Ship a Phaser web game in an evening

Project scaffold and Phaser hello world

Open a terminal in a fresh folder. Run:

$ npm create vite@latest dodger -- --template vanilla-ts
$ cd dodger
$ npm install phaser
$ npm run dev

Vite gives you instant hot reload. Open http://localhost:5173. You'll see Vite's default page. We'll replace its content next.

Now use Pixeldex's pixel-perfect camera prompt as a reference for Phaser+TS structure, then send this scaffold prompt to Claude:

$ Build me a Phaser 3.70+ TypeScript scaffold for an arcade dodger game.

// shape
- Three scenes: BootScene, MainScene, GameOverScene.
- Game config: 320x480 logical resolution, scale Phaser.Scale.FIT, autoCenter.
- BootScene generates colored rect Texture2Ds at runtime for: player (green 24x16), obstacle (red 20x20), coin (yellow 14x14). Use this.textures.generate or this.add.graphics + generateTexture. No external assets.
- MainScene draws a starfield background (30 tiny white pixels at random positions, rendered via this.add.graphics).

// behavior
- BootScene immediately starts MainScene after generating textures.
- MainScene shows the player at the bottom-center, no movement yet.
- GameOverScene shows a "GAME OVER" text + "Press SPACE to restart" + final score (passed via scene data).

// constraints
- TypeScript strict mode. No any, no //@ts-ignore.
- One file per scene (boot.ts, main.ts, gameover.ts) plus main.ts entry that creates the game.
- Use a single shared CONSTANTS object (export const) for: WIDTH, HEIGHT, PLAYER_Y.

// return format
- Four files in separate code blocks: boot.ts, main.ts (scene), gameover.ts, index.ts (entry).
- A snippet showing what to put in index.html.
- No prose before or after.

Save each file in src/. Update index.html to match. Reload — you should see a black starfield with a green rectangle (the player) at the bottom.

End of Hour 1: a Phaser game running with three scenes wired up.

Player movement and falling obstacles

Send this prompt:

$ Extend MainScene to add player movement and falling obstacles.

// player
- Create the player sprite at (CONSTANTS.WIDTH / 2, CONSTANTS.PLAYER_Y).
- Arrow keys move it left/right at 220 px/s. Clamp to screen bounds.
- Read input via this.input.keyboard.createCursorKeys().

// obstacles
- A Phaser group of obstacles at this.obstacles.
- Spawn one obstacle every 700ms via a Phaser timer event.
- Spawn position: random x in [10, WIDTH-10], y = -20.
- Each obstacle moves down at 160 px/s. Destroy it when y > HEIGHT + 20.

// collision
- this.physics.overlap(player, obstacles, () => this.scene.start('GameOverScene', { score: this.score }))
- For now, this.score = 0; we'll increment in the next step.

// constraints
- Use Phaser arcade physics. Add this.physics.world.setBounds.
- All numbers (spawn rate, fall speed, etc.) as named constants at the top of MainScene.

// return format
- One updated main.ts file in a code block.
- No prose before or after.

Reload. Use the arrows to dodge the falling red rectangles. When one hits you, you flip to the GameOver scene.

End of Hour 2: the core gameplay loop is alive.

Coins, score HUD, and difficulty ramp

$ Extend MainScene with coins, a score HUD, and a difficulty ramp.

// coins
- A separate group this.coins.
- Spawn one coin every 1100ms (use a separate timer from obstacles).
- Coins fall at 120 px/s.
- this.physics.overlap(player, coins, (p, c) => { c.destroy(); this.score += 10; })

// score HUD
- A Phaser text object at (8, 8) showing "Score: 0".
- Updates every frame from this.score.
- Use Phaser's built-in font (no need to load).
- Style: 14px monospace, white.

// difficulty
- Every 10 seconds, increase obstacle fall speed by 20px/s and decrease spawn delay by 50ms (clamp delay to 200ms minimum).
- Use a this.time.addEvent loop with delay 10000 and loop true.

// game over
- When transitioning to GameOverScene, pass { score: this.score } as scene data.
- GameOverScene displays the final score below "GAME OVER".

// return format
- Updated main.ts and gameover.ts in two code blocks.
- No prose before or after.

Reload. Now you collect coins, score climbs, the game gets harder over time. The GameOver screen shows your final score.

End of Hour 3: a real game with difficulty curve.

Sound, polish, and ship to itch.io

Sound: grab two free CC0 SFX from sfxr.me (more options on the audio toolkit page) — one "pickup/coin" and one "explosion/hit." Save in public/sounds/ as coin.wav and hit.wav.

Send this prompt:

$ Add sound, screen flash, and a build step.

// audio
- BootScene preloads /sounds/coin.wav and /sounds/hit.wav via this.load.audio.
- MainScene plays this.sound.play('coin') on coin pickup, 'hit' on collision.
- Add a small pitch jitter (+- 0.05) on coin so identical SFX don't sound mechanical.

// screen flash on hit
- On collision, before transitioning to GameOver, run this.cameras.main.flash(200, 255, 100, 100) and delay scene transition by 300ms.

// vite build for itch.io
- Add a build script step. The output should go to dist/ and use relative paths (./assets/...) so itch.io can serve it as a zipped folder.
- In vite.config.ts: base: './'.

// return format
- Updated boot.ts, main.ts, vite.config.ts in code blocks.
- No prose before or after.

Run npm run build. You get a dist/ folder. Test it locally: cd dist && python3 -m http.server 8000, open localhost:8000 — game should run.

Upload to itch.io:

1. Zip the entire dist/ folder.
2. itch.io → Upload new project. Name it "Dodger" (or whatever). Kind: HTML. Pricing: free.
3. Upload the zip. Check This file will be played in browser. Set viewport: 320x480 (or 640x960 for embedded display).
4. Save and view. Game should run in browser.

Share the URL.