PIXEL RUN

PIXEL RUN is a fast-paced, browser-based endless runner and 2D platformer built with TypeScript, React, Vite, and HTML5 Canvas.

• Play in your browser: https://pixelrun.localplayer.dev/
• Legacy GitHub Pages URL: https://jimm144.github.io/pixel-run/
• Play on itch.io: https://jimm144.itch.io/pixel-run

---

Screenshots

---

Gameplay

The player runs automatically across procedural terrain. Jump, double jump, boost, and dive-slam through four distinct biomes: Neon Jungle, Scorched Desert, Frozen Tundra, and Neon City.

• Enemy Interactions: Stomp ground enemies from above or outmaneuver airborne flyers.
• Dive-Slam: Perform mid-air downward slams to crush rooted hazards and break ground traps.
• Score Multiplier & Combos: Chaining stomps, coins, gems, and power-up pickups builds a multiplier up to x10.
• Power-Ups:
  • Shield: Absorbs one fatal hit or hazard.
  • Jump Shoes: Supercharges jump height.
  • Triple Jump: Grants a third mid-air leap.
  • Propeller Hat: Provides extended floatation and air stall.
• Local Persistence: High scores, run statistics, volumes, and daily quest progression are saved automatically in localStorage.

---

Dynamic Day / Night Cycle & Moon Phases

The sky dynamically transitions across a continuous day/night curve with celestial movements and subtle foreground ambient lighting:

• Daytime: The sun illuminates the landscape with biome-tailored atmospheric halos.
• Nighttime: Sky darkens into midnight gradients, stars twinkle in the upper atmosphere, and the moon rises.
• 5 Progressive Moon Phases:
  1. Full Moon (100% illuminated)
  2. Waning Gibbous (~75% illuminated)
  3. Half Moon (50% illuminated)
  4. Waning Crescent (~25% illuminated)
  5. Blood Eclipse: A cosmic crimson eclipse with fiery corona flares and deep eclipsed shadow.

---

Biomes

Four procedurally generated biomes alternate with smooth crossfading transitions:

1. Neon Jungle: Dense rainforest banyan canopies, palms, spore mushrooms, and tropical frogs.
2. Scorched Desert: Saguaro cacti, desert ruins, ancient pyramids, and skittering scarabs.
3. Frozen Tundra: Snow-capped pines, alpine firs, ice crystals, and frosty drones.
4. Neon City: Cyberpunk skyscrapers, glowing interior window grids, and drone flyers.

---

Controls

Keyboard

• Jump: SPACE, W, UP, Z, or K (Press twice for Double Jump, hold for higher leaps)
• Dive-Slam: S, DOWN, or J (Mid-air slam)
• Boost: D or RIGHT
• Pause: P or ESC

Touch / Mobile

• Tap: Jump / Double Jump
• Hold: Higher Jump
• DIVE Button: Dive-Slam
• Pause Button: Pause / Resume

---

Daily Quests

Four daily quests generate automatically based on the local calendar date:

• Tiers: Easy (40%), Medium (34%), Hard (20%), Special (5%), Impossible (1%)
• Objectives: Distance goals, score thresholds, combo milestones, power-up collections, enemy stomps, clean runs (zero kills/pickups), and eclipse survivals.

---

Technical Highlights & Optimizations

• Pure Canvas Rendering: 100% procedural pixel art drawn on a single HTML5 canvas with zero image assets.
• Web Audio API Synth: 4-channel chiptune synthesizer generating melodies, basslines, drums, and SFX in real time.
• Fast Single-File Load: One self-contained HTML build (~530 kB, ~147 kB gzipped). Multiplayer libraries (MQTT + PeerJS, ~180 kB) are fetched from a CDN only when a room is actually created/joined — multiplayer needs a network anyway, and the solo game stays fully offline.
• High-Performance Game Loop:
  • Pre-parsed $O(1)$ integer RGB color caching (HEX_CACHE).
  • $O(N)$ in-place linear two-pointer entity compaction.
  • Deterministic offscreen platform caching.
  • Batched particle state updates and star matrix transforms.

---

Development

Prerequisites

Requires Node.js.

Setup & Run

npm install
npm run dev

Production Build

npm run build

Generates a single self-contained dist/index.html file using vite-plugin-singlefile.

---

License

GPL-3.0. See LICENSE.