Update: v0.6.0 - Particle Effects & E2E Testing

Released: October 29, 2025

Clicks now feel amazing, and we have tests to prevent shipping broken code!

What's New

PixiJS Particle System

• ✨ Click particle bursts - 8 particles spawn on each vote
• 🎨 Side-specific colors - Red vs teal particles
• 🌊 Cubic Bezier trajectories - Organic curved motion
• ♻️ Object pooling - 200 pre-allocated particles
• 🎯 60fps animations - Even on 3-year-old phones
• ⚡ WebGL rendering - GPU-accelerated via PixiJS

Particle Features

• Radial burst pattern from click point
• Gravity and fade-out effects
• Randomized speeds for natural variation
• Particles flow toward vote counter
• No garbage collection during gameplay

Playwright Testing

• 🧪 E2E test suite - Full user flow coverage
• 🌐 Multi-browser - Chrome + iPhone Safari emulation
• 🎯 Core flow tests - Create matchup → vote → verify
• 🔄 Real-time sync tests - Multi-client vote propagation
• 🚨 Console error detection - Auto-fail on runtime errors
• ⚡ Performance tests - Track click response time

CI/CD Integration

• GitHub Actions run tests on every push
• Must pass before merging to main
• Screenshots on failure
• Full HTML snapshots for debugging
• Network request logging

Bug Fixes

• Fixed particle pool exhaustion under heavy load
• Fixed particles not spawning on mobile Safari
• Fixed WebGL context loss on tab switch
• Fixed particle animation stuttering on low-end devices
• Fixed vote counter race condition in tests

Performance

• Particle update: ~3ms per frame
• WebGL rendering: ~5ms per frame
• Consistent 60fps with 200 active particles
• Zero frame drops on budget Android phones
• Test suite runs in <2 minutes

Test Coverage

Tests now cover:

• Matchup creation and validation
• Vote button functionality
• Vote count updates
• Real-time sync across clients
• Upgrade purchases and activation
• Session persistence
• Error states

Technical Details

• PixiJS 7.x with WebGL backend
• Cubic Bezier curve calculation for paths
• Object pooling to avoid GC pauses
• Playwright with TypeScript
• Test timeout: 30 seconds per test

Before/After

Before particles:

• Clicks felt mechanical
• No visual reward
• Users said it was "boring"

After particles:

• Clicks feel satisfying
• Visual confirmation of every action
• Users describe it as "addictive"

What's Next

v1.0.0 is coming soon with final polish, bug fixes, and the official public launch. We're production-ready!