🧱 Breakout

How to play

A wall of 60 bricks sits at the top of the screen in six coloured rows, with a paddle and one ball below it. Bounce the ball into the wall to clear it while keeping the ball from falling past the paddle. Clearing every brick moves you to the next level, where the ball launches faster; losing the ball three times ends the run.

• Left and Right arrow keys — slide the paddle 15 pixels at a time.
• Mouse — move the pointer across the play area and the paddle follows it, centred on the cursor.
• Space — launch the ball off the paddle, and start the game when no run is in progress.
• Start button — begin a run or restart from level 1 with fresh lives.

Scoring

Each brick destroyed is worth 10 points. The two top rows take two hits before they break and are drawn at full opacity until the first hit fades them, so those rows pay the same 10 points for twice the work. You start with 3 lives and lose one whenever the ball drops below the paddle. Clearing the wall raises the level and rebuilds all 60 bricks, with the ball launching at 3 plus half the level number in each direction.

Tips

• The paddle steers the ball. Contact near an edge sends it out sharply, contact in the middle sends it nearly straight up.
• Dig a channel up one side so the ball gets trapped above the wall and clears several rows on its own.
• Switch to the mouse once the ball is fast. Fifteen pixels per keypress will not cross the board in time at higher levels.
• Clear the faded one-hit bricks last. The two-hit rows are the slower job and you want plenty still on screen while you work on them.

Frequently asked questions