Why Most People Fail to Make a Game Using JavaScript (And How to Actually Do It)

You’ve probably seen those sleek "10-minute game" tutorials on YouTube. They make it look so easy. Just slap a few lines of code together, and boom—you're the next indie darling. Honestly? It's usually a lie. Most of those tutorials skip the parts that actually make a game functional, like state management, collision detection that doesn't glitch through walls, or even just basic asset loading.

If you're trying to make a game using javascript, you aren't just writing code; you're orchestrating a digital ecosystem. JavaScript wasn't originally built for high-performance gaming. It was built to make buttons turn blue when you click them. But thanks to the V8 engine and the sheer power of modern browsers, we can now run complex 60fps experiences directly in a tab. It's kinda wild when you think about it.

Let's get real for a second. You don't need a massive engine like Unity or Unreal to start. In fact, for 2D games, those are often overkill. You need a browser, a text editor like VS Code, and a solid understanding of the Document Object Model (DOM) versus the Canvas API. That’s where the magic happens.

The Canvas API: Your Digital Sketchbook

Most beginners try to move div elements around the screen using CSS. Stop. Just stop. While it's technically possible to build a game that way, it’s a performance nightmare once you have more than ten objects on screen.

Instead, you want the <canvas> element. It’s basically a blank rectangle where you tell JavaScript exactly which pixels to color.

Think of it like a flipbook. To create motion, you draw something, wipe the screen clean, move the coordinates slightly, and draw it again. You do this 60 times a second. This is called the Game Loop. If you don't master the game loop, your game will feel like a slideshow.

function gameLoop() {
    update(); // Move things
    draw();   // Show things
    requestAnimationFrame(gameLoop); 
}

That requestAnimationFrame bit is crucial. Old tutorials might tell you to use setInterval, but that’s bad advice. requestAnimationFrame syncs with your monitor's refresh rate, which prevents screen tearing and saves your laptop's battery from screaming in agony.

The "Hidden" Complexity of Game States

Here is where most people get stuck: transitions. It’s easy to make a character move. It’s hard to handle the transition from the "Start Screen" to the "Level" and then to the "Game Over" screen.

You need a State Machine. Essentially, your game needs to know exactly what "mode" it’s in at all times. Without this, your player might be able to move their character while the game is paused, or worse, the "Game Over" logic might trigger while they're still on the menu.

I’ve seen dozens of projects die because the code became a "spaghetti" mess of if/else statements. Use a simple object to track this. It saves lives. Or at least, it saves keyboards from being smashed.

Handling Physics Without Losing Your Mind

If you want to make a game using javascript that feels "juicy," you need physics. But writing a physics engine from scratch is a trap. I’ve fallen into it. You spend three weeks trying to figure out why your character bounces off a wall and flies into the stratosphere.

For simple platformers, you just need basic AABB (Axis-Aligned Bounding Box) collision. It sounds fancy, but it’s basically checking if two rectangles overlap.

1. Is the right side of Box A further left than the left side of Box B?
2. Is the bottom of Box A higher than the top of Box B?

If the answer to these and two other questions is "no," they've hit each other.

However, if you're doing something complex—think Angry Birds style physics or complex rotations—don't be a hero. Use a library. Matter.js is the gold standard for 2D physics in the browser. It handles gravity, friction, and elastic collisions so you can focus on making the game actually fun.

Audio is 50% of the Experience

Seriously.

You can have the most beautiful pixel art in the world, but if the "jump" sound is missing or the background music is a jarring 2-second loop, people will close the tab in thirty seconds. The Web Audio API is powerful but notoriously annoying to work with because browsers won't let sounds play until the user interacts with the page (thanks, autoplay ads, for ruining it for everyone).

Always wrap your audio initialization in a user-click event. Use small, compressed files. OGG for music and WAV for short sound effects usually works best for web compatibility.

The Engine Debate: To Framework or Not?

You’ll eventually hit a wall where you wonder if you should use a framework like Phaser.js or Kaboom.js.

Here’s the deal:
If you want to learn how games work, build your first one in vanilla JavaScript. You’ll understand the "why" behind every pixel. If you want to finish a game that people actually play, use a framework.

Phaser is the industry leader for a reason. It handles everything from asset preloading to sprite animations and tilemaps. Kaboom.js is newer and honestly a blast—it’s very "code-golf" friendly and lets you get a prototype running in like twenty lines.

Why Performance Optimization is Different on the Web

In a desktop game, you have dedicated RAM. In a browser game, you're sharing space with the user's 47 open Chrome tabs.

Garbage Collection is your biggest enemy. If you create new objects inside your game loop (like creating a new "bullet" object every time the player fires), JavaScript’s garbage collector will eventually kick in to clean up the old ones. When it does, your game will stutter for a millisecond. That’s death for a platformer.

The pro move? Object Pooling.

📖 Related: The Ellipsis Explained: What Do Three Dots Mean in Math?

Instead of creating and destroying bullets, you create a "pool" of 100 bullets at the start. When a bullet is fired, you move it from "hidden" to "active." When it hits a wall, you just hide it again. No new objects, no garbage collection, no stutter. Smooth as butter.

Deploying Your Creation

Making the game is only half the battle. You have to put it somewhere. Thankfully, the web is the easiest platform for distribution.

• GitHub Pages: Perfect for static games. Free, easy, and looks professional.
• Itch.io: The home of indie games. You can upload your JS folder as a ZIP, and it’ll run in an iframe on their site.
• Netlify/Vercel: Great if you’re using modern build tools like Vite.

Avoid using heavy assets. A 50MB background image will kill your game before the loading bar even finishes. Use tools like TinyPNG or convert your images to WebP. Your players with slow internet will thank you.

Taking the Next Step

Building a game is a marathon, not a sprint. You will get frustrated. You will spend four hours wondering why a variable is undefined. But the moment you see a little square move across the screen because you told it to? That’s a high you don't get from just writing business apps.

1. Start Tiny: Don't build an RPG. Build Pong. Then build Pong with a "power-up."
2. Master the Loop: Ensure your update and draw logic are separate.
3. Pick a Library Early: If your project gets bigger than one file, look into Vite for bundling.
4. Test on Mobile: Touch events are different from mouse clicks. If you want people to play on their phones, you need touchstart and touchend.
5. Read the Source: Go to GitHub and look at the source code for games like 2048 or Hextris. It's a masterclass in clean JS game architecture.

The web is the only platform where your "install base" is literally everyone with a screen. Go build something they can't stop playing.