Ball Dodge

Dodge escalating waves and collect energy shards in an endless keyboard survival run.

Ball Dodge

You steer a small mint circle with the keyboard and dodge balls flying in from every side. There is no time limit: a run lasts until the first ball touches you, and every second you survive is a point. Energy shards that show up now and then add more. The arena is the same size whatever your screen, so a bigger monitor does not make the balls any easier to see coming.

Where the balls come from

Balls enter from one of the four edges, and a ring warning appears at the entry point before the ball moves: about half a second on Normal, 0.35 seconds on Hard. Pink balls aim at where you are when they launch; orange balls head for a random spot inside the arena. A pink ball never changes course after launch, so stepping a little to the side when you see its warning makes most of them miss.

Every 20 seconds the wave number goes up. Over time balls get faster, come more often, and a larger share of them are pink. On Normal about two in three aim at you at first, rising a little each wave; Hard starts near eight in ten. Later waves send several balls side by side, one more every three waves on Normal and every two on Hard, up to five. A row of aimed balls fans out across your position, so you have to move well clear at a right angle to their path.

Shards and score

The mint diamond energy shards appear every 10.5 seconds on Normal and 9 on Hard, an interval that shrinks slightly with each wave, and vanish after 6.5 seconds. They tend to spawn away from you, so the route to a shard is often right through traffic. A shard is worth 5 at first and gains 1 every two waves, up to 25. Your final score is seconds survived plus shard points, recorded to one decimal place.

Late in a run a single shard is worth several seconds of survival, which makes it tempting, but one hit while chasing it ends everything. Going for a shard only when no warnings are nearby is a sensible rule. Leaderboards sort by highest score and are separate for Normal and Hard.

Controls

• W, A, S, D or ←/→/↑/↓ to move, at the same speed diagonally
• Hold Shift to move at about half speed for precise steps
• P or Esc to pause

This is a keyboard game. Clicking the arena only gives it focus and does not move the circle, and there are no touch controls. A run starts after a 2.5 second countdown, and resuming from pause gives you a 1.5 second countdown. Switching to another window or a stalled screen pauses automatically, and paused time never counts toward your score. Muting is remembered on this device.