# Vector Asteroids — Acceptance Checklist

This checklist verifies that the finished arcade demo satisfies the original project request and the single-file robustness requirements.

The accepted runtime artifact is one file:

```text
index.html
```

No other file may be required to play the game.

## 1. Self-contained file requirements

### 1.1 Single artifact

- [ ] The playable deliverable is exactly one `index.html`.
- [ ] Opening `index.html` directly from the file browser starts the game.
- [ ] No build command is required.
- [ ] No package manager is required.
- [ ] No local server is required.
- [ ] No generated assets are required.
- [ ] Deleting every file except `index.html` does not break the game.

### 1.2 Inline source only

Inspect `index.html`.

- [ ] All CSS is inline inside `<style>` tags.
- [ ] All JavaScript is inline inside `<script>` tags.
- [ ] There is no `<script src=...>`.
- [ ] There is no stylesheet `<link href=...>`.
- [ ] There are no image, audio, video, source, iframe, object, embed, or font URLs.
- [ ] There are no ES module imports.
- [ ] There are no dynamic imports.
- [ ] There is no `fetch`.
- [ ] There is no `XMLHttpRequest`.
- [ ] There is no worker loaded from a URL.
- [ ] There are no CDN references.
- [ ] There are no analytics, telemetry, or beacon calls.

### 1.3 No external assets

- [ ] Graphics are drawn with Canvas 2D primitives.
- [ ] Asteroids are generated polygons, not images.
- [ ] Ship, saucer, bullets, particles, HUD, title, pause, and game-over visuals are all canvas-rendered.
- [ ] Audio is synthesized using Web Audio API.
- [ ] No audio file is embedded or loaded.
- [ ] No image data URI is used as a substitute for an external asset.
- [ ] No external font is loaded.

Data URLs are not necessary and should be avoided for this project. Runtime-generated audio buffers are allowed.

## 2. File mode and network compatibility

### 2.1 `file://` smoke test

Perform:

1. Close all local dev servers.
2. Disconnect the machine from the network or disable network in browser devtools.
3. Open `index.html` directly from the file manager or with a `file://` URL.

Expected:

- [ ] The title screen appears.
- [ ] The canvas fills the window.
- [ ] Controls work.
- [ ] A game can be started.
- [ ] No console error prevents gameplay.
- [ ] Audio starts after first user interaction if not muted.
- [ ] If audio is blocked, gameplay still works silently.

### 2.2 Plain static host smoke test

Serve the directory with any static file server or open it from a static host.

Expected:

- [ ] The same `index.html` runs without path assumptions.
- [ ] No API endpoint is required.
- [ ] No asset 404s occur.

### 2.3 Network panel test

In browser devtools:

1. Open Network panel.
2. Disable cache.
3. Reload `index.html`.
4. Start and play the game for at least one minute.

Expected:

- [ ] The only network entry is the initial document load when hosted.
- [ ] In `file://` mode, no network requests are made.
- [ ] No requests appear after starting gameplay.
- [ ] No requests appear after audio unlock.
- [ ] No requests appear after game over/restart.

## 3. Static source audit

Run equivalent checks against the final `index.html`.

The exact command syntax can vary by platform, but these patterns should not appear as active runtime code:

```text
<script ... src=
<link ... href=
<img ... src=
<audio ... src=
<video ... src=
<source ... src=
<iframe ... src=
fetch(
XMLHttpRequest
import(
sendBeacon
http://
https://
@import
url(
```

Acceptance:

- [ ] Any occurrence is manually reviewed.
- [ ] No occurrence creates a runtime dependency on another file or network resource.
- [ ] CSS does not use `url(...)`.
- [ ] Comments do not contain misleading unfinished external asset references.

## 4. Browser compatibility

Test current stable versions where practical:

- [ ] Chrome or Chromium-based browser
- [ ] Firefox
- [ ] Safari or iOS Safari where available
- [ ] Edge where available

Expected:

- [ ] Game renders correctly.
- [ ] Keyboard controls work.
- [ ] Audio unlock works after user input or fails gracefully.
- [ ] High score persistence works where `localStorage` is available.
- [ ] No browser-specific crash occurs.
- [ ] Canvas resizes correctly.

