FLAPPY ROCKET

Saadie Lab  •  v1.0  •  2026

About the Game

Flappy Rocket is a premium infinite arcade runner built entirely with vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Zero dependencies. Zero build tools. Open index.html in any modern browser and play instantly.

Pilot a rocket through an endless corridor of column obstacles by tapping or clicking to thrust against gravity. Collect coins during each run to unlock new environments and rockets from the in-game store. Every gap cleared scores a point. There is no finish line — only a higher score.

Key Features

• 10 unique playable environments with animated backgrounds and custom pipe styles
• 15 procedurally drawn rockets — all rendered with Canvas 2D, no sprite sheets
• 3 difficulty modes: Normal, Hard, and Insane — each with global speed and gap multipliers
• 10+ automatic progression levels — speed and gap difficulty increase as your score climbs
• Full coin economy — earn coins in-run, spend in the inline store to unlock content
• Complete ad monetization — reward ad on Game Over, lobby interstitial with configurable frequency
• All audio synthesized at runtime via Web Audio API — no audio files bundled
• Zero dependencies — pure HTML5, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript
• All player data persisted via localStorage — no server or backend required

Environments

10 unique environments, each with a distinct animated background, custom pipe style, and particle effects. First environment is free; the remaining 9 unlock with in-game coins.

1. Deep Space — Twinkling stars and nebula clouds. Free.
2. Volcanic — Rising embers, lava glow, basalt pipes. 30 coins.
3. Arctic — Drifting snowflakes, aurora bands, ice pipes. 50 coins.
4. Neon City — Perspective grid, neon glows, pink-trimmed pipes. 80 coins.
5. Cyber Grid — Digital scanlines and glitch flashes. 120 coins.
6. Void Storm — Dark void with electric particle bursts. 150 coins.
7. Nebula Core — Dense star clusters and colorful gas clouds. 180 coins.
8. Desert Storm — Dust particles and sand haze. 200 coins.
9. Abyss — Deep ocean with drifting bubbles. 240 coins.
10. Corrupted — Glitched reality with digital distortion effects. 300 coins.

Rockets

15 rockets are available in the store. All drawn procedurally every frame — no sprite sheets. Flame shape randomizes each frame for organic flicker. First rocket is free.

• Neon — Free
• Inferno — 20 coins
• Glacier — 40 coins
• Phantom — 60 coins
• Solar — 80 coins
• Crimson — 100 coins
• Specter — 120 coins
• Vortex — 140 coins
• Titan — 160 coins
• Wraith — 180 coins
• Aurora — 200 coins
• Magma — 220 coins
• Quantum — 250 coins
• Serpent — 280 coins
• Omega — 320 coins

Difficulty Modes

• Normal — Standard gap sizes and pipe speed (1× multiplier).
• Hard — 20% faster pipes, 18% narrower gaps (1.2× speed, 0.82× gap).
• Insane — 45% faster pipes, 35% narrower gaps (1.45× speed, 0.65× gap).

All three modes include automatic level scaling — columns scroll faster and gaps narrow as your score climbs, across 10+ progression levels. Pipe spacing adjusts dynamically with speed so at no point are pipes unreachably close together.

How to Play

1. Open the lobby. Select an environment and a rocket.
2. Choose a difficulty: Normal, Hard, or Insane.
3. Press Launch Mission.
4. The rocket falls due to gravity. Tap, click, or press Space to thrust upward.
5. Guide the rocket through the gap in each column pair. Each gap cleared = 1 point.
6. Collect coins that appear between columns to spend in the store.
7. Do not touch the columns or the top or bottom edge of the screen.
8. The run ends on any collision. Your best score and coins are saved automatically.
9. On game over, watch a reward ad to revive and continue your run from where you died.

Tip: Short taps give better control than holding. The rocket tilts with its velocity — read where it is heading and anticipate the next gap early. The rocket is fast — react early and use gentle taps to stay centered in the gap.

Controls

Settings

• Sound Effects — Toggle all audio on or off.
• Thrust Trail — Toggle the exhaust particle stream behind the rocket. Off by default.
• Screen Shake — Toggle the death shake effect on collision. Off by default.
• Show HUD — Toggle score, level, and coin display during play.
• Graphics Quality — Low / Medium / High. Controls particle density and background detail. Medium is the default.
• FPS Cap — 30 FPS (battery saving) / 60 FPS (recommended) / Uncapped.
• Difficulty — Normal / Hard / Insane. Applies globally, including level scaling.
• Screen Width — 30% / 60% / 100% (full width, default). Controls the game frame width on desktop. On mobile, the frame is always full-width.

Ad Monetization

• Reward Ad — Shown on the Game Over screen. Player watches the ad and is revived with score intact. Button re-enables on each new death.
• Lobby Interstitial Ad — Fires automatically when the player returns to the lobby. Frequency is configured via the AD_LOBBY_FREQUENCY constant in script/js/ad-modal.js (default: every 2nd visit).
• Easy Integration — Paste any ad network code into a single replaceable file (ad-placeholder.html). Compatible with Google AdSense, AdMob web units, Media.net, PropellerAds, and any custom HTML banner.

Tech Stack

• HTML5 Canvas 2D — All graphics rendered procedurally every frame. No image assets.
• Web Audio API — All sound synthesized at runtime. No audio files.
• Vanilla JavaScript — No React, no Phaser, no jQuery. Pure browser APIs only.
• Google Fonts CDN — Orbitron, Space Grotesk, Rajdhani, Share Tech Mono. Loaded via CDN; requires an internet connection on first load (cached by the browser after that).
• localStorage — Best score, coins, unlocks, and settings all persist automatically.
• Inline store — The full 10-environment and 15-rocket store renders inside the lobby card via a CSS flip animation. No iframes, no separate store pages.
• Speed-aware pipe spacing — Pipe gaps widen automatically as speed increases. Gap size scales with screen height (not fixed pixels) so every screen size gets a fair challenge.
• Zero npm. Zero build tools. Zero dependencies.

Requirements & Compatibility

No server required for gameplay. Open index.html directly in any supported browser.

• Chrome 80+
• Firefox 75+
• Safari 14+
• Edge 80+
• iOS Safari 14+
• Android Chrome 80+

Note: The ad system uses an iframe (ad-placeholder.html). Serve via a local or live web server during development — opening via file:// may block the ad iframe in some browsers. The in-game store is fully inline and does not use iframes.