brkrs — a fun, playable brick-breaker game & learning playground

brkrs is a real, playable Breakout/Arkanoid-style game written in Rust 🦀 using the Bevy engine. It’s also a hands-on learning project, letting you explore:

• Spec-first development with GitHub speckit
• Incremental feature development through issues & PRs
• AI-assisted and agentic coding experiments

Every feature starts as a spec, flows through an issue or PR, and ends as working Rust code. You can play the game, explore the code, and learn modern Rust/Bevy workflows all at the same time.

Linus Torvalds said: “Talk is cheap. Show me the code.”

brkrs lets you play, tinker, and see the specs come alive in a real game.

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The Story Behind brkrs

I always wanted to rewrite my old Arkanoid/Breakout-style game, YaAC 🐧, in a modern game framework.

I began by manually implementing the core gameplay foundations: reading documentation, following examples, and building a basic proof-of-concept with the essential mechanics (ball, paddle, bricks).

It quickly became clear that doing everything manually would involve a steep learning curve and a lot of time.

brkrs was born as a solution: a way to learn modern Rust game development, apply spec-first workflows, and experiment with AI-assisted coding, all while still having fun playing a real game.

The development process follows the "Kaizen no michi" (改善の道) philosophy of making small, incremental changes to achieve long-term growth and success.

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Try it now

You can play a web version on GitHub Pages

Gameplay snapshot:

Current level gameplay

Next level preview

Key Features

brkrs is a Breakout/Arkanoid style game implemented in Rust with the Bevy engine. It extends the classic formula with richer physics, paddle rotation, and per-level configuration.

• Classic Breakout-style gameplay: paddle, ball, bricks, and levels
• Levels are human-readable and easy to modify
• Spec-first workflow: every feature begins as a spec and ends as working Rust code
• Small, incremental PRs demonstrate the development workflow and learning path
• Crate-ready and cross-platform (desktop + WebAssembly builds)
• A fun, approachable way to learn Rust, Bevy, and modern coding practices

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Quickstart (play & learn)

Prerequisites: Rust + Cargo + Git

git clone https://github.com/cleder/brkrs.git
cd brkrs
cargo run --release

Controls: move paddle with mouse, scroll wheel to rotate (if enabled), ESC to pause.

Play, tweak, and learn — modify levels, bricks, or mechanics to see specs turn into features.

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Core Systems

1. Physics (Rapier3D) – 3D physics constrained to a flat play plane.
2. Game State – (planned) menu, playing, paused, game over, transitions.
3. Level Loader – RON file parsing, entity spawning, per-level gravity.
4. Brick System – Extensible brick behaviors via components & events.
5. Pause System – ESC to pause, click to resume, with window mode switching (native).

Learning Path & Contribution

This project is intended to be fun and educational. Suggested learning steps:

1. Read a spec in the repo or wiki
2. Pick a small issue to implement
3. Submit a PR that fulfills the spec
4. Experiment with AI-assisted features or gameplay tweaks

Follow "Seika no Ho" (清華の法), "the way of clear planning", a Samurai principle for strategic planning that aligns actions with values.

Documentation

Full documentation is available at brkrs.readthedocs.io:

• Quickstart Guide — Get running in 10 minutes
• Developer Guide — Set up a development environment
• API Reference — Rust API documentation

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Why You’ll Enjoy It

• Play a real game while learning coding practices
• Watch specs transform into working features
• Experiment safely with Rust, Bevy, and AI-assisted workflows
• Learn by doing in a hands-on, playful way

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License

The GNU Affero General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works, specifically designed to ensure cooperation with the community. It ensures that any code snippet developed by the open-source community stays available and prevents others from repackaging and selling open-source software without giving back.

This guarantees your freedom to share and change all versions of this program and makes sure it remains free software for all its users.