## 5. Title and attract screen

Acceptance criteria:

- [ ] Game opens to a polished title/attract screen.
- [ ] Title screen has animated starfield or asteroid movement.
- [ ] Game title is visible and styled in neon vector fashion.
- [ ] Controls are shown clearly.
- [ ] High score is displayed.
- [ ] Start prompt is visible.
- [ ] Pressing Space starts the game.
- [ ] Pressing Enter starts the game.
- [ ] First input unlocks audio or attempts to unlock audio.
- [ ] Title screen does not require a server or asset load.

## 6. Core player controls

### 6.1 Keyboard controls

- [ ] Left Arrow rotates ship left.
- [ ] `A` rotates ship left.
- [ ] Right Arrow rotates ship right.
- [ ] `D` rotates ship right.
- [ ] Up Arrow applies thrust.
- [ ] `W` applies thrust.
- [ ] Space fires.
- [ ] `J` or `K` fires.
- [ ] Down Arrow, `S`, Shift, or `H` triggers hyperspace if implemented.
- [ ] `P` pauses/unpauses.
- [ ] Escape pauses/unpauses.
- [ ] `M` toggles mute.

### 6.2 Browser behavior

- [ ] Space does not scroll the page during gameplay.
- [ ] Arrow keys do not scroll the page.
- [ ] Holding keys works smoothly.
- [ ] Rapid fire respects cooldown and does not spawn unlimited bullets.
- [ ] Opposite rotation keys cancel or behave predictably.
- [ ] Keyboard focus is captured sufficiently after clicking or starting.

## 7. Player ship behavior

- [ ] Ship rotates smoothly and frame-rate independently.
- [ ] Ship thrusts in the direction it faces.
- [ ] Momentum/inertia are clearly present.
- [ ] Ship does not instantly stop when thrust is released.
- [ ] Speed is capped or damped so control remains playable.
- [ ] Ship wraps around all screen edges.
- [ ] Ship renders as glowing vector line art.
- [ ] Thrust displays a flickering engine flame.
- [ ] Thrust leaves a short particle trail.
- [ ] Player can fire bullets from ship nose.
- [ ] Player bullets inherit ship velocity.
- [ ] Player bullets have finite lifetime.
- [ ] Player bullets wrap or expire consistently.
- [ ] Hyperspace, if implemented, teleports the ship and has cooldown/feedback.
- [ ] Player respawns with visible temporary invulnerability.
- [ ] Invulnerability prevents immediate unfair death.
- [ ] Player death produces a satisfying explosion and sound.

## 8. Asteroids

### 8.1 Appearance

- [ ] Asteroids are glowing vector outlines.
- [ ] Asteroids have jagged polygon shapes.
- [ ] Shapes are generated at runtime.
- [ ] Different asteroids visibly have different outlines.
- [ ] Asteroids rotate.
- [ ] Asteroids wrap cleanly at screen edges.
- [ ] Wrapped asteroids do not visually pop when crossing edges.

### 8.2 Sizes and splitting

- [ ] Large asteroids exist.
- [ ] Medium asteroids exist.
- [ ] Small asteroids exist.
- [ ] Shooting a large asteroid destroys it and spawns smaller asteroids.
- [ ] Shooting a medium asteroid destroys it and spawns smaller asteroids.
- [ ] Shooting a small asteroid destroys it with no further split.
- [ ] Split children drift away convincingly.
- [ ] Split children have new jagged outlines.
- [ ] Asteroid explosions produce particles/sparks.
- [ ] Bigger asteroid hits produce stronger shake/effects than smaller hits.

### 8.3 Wave generation

- [ ] Level 1 begins with multiple large asteroids.
- [ ] New waves spawn more asteroids or higher difficulty.
- [ ] Asteroids do not spawn directly on top of the player at wave start.
- [ ] Later waves feel faster or denser.
- [ ] Wave transitions are clear to the player.

## 9. Collision behavior

- [ ] Player bullets collide reliably with asteroids.
- [ ] Fast bullets do not frequently tunnel through large targets.
- [ ] Player bullets collide reliably with saucer.
- [ ] Saucer bullets collide with player.
- [ ] Saucer bullets can collide with asteroids if this behavior is implemented.
- [ ] Player collides with asteroids when not invulnerable.
- [ ] Player collides with saucer when not invulnerable.
- [ ] Dead entities are removed cleanly.
- [ ] A single bullet cannot score multiple asteroid hits in one frame.
- [ ] Collisions near screen wrap edges behave reasonably.
- [ ] Collision detection remains stable after window resize.

