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Creating a Retro Space Shooter with Rust and WebAssembly (part 1)

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In this tutorial, we’ll build a simple retro-style space shooter using Rust and WebAssembly (WASM). The game mechanics are straightforward: aliens move from right to left, the player can move left or right and shoot vertically, and aliens that reach the left side of the screen build a wall, reducing the playable area. The game is won when all waves of aliens are defeated, and it’s lost when the wall takes over too much space.

1. Setting Up the Project

Install Required Tools

Ensure you have Rust installed, and add the wasm32-unknown-unknown target:

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown

You’ll also need wasm-bindgen-cli, wasm-pack and wasm-bindgen-cli:

cargo install wasm-bindgen-cli
cargo install wasm-pack
cargo install wasm-bindgen-cli

Create a New Cargo Project

Start by creating a new Rust library:

cargo new --lib space_defender
cd space_defender

Modify the Cargo.toml file:

[package]
name = "space_defender"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2024"…