Gameplay screenshot of the Happy Bird arcade game

Happy Bird

Flappy Bird-inspired browser arcade built with a custom canvas engine, dynamic difficulty ramp, and comedic game-over clips.

Happy Bird

Arcade-style browser game inspired by Flappy Bird. Guide Happy Bird through an endless field of pipes, chase your high score, and enjoy a bit of comic relief via random video clips when you crash.

Features

  • Canvas-driven renderer with bespoke art style, dynamic background, and HUD overlays.
  • Responsive controls: tap/click, Space, or ArrowUp to flap; P to pause; R to restart once the skip window opens.
  • Progressive difficulty that ramps pipe speed with each point while keeping gaps fair.
  • Persistent best-score tracking via localStorage.
  • Polished audio experience with pooled sound effects for wing flaps, scoring, hits, and death.
  • Randomized “relapse” video player that appears on game over and unlocks skip after a short delay.
  • Automatic pause when the tab loses focus plus retina-friendly canvas resizing.

Tech Stack

  • HTML5 with semantic metadata and responsive layout.
  • CSS3 for layout, theming, and adaptive presentation.
  • Vanilla JavaScript (ES Modules) powering game logic, physics, rendering, audio, and state management.
  • Canvas 2D API for animation and collision feedback.
  • <audio> / <video> media elements for sound effects and game-over clips.

Getting Started

  1. Clone or copy this repository locally.
  2. Serve the files with any static web server (ES modules require HTTP, not file://): 
    # from the project root
npx serve .
# or
python -m http.server 5173
  3. Open the reported URL (e.g., http://localhost:5173) in a modern browser.
  4. Start playing by tapping/clicking the canvas or pressing Space.

Development Tips

  • Game configuration lives in scripts/config.js. Tweak gravity, pipe gap, spawn cadence, or death-video list there.
  • Assets:
    • Audio clips: game-audio/
    • Character art: images/
    • Game-over videos: relapse/
  • The main entry point (scripts/game.js) wires together state, rendering, input handling, and the game loop. Supporting modules live under scripts/game/.

Project Structure

.
|-- index.html         # Landing page with canvas + video elements
|-- styles/            # Global styling and responsive layout
|-- scripts/
|   |-- main.js        # Bootstraps the game on DOMContentLoaded
|   |-- config.js      # Gameplay constants and asset lists
|   |-- video.js       # Death-video controller with skip lock
|   `-- game/          # Core game modules (state, renderer, pipes, bird, audio)
|-- game-audio/        # Sound effects (wing, point, hit, die)
|-- images/            # Visual assets such as the Happy Bird icon
`-- relapse/           # Pool of MP4 clips played after a crash

Controls

  • Space, ArrowUp, tap, or click: flap
  • P: toggle pause
  • R: reset after the skip delay once game over is reached

Configuration Highlights (scripts/config.js)

  • WORLD.gravity, WORLD.jumpV: tune feel of the bird’s flight.
  • WORLD.pipeGap, WORLD.pipeSpawnMsRange: manage challenge and pacing.
  • DEATH_VIDEOS: update the playlist of clips shown on game over.
  • DEATH_VIDEO_SKIP_DELAY_MS: adjust how long players must watch before skipping.
  • DIFFICULTY_CAP and WORLD.speedRampPerScore: govern speed scaling over time.

License

Licensed under the MIT License. See the inline text below and adapt the copyright holder.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 YOUR NAME

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.