## 10. Flying saucer enemy

### 10.1 Spawning

- [ ] A saucer appears occasionally during gameplay.
- [ ] Only one saucer is active at a time.
- [ ] Saucer does not appear immediately at the start of level 1.
- [ ] Saucer spawn frequency increases or pressure rises in later levels.
- [ ] Saucer can enter from the left or right side.
- [ ] Saucer can leave/despawn if it crosses the screen.

### 10.2 Behavior

- [ ] Saucer moves independently of asteroids.
- [ ] Saucer changes course or drifts vertically.
- [ ] Saucer shoots at intervals.
- [ ] Saucer shots threaten the player.
- [ ] Large saucer is less accurate.
- [ ] Small saucer, if present, is more accurate and worth more.
- [ ] Saucer has distinctive vector art.
- [ ] Saucer has distinctive synthesized sound.
- [ ] Destroying saucer awards bonus points.
- [ ] Saucer destruction has particles and screen shake.

## 11. Scoring, lives, levels, and game over

### 11.1 HUD

- [ ] Score is visible during gameplay.
- [ ] High score is visible on title and/or HUD.
- [ ] Lives are visible.
- [ ] Level/wave indicator is visible.
- [ ] HUD remains readable on different viewport sizes.
- [ ] HUD uses canvas rendering.

### 11.2 Scoring

- [ ] Large asteroid awards 20 points.
- [ ] Medium asteroid awards 50 points.
- [ ] Small asteroid awards 100 points.
- [ ] Large saucer awards 200 points.
- [ ] Small saucer awards 1000 points.
- [ ] Score increases immediately on valid player hits.
- [ ] Score does not increase for saucer-destroyed asteroids.

### 11.3 Lives and extra lives

- [ ] Player starts with 3 lives.
- [ ] Player loses a life on valid collision.
- [ ] Player receives an extra life at 10,000 points.
- [ ] Additional extra lives are awarded at each further 10,000-point threshold.
- [ ] Extra life has visible and audible feedback.
- [ ] Game over occurs when no lives remain after death sequence.

### 11.4 Game over and restart

- [ ] Game-over screen is clean and polished.
- [ ] Final score is shown.
- [ ] High score is shown.
- [ ] New high score is indicated when applicable.
- [ ] Space restarts after game over.
- [ ] Enter restarts after game over.
- [ ] Restart resets score, lives, level, bullets, asteroids, particles, and saucer state.
- [ ] Restart preserves high score and settings.

## 12. High score persistence

Test with `localStorage` enabled:

1. Play and earn a score.
2. End the game.
3. Reload `index.html`.

Expected:

- [ ] High score persists after reload.
- [ ] High score appears on title screen.
- [ ] New lower scores do not overwrite high score.
- [ ] New higher scores overwrite high score.
- [ ] Persistence works in `file://` mode where the browser allows localStorage.

Test with storage blocked or unavailable:

- [ ] Game still starts.
- [ ] Game still plays.
- [ ] No uncaught storage exception breaks gameplay.
- [ ] High score falls back to 0 or in-memory behavior.

## 13. Pause behavior

- [ ] `P` pauses gameplay.
- [ ] Escape pauses gameplay.
- [ ] Pause overlay appears.
- [ ] Asteroids stop moving while paused.
- [ ] Bullets stop moving while paused.
- [ ] Saucer stops moving/firing while paused.
- [ ] Timers do not continue unfairly during pause.
- [ ] Audio beat/saucer/thrust are muted, suspended, or reduced while paused.
- [ ] `P` or Escape resumes.
- [ ] Hiding the browser tab pauses or safely clamps time on return.
- [ ] Returning from a hidden tab does not cause instant death from a huge delta.

## 14. Audio acceptance

### 14.1 Runtime synthesis

- [ ] No audio file is loaded or embedded.
- [ ] Audio starts only after user interaction.
- [ ] Game remains playable before audio unlock.
- [ ] Game remains playable if audio context creation fails.
- [ ] Mute toggle works.
- [ ] Mute setting persists if settings persistence is implemented.

### 14.2 Required sound effects

- [ ] Player fire sound.
- [ ] Thrust sound while thrusting.
- [ ] Asteroid explosion sound.
- [ ] Player death explosion sound.
- [ ] Saucer hum/siren sound.
- [ ] Saucer shot sound.
- [ ] Extra life sound.
- [ ] Game-over or wave-complete sound.
- [ ] Optional heartbeat/beat or simple music loop is present and synthesized.

