Show HN: Space Invaders built with React

Chrome 46.0.2490.71 (64-bit), OSX Yosemite

Had to press and hold arrow keys for a long time to develop any movement. Once the inertia (finally) kicked in, it kicked in hard and shot me across the screen.

Using this demo makes me want to not use React.

I couldn't get it to fire, I couldn't move without clicking on the "ship" and dragging it (which didn't always work.)

From a purely design perspective - the bullets are too small, and too fast, and fire too often, and the ship is too wide. Also, it's missing a lot of the mechanics of Space Invaders (in particular, the invaders don't move down when they hit the side of the screen.) I know it's a demo but for me (and it seems for other people) it's barely even playable.

I had some trouble with the arrow keys - it seemed like I would hit it 3 or 4 times and only move once. Dragging with the mouse worked pretty well though. Also, holding down the spacebar and creating a stream of pellets helped.

What's the copyright status on Space Invaders? I'm asking because of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10180209

React is so new and it seems to be lots of work to have something simple done. This example is a classic potential issue with React. I haven't read the source code but the keyboard problem should not be something I have to worry about!

Another one who gave up after 3 tries of keyboard/mouse didn't work.

Maybe include an instruction on which keys I am meant to be using to move around?

I couldn't figure it out because I died to fast every time, and gave up after 3 or 4 tries.

Source code :

https://github.com/Swizec/space-invaders

On Firefox 41.0.1 on OSX Yosemite, neither the space bar nor the arrow keys work. No extensions.

I also had trouble getting arrow keys to work on Chrome 46.0.2490.71 Win

Was your talk recorded? Any slides or notes?

Can't seem to move very far