A browser-based arcade space shooter built for the DEV June Solstice Game Jam 2026.
Play it live → https://samempire1.github.io/Solstice-Defender/
Solstice Defender weaves together three June celebrations into nine levels of increasingly intense arcade action. You pilot a beam of light defending the longest day against waves of shadow enemies across three zones:
| Zone | Levels | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Ada's Sky | 1 – 3 | Juneteenth · Galveston, Texas, 1865 |
| Alan's Grid | 4 – 6 | Alan Turing · Bletchley Park, 1941 |
| Sol's Network | 7 – 9 | AI awakening · The present day |
Each zone has its own sky, enemy movement pattern, ambient soundtrack, and story cutscene. Bosses appear on levels 3, 6, and 9.
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| A / D or ← → | Move left and right |
| W / S or ↑ ↓ | Move forward and back |
| Space | Shoot |
| B | Bomb — clears all enemies and bullets |
| P / Escape | Pause |
| Mouse hover | Auto-aim and auto-fire |
| Touch | Fully supported on mobile |
| Icon | Effect |
|---|---|
| 3X | Triple shot |
| >> | Rapid fire |
| SH | Shield — absorbs one hit |
| 2X | Dual guns |
| 5X | Five-gun spread |
| +1 | Extra life |
| 💣 | Bomb refill |
- 9 levels across 3 themed zones
- 3 difficulty modes: Easy, Normal, Hard
- 7 lives + collectible extra lives
- Screen-clearing bomb with shockwave explosions
- Enemy shields, rage mode, and boss battles
- 5 gun types (single, triple, dual, 5-gun, rapid)
- Combo multiplier system
- Screen shake on hits and explosions
- Parallax scrolling background per zone
- Player trail and particle effects
- Top-5 leaderboard saved to localStorage
- Achievement popups (First Blood, Combo x5, No Damage Wave, Boss Slayer, Bomb Squad)
- Zone transition cutscenes with story context
- Procedural Web Audio API soundtrack — no audio files
- Voice announcements via Web Speech API
- Fully responsive — works on any screen size
- Zero dependencies — one HTML file, runs offline
Built with:
- HTML5 Canvas — all rendering
- Web Audio API — procedurally generated sound effects and music (oscillators, gain envelopes, noise buffers)
- Web Speech API — voice announcements
- Vanilla JavaScript — game engine, physics, AI, collision detection
- localStorage — leaderboard persistence
No frameworks. No libraries. No build tools. Open index.html in any modern browser.
git clone https://github.com/samempire1/Solstice-Defender.git
cd Solstice-Defender
# Open index.html in your browser
open index.htmlNo server required. The game runs entirely client-side.
Submitted for Best Ode to Alan Turing.
Alan's Grid (levels 4–6) is themed directly around Turing's work at Bletchley Park — scrolling cipher grid visuals, Enigma drone enemies with unpredictable zigzag movement, and a story card referencing his race against the clock to save a North Atlantic convoy. Sol's Network (levels 7–9) extends the Turing Test thread: Sol is an AI awakening on the solstice, asking what it does with the capacity it has — a direct engagement with Turing's 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence."
- DEV post — Read the full submission
- Video demo — Watch on YouTube
- Live game — Play now
Built for the DEV June Solstice Game Jam · June 2026