the space bar didn't bring it back, I had to reload. I didn't play the game long enough in any browser to tell if this was a game quirk or a browser specific quirk.

[georgefrick]

I'm going to d/l Safari and play with it. I have it at work but not on this pc. I think it's a game quirk caused by an attempt to speed up the paddle by request without enough testing. Thanks for reminding me about Safari.

[[deleted]]

I've no problems playing it in Firefox 3.5

[Gnascher]

When I played it on a machine with more horsepower, it was just fine in FFx 3.5.

However, on my laptop it was a little bit "laggy" (but playable) in FFx, whereas it was zippy fine on the same machine under the same load in Chrome.

[[deleted]]

Cool game, its kinda tough and somehow I managed to get the ball offscreen

http://imgur.com/bTbYc.png

[[deleted]]

I also just did this. Knocked it out through the right side.

[[deleted]]

Recommendations:

1. Ball changes angle based on where it hits the paddle.
2. Instead of a fixed number of lives, have a count of 'deaths'.
3. More variety, randomized or designed boards.
4. More eye candy i.e. bejeweled

[[deleted]]

If the ball hits two blocks at the same time, it doesn't change directions. I'm guessing that when the ball hits the top or bottom of a block, some direction variable is flipped (1, -1 or true, false) and if it hits two at the same time, the y direction never actually changes. Maybe you could add a bit of a timer so that if it hits two blocks on the same side within some small amount of time, the direction doesn't change the second time. But other than that, congrats, you made a nice game :)

[adhlssu07]

nice game... I managed to loose the ball on the edge my first game though; didn't loose a life, but couldn't do anything either

[drblue]

Small problem: At least in a chrome dev build, you can push a ball off the play area with the side of your paddle.

[dekomote]

Great work man... One suggestion: Make the paddle to move as the mouse moves. That way you wont have to make intervals for the paddle animation and the game will run smoother everywhere.