Build an Asteroid Game in 10 Minutes with Claude ES

Published August 29, 2026

One small browser game can hide a lot of moving parts. The question here is simple: how do you set up an Asteroids-style game in a Next.js app without tearing out the parts that still matter?

The short answer is that the game lives in its own folder, its own component, and its own loop. The longer answer is where the useful work is. A clean Asteroids build needs a clear place for the game logic, a clear place for the page, and a clear way for the game and React to talk to each other.

I like this kind of setup because it treats the game like a real piece of the site, not a toy glued on top. That matters for browser games. A good old web game often survives because its structure is plain enough to maintain.

The first step is to give the game a home. In this setup, that means a games/asteroides/ folder and a dedicated route at /games/asteroides. The game also gets a unique ID, Asteroides, so it can be identified cleanly in the rest of the app.

That sounds dry, but it saves trouble later. When a game has a fixed place, it is easier to update, move, and preserve. Old browser games love chaos. Your folder tree does not need to join them.

Next comes the component split. The plan uses a generic CanvasGame or scambasGame layer that can receive game logic as a parameter, then a specific AsteroidGame component for the Asteroids rules. That means the shared canvas work stays reusable, while the Asteroids code stays focused on ships, rocks, and collisions.

This is the part that keeps the project from turning into a pile of one-off code. A shared wrapper handles the common canvas job. The game-specific component handles what makes Asteroids feel like Asteroids. Plain names help here. Nobody wants to decode a mystery box at 9 p.m.

The game loop and events belong inside the Asteroids logic. That loop watches movement, shots, hits, and game state. It is also where the game checks the dynamic parts that React needs to know about: level, lives, score, and game over.

That split matters more than it sounds. Scambas, or the game layer, does the fast work. React listens for state changes and updates the page. The two sides do not fight over control. They trade simple messages.

Here is the shape of it in practice. If the player loses a life, the game logic updates that state and sends the new value to React. If the score changes, React can show it in the page UI. If the game ends, React can display the pause or game-over state without trying to run the asteroid physics itself.

That is cleaner than stuffing everything into one place. It also fits the old browser-game spirit. Many classic games had a small internal hub for score and controls, and that should stay. The hub is part of the game’s face. Remove it and the whole thing feels oddly hollow.

So the rule here is simple: keep the game hub, and let React handle the container around it. The game still shows its own controls, score, and status. React adds the outer behavior, including pause handling. That pause control belongs to the app container, not the asteroid core.

This is a good example of sharing space without overlap. The game keeps what players need to see right inside the play area. The app takes care of the broader page state. No one has to pretend the other side does not exist.

A small concrete example makes the pattern easier to hold in your head. Imagine the score moves from 120 to 150 after a rock breaks. The game logic detects the hit, updates the score, and notifies React. React then redraws the score display, while the canvas keeps running its next frame.

That is the whole trick. The game does not ask the page to guess what happened. It reports the change directly. For a browser game, that is a lot like a good old arcade cabinet. The machine knows the score. The front panel just shows it.

The current plan also leaves room for later work. Score saving to Superbase is part of the roadmap, but it is not required for the first step. That is sensible. A new game should work before it starts worrying about persistence and storage.

The same goes for mobile controls. Tactile controls are not built yet, so the first pass focuses on desktop-style input and the game loop. That is a fair trade for a quick build. It keeps the work pointed at the core game instead of spreading it thin.

There is also a simple data model behind the game entry itself. The app expects fields like ID, title, short name, long description, category, cover, plays, and best score. For Asteroides, a new cover image is needed. The example cover name in the notes, “rocks cover,” is only a placeholder, not the final art.

That may sound like admin, but it matters to the player’s first click. A game page is part catalog and part invitation. If the entry is clean, people can tell what they are opening. If it is messy, the ship never leaves the dock.

The next class step is straightforward. Write the spec file for Asteroides, keep the component split clear, confirm how the callbacks move state back to React, and make sure the page route is isolated. After that, the implementation can begin without the usual tangle of missing pieces.

What this lesson shows is how to build a browser game in a way that stays readable. You can now see how the folder, component, game loop, and page all fit together. That is the difference between a quick demo and a game that can keep living in a web app without getting lost in its own wiring.

That small, practical clarity is the sort of thing The Continue Screen likes to spotlight. A classic browser game often survives because someone kept the structure simple enough to remember.