Paper Bricks is a brick breaker drawn on squared paper. You slide a wooden ruler along the bottom of the page and bounce an ink ball up into rows of paper cut-outs, card and taped scraps. Clear every brick you can break and the page is done. Some pages have a crease across them, and a ball hit with spin jumps across it to the other half of the sheet, which is the only way into the rooms some bricks are hiding in.
Paper Bricks rules
- You start with 3 balls. A ball that gets past the ruler is gone. Lose the last one and the game is over.
- A page is finished when every brick that can be broken is gone. Metal clips never break, and you never need to clear them.
- Plain paper breaks in 1 hit, card in 2, and taped bricks in 3, losing a piece of tape each time.
- Where the ball meets the ruler sets where it goes: near the middle it goes straight up, near the ends it goes off to that side.
- Sometimes a broken brick lets a drop fall. Catch it with the ruler to use it. A drop you miss is simply gone.
- Scissors cut through one row. Glue holds the next ball on the ruler for one shot. A wide ruler and a slow ball each last a few seconds. An extra ball adds one more in play, three at most.
- Hit the ball while the ruler is moving and it picks up spin, shown by a dashed ring around it. A ball with spin that crosses the crease comes out on the other half of the page, mirrored left to right. A ball with no spin goes straight over.
- The ball gets a little faster as a page goes on and on later pages. Every brick scores points, and a run of bricks without touching the ruler scores more.
How to play on this page
- Drag anywhere on the page with a finger and the ruler follows. On a phone you can also drag in the strip under the page, which keeps your finger off the ruler. With a mouse, just move it. On a keyboard, use the arrow keys or A and D, which speed up the longer you hold them.
- Tap, click or press Space to launch the ball, and again to let go of a ball held by glue.
- Choose 20 pages or Endless beside the game. In Endless every page is new, and it goes on for as long as you last.
- Press Escape or P, or the Pause button, to stop. The game also pauses when you switch to another tab.
- Your game is saved in this browser, so you can reload or come back later and carry on from a paused page.
Tips for a higher score
- Aim with the ends of the ruler. A hit near the end sends the ball sharply to that side, which gets it behind a row of bricks.
- Once the ball is above a row it can bounce along behind it and break several bricks without coming back, which also builds a bigger score.
- To get into a room behind clips, stand under the open side of the page and move the ruler as you hit the ball. The ball jumps to the mirrored spot across the crease.
- Do not chase every drop. If two balls are in play, keep the lower one alive first.
- Save a slow ball or a wide ruler for the fast pages near the end by catching it when you need it, not just when it falls.
About this game
Brick breakers have been an arcade favourite for decades. Paper Bricks is our own take on the genre: the pages, the art and the crease are made for this site, and everything is drawn in code on a sheet of squared paper.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Paper Bricks free?
- Yes. It is free in your browser, with no download, no account and nothing to install.
- What does the dashed line across the page do?
- That is a crease. A ball hit with a moving ruler has spin, and when it crosses the crease it jumps to the other half of the page, mirrored left to right. A ball with no spin just goes straight over it.
- Why can’t I reach some of the bricks?
- They are in a room with a floor and walls of metal clips, which the ball cannot go through. Hit the ball with a moving ruler while it is under the open half of the page, and it will jump across the crease into the room.
- Why does the ball sometimes change direction by itself?
- If a ball goes a long time without breaking anything or touching the ruler, it gets a small nudge, so that it can never bounce around the same path for ever.
- What happens if I get stuck on a page?
- The page helps you out. When no brick has been hit for a while you get a hint, then the ruler gives the ball spin by itself and leans its bounces towards the bricks that are left. If that is still not enough, a pair of scissors falls to your ruler to cut a row.
- Does my game get saved?
- Yes, in this browser. If you reload the page your game comes back paused, right where it was, and your best scores stay too. Nothing is sent to a server.
- What is the difference between 20 pages and Endless?
- The 20 pages are drawn by hand and end with a final page. Endless makes a new random page each time you clear one, a little harder every time, and only ends when your balls run out.