### 14.3 Audio quality

- [ ] Sounds have envelopes and do not click harshly.
- [ ] Sounds are mixed at comfortable volume.
- [ ] Repeated firing does not create runaway volume.
- [ ] Long play sessions do not accumulate stuck audio nodes.
- [ ] Saucer hum stops when saucer is destroyed/despawns.
- [ ] Thrust sound stops/fades when thrust is released.

## 15. Visual polish and juice

Acceptance criteria:

- [ ] Overall presentation has a glowing neon vector aesthetic.
- [ ] Background is black.
- [ ] Starfield has multiple parallax layers.
- [ ] Stars twinkle or drift subtly.
- [ ] Player, asteroids, saucer, bullets, and particles have glow/bloom treatment.
- [ ] Explosions produce many particles.
- [ ] Bullet impacts produce sparks.
- [ ] Thrust produces trail particles.
- [ ] Big hits produce screen shake.
- [ ] Screen shake decays quickly and does not impair gameplay.
- [ ] Wave complete/game over/title screens feel finished.
- [ ] There are no placeholder graphics.
- [ ] There are no missing-art indicators or broken assets.

## 16. Responsive behavior

Test by resizing desktop browser and rotating mobile/tablet where available.

- [ ] Canvas fills viewport.
- [ ] Canvas backing store accounts for device pixel ratio.
- [ ] Game remains sharp on high-DPI screens.
- [ ] Game remains playable after resize.
- [ ] Existing entities remain visible or wrap correctly after resize.
- [ ] HUD remains within screen bounds.
- [ ] Title text adapts to small screens.
- [ ] Game works in landscape.
- [ ] Game works in portrait, even if keyboard play is the primary target.
- [ ] No scrollbars appear.
- [ ] Touch gestures do not scroll or zoom the page during play.

Minimum viewport smoke tests:

- [ ] 320 × 480
- [ ] 480 × 320
- [ ] 768 × 1024
- [ ] 1366 × 768
- [ ] 1920 × 1080

## 17. Performance and stability

Test for at least 10 minutes or through several waves.

- [ ] Animation is smooth on a typical laptop/desktop.
- [ ] Game loop uses `requestAnimationFrame`.
- [ ] Movement is frame-rate independent.
- [ ] Delta time is clamped after tab switches.
- [ ] Particle count is capped.
- [ ] Bullet count is capped.
- [ ] Saucer bullet count is capped.
- [ ] No visible memory leak or progressive slowdown occurs.
- [ ] No console errors appear during normal play.
- [ ] No unhandled promise rejections appear during audio unlock.
- [ ] The game handles rapid restart without stale bullets/saucers/entities.

## 18. Manual gameplay test script

Perform this complete playthrough:

1. Open `index.html` through `file://`.
2. Observe title screen for 10 seconds.
3. Press Space.
4. Rotate with Left/Right arrows.
5. Thrust with Up arrow.
6. Fire repeatedly with Space.
7. Destroy a large asteroid.
8. Confirm it splits.
9. Destroy a medium asteroid.
10. Confirm it splits.
11. Destroy a small asteroid.
12. Confirm it disappears.
13. Clear the wave.
14. Confirm next wave begins and level increases.
15. Wait for saucer.
16. Dodge saucer shots.
17. Destroy saucer.
18. Confirm bonus score.
19. Pause with `P`.
20. Resume with `P`.
21. Mute with `M`.
22. Unmute with `M`.
23. Intentionally collide with asteroid.
24. Confirm life loss, explosion, and respawn.
25. Continue until game over.
26. Confirm game-over screen.
27. Restart with Enter.
28. Reload page.
29. Confirm high score persisted.

All steps must pass.

## 19. Acceptance decision

The final implementation is accepted only when:

- [ ] all hard single-file/static requirements pass
- [ ] all primary gameplay requirements pass
- [ ] all required screens exist and are polished
- [ ] all required entity systems exist
- [ ] synthesized audio is present and robust
- [ ] high score persistence is implemented safely
- [ ] file mode and no-network tests pass
- [ ] the game feels like a finished arcade demo, not a prototype

A small number of optional enhancements may be absent, such as touch controls or hyperspace risk mechanics, but the primary keyboard arcade game must be complete and impressive.