I have an implementation of a BrickBreaker-like game where instead of pieces being just removed from the ceiling, each impact results in a new ball being released, gradually building up to a pretty chaotic game.

The SDL related code that actually draws the game is not included here.

This is my second "big" project using Haskell, so I'd appreciate some critique, specifically concerning the approach and collisionBlock functions. First in approach I zip Data.Map.lookup over a list of keys, and then use msum to get the first successful lookup. Then in collisionBlock I use Data.Map.updateLookupWithKey again on the key I already know is successful and had already performed a lookup with. I'd like to be able to eliminate this extra lookup or otherwise improve the approach function.

{-# LANGUAGE BangPatterns #-}

module BrickBreaker where

import Data.List
import qualified Data.Map as M
import System.Random

width  = 640 :: Int
height = 420 :: Int
blockW = width
blockH = height quot 3

data Particle        = Particle { partX, partY, partDX, partDY :: !Int }
data GameState       = GS ![Particle] !Block
data CollisionResult = Miss | Hit Particle Block
type Block           = M.Map Pos Particle
type Pos             = (Int, Int)

getPos, getSpeed :: Particle -> Pos
getPos pt   = (partX pt, partY pt)
getSpeed pt = (partDX pt, partDY pt)

genBlock :: Block
genBlock = mkMap [Particle w h 0 0 | w <- [1..blockW], h <- [1..blockH]]
where mkMap = M.fromList . map (\pt -> (getPos pt, pt))

approach :: Particle -> Block -> Maybe Particle
approach pt bs = msum $zipWith ((flip M.lookup bs .) . addSpeed) (enum dx) (enum dy) where (x, y) = getPos pt; (dx, dy) = getSpeed pt addSpeed dx dy = (x + dx, y + dy) enum 0 = repeat 0 enum n = let i = if n < 0 then (-1) else 1 in enumFromThenTo i (i+i) n collisionBlock :: Particle -> Block -> CollisionResult collisionBlock pt bs | dy > 0 && y > blockH = Miss | dy < 0 && y > blockH - dy = Miss | otherwise = case approach pt bs of Just pt -> let ~(Just pt', bs') = searchRemove pt in Hit pt' bs' Nothing -> Miss where y = partY pt; dy = partDY pt searchRemove = flip (M.updateLookupWithKey (\_ _ -> Nothing)) bs . getPos collisionPaddle :: Paddle -> Particle -> Bool collisionPaddle pd pt = y >= height - paddleH pd && x between (padX, padX + paddleW pd) && dy > 0 where n between (a, b) = n >= a && n <= b (x, y) = getPos pt; dy = partDY pt padX = paddleX pd checkCollisions :: Paddle -> GameState -> GameState checkCollisions pd (GS ps bs) = foldl go (GS [] bs) ps where go (GS ps bs) pt | collisionPaddle pd pt = GS (bar:ps) bs | otherwise = case collisionBlock pt bs of Hit pt bs' -> GS (blk:(randomParticle pt:ps)) bs' Miss -> GS (pt:ps) bs where (x, y) = getPos pt; (dx, dy) = getSpeed pt bar = Particle x (min y height) dx (-dy) blk = Particle x y dx (abs dy) randomParticle :: Particle -> Particle randomParticle pt = Particle x y (ceiling$ dx * 10) (ceiling $dy * 9 + 1) where (x, y) = getPos pt (dx, g) = randomR ((-1.0), 1.0) (mkStdGen$ x + y) :: (Double, StdGen)
(dy, _) = randomR (0.1, 1.0) g :: (Double, StdGen)

updateParticle :: Particle -> Particle
updateParticle pt = Particle (x + dx') (y + dy') dx' dy'
where (x, y) = getPos pt; (dx, dy) = getSpeed pt
dx' = if (x > width && dx > 0) || (x < 0 && dx < 0) then (-dx) else dx
dy' = if y < 0 && dy < 0 then (-dy) else dy

