ASTRO CHICKENS

Arcade Series  •  2026

About the Game

Astro Chickens is a premium wave-based space shooter 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 spaceship across 10 unique environments and blast through endless waves of alien chickens before they reach you. Destroy enemies to earn coins, collect power-ups mid-wave, and unleash your ship’s special ability to survive. Every fifth wave brings a boss fight. There is no finish line — only a higher score.

Key Features

• 10 unique playable environments with animated backgrounds rendered entirely on Canvas 2D
• 15 procedurally drawn ships — all rendered with Canvas 2D, no sprite sheets
• Each ship has a unique special ability: Bomb, Nova, Freeze, Missile, Laser, or Barrier
• 3 difficulty modes: Normal, Hard, and Insane — each scaling enemy speed and fire rate
• Wave-based progression — formations grow larger and faster every wave; boss fight every 5th wave
• 6 power-up types that drop from defeated enemies: Weapon, Shield, Life, Rapid, Spread, and Laser
• Full coin economy — earn coins in-run, spend in the store to unlock environments and ships
• Magnetic coins — collected coins automatically fly toward the player ship
• 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
• Mobile ready — virtual joystick + shoot zones, DPR-aware canvas, responsive layout
• All player data persisted via localStorage — no server or backend required

Environments

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

1. Deep Space — Twinkling stars, infinite void. Free.
2. Sunset City — Neon skyline, orange dusk, glowing windows. 30 coins.
3. Forest — Dense jungle canopy, ancient ruins. 50 coins.
4. Ocean Night — Deep sea, moonlit waves, starlit sky. 80 coins.
5. Lava Planet — Scorched rock, rivers of fire, volcanic rage. 120 coins.
6. Jungle Day — Bright canopy, tropical clouds, animated vines. 150 coins.
7. Desert Dunes — Scorching dunes, ancient pyramids, cacti. 180 coins.
8. Cloudy Skies — Fluffy clouds, blue sky, green rolling hills. 200 coins.
9. Arctic Tundra — Frozen plains, glaciers, northern lights, blizzard snowflakes. 240 coins.
10. Bright Sky — Blazing sun, white clouds, crisp daylight horizon. 280 coins.

Ships

15 ships are available in the store. All drawn procedurally every frame — no sprite sheets. Thrust flame shape randomizes each frame for organic flicker. The first ship is free.

• Neon — Free
• Inferno — 20 coins
• Arctic — 40 coins
• Sunburst — 60 coins
• Ghost — 80 coins
• Plasma — 100 coins
• Crimson — 120 coins
• Jade — 140 coins
• Titan — 160 coins
• Wraith — 180 coins
• Aurora — 200 coins
• Magma — 220 coins
• Quantum — 250 coins
• Serpent — 280 coins
• Solaris — 320 coins

Ship Abilities

Each ship is assigned a unique special ability, triggered by pressing Space (desktop) or the right-mouse button. Abilities are cooldown-based and recharge over time.

• Bomb — Instantly destroys all on-screen enemies and clears enemy bullets.
• Nova — Fires a ring of 16 bullets in all directions.
• Freeze — Freezes all enemies for 3 seconds and clears enemy bullets.
• Missile — Fires 12 high-speed bullets in a wide forward arc.
• Laser — Fires a full-screen vertical laser beam, damaging all enemies in its column.
• Barrier — Instantly restores a full shield.

Difficulty Modes

• Normal — Standard enemy speed and fire rate (1.0× multiplier).
• Hard — 30% faster enemies, 30% higher fire rate (1.3× both).
• Insane — 60% faster enemies, 70% higher fire rate (1.6× speed, 1.7× fire rate).

All three modes use wave-based scaling — formations grow in size and speed every wave. Boss enemies appear every 5th wave with multi-phase AI, spiral bullet patterns, and aimed shots.

How to Play

1. Open the lobby. Select an environment and a ship from their respective grids.
2. Choose a difficulty setting in Settings: Normal, Hard, or Insane.
3. Press Launch Mission.
4. On the Get Ready screen, press Space or tap the canvas to begin.
5. Move the ship with the keyboard (WASD / Arrow Keys) or mouse. On mobile, drag on the left side of the screen to move.
6. Hold Space, Z, or Left Ctrl to auto-fire at enemies. On mobile, hold the right side of the screen to shoot.
7. Destroy all chickens before they descend into your zone. Each chicken destroyed = 10 + wave points.
8. Collect coins that drop from defeated enemies — they fly toward you automatically.
9. Pick up power-ups that drop from enemies to upgrade your weapon or gain a shield or extra life.
10. Every 5th wave is a boss fight. The boss has multiple HP phases and a spiral bullet pattern.
11. The run ends when all 3 lives are lost. Your best score and coins are saved automatically.
12. On Game Over, watch a reward ad to revive with 3 lives and continue from the current wave.

Tip: Use your ship’s special ability (Space or Right-Click) as often as its cooldown allows. Bomb and Nova can clear full formations instantly, giving you breathing room between waves.

Controls

Settings

• Sound Effects — Toggle all audio on or off.
• Thrust Trail — Toggle the exhaust particle stream behind the ship. Off by default.
• Screen Shake — Toggle the screen shake effect on collision. Off by default.
• Show HUD — Toggle score, wave, and coin display during play.
• Graphics Quality — Low / Medium / High. Controls particle density. Medium is the default.
• FPS Cap — 30 FPS (battery saving) / 60 FPS (recommended) / Uncapped.
• Difficulty — Normal / Hard / Insane. Applies globally to enemy speed and fire rate.
• Screen Width — 30% / 60% / 100% (full width, default). Controls the game frame width on desktop. On mobile, the frame is always full width.
• Lobby Theme — Two lobby color themes: the default teal gaming aesthetic or a cool slate variant.
• Reset Progress — Clears all saved scores, coins, and unlocks after confirmation.

Ad Monetization

• Reward Ad — Shown on the Game Over screen. The player watches the ad and is revived with 3 lives, and the run continues from the current wave. The 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 used for gameplay.
• Web Audio API — All sound synthesized at runtime. No audio files.
• Vanilla JavaScript — No React, no Phaser, no jQuery. Pure browser APIs only. All logic is encapsulated in IIFEs.
• Google Fonts CDN — Nunito, Russo One, Orbitron. Loaded via CDN; requires an internet connection on first load (cached by the browser after that).
• localStorage — Best score, coins, unlocks, play count, and settings all persist automatically.
• Inline store — The full 10-environment and 15-ship store renders inside the lobby via a CSS flip animation. No iframes, no separate store pages.
• Theme-aware HUD — Five light-background environments automatically switch the HUD and overlay text to dark colors for legibility.
• 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+