Collision Detection

What happens when the player touches an enemy? Or picks up a coin? Collision detection is how we know when game objects interact.

AABB Collision

AABB stands for "Axis-Aligned Bounding Box". It's the simplest and most common collision detection method. We treat every object as a rectangle and check if they overlap.

function isColliding(rect1, rect2) {
    return rect1.x < rect2.x + rect2.width &&
           rect1.x + rect1.width > rect2.x &&
           rect1.y < rect2.y + rect2.height &&
           rect1.y + rect1.height > rect2.y;
}

// Usage
const player = { x: 100, y: 100, width: 40, height: 40 };
const enemy = { x: 120, y: 110, width: 30, height: 30 };

if (isColliding(player, enemy)) {
    console.log('💥 Collision detected!');
}

Circle Collision

For circular objects (balls, coins, characters), we check if the distance between centers is less than the sum of their radii.

function isCircleColliding(circle1, circle2) {
    const dx = circle1.x - circle2.x;
    const dy = circle1.y - circle2.y;
    const distance = Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy);
    return distance < circle1.radius + circle2.radius;
}

// Usage
const ball = { x: 200, y: 150, radius: 20 };
const coin = { x: 210, y: 160, radius: 15 };

if (isCircleColliding(ball, coin)) {
    console.log('🪙 Coin collected!');
}

Point in Rectangle

Useful for detecting mouse clicks on buttons or objects:

function isPointInRect(px, py, rect) {
    return px >= rect.x &&
           px <= rect.x + rect.width &&
           py >= rect.y &&
           py <= rect.y + rect.height;
}

// Usage with mouse click
canvas.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
    const mouseX = e.offsetX;
    const mouseY = e.offsetY;

    if (isPointInRect(mouseX, mouseY, button)) {
        console.log('Button clicked!');
    }
});

Complete Example: Collectible Coins

Here's a mini-game where you move a player to collect coins:

const canvas = document.getElementById('game');
const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');

const player = { x: 50, y: 50, width: 30, height: 30 };
let coins = [
    { x: 200, y: 100, width: 20, height: 20 },
    { x: 350, y: 250, width: 20, height: 20 },
    { x: 500, y: 150, width: 20, height: 20 }
];
let score = 0;
const keys = {};

window.addEventListener('keydown', e => keys[e.key] = true);
window.addEventListener('keyup', e => keys[e.key] = false);

function isColliding(a, b) {
    return a.x < b.x + b.width &&
           a.x + a.width > b.x &&
           a.y < b.y + b.height &&
           a.y + a.height > b.y;
}

function gameLoop() {
    // UPDATE
    if (keys['ArrowUp']) player.y -= 4;
    if (keys['ArrowDown']) player.y += 4;
    if (keys['ArrowLeft']) player.x -= 4;
    if (keys['ArrowRight']) player.x += 4;

    // Check coin collisions
    coins = coins.filter(coin => {
        if (isColliding(player, coin)) {
            score++;
            return false; // Remove coin
        }
        return true;
    });

    // CLEAR
    ctx.fillStyle = '#111';
    ctx.fillRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);

    // DRAW coins
    ctx.fillStyle = '#ffd700';
    coins.forEach(c => ctx.fillRect(c.x, c.y, c.width, c.height));

    // DRAW player
    ctx.fillStyle = '#4ade80';
    ctx.fillRect(player.x, player.y, player.width, player.height);

    // DRAW score
    ctx.fillStyle = '#fff';
    ctx.font = '20px Arial';
    ctx.fillText('Score: ' + score, 10, 30);

    requestAnimationFrame(gameLoop);
}

gameLoop();

What's Next?

You've completed the "Getting Started" path! Here's where you can go from here:

• Build Snake — apply everything you learned in a classic game.
• Explore Resources — use reusable game helpers.
• Read Advanced Topics — continue with game AI, physics, animation, or audio.

Choose your next action: Build a project · Learn physics · Try the playground