ALPHA JETS
Choose your Jet (A–Z)
START
Use arrows / A,D to move, SPACE to shoot

ALPHA JETS

A minimalist retro shooter inspired by Aero Fighters, but with a symbolic twist.
Choose your letter from A–Z to become your hero ship, dodge asteroids made of symbols, battle enemy letters, and take on massive number bosses in escalating neon-lit dogfights.

Built entirely through vibecoding with ChatGPT, no engines, no prefab assets, just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript brought to life through iteration and creative problem-solving. Every animation, firing pattern, and gameplay mechanic was handcrafted for a seamless, mobile-friendly experience.

✈ How to play:

  • Choose your jet: Pick any letter A–Z on the title screen, that is your ship.

  • Movement:

    • Desktop: Use arrow keys or A/D to move.

    • Mobile: Use the on-screen joystick in the bottom-left corner.

  • Firing:

    • Desktop: Press spacebar to shoot.

    • Mobile: Autofire is enabled.

  • Avoid: Enemy bullets (|), enemy ships (other letters), and rotating asteroids (symbol characters).

  • Destroy: Hit enemies once to destroy them. Asteroids take two hits. Bosses take multiple hits, their health bar is shown at the top.

  • Scoring: +1 point for each enemy destroyed.

  • Lives: Start with 3 hearts (top-right). Lose one if you get hit by a bullet, crash into an enemy, or collide with an asteroid.

  • Boss battles: At the end of each level, face a giant neon number. Each boss has a unique attack pattern and becomes tougher each level. When defeated, the boss explodes into smaller numbers.

  • Progression: Survive all 10 bosses (0–9) to win. After each level, you regain 1 life if you have lost any.

  • Continue: If you lose all lives, you can continue from the exact point you died before the timer runs out.

🛠 Prompt

Retro scrolling shooter in HTML/CSS/JS. Pick letter A–Z as ship firing dots, enemies fire dashes. Parallax stars, rotating asteroids (2 hits). 10 levels with giant neon number bosses, unique colors/patterns, health bars. HUD shows score, level, hearts. Pixel retro look.

-[Optional] Detailed Prompt-

Create a retro-style scrolling shooter in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript called ALPHA JETS. The player chooses any letter A–Z as their ship, which fires dots upward while enemy ships (other letters) fire vertical dashes. The background has a parallax starfield, and stationary rotating asteroids made of symbols appear in different sizes and opacities to show depth, taking two hits to destroy. The game scrolls upward constantly, with enemies moving down and sideways. There are ten levels, each ending with a giant neon number boss (0–9) five times bigger than the hero, with a unique color, firing pattern, and health bar, becoming tougher each stage. When defeated, the boss triggers a flashing screen and explodes into many smaller copies of its number. All text uses the Press Start 2P font. The title screen has a letter selection grid and start button, the HUD shows score (top-left), level (center-top), and lives as hearts (top-right). “Level X” appears at the start of each stage, “Level Complete” after bosses, and +1 life is restored after each level. If the player dies, a continue screen with a timer resumes from the exact death point, otherwise “Game Over” shows before returning to the title. Completing level 10 shows “Game Complete.” The canvas keeps a 9:16 aspect ratio, is centered, and uses pixelated rendering for a retro look.