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Oathan Rex
Oathan Rex

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🐍 Building a Premium Snake Game with Vanilla JavaScript

#javascript #gamedev #canvas #webdev

Classic arcade games never die — they just evolve.

I recently built a modern, polished Snake game using nothing but HTML5, CSS3, and vanilla JavaScript.

The goal was simple: keep the nostalgia, but add the kind of visual polish, responsiveness, and game feel you’d expect from a premium browser game.

🎮 Play the Game

👉 Live Demo: https://oathanrex.github.io/snake-game/

Snake - Premium Edition | Play Free Online

Classic Snake reinvented with stunning neon visuals, multiple modes, and smooth gameplay

oathanrex.github.io

✨ What Makes This Snake Game Different

This isn’t just another Snake clone. I focused heavily on responsiveness, clarity, and feedback.

🔥 Core Features

  • 3 Game Modes
    • Classic
    • No Walls
    • Obstacles
  • 4 Difficulty Levels
    • Easy, Normal, Hard, Insane
  • Premium Visuals
    • Neon glow effects
    • Particle explosions
    • Smooth canvas animations
  • Mobile Support
    • Swipe gestures
    • On-screen touch controls
  • Progressive Difficulty
    • Speed increases as you level up
  • Local High Scores
    • Stored using LocalStorage

🕹️ Controls

Platform Controls
Desktop Arrow Keys or WASD
Mobile Swipe or Touch Buttons
Pause ESC or P

Input buffering is used so direction changes feel responsive even at higher speeds.

🛠️ Tech Stack (No Frameworks)

I intentionally avoided frameworks to keep the project lightweight and transparent.

  • HTML5 Canvas — rendering & animation
  • Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+) — game logic
  • CSS3 — UI, layout, glow effects
  • Web Audio API — procedural sound effects
  • No external dependencies

⚙️ Technical Highlights

🎨 High-DPI Canvas Rendering

The game detects window.devicePixelRatio and scales the canvas accordingly, ensuring crisp visuals on Retina and 4K displays instead of blurry pixels.

🎧 Procedural Audio

All sound effects are generated with the Web Audio API, which:

  • Keeps the game lightweight
  • Avoids loading audio files
  • Allows dynamic pitch and timing

🧠 Clean Game Architecture

Even though the project is intentionally kept in a single file, the code is structured around clear responsibilities:

  • Input handling
  • Game state updates
  • Rendering loop
  • Particle system
  • Audio feedback

This makes the game easy to extend or tweak.

📱 Mobile-First Considerations

Mobile wasn’t an afterthought. The game includes:

  • Swipe detection
  • On-screen D-pad
  • Responsive layout
  • Particle limits for performance safety

The result is a smooth experience on both desktop and phones.

🚧 Challenges & Learnings

Some interesting challenges while building this project:

  • Preventing canvas blur on high-DPI displays
  • Handling browser audio autoplay restrictions
  • Balancing visual effects with performance
  • Avoiding input race conditions at high speed
  • Keeping gameplay consistent across devices

Each problem required small but important design decisions.

🎮 Try It Yourself

👉 Play here: https://oathanrex.github.io/snake-game/

Feedback, suggestions, and forks are welcome.

👨‍💻 Author

Oathan Rex

If you enjoyed the game or found the breakdown useful, feel free to leave a comment or share your thoughts 👋

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