Three weeks ago, I released my classic browser-based snake game—a project I started 15 years ago—under a free and open-source license.

In my previous two posts, I introduced the various systems that power the game and how they interact. Today, I’ll dive into the game’s design, its influences, and the underlying technologies.

Design and influences

The core game loop—collecting food and chasing time-limited rare items—draws inspiration from the snake game pre-installed on Nokia 3410 cell phones. The minimalist, square-based design echoes the mobile game Edge (2008). There’s no clutter of menus or HUDs; the initial speed selection is all you see, and total points appear as floating numbers when you eat food, eliminating the need for a constant score display.

The concept of color-coded rare items takes cues from classic Blizzard titles like Diablo (1996), Diablo II (2000), and World of Warcraft (2004). Meanwhile, the flashy, attention-grabbing achievement texts—designed to distract and challenge your focus on navigating the board—are a nod to the Swedish PC game Icy Tower (2001).

Technology

The game was built with ECMAScript 3 and basic web APIs to ensure compatibility with even older browsers, such as Internet Explorer 6.

• Adaptive game board: The screen size is detected via the screen.js library, allowing the game board to adjust dynamically.

• Modern JavaScript features: Although the game is built on ECMAScript 3, ECMAScript 5 features have been polyfilled using ecma5.js. Additionally, my custom language extensions are provided via comp.js and math.js.

• Persistent user data: User preferences—like the chosen snake speed—are stored using cookies or the Storage web API when available. Transparent access to these settings is ensured by cookie.js, userData.js, and localStorage.js, regardless of the underlying storage mechanism.

• Animations and visual effects: Animations—including movement, scaling, rotation, and glow effects on achievement texts, food color transitions, and day-to-night theme shifts—are handled by graphics.js, effects.js, skin.js, and sunset.js.

Each of these libraries was custom-built for the game, representing both a technical challenge and a creative outlet.