GlidieBirdie

A browser-first, one-tap arcade flyer tuned for comfort instead of punishment.

GlidieBirdie keeps the fast arcade loop, then softens the failure edges: slower pacing, gentler physics, readable visuals, full mobile controls, procedural audio with reverb, a forgiving Feather Shield, daily seeded runs, five living themes, 12 achievements, a Serene Postcard capture mode, and a small offline-ready PWA shell. No build step, no runtime dependency, no remote asset requirement. Just open the file and glide.

Play the live demo · Architecture guide · Contributing · Support

Why It Feels Better

Design goal	What Calm Edition does
Softer difficulty	Larger pipe gaps, slower travel, gentler gravity, slower terminal fall, circle hitbox.
Full mobile depth	On-screen Brake / Flap / Dive buttons on phones — full keyboard depth, no controls hidden.
More player expression	Hold Brake (or Shift), hold Dive (or ↓), and tune physics in the Zen Customizer.
More delight	Meadow golden godrays + drifting pollen, five themes, reverb, ambient music, particle bursts, expressive bird emotions, cozy achievements, and Serene Postcard mode for shareable moments.
Less punishment	Feather Shield absorbs one collision and gives the bird a graceful recovery moment.
Better reliability	Delta-time physics + DPR-sharp canvas across 60Hz, 144Hz, 240Hz displays and Retina/4K phones.
Better inclusion	Keyboard + skip-link, ARIA live updates, reduced-motion, reduced-transparency, forced-colors.
PWA-ready	Installable via Add-to-Home-Screen on iOS and Android. Offline app shell after first visit.

The Calm Philosophy

We kept the addictive loop everyone loves and removed everything that hurts. Larger gaps. Gentler gravity. A shield that forgives. Five living themes you can feel in your chest. Procedural sound that breathes with the world. A bird with real emotions and eyes that look for safety. No accounts. No ads. No build step.

This is what happens when you treat "calm" as a design material, not a marketing word. It is a small, solo, vibe-coded act of care: one HTML file, one CSS file, one engine in game.js, zero runtime dependencies, and a deep commitment to accessibility and reduced-motion respect.

Features

• Mobile control bar — On-screen Brake / Flap / Dive on coarse-pointer devices.
• PWA install + offline shell — Add to Home Screen on iOS and Android via a real manifest and service worker.
• DPR-sharp canvas — Crisp on Retina, 2× / 3× phones, and 4K monitors.
• Calm physics presets — Tune gravity and speed from gentle to lively.
• Daily Seed mode — Deterministic pipe pattern by UTC date for friendly comparison.
• Zen Customizer — Physics sliders, audio volumes, theme picker, daily-seed toggle, FPS toggle, audio test, reset stats.
• Five themes — Sunset, Midnight, Cozy Rain, Aurora, and Meadow (golden-hour greens & warm sunlight), each changing colors, weather, and music.
• Feather Shield — A collectible bubble that absorbs one crash and grants brief invincibility.
• Serene Postcard mode — Pause into a calm frame and save a shareable PNG (P to enter, C to capture).
• Expressive bird — Calm, happy, scared, determined, and dizzy states with blush, smile, crest, and dizzy swirls.
• Eye tracking — Pupils track the nearest safe gap for a lively, readable character.
• Procedural audio with reverb — Web Audio creates every tone; convolution reverb gives real ambient space.
• 12 achievements — From First Flight to Long Haul, each with live progress display.
• Persistent stats — Zen minutes, shields saved, runs, near misses, longest survival, current streak.
• Tutorial overlay — Shown once on first run; the dismiss button starts the first glide.
• Fullscreen toggle — F key or button.
• Zero dependencies — Pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No bundler, package install, CDN, or assets.

Quick Start

Open the game

Open index.html directly, or run a tiny local server:

python -m http.server 8000

Then visit http://localhost:8000.

Run the checks

npm run check

That command runs five steps, with no dependencies to install:

• JavaScript syntax check for game.js
• JavaScript syntax check for service-worker.js
• Static checks (tests/static-checks.mjs) — duplicate object keys, duplicate achievement ids, self-comparisons
• Engine behavioral tests (tests/engine-test.mjs) — physics, collision, emotion, RNG, and storage invariants
• Repo smoke test (tests/smoke-test.mjs) — public surface and repo promises

A separate npm run typecheck runs ephemeral TypeScript over the checkJs-clean engine.

