Brick Breaker

Goal

Bounce the ball back with your paddle to destroy every brick on the stage. If the ball gets past the paddle, you lose a life. You start with three lives.

Controls

• Mouse: the paddle follows the pointer; click to launch the ball.
• Touchscreen: place your finger below the paddle and it follows your finger; lift your finger to launch the ball.
• Keyboard: arrows or A, D to move; Space to launch; P or Esc to pause.
• Where the ball hits the paddle determines its angle: in the centre it goes straight back; near the edges it goes off at an angle. A moving paddle sharpens the angle slightly.

Bricks

• Coloured bricks: a single hit.
• Armoured bricks: two or three hits; cracks show the damage.
• Explosive bricks: destroy their neighbours in a chain reaction.
• Gold bricks: indestructible, and they do not count towards clearing the stage.

Power-ups

• Multi-ball: every ball splits into three.
• Wide paddle: 55% wider for 18 seconds.
• Laser: the paddle fires automatically for 12 seconds.
• Slow ball: slows the balls down for 10 seconds.
• Shield: a barrier saves one lost ball.
• Extra life: rare and precious.

Scoring

Each brick earns points, with a bonus that grows for every brick destroyed without the ball touching the paddle again. Clearing a stage earns 500 points times the stage number. After the fifteenth stage, the run starts over, faster.

About the physics

The ball is simulated in sub-steps of three units, with exact circle-to-rectangle collisions: it never passes through a brick, even at high speed. When it hits the joint between two bricks, the normals are combined for a clean bounce. Its speed increases gently over the course of a stage, depending on the chosen level.