Games are an excellent way to improve front-end development skills. Unlike traditional CRUD applications, they require algorithms, real-time state management, animations, and user interactions to work together seamlessly.
To challenge myself, I built a Candy Crush-inspired Match-3 game entirely with React and TypeScript, without using a game engine.
🎮 Live Demo:
https://candy-crush-gratuit.vercel.app/
🚀 Why This Project?
The goal was to recreate the core mechanics of a Match-3 game while keeping the project lightweight, responsive, and enjoyable on both desktop and mobile devices.
Rather than focusing only on the visual aspect, I wanted to implement all the gameplay mechanics from scratch.
🛠️ Tech Stack
- React 18
- TypeScript
- Create React App
- HammerJS (touch gestures)
- CSS3
✨ Features
- 🍬 Drag & Drop gameplay
- 📱 Mobile touch support with HammerJS
- 🎯 Automatic match detection
- ↔️ Horizontal and vertical combinations
- ⬇️ Gravity system
- 🎲 Random candy generation
- 🔥 Combo detection
- 📊 Live score tracking
- 📈 Progress indicator
- 🔀 Shuffle board
- 🔄 Restart game
- 📱 Fully responsive interface
🧠 Game Logic
The game board is represented as a two-dimensional grid where each cell contains a candy.
Every move follows the same sequence:
- Swap two candies
- Validate the move
- Detect all horizontal and vertical matches
- Remove matching candies
- Apply gravity so candies fall into empty spaces
- Generate new candies at the top
- Scan the board again for new combinations
- Repeat until the board becomes stable
This recursive process creates the chain reactions that make Match-3 games so satisfying.
🔍 Match Detection
After each move, the board is scanned to find groups of three or more identical candies.
The algorithm checks both:
- Horizontal matches
- Vertical matches
Every detected match is removed simultaneously before the gravity phase begins.
This also allows multiple combinations and combo chains to occur naturally.
Example:
for each cell
check horizontal
check vertical
if match
remove candies
📱 Mobile Support
To provide a better experience on smartphones and tablets, the project integrates HammerJS for touch gesture recognition.
Desktop users can play with the mouse, while mobile users simply swipe candies with their fingers.
Both input methods use exactly the same game logic.
⚡ Performance
A Match-3 game continuously updates the board after every move.
To keep gameplay smooth, I focused on:
- Efficient board updates
- Lightweight React state management
- Minimal unnecessary re-renders
- Optimized array manipulation
- Smooth gameplay during long combo cascades
🚧 Technical Challenges
Although the gameplay looks simple, implementing the mechanics required solving several challenges:
- Preventing invalid moves
- Detecting multiple simultaneous matches
- Handling combo cascades
- Applying gravity efficiently
- Synchronizing animations with state updates
- Supporting both mouse and touch interactions
- Keeping rendering performant
These mechanics represent the most interesting part of the project.
📚 What I Learned
This project allowed me to improve my skills in:
- React
- TypeScript
- State management
- Grid-based algorithms
- Recursive game logic
- Performance optimization
- Mobile interactions
- Interactive UI development
Building games is a fun way to practice algorithms while creating engaging user experiences.
💡 Future Improvements
Some ideas for future versions include:
- 🍭 Special candies
- 💥 Bomb combinations
- 🎯 Level objectives
- 🔊 Sound effects
- 🎵 Background music
- 🏆 Online leaderboard
- 💾 Save progression
- 🌍 Additional game modes
🎉 Conclusion
Building this Match-3 game was a rewarding challenge that combined front-end development with algorithm design.
It demonstrates how React can be used to build highly interactive applications beyond traditional business interfaces.
If you're interested in React, TypeScript, or browser game development, I'd love to hear your feedback!
🎮 Play the game here:
👉 https://candy-crush-gratuit.vercel.app/
🏷️ Tags
react typescript javascript gamedev frontend css webdev algorithms
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