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GamesReleasedProject 01 / 03

My Arcade Space

Fifty small handheld games in one browser page. No install, no account, no ads, and it keeps working offline once you've opened it.

At a glance

  • One shared shell, many small games
  • One ink colour, like real LCD handhelds
  • Controls declared per game

Play at myarcade.space

The question

What would a pocket games console feel like if it lived in the browser, opened in a second, and asked nothing of you? No store, no sign-up, no tracking, no build step to keep alive.

What I built

A single self-contained page holding a whole cabinet of games: Tetris, Snake, Sudoku, Pinball, Sokoban, a mini golf course, a train-line puzzle and dozens more, each with its own looping preview, best score and small set of trophies.

The grid is sorted by mood rather than genre (quick, calm, brain teasers, action), and the first row is simply what you played last, so coming back to the same game is one tap.

Inside

How it looks in use.

Role
Sole designer, developer and owner
Built with
One HTML file, canvas, plain JavaScript
Runs
In the browser, installable, offline
Status
Released, still growing
The cabinet in motion: every card plays a short loop of its own game.
Tetris on the shared deck: move, rotate, drop, hold.
The cabinet: what you played last, then games grouped by mood.
The cabinet: what you played last, then games grouped by mood.
Each game opens on a looping preview, its best score and trophies.
Each game opens on a looping preview, its best score and trophies.
In play: the shared deck below, the game's own rules above.
In play: the shared deck below, the game's own rules above.
Columns: gems matched by pattern, not colour.
Columns: gems matched by pattern, not colour.
Marbles: a wall of shapes to aim at.
Marbles: a wall of shapes to aim at.

Up close

The details that carry it.

One ink, three fills
One ink, three fillsColumns can't use colour, so its gems are told apart by a dot, a hollow or a bar, the way real LCD handhelds did it.
Shape instead of colour
Shape instead of colourMarbles uses discs, rings and triangles: the silhouette reads fastest mid-aim, and works the same for colour-blind players.
A deck declared per game
A deck declared per gameEach game lays out its own keys: movement on the left, commitment on the right, a wide key for the main action.

Decisions that mattered

  • One shared shell, many small gamesColours, scaling, controls, pause and sound live in one place, so a new game only brings its own rules and drawing. That's what made fifty possible.
  • One ink colour, like real LCD handheldsWhere a game would normally rely on colour, it uses fill pattern, shape or size instead. A side effect worth having: every game reads the same for colour-blind players.
  • Controls declared per gameEach game lays out its own buttons in a left zone for movement and a right zone for action, so a one-button game gets one big key and a puzzle gets a precise pad.

What I learned

Constraints did the design work. A single colour, a fixed grid and a shared control deck pushed every game towards clarity, and made the whole collection feel like one object rather than fifty.

Project notes

This project is released, so you can try it right now. It keeps changing as I use it and learn from the people who do.

Something similar in mind?

Most of these started as a question I couldn't let go of. If you have one too, let's talk.

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