We turned web pages into Snake mazes. The hard part was finding the empty space.
On 28 July we wrote down an idea: click a button and the page you're reading becomes a Snake level. The snake moves through the empty space between paragraphs. The words are walls. It sat in a notes file for 49 days. On 15 September we built it, and on 4 October Page Arcade went live on the Chrome Web Store. It now has eight games, and version 1.1.0 shipped on 22 October. The games turned out to…
On 28 July, we conceived the idea of transforming a web page into a Snake level. The snake navigated through the empty space between paragraphs, with the words functioning as walls. This concept remained in a notes file for 49 days before being developed and released on the Chrome Web Store on 4 October, 2023. The eight games offered by Page Arcade indicated the easy aspect of the project, while determining the empty space on a web page presented the challenge.
The primary obstacle was figuring out where the empty space lay on a webpage, a task that required code to decide pixel by pixel, on a page it had never seen before. Incorrect decisions could lead to the snake slipping through text or meeting an untimely demise on nothing, ultimately blaming the game. The source file quoted a mistaken belief that a person could identify the empty space at a glance, but the code had to be precise.
To address this issue, various methods were employed, including the "screenshot-first freeze," a grid layout, a rule that allows the snake to cross a one-pixel line but not a single word, and a bug report submitted by a user who died on ChatGPT while playing next to an icon they hadn't touched. The process involved photographing the page with a PNG screenshot before any injection, reading the page's layout, and then overlaying the game.
The extension required three permissions and no site access, granting access via a user click to capture a screenshot and inject the game.
The free space on a page was conceptualized as a set of islands, with the game focusing on the largest island and joining the second largest one with a portal when it became substantial enough. The extension requested permissions upon activation, ensuring a seamless experience without any account or site access required. Page Arcade offered eight different games, including Snake, Word Blaster, Type Storm, Brickout, Whack-a-Word, Page Roller, Gravity Crumble, and Page Chomp.
The game started on the page the user was currently viewing, with no loading screens or level selection available, emphasizing instant play on the existing webpage.
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