Bot Blaster — Conference Booth Game

Space Invaders-style bot-shooting game for tech conference booths.

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How config editing works

config.json lives on your host machine and is mounted directly into the container. You never need to enter the container or rebuild the image to change any text or gameplay setting.

Workflow:

1. Edit config.json on your laptop/server with any text editor
2. Save the file
3. Refresh the browser — changes appear immediately

That's it. No docker exec, no rebuild, no restart.

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Quick Start

# 1. Build the image and start (first time only, or after editing index.html)
docker compose up -d --build

# 2. Open the game
open http://localhost       # macOS
xdg-open http://localhost  # Linux
# or just navigate to http://localhost in any browser

To run on a different port (if 80 is taken):

# Edit docker-compose.yml — change "80:80" to e.g. "8080:80", then:
docker compose up -d --build
open http://localhost:8080

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Editing config.json

The file is at ./config.json next to docker-compose.yml on your host. Edit it with any editor and refresh the browser — no container interaction needed.

{
  "company": {
    "name": "YourCompany",
    "tagline": "Your tagline here.",
    "booth": "Booth #10"
  },
  "event": {
    "name": "EventName 2026",
    "dates": "April 1–3, 2026",
    "location": "Melbourne Convention Centre"
  },
  "attract": {
    "headline": "CAN YOU STOP THE BOTS?",
    "subheadline": "Blast the bots before they reach your servers!",
    "callToAction": "PRESS START TO PLAY",
    "leaderboardTitle": "TODAY'S TOP BOT BLASTERS",
    "prizeMessage": "🏆 Daily High Score Wins a Prize — See Booth Staff",
    "scrollingMessages": [
      "Your message 1",
      "Your message 2",
      "Your message 3"
    ]
  },
  "gameplay": {
    "lives": 1,
    "speedMultiplier": 1.5,
    "shootCooldownMs": 800
  }
}

gameplay settings

Setting	Default	Description
lives	1	Lives per game. 1 = one hit and you're out
speedMultiplier	1.5	Enemy speed. 1.0 = ~8 min game, 1.5 = ~3 min, 2.0 = ~2 min
shootCooldownMs	800	Ms between player shots. 800 = original Space Invaders pace

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How the volume mount works (technical detail)

In docker-compose.yml:

volumes:
  - ./config.json:/usr/share/nginx/html/config.json:ro

This binds config.json from your host directory into the container at nginx's web root. The :ro flag makes it read-only inside the container (the container can't modify it). nginx serves it with no-cache headers, so the browser always fetches the latest version on page load.

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Daily Leaderboard Reset

Scores are stored in the booth browser's localStorage — they survive page refreshes and container restarts automatically. Scores from one browser are completely isolated from any other browser that visits the same URL.

To reset scores between event days, hold R for 2 seconds on the attract screen. The leaderboard title will change to "Hold to reset scores…" while the key is held — release early to cancel. On completion it shows "Scores cleared!" briefly before restoring.

Automated morning reset via cron (opens the URL and simulates the key combo) is not needed for most setups — the hold-R method is quick enough for staff at the start of each day.

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Stopping / updating

# Stop the container
docker compose down

# Rebuild after editing index.html (config.json changes don't need this)
docker compose up -d --build

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Controls

Action	Keyboard	Controller
Move	← →	Left stick / D-Pad
Fire	Space	A / B / X / Y
Pause	Esc / P	Start
Quit to menu	Esc again (while paused)	Start again (while paused) or Select
Reset leaderboard	Hold R for 2 s (attract screen only)	—

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Files

File	Purpose
index.html	The entire game — self-contained, no external dependencies at runtime
config.json	All booth text and gameplay settings — edit freely on the host
Dockerfile	Builds the nginx:alpine image (~10MB)
nginx.conf	nginx config — no-cache for config.json, gzip, health endpoint
docker-compose.yml	One-command orchestration with live config volume mount