updateGame :: Paddle -> GameState -> GameState
updateGame pd gs = GS (map updateParticle $filter inBounds ps) bs where GS ps bs = checkCollisions pd gs inBounds = (<= height) . partY  Here is the main loop in the SDL related code that calls the drawing functions and updates the GameState: updateWorld :: Surface -> Paddle -> GameState -> IO () updateWorld screen pd gs = do ticks <- getTicks quit <- whileEvents drawGame screen pd gs (x, _, _) <- getMouseState ticks' <- getTicks let pd' = Paddle x (paddleW pd) (paddleH pd) delta = ticks' - ticks when (delta < (fromIntegral secsPerFrame))$
delay $fromIntegral secsPerFrame - delta unless (quit || gameOver gs) (updateWorld screen pd'$ updateGame pd' gs)
where whileEvents = do
event <- pollEvent
case event of
KeyDown (Keysym key _ _) ->
case key of
SDLK_q  -> return True
_       -> return False
_ -> return False

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Removing SDL dependency would help to review the code as it's hard to install –  nponeccop Nov 8 '12 at 11:48
@nponeccop: I didnt find SDL too difficult to install, but I'll remove the dependency if it wil help. –  cdk Nov 8 '12 at 15:49
randomParticle generates particles moving in any direction, but approach only checks diagonal paths. Is it a mistake or an approximation? –  nponeccop Nov 10 '12 at 9:44
@nponeccop: good point, thats something I overlooked. I was having trouble coming up with a way to allow the particles to "approach" the block. Without an approach function, the particles can "tunnel" into the block, and if the new particle generated from randomParticle doesnt have enough y velocity to get out of the block it sets off a chain reaction and the entire block is gone in seconds. –  cdk Nov 10 '12 at 23:21
Collision detection should be rather well-known part of game development, so maybe you should look at the literature. Did you try assuming that particles travel in continuous space and time and finding collisions "between" pixels and frames by solving parametric equations (time as parameter) of particle movement? –  nponeccop Nov 11 '12 at 16:20

Consider making the paddle position part of your GameState. Regardless of how you are going to control the paddle, conceptually it is part of the state. In particular, it is required in order to draw the game screen. Your game loop will look something like:

gameLoop :: GameState -> IO ()
gameLoop s = if stillPlaying s
then do drawScreen s
e <- getEvent
gameLoop $nextState s e else return () drawScreen :: GameState -> IO () ... getEvent :: IO Event ...  stillPlaying has the signature GameState -> Bool and returns false when the game is over. nextState has the signature GameState -> Event -> GameState and creates the next state by applying the effects of an event. One of the events could be "move the paddle left" or "move the paddle right" which would affect the position of the paddle. Also, don't forget to put a random number generator into your GameState - I'm sure you will want to have some randomness in your game eventually. Update: It's a good idea to think in alternative use cases when defining the roles and responsibilities of your functions. For instance, one possible definition of drawScreen is to simply putStrLn$ show s - assuming that you've derived a Show instance for GameState. And getEvent could simply read a number from stdin and create the Event value. Then you can test your game code without using SDL.

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The SDL code that actually draws the game is in a seperate module. It has simlar functions to the ones you've mentioned. My rationale for keeping the paddle out of the GameState is that the paddle is controlled by the user (ie. it has to be updated in the IO monad), whereas the current GameState can be used with complete purity. Specifically, the paddle is moved by updating the padX field with the X co-ord of SDL.getMouseState –  cdk Nov 8 '12 at 21:29
You can run SDL.getMouseState as part of the getEvent function. getEvent is an IO Event so it can call SDL.getMouseState. –  ErikR Nov 8 '12 at 21:47
okay, but i already have the entire drawing/user input part of the game worked out in a separate module. I'll add the main update loop to the question. –  cdk Nov 8 '12 at 22:35

You can use let i = signum n in enum instead of if.

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