Quickstart

Get brkrs running on your machine in under 10 minutes.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

  • Rust toolchain (1.81 or later) — Install via rustup

  • Git — For cloning the repository

  • Graphics drivers — OpenGL 3.3+ or Vulkan support

Platform-specific requirements

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libasound2-dev libudev-dev

Linux (Fedora):

sudo dnf install gcc-c++ alsa-lib-devel systemd-devel

macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools (usually pre-installed):

xcode-select --install

Windows: Install Visual Studio Build Tools with “Desktop development with C++”.

Installation

  1. Clone the repository

    git clone https://github.com/cleder/brkrs.git
cd brkrs

  2. Build and run

    cargo run --release

    The first build takes several minutes to compile dependencies. Subsequent builds are much faster.

  3. Play!

    The game starts with Level 1. Use your mouse to control the paddle.

Controls

Action

Input

Move paddle

Mouse movement

Rotate paddle

Mouse scroll wheel

Pause game

ESC

Resume game

Left mouse click

Toggle cheat mode (developer/test)

G — toggles Cheat Mode, resets score to 0 and shows an image indicator (assets/textures/default/cheat-mode-128.png) in the lower-right; if toggled during Game Over, sets lives to 3 and dismisses the Game Over overlay (does not reset the current level)

Restart level

R (requires Cheat Mode)

Next level

L or N (requires Cheat Mode)

Previous level

P (requires Cheat Mode)

Destroy all bricks

K (requires Cheat Mode)

Toggle wireframe

Space (requires Cheat Mode)

New Game Behavior

  • Selecting New Game from the Game Over screen resets the run to a clean state:

    • Level resets to 1

    • Lives reset to 3

    • Score resets to 0

Playing a specific level

To start on a different level, modify the level number in the source or use the level switcher (if available).

Levels are stored in assets/levels/ as RON files:

  • level_001.ron — First level

  • level_002.ron — Second level

  • etc.

Web version

A WASM build is available at: https://cleder.github.io/brkrs/

No installation required — just open the link in a modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge).

Next steps

  • Having issues? See {doc} troubleshooting

  • Want to contribute? Read the {doc} developer-guide

  • Curious about the architecture? Check {doc} architecture