Blog

Readable, practical posts about building smooth browser games—and why people love to play them.

How to Make Mobile Canvas Games Feel Fast

An actionable checklist for silky 60 FPS on mid-range phones.

At 60 FPS you have ~16.67ms per frame; reserve ~4–5ms for the browser. Keep your game loop consistently under ~12ms and move non-critical work (analytics, logging) outside the loop. Batch fills/strokes, reuse gradients, …

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Designing Rewarding Power-ups

Why shields, slow-mo and multipliers keep players returning.

A temporary shield lets players experiment without losing progress, raising engagement and skill. Brief slow-motion during spikes helps players regain control and feel powerful. Score multipliers tied to consecutive succ…

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Latency & Controls That Feel Right

Tuning input so movement feels immediate and predictable.

Update position as soon as input arrives; apply smoothing only for visuals. Start with linear movement; introduce acceleration curves later if they improve control. Move relative to finger delta, not absolute position, t…

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Local Leaderboards That Actually Work

Zero-backend high scores with useful constraints.

Keep score and ISO timestamp; sort descending and trim the array to top 50 entries. Save on game over or explicit action; avoid spamming storage every frame. Let privacy-minded users clear scores. Respect their choice.

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A Quick Accessibility Checklist for Games

Small changes that make a big difference.

Ensure legible contrast and at least 16px body text; don’t rely on color alone. Every action should be possible with a keyboard on desktop. Pause animations when the tab is hidden; consider respecting prefers-reduced-mot…

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Responsive Canvas Without Breaking Physics

Keep logic resolution fixed; scale visuals with CSS.

Run physics at a constant resolution (e.g., 900×520). Scale display with CSS for devices. Always clamp entity positions to the internal width/height to avoid out-of-bounds issues. If desired, render to a 2× buffer for cr…

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Ship Fast with Plain JavaScript

Fewer dependencies, fewer failures.

For a small game site, frameworks add weight. Vanilla JS keeps performance predictable. Organize by features: game loop, input, rendering. Keep modules small and testable. Use DevTools coverage and Lighthouse for quick a…

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Ethical Monetization for Game Sites

Respect players and you’ll keep them.

Keep monetization away from controls; never block gameplay unexpectedly. Cap interruptions and empower players with clear choices. Explain what data is collected and why. Provide a privacy contact path.

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Top 10 Free Browser Games to Play This Weekend

A curated, evergreen list you can update.

Look for games that load under 3 seconds, play well with a single hand, and have restart loops under 2 seconds. Pixel-art titles age well and run on low-end hardware. Check itch.io’s HTML5 tag and browser-game subreddits…

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Why Retro Games Still Matter in 2025

Old rules that make modern games better.

Small memory budgets forced tight level design and readable mechanics. Limited palettes and strong silhouettes help players parse action instantly. Short sessions fit modern life—perfect for browsers and mobile.

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Indie Watchlist: Upcoming HTML5 Titles

Small teams, big ideas worth tracking.

Novel input ideas, strong themes, and accessible loops. Leave feedback, star repos, and wishlist projects when available.

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UI/UX Principles for Casual Web Games

Design moves that turn new visitors into repeat players.

Buttons look like buttons; controls are labeled on first run. Restart in one tap; show best score to motivate another try. Add complexity after the first success, not before.

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