About PixelBreak

PixelBreak is a small browser arcade I built myself. Every game runs directly in this page — there is nothing to download, no account to create and no launcher to install. Open it on a phone, an iPad, a school laptop or a desktop, pick a game, and it starts immediately. Your high scores are kept locally on the device you played on.

What's in it

There are just over thirty games, grouped so you can find something for the time you actually have. The action games are the quick, reflex-driven ones — a stunt-driving game with twelve levels, a space tunnel runner, an endless jumper, a snake, a brick breaker and a couple of space shooters. The puzzle games are slower: block-dropping, 2048, minesweeper, memory matching, a procedurally generated maze and a gravity puzzle where you change which way is down. The casual set is for a five-minute break — stacking towers, slicing fruit, whack-a-mole, a reaction-speed test, a typing race and a word scramble. There is also a pixel-art drawing board, and FakeStake, a play-money casino that uses fake coins only and never involves real money.

Playing against someone else

A handful of games are built for two people rather than one. Tank Wars, Neon Pong, Air Hockey and Pixel Fighters can each be played three ways: two players sharing one keyboard, one player against the computer, or across two separate devices. For the two-device mode, one player starts a room and the other joins by typing the room code — useful when two people have an iPad each and are sitting in the same room. There is no matchmaking and no chat; the room code is the whole system.

Controls

On a computer the games use the arrow keys and the space bar. On a touchscreen an on-screen D-pad and action button appear underneath the game, so everything is playable without a keyboard.

Where the games come from

All of the built-in games were written from scratch for this site. Several are openly inspired by well-known arcade concepts — the kind of games most people have played some version of — but the code, the artwork and the level design are my own, and none of it is copied from another game. If something is buggy or unfair, there is a feedback button at the top of the page and I do read it.