12 JavaScript Game Ideas with Source Code
2023 February 13 • 
5 min read
If you are into game development and you already have some basic JavaScript knowledge, then you are at the right place. This article collects some JavaScript game ideas with tutorials and source code included.
The following tutorials will help you learn more about building games in JavaScript, and give you some ideas on what project to take on next. Let's start with the simpler, easier games to make, the ones that can be created entirely with vanilla JavaScript, then we will move on to more advanced stuff.
Vanilla JavaScript Game Ideas
The following game ideas can all be recreated using only vanilla JavaScript, but later on, we will also look at more complex ideas for which we can use a game framework. We will leave a link to the tutorial for every game idea, and you will also find links to the GitHub projects there.
Create a Hangman
Building a hangman is a fun project to take on, and we can learn a lot along the way. Working with game logic, randomization, and switching between game assets. This tutorial is available on Webtips as part of a preview lesson from our JavaScript course.
Create a Memory Game
One of our recent tutorials covers how to create a memory game to improve your memory and your JavaScript skills. You will learn about how to flip cards, and how to interact with them. We will also see how to work with timers and game states.
Create a Tic-Tac-Toe Game
Next, we have the classic tic-tac-toe game. In this tutorial, you can learn more about grids, event listeners, and working with a game state. Here you will see how to create turn-based games. The entire logic for the game will fit into less than 100 lines of code.
Create a Snake Game from Checkboxes
Want to look into creating a snake game? This is made entirely with checkboxes and a radio button. In this project, you will learn a lot about working with arrays and manipulating DOM elements. We will also look into how to create a scoring system.
Create Particle Effects
Want to create particle effects for a game? For this, you can use the canvas element. This tutorial is not a game on its own, but it teaches you a fundamental part of game development, how to create particle effects. This project will tackle this from the point of fireworks.
Create a Rock, Paper, Scissors Game
The following game ideas can be found on Youtube, as we have yet to create tutorials for these games on Webtips. The first one is rock, paper scissors, created by WebDevSimplied that you can play against your computer.
Create a Quiz Game
Also created by the same channel, is a quiz game that teaches you what steps you need to take when building out JavaScript games, or any other project for that matter. It teaches you how to create a quiz game that you can later easily extend and customize.
Create a Minesweeper
Looking for an even more complex game idea? Minesweeper it is then. Created by The Coding Train who is all about coding challenges, in this tutorial, you will learn how to work with cells, loops, arrays, shapes, and there will be some math involved too.
Create a Word Scramble
For the last vanilla JavaScript game idea, you can only find the source code on Codepen. This project takes on the challenge to create a word scramble game. Work with multiple difficulty levels, randomization, and event listeners for interaction.
Phaser Game Ideas
Now let's move to more advanced concepts. For the following 3 game ideas, we are going to use Phaser, a JavaScript Game Framework to rebuild classic games, such as Atari's Breakout or Mario.
Remake Mario
Mario, first created in 1985 is now a classic platformer game. In this tutorial, you will learn about working with tiles: generating a world with tilemap, loading it into the game, and working with tilemap objects. You will also learn about animating sprites, camera movement, and particle effects. This tutorial is broken down into three parts.
Remake Chrome's Dino Game
Chrome's Dino comes online when you go offline. Just like Mario, this tutorial is also broken down into three parts due to its complexity. A lot of concepts are covered in this series starting from building out a game UI and generating game objects, all the way to handling game logic with timers.
Create Atari's Breakout
Last but not least, in this tutorial, you will learn how you can recreate the famous Atari Breakout game, again with the help of Phaser. We will look at configuring the game, preloading assets, creating the world with physics, displaying texts, adding collision detection, and much more.
Remove adsSummary
Hope you found the right game idea for your next project. If you are looking for more JavaScript project ideas — not necessarily just game ideas — check out our 100 JavaScript project ideas with takeaways and resources such as designs and tutorials, so can only focus on coding. Thank you for reading through, happy coding! 👨💻
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