Space Rocks — Player Instruction Manual

1) Overview

Space Rocks is a fast, classic arcade-style space shooter. You pilot a small ship in open space, destroy drifting rocks, avoid collisions, and survive escalating waves. The game emphasizes momentum-based movement, precise shots, and smart risk management.

Your goal is simple: score as high as possible before you run out of lives.

2) How to Start Playing

Open the game page in your browser.
If you see the game running, you can start immediately using the controls below.
If the game is paused (overlay visible), click Resume or press P to continue.

If sound does not play, click anywhere on the page once; many browsers require a user interaction before audio works.

3) Controls

Keyboard Controls (Desktop)

Rotate Left: Left Arrow (←)
Rotate Right: Right Arrow (→)
Thrust (Accelerate): Up Arrow (↑)
Fire: Space
Hyperspace Jump: H
Pause / Unpause: P
Restart (New Game): R

Touch Controls (Mobile / Tablet)

On touch devices, controls appear at the bottom of the screen:

⟲ Rotate Left
⟳ Rotate Right
↑ Thrust
● Fire
H Hyperspace
Ⅱ Pause / Resume

4) HUD and What It Means

At the top of the screen:

Score: Your current score.
Wave: The current level (higher waves are harder).
Power: Shows active power effect:
- Rapid = faster firing
- Shield = temporary protection
- — = no active power effect
Lives: How many ships you have remaining.
Best: Your highest score saved on this device/browser.

5) Core Gameplay Rules

Movement and Momentum

Your ship uses inertia: when you thrust, you accelerate, and you keep drifting until you slow down naturally.
Short, controlled thrust bursts usually work better than holding thrust continuously.

Shooting

Press Space (or ●) to fire.
You have a brief firing delay (cooldown). If you have Rapid, your cooldown is much shorter.

Rocks (Asteroids)

Rocks drift in from edges and move around the screen.
When you destroy a large rock, it splits into smaller rocks that move faster and are harder to dodge.

Collisions and Damage

You lose a life if you:

collide with a rock, or
get hit by an enemy projectile,
unless your ship is currently invulnerable or shielded (see below).

6) Hyperspace (Teleport) — How It Works

Press H (or tap H) to teleport to a random safe spot.

Important details:

Cooldown: You cannot use hyperspace again until the cooldown ends.
Risk: There is a small chance hyperspace destroys your ship instantly (this risk increases slightly as waves increase).
If hyperspace fails and destroys you, you lose one life. If you hit zero lives, the game ends.

Use hyperspace as an emergency escape when you’re boxed in.

7) Invulnerability Frames (Brief Safety After Spawning)

When your ship respawns after losing a life:

You are briefly invulnerable.
During invulnerability, your ship may “blink” visually.
Use this moment to reposition and stabilize your movement.

8) Power-Ups

Power-ups may drop after destroying rocks. They appear as small boxes with a letter inside.

To collect a power-up:

Fly your ship into it before it disappears.

Power-Up Types

R — Rapid Fire
- Temporarily reduces firing cooldown.
- Great for clearing dense fields of small rocks.
S — Shield
- Provides temporary protection from collisions and enemy bullets.
- When a shield absorbs a hit, the shield ends.
B — Bomb
- Immediately detonates and clears rocks currently on screen.
- Also grants a small score boost based on rocks cleared.
- Best used when the screen becomes overwhelming.
+ — Extra Life
- Adds 1 life.
- Rarest and most valuable.

9) Enemy Saucer (UFO)

Starting in later waves, an enemy saucer may enter the screen:

It moves across the play area and fires at your ship.
Its aim includes slight inaccuracy, but it is still dangerous.

How to handle it:

Keep moving unpredictably.
Use short thrust bursts to change direction quickly.
If you can line up shots safely, destroy it for a large score bonus.

10) Scoring (General Guidance)

Larger rocks are easier to hit but usually worth fewer points than small ones.
Smaller rocks are harder to hit and dodge, and generally worth more points.
Destroying the enemy saucer awards a significant score bonus.

Your score is saved in two ways:

Score: this run only
Best: saved locally in your browser for future sessions

11) Pause, Saving, and Resuming

Pausing

Press P or tap Ⅱ to pause.
When paused, the game displays an overlay with options like Resume and Restart.

Auto-Pause

The game may pause automatically if:

you switch tabs, or
the browser window loses focus.

Saving

The game periodically saves your run locally.
If you reload the page and a saved run exists, the game will offer to resume it.

Clearing a Saved Run

Use the overlay button Clear Save to remove the saved run from your browser.

12) Game Over and Restart

When you run out of lives:

The game displays Game Over.
Press R or click Restart to begin a new run.

13) Performance Notes

Space Rocks is lightweight and runs almost entirely in your browser:

Most work is done on the player’s device (CPU/GPU).
Your server mainly serves the HTML file (very low server load).

If you run many games on your site, server impact is still generally small unless you add heavy back-end features (accounts, global leaderboards, etc.).

14) Tips to Play Better

Use short thrust bursts instead of long burns.
When rocks split, prioritize clearing the most dangerous cluster first.
Save Hyperspace for “trapped” moments, not casual repositioning.
If you get Shield, use it aggressively to pass through tight areas safely.
Don’t chase every power-up if it puts you on a collision path.
Keep your ship near the center early; avoid corners where rocks can pin you.

15) Troubleshooting

“No sound”

Click anywhere on the page once and try again.
Some browsers block audio until user interaction.

“Controls not working”

Click the game window to ensure it has focus.
On some setups, the space bar may scroll the page if focus is not on the game.

“Game looks too big/small”

Zoom the browser (Ctrl + / Ctrl -) or rotate your phone to landscape.
The game scales to fit the page width.