Asteroids

Asteroids is a classic arcade game that puts together many of the concepts learned in this course. You have probably played the game in some form or another, but if you have not here is a site with a version close to the original. Your goal with this project is to recreate the core Asteroids gameplay while updating and/or customizing it. For example, the graphics, while nostalgic, are not up to snuff, you can do better with images. Likewise, the game is pretty basic, it could be improved with more "enemy" types or the addition of power-ups, multiple gun types, etc. Below are recommended steps to getting the core game working before making the additions. Make sure to test and debug after each step.

  1. Create a ship (a simple shape or image) at the center of the screen.
  2. Add keyboard control for movement and rotation.
  3. Make sure movement acts toroidally--that being if you go off one side of the screen you come back on the opposite.
  4. Add ability to shoot one bullet that is either destroyed when hitting the end of the screen or after it has been on-screen for a certain amount of time.
  5. Expand on this and allow shooting multiple (but not infinite numbers of) bullets.
  6. Place asteroids into the game that move.
  7. Make the bullets interact with the asteroids by destroying each.
  8. Make the ship interact with the asteroids by causing game over. Next, add lives so each hit takes off one life until you are out.
  9. Respawning immediately will just cause your ship to get destroyed again, so you should either respawn at a random location (where an asteroid is not) or receive temporary invincibility at respawn (the better option).
  10. Make asteroids break into smaller asteroids before being destroyed.
  11. These asteroids should then break into smaller ones, so there should be three sizes total.
Next up, add your improvements!