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To make a browser platformer, build a small level around a loop that reads input, updates the player and collisions, then draws the latest state. Use plain JavaScript and Canvas if you want to learn how those mechanics fit together; choose Phaser if you want its scene lifecycle, input tools, rendering options, and physics facilities. Start with a character, a few platforms, and reliable jumping and landing before adding collectibles or hazards.

Choose Canvas or Phaser

Both routes can produce a browser game. Your choice is mainly about how much of the game machinery you want to assemble yourself.

Route What you work with Best fit
JavaScript and Canvas You write the update and drawing code, track input, and implement collision handling. Learning how the game loop and platform mechanics work, or keeping a prototype deliberately small.
Phaser The framework provides a scene lifecycle and facilities for input, rendering, and physics. Phaser supports JavaScript or TypeScript and focuses on 2D browser games. Getting a structured, playable prototype without assembling every subsystem yourself.

Canvas keeps the loop visible; Phaser manages more of its machinery behind framework APIs. Neither route is established by the sources here as a performance winner. MDN provides tutorials for both approaches, including a game-development tutorial collection; Phaser’s first-game tutorial demonstrates a platform game.

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Set up the project and run it over HTTP

A minimal project can contain an HTML page, a JavaScript entry point, and an assets folder for images or other files. Serve it locally over HTTP rather than opening the page directly as a file:// URL when the game needs to load assets or other project resources. Phaser’s getting-started guide explains that browser security restrictions limit local-file access; that is why dragging an HTML file into a browser can fail to load the rest of a game.

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The local server is for development: it gives the browser an HTTP origin from which to request the page and its resources. The cited Phaser guide explains the reason to serve a project; it does not establish a single required server tool.

Represent the player and platforms

Begin with simple state that is easy to inspect and update. A player can be represented by position, velocity, width, height, and a grounded flag. Represent each platform as an axis-aligned rectangle or tile. These are practical modeling choices, not a universal data format.

Keep world coordinates separate from canvas coordinates if the level will scroll. The player can then move through the level without treating the visible canvas edge as the entire world. For a first screen-sized test, this separation is optional; add it when scrolling becomes part of the design.

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Build the run loop

A game loop repeatedly samples input, advances simulation state, and draws the current state. In a Canvas game, use requestAnimationFrame to ask the browser to call your frame function before a repaint. MDN notes that callbacks are usually delivered about 60 times per second, but rates can be lower in background tabs. Read MDN’s Canvas animation guide for the API behavior.

A useful order for a custom frame is:

  1. Measure elapsed time since the previous update.
  2. Read the current input state.
  3. Set horizontal velocity and process a jump request.
  4. Apply gravity and move the player.
  5. Resolve contact with platforms.
  6. Clear the canvas, then draw the level and player at their updated positions.
  7. Schedule the next frame with requestAnimationFrame.

Scale movement by elapsed time in seconds, so a speed is expressed in units per second rather than pixels per rendered frame. Otherwise, a change in frame rate changes how far the character travels. One practical safeguard is to clamp an unusually large elapsed-time step, or reset the timing baseline when the tab regains focus. Without that safeguard, a long pause can turn the next update into a large movement jump. This is an implementation choice informed by browser background throttling and Phaser’s documented focus behavior, not a requirement imposed by the animation API.

In Phaser, the framework runs its own time step. A scene commonly uses preload to load assets, create to set up the level, and update for per-frame logic. The official first-game example is a Phaser 3 tutorial and uses AUTO as its renderer setting; Phaser’s current TimeStep documentation identifies its API as v4.1.0 and documents focus-related pause and resume behavior. Keep those version contexts distinct: the tutorial’s setup examples are Phaser 3, while the cited TimeStep API page is for Phaser v4.1.0. See the Phaser 3 tutorial and TimeStep API documentation.

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Add controls and jumping

For a custom implementation, use keyboard keydown and keyup events to maintain pressed-state values, then read those values during the update step. This separates the immediate browser events from the game simulation. MDN’s desktop mouse and keyboard controls guide covers keyboard-control patterns and examples using Phaser.

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For Phaser, create cursor keys or define custom WASD keys, then check their state during scene updates. Whether using a framework or custom code, make jumping a transition that requires the player to be grounded. Set the player airborne when a jump begins and grounded again after a landing. This prevents a held key from repeatedly starting jumps in midair unless repeated air jumps are an intentional mechanic.

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Resolve collisions with simple platforms

Start with axis-aligned rectangles before attempting slopes or moving platforms. The first useful collision milestone is not a sophisticated physics system; it is dependable contact in the cases a player encounters immediately:

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  • Landing on top of a platform stops downward motion and sets the player grounded.
  • Hitting a platform from below stops upward motion.
  • Running into a platform’s side prevents the player from passing through it.

Collision order matters. A straightforward first implementation moves the player, checks overlap with platform rectangles, and corrects the position and velocity according to the side of contact. Keep the collision rules small enough to test visually. MDN’s game-development tutorials identify collision detection as a core game concept, and Phaser’s platform tutorial demonstrates platform collisions and physics.

Expand only after the core level works

Once running, jumping, falling, and landing feel dependable, extend the test level one feature at a time. A useful progression is a second platform to test jump reach, then a collectible, a hazard, a restart condition, and finally a visible goal. Phaser’s beginner game uses platforms, stars to collect, and enemies to avoid as example elements, but they are additions to the basic movement-and-collision loop rather than prerequisites for it.

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Test focus changes, input, and resizing

Test the game under conditions that can expose loop and state bugs, not just by walking through the level once:

  • Press and release each supported key, including changing direction while moving.
  • Jump from the ground, land, fall off a platform, and verify the grounded state changes correctly.
  • Restart after a loss or level completion if the game has those states.
  • Resize the browser and confirm the canvas and level remain usable.
  • Switch to another tab and return, checking that the player does not leap or fall an extreme distance.

Browsers may reduce animation callbacks in background tabs, and Phaser documents pause/resume behavior related to focus. The browser animation caveat is described in MDN’s Canvas animation guide; Phaser’s behavior is documented in its TimeStep API. If mobile play is a requirement, plan and test touch controls explicitly; keyboard input alone does not make a game usable on a touchscreen.

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