Space Shooter WebGL

Asteroids‑style browser shooter built with vanilla JavaScript and raw WebGL.

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🎯 Why I built it

• Learn WebGL by hand – write GLSL shaders, manage buffers, and think in clip‑space without helper libraries.
• Experiment with AI‑assisted coding – used the Cursor editor plus ChatGPT for quick prototyping and refactors.

🚀 Gameplay

• 360° rotation with thrust‑based movement and inertia
• Screen‑wrapping edges for that classic arcade feel
• Laser shots with cooldown and limited lifetime
• Dynamic asteroid field: new rocks spawn as you destroy them, gradually ramping up difficulty
• Particle‑based explosion effects
• Score counter and GAME OVER screen with a Play Again button

Controls

Action	Keys
Thrust	W / ↑
Rotate left	A / ←
Rotate right	D / →
Fire laser	Space
Restart	Click Play Again when you die

🛠 Tech stack

Layer	Choice	Notes
Language	JavaScript (ES2020)	Plain browser APIs
Rendering	Raw WebGL 1.0	Custom vertex & fragment shaders
Build tool	None (any static server)	Shader files are fetched at runtime — browsers require HTTP
AI assist	Cursor IDE + ChatGPT	Refactors, shader tweaks

🏃 Getting started

Note: the game fetches shader files at runtime, so most browsers block it when opened via file://. You’ll need to serve the folder through any static HTTP server.

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/ramonmello/space-shooter-webgl
cd space-shooter-webgl

Launch a tiny static server (Python 3.x)

python -m http.server 8000

Alternative (Node.js, if installed)

npx serve -l 8000

Then visit http://localhost:8000 in your browser and start blasting.

🗺 Roadmap

• Sound effects & background music
• Mobile touch controls
• Power‑ups (shield, spread shot, mega bomb)
• Leaderboard via localStorage or a simple backend
• Migrate rendering pipeline to WebGL 2.0
• WebGPU prototype branch 🤔

🤝 Contributing

Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue or PR – let’s talk!

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Made with caffeine, curiosity, and way too many shattered asteroids. Enjoy! 🚀