Gameplay

Ball Locking (Sticky Paddle)

• When the StickyPaddle effect is active and a ball hits the paddle, the ball locks to the paddle at the contact point.
• Locked balls follow the paddle's movement with a fixed offset.
• The player can press Space at any time to release all locked balls.
• When the StickyPaddle effect expires, all locked balls are automatically released.
• Multiple balls can be locked simultaneously.

Paddle

• The paddle has a curved bow-shaped top surface (parabolic arc).
• Ball bounce direction depends on where the ball hits the paddle — hits near the edges produce steeper angles, hits near the center produce more vertical bounces.
• The maximum bounce angle is 67.5 degrees from vertical.
• The paddle is clamped within the playing area boundaries.

Paddle Collision

• A ball can only bounce off the paddle when moving downward.
• After a paddle bounce, the ball's vertical velocity is forced upward to prevent multi-bounce issues.

Blocks

• Blocks have a lives count. Each hit reduces lives by 1.
• When a block's lives reach 0, it is destroyed.
• Each ball tracks a hit streak counter that starts at 0 and increments with each block hit.
• Block hit score = 100 + 10 × hit streak (first hit = 100, second = 110, third = 120, etc.).
• The hit streak resets to 0 when the ball bounces off the paddle.
• Only one block collision is processed per ball per simulation step.
• Destroyed blocks may drop an item (25% chance).

Items

Items are small colored squares that fall downward after a block is destroyed. The player catches them by touching them with the paddle.

Item Types

• Multiple effects can stack (e.g. Wide + Narrow apply simultaneously).
• Items that fall below the playing area are removed.
• Item drops are random — the item type is chosen uniformly from all types.
• Maximum 16 active item drops on screen at once.
• Maximum 8 active effects at once.

Walls

• The ball bounces off the left, right, and top walls of the playing area.
• The bottom of the playing area is open — balls that fall below are lost.

Level Progression

• When all blocks are destroyed, the level is complete.
• The player advances to the next level with their current score and lives preserved.
• Each level can define its own block layout and playing area width.
• If the player completes all available levels, the game returns to the main menu.

Screens and Transitions

• Main Menu: Start Game, Options, Quit.
• Playing (WaitingToStart): Overlay shown at the start of each life. Any key press dismissed it; Space launches the ball.
• Playing (Active): Normal gameplay. Escape/P pauses.
• Playing (Paused): Resume or Quit to menu.
• Level Complete: Press Space/Enter to advance, Escape to return to menu.
• Game Over: Press Enter/Escape to return to menu. Space does NOT dismiss this screen (prevents accidental skip).

Simulation

• Physics runs on a fixed timestep (10ms per step).
• Simulation pauses during non-Active playing states (Paused, WaitingToStart) and non-Playing screens (menus, game over, level complete).