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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsTo make a browser platformer, build a small level around one reliable cycle: read input, update the player and collisions, then draw the scene. Use plain JavaScript and Canvas when you want to understand each part of that cycle; choose Phaser when you want a framework to provide scene structure, input tools, rendering options and physics systems. Start with movement, jumping and solid platforms before adding collectibles or enemies.
Choose Canvas or Phaser
Both routes can produce a browser game. The difference is how much of the machinery you want to write yourself. MDN’s game-development tutorials cover both Canvas and Phaser; Phaser describes itself as a 2D framework for browser games and supports JavaScript or TypeScript.
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| Route | Best fit | What you build or get |
|---|---|---|
| JavaScript and Canvas | Learning how the mechanics work | You write the update loop, drawing, input handling and collision logic explicitly. |
| Phaser | Getting a structured playable prototype | The framework supplies a scene lifecycle and facilities for input, rendering and physics; you still define the game and its rules. |
Neither route is established as the performance winner by the cited documentation. For a small learning project, choose based on whether you want to see the mechanics directly or work within a game framework.
Set up the project and serve it locally
A minimal project can contain an HTML page, a JavaScript entry point and, if needed, an assets folder for images, audio or other files. When the game loads resources, serve the project over HTTP instead of opening the page directly with a file:// URL. Phaser’s getting-started guide explains that browser security restrictions limit local-file access; using a local web server lets the project request its resources through HTTP.
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This is a development setup issue, not a special platformer requirement. A game that loads assets or other project resources needs a way for the browser to access them under the relevant security rules.
Define the player, platforms and world
Keep the initial state small and explicit. For a custom Canvas game, the player needs a position, velocity, width, height and a grounded state. Represent a basic platform as a rectangle. These are practical choices for a simple implementation, not a universal model required by Canvas.
- Position: the player’s location in the game world.
- Velocity: how quickly the player is moving horizontally and vertically.
- Dimensions: the rectangle used to draw the player and check contact.
- Grounded state: whether the player is standing on a surface and can start a jump.
- Platforms: solid rectangles that the player can land on or collide with.
If the level will scroll, keep world coordinates separate from canvas coordinates. The world position describes where something is in the level; the canvas position describes where it appears in the current view.
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Build the run loop
A game loop repeatedly samples input, advances the simulation and renders the current state. In a Canvas game, schedule the next frame with requestAnimationFrame, which asks the browser to run a callback before a repaint. MDN notes that callbacks are usually invoked about 60 times per second, but the rate may be lower in background tabs. That cadence is not a reliable unit of movement.
Use elapsed time, not frame counts
Measure elapsed time and express movement in units per second. If horizontal speed is measured in pixels per second, multiply it by the elapsed time in seconds to get the distance for that update. Otherwise, a player’s speed can change when the callback rate changes.
Background tabs may receive fewer animation callbacks, and returning to a tab can leave a large gap between updates. A practical safeguard is to clamp unusually large elapsed-time steps or reset the timing baseline when the game resumes. This is an implementation choice to prevent a pause from producing an extreme movement step, not an API requirement.
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Order each Canvas update consistently
- Get the elapsed time since the previous update.
- Read the current input state.
- Set horizontal movement and handle a permitted jump.
- Apply gravity to vertical velocity.
- Move the player and resolve contact with platforms.
- Clear the canvas, then draw the platforms and player in their current positions.
- Schedule the next frame with
requestAnimationFrame.
MDN’s Canvas animation guide describes clearing and drawing frames and using requestAnimationFrame for repaint-aligned animation. Keep simulation updates and drawing conceptually separate: the update changes the game state; drawing displays it.
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Phaser’s official first-game tutorial demonstrates a scene organized around asset preloading, scene creation and per-frame updates. It also uses the AUTO renderer setting. Follow the version context of the material you are using: that tutorial is for Phaser 3, while the TimeStep documentation identifies its current API as Phaser v4.1.0. The core article here does not assume that their APIs are interchangeable.
Phaser manages its own time-step loop and documents focus-related pause and resume behavior in its TimeStep documentation. You still need to decide how your game should behave when focus changes, then test that behavior.
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Add keyboard input and jumping
For a custom implementation, listen for key-down and key-up events to maintain which keys are currently pressed. Read that state during the update step rather than moving the player directly inside the event handlers. This keeps input, simulation and drawing in a predictable order.
With Phaser, create cursor keys or define custom WASD bindings. MDN’s desktop keyboard and mouse controls guide discusses pressed-state keyboard input and includes Phaser control examples.
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Resolve collisions with simple platform geometry
Start with axis-aligned rectangles: a rectangular player and rectangular platforms. A useful first collision milestone is to handle three contacts correctly:
- The player lands on a platform and stops falling.
- The player hits the underside of a platform and cannot pass through it.
- The player runs into a platform’s side and cannot pass through it.
For a first level, resolve vertical contact before adding slopes or moving platforms. Collision detection is a core game-development concept in MDN’s tutorial index, and Phaser’s platform-game tutorial demonstrates collisions and physics. Do not add more elaborate geometry until these basic contacts behave reliably.
Expand only after the core level works
A controllable character, a jump, solid platforms and a test level are enough to prove the central loop. Add other game elements as separate steps, so a collision or input problem remains easy to isolate:
- Add another platform to test different jump distances and landings.
- Add a collectible with a clear pickup condition.
- Add a hazard or enemy with a defined failure response.
- Add a restart condition so the level can be played again.
- Add a visible goal to make the level’s end clear.
Phaser’s introductory game tutorial uses platforms, collectible stars and enemies as an example of this kind of progression. Those elements are useful additions, not prerequisites for a working platformer loop.
Test the game’s failure-prone cases
Testing only a normal run through the level can miss problems caused by key state, focus changes or collision edges. Check each case deliberately:
- Press and release movement keys; confirm the player does not keep moving after release.
- Jump, fall and land on each platform, including its edge.
- Confirm the player cannot jump again while airborne unless the design permits it.
- Trigger the failure and restart conditions.
- Resize the browser and check that the canvas and level remain usable.
- Switch to another tab, wait, then return and check that movement has not jumped forward unexpectedly.
Background tabs may receive fewer animation callbacks, and Phaser documents focus-related pause and resume behavior in its TimeStep API. Decide whether your game should pause or continue while unfocused, then verify the result. Add touch controls only if mobile play is part of the project’s scope.
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