Controls

Input	Action
Space / Arrow Up / click / tap	Flap
hold Shift / on-screen Brake	Slow descent
hold Arrow Down / on-screen Dive	Controlled dive
Escape	Pause or resume
M	Mute or unmute
R	Restart run
F	Toggle fullscreen
P	Serene Postcard mode (calm capture)
C	Save the current frame as a PNG

On phones and tablets, the mobile control bar stays visible near the bottom of the screen so the core actions never depend on hidden gestures.

Accessibility

Accessibility is part of the product, not cleanup work after the fact.

• Fully keyboard-playable core loop.
• ARIA live region for score and status updates.
• Focus-managed customizer drawer with inert background handling.
• Reduced-motion support for effects, weather, particles, and shake.
• Stronger borders under prefers-contrast: more and forced-colors.
• Skip link and semantic landmarks for faster navigation.

Architecture At A Glance

The project is intentionally small and flat:

• index.html is the semantic shell, UI layout, mobile controls, drawer, and PWA metadata.
• style.css owns layout, theme tokens, accessibility media queries, and component styling.
• game.js contains the full runtime engine: physics, rendering, audio, input, persistence, and UI state.
• manifest.webmanifest and service-worker.js provide installation and offline shell behavior.
• tests/ holds three dependency-free Node checks wired into npm run check.

For the deeper runtime walkthrough, read docs/architecture_master_blueprint.md.

Repository Map

Path	Purpose
index.html	Semantic shell, canvas, mobile controls, drawer, tutorial, and PWA metadata
style.css	Layout, theme system, responsive rules, and accessibility styling
game.js	Main engine file with all runtime logic
manifest.webmanifest	Install metadata for PWA flows
service-worker.js	Minimal offline app-shell cache
tests/static-checks.mjs	Static guards: duplicate keys/ids, self-comparisons
tests/engine-test.mjs	Headless engine behavioral tests
tests/smoke-test.mjs	Syntax and surface-area smoke checks
docs/architecture_master_blueprint.md	Calm, humble philosophy & technical architecture reference
docs/ARCHITECTURE.md	System + engine architecture with diagrams (frame loop, rendering, audio, boot, invariants)
docs/DATA-MODEL.md	ERM/ERD of the gb: storage layer, key schema, and legacy→gb: migration
docs/COMPLEXITY.md	Time/space (Big-O) of every subsystem + the shipped DSA upgrades
docs/INSPECTION-500.md	500-point inspection (25 sections × 20), scored
docs/ROADMAP.md	Kanban board (Done / Next / Backlog), cadence, definition of done
docs/README.md	Documentation index
docs/assets/	Cinematic hero + social preview images
AUDIT-250.md	Canonical 250-point quality audit ledger
CHANGELOG.md	Version history
AGENTS.md	Cross-tool AI assistant guidance + the protected merge flow
CLAUDE.md	Claude-specific project context
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md	Calm, welcoming community guidelines tuned to this project's spirit
CONTRIBUTING.md	Contributor workflow and change boundaries
SUPPORT.md	Troubleshooting and where to get help
.github/	CI workflow, Dependabot, SECURITY.md, issue templates, and Copilot guidance
.memory/	Project notes for future maintainers and assistant sessions
LICENSE.txt	MIT license text

New Here? Read In This Order

1. README.md — the product and workflow overview.
2. docs/architecture_master_blueprint.md — the runtime layout.
3. CONTRIBUTING.md — change boundaries and review expectations.
4. AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md — AI-assistant guardrails and the protected merge flow.

Browser Support

• Chrome and Edge 105+
• Firefox 128+
• Safari 16.4+
• Samsung Internet 21+
• Current iOS Safari and Android Chrome

Contributing

Contributions are welcome when they keep the game calm, accessible, dependency-free, and easy to run. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md and our Code of Conduct, then use the issue templates for bugs, feature ideas, or accessibility feedback.

Small, focused changes are preferred. Keep the project dependency-free, browser-first, and calm by default.

Support

If the game does not run as expected, start with SUPPORT.md.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.txt.

Use it, fork it, remix it, ship it — a short attribution notice is all that's asked.