Breakout

Objectives

Add a powerup to the game that spawns two extra Balls.
Grow and shrink the paddle when the player gains enough points or loses a life.
Add a locked Brick that will only open with a key.

Getting Started

Download the distribution code for your game from cdn.cs50.net/2d/2025/x/projects/2/breakout.zip and unzip breakout.zip, which should yield a directory called breakout.

Then, in a terminal window, move to the directory where you extracted breakout, and run

cd breakout

Break(out) a Leg!

By now, we’ve gotten our feet wet with states, randomization, and much more; this time, we’ll be diving in a little bit more and adding some new features entirely!

Specification

Add a Powerup class to the game that spawns a powerup (images located at the bottom of the sprite sheet in the distribution code). This Powerup should spawn randomly, be it on a timer or when the ball hits a Block enough times, and gradually descend toward the player. Once collided with the Paddle, two more Balls should spawn and behave identically to the original, including all collision and scoring points for the player. Once the player wins and proceeds to the VictoryState for their current level, the Balls should reset so that there is only one active again.
Grow and shrink the Paddle such that it’s no longer just one fixed size forever. In particular, the Paddle should shrink if the player loses a heart (but no smaller of course than the smallest paddle size) and should grow if the player exceeds a certain amount of score (but no larger than the largest Paddle). This may not make the game completely balanced once the Paddle is sufficiently large, but it will be a great way to get comfortable interacting with Quads and all of the tables we have allocated for them in main.lua!
Add a locked Brick (located in the sprite sheet) to the level spawning, as well as a key powerup (also in the sprite sheet). The locked Brick should not be breakable by the ball normally, unless they of course have the key Powerup! The key Powerup should spawn randomly just like the Ball Powerup and descend toward the bottom of the screen just the same, where the Paddle has the chance to collide with it and pick it up. You’ll need to take a closer look at the LevelMaker class to see how we could implement the locked Brick into the level generation. Not every level needs to have locked Bricks; just include them occasionally! Perhaps make them worth a lot more points as well in order to compel their design. Note that this feature will require changes to several parts of the code, including even splitting up the sprite sheet into Bricks!

Be sure to comment your code in the places where you implement the above items. This is true for all implementations, but particularly if you do so in a spot we might not expect you to.

Errata

NONE

How to Submit

When you submit your project, the contents of your branch must match the file structure of the unzipped distribution code exactly as originally received. That is to say, your files should not be nested inside of any other directories of your own creation or otherwise deviate from the file structure we gave you. Your branch should also not contain any code from any other projects, only this one. Failure to adhere to this file structure will result in your submission being rejected.

By way of a simple example, for this project that means that if the grading staff visits https://github.com/me50/USERNAME/blob/games50/projects/2025/x/breakout/src/Paddle.lua (where USERNAME is your own GitHub username as provided in the form, below) we should be brought to your Paddle.lua file for Breakout. If that’s not how your code is organized when you check (e.g., you get a 404 error or don’t see your edits), reorganize your repository as needed to match this paradigm. Code improperly organized will not be eligible for a passing score.

If you haven’t already, visit this link, log in with your GitHub account, and click Authorize cs50. Then, check the box indicating that you’d like to grant course staff access to your submissions, and click Join course.
Install Git and, optionally, install submit50.
Using Git, push your work to https://github.com/me50/USERNAME.git, where USERNAME is your GitHub username, on a branch called games50/projects/2025/x/breakout or, if you’ve installed submit50, execute
```
submit50 games50/projects/2025/x/breakout
```
instead.
Record a screencast, not to exceed 5 minutes in length in which you demonstrate your game’s functionality. Upload that video to YouTube (as unlisted or public, but not private). This video’s requirements are:
- It is not a YouTube “short”.
- The video begins with a slide or text overlay containing both your edX and GitHub usernames.
- It must show your game live and in action. Do not use this video to walk us through any code.
- It demonstrates that all three (3) items of the specification have been implemented.
- The video description has been timestamped at the (first) point where your video demonstrates each of the above-referenced implementations.
- The video has been uploaded less than one month from the time of your submission of the form for this project (the final step below).
Submit this form.

You can then go to https://cs50.me/cs502d to view your current progress!