Last month, I challenged myself: build browser games using nothing but vanilla JavaScript and HTML5 Canvas. No Unity. No Godot exports. No game frameworks. Just the same tools I use to build web apps.
28 games later, I want to share what surprised me most about the transition from web dev to game dev.
Why a Web Developer Would Do This
I've been building web tools and micro-SaaS products for a while. But I kept noticing something: the feedback loop in game dev is instant. You change a number, and the game feels different. In web dev, you change a CSS value and... the button is 2px to the left.
I wanted that instant feedback. And I wanted to see how far vanilla JS could go.
The Tech Stack (Embarrassingly Simple)
- HTML5 Canvas for rendering
- Vanilla JavaScript for everything else
- Vite for bundling
- itch.io for distribution
No React. No Three.js. No Phaser. Just ctx.fillRect() and vibes.
5 Things That Surprised Me
1. The Game Loop Changes How You Think
In web dev, your code runs in response to events — clicks, scrolls, API responses. In game dev, your code runs 60 times per second whether anything happened or not.
function gameLoop(timestamp) {
const delta = timestamp - lastTime;
lastTime = timestamp;
update(delta);
render();
requestAnimationFrame(gameLoop);
}
This simple shift changes everything. You stop thinking in events and start thinking in state over time. It's closer to physics simulation than web development.
2. Collision Detection Is Harder Than It Looks
My first attempt at collision detection was checking every object against every other object. O(n²). It worked for 10 objects and died at 100.
The web dev equivalent: it's like if document.querySelector() had to manually walk every DOM node. You don't think about it because the browser handles it. In games, you are the browser.
I ended up using spatial partitioning (grid-based) for my tower defense game. Went from 2 FPS to 60 FPS overnight.
3. State Management Is Actually Easier
Here's the irony: after years of fighting Redux, Context API, and state synchronization bugs in React apps — game state is refreshingly simple.
One global state object. Mutate it directly. Render it every frame. No virtual DOM diffing. No re-render optimization. No stale closures.
const state = {
player: { x: 100, y: 200, hp: 100 },
enemies: [],
score: 0
};
It felt wrong at first. Then it felt liberating.
4. Juice Makes Everything Better
"Juice" is what game devs call the small feedback effects: screen shake, particles, sound effects, easing animations. I learned this the hard way.
My puzzle game without juice: functional but dead.
My puzzle game with a 0.1s scale bounce on tile placement: felt amazing.
Web dev equivalent: transitions and micro-interactions. But in games, the impact is 10x more noticeable because the user is constantly engaged.
5. Distribution Is the Real Challenge
Building 28 games was the easy part. Getting anyone to play them? That's the web dev to game dev culture shock.
In web dev, you deploy to a URL and share it. SEO handles discovery eventually. In game dev, you need to:
- Submit to game jams (I submitted to 6)
- Write devlogs
- Engage in communities
- Make your game page stand out among thousands
Sound familiar? It's content marketing, but for games.
What I'd Tell Web Developers Considering Game Dev
Start with what you know. HTML5 Canvas + vanilla JS is a perfectly valid game engine for 2D games. You don't need Unity to make something fun.
Build small games first. My progression: snake → breakout → tower defense → puzzle games. Each one taught exactly one new concept.
The skills transfer more than you think. Event systems, state machines, asset loading, performance optimization — you already know the patterns. The domain is different, but the thinking is the same.
If you want to see what 28 browser games look like, I put them all on my itch.io page. They're all free to play in your browser — no downloads needed.
What's your experience crossing between web dev and game dev? I'd love to hear in the comments.
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Top comments (1)
This is very true. I had a similar experience when I once built a small browser game just for testing Canvas. The biggest mindset shift was the game loop — thinking in continuous updates instead of user events felt completely different.
Also agree on the “juice” point. Even a small animation or feedback makes a huge difference in how it feels.
For web developers, this is honestly one of the best ways to understand performance and state deeply. It improves your normal web dev skills too.