---
title: "Scores, lives and high scores"
package: "@phaser-ae/scoreboard"
tier: Free
version: 3.0.0-0
released: 2026-10-19
updated: 2026-10-19
description: "The numbers a game keeps about its players, with score, lives and draining meters, extra-life awards, one-time warnings, a high-score table with initials entry, and player turns."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/scoreboard
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Scores, lives and high scores

The numbers a game keeps about the player rather than the world: a score, a stock of lives, a fuel gauge that warns
once, an extra ship every 10,000 points, the line the announcer says, the high-score table with three initials, and
the turns between players. It is plain state, stepped with your frame time, and it draws nothing, so any HUD can read
it.

## What it does

A meter is one value with a range, an optional drain or fill rate and three edges: low, empty and full. Each edge
fires its callback on the frame the value reaches it and re-arms when the value leaves, so "fuel low" and "out of
lives" happen once, at the right moment, without flags in your game code. `spend` takes an amount only if it is
there, which is all an ammo counter needs. Named meters sit together on one resources object and step with one
`update(dt)`.

Award rules watch a meter and give something at every multiple of a step or at listed values: an extra life every
10,000 points, a bonus at 50,000. Several thresholds crossed in one frame give several awards, and a meter that drops
back below a threshold re-arms it, so a new game that zeroes the score earns its extra lives at the same scores
again.

Callouts are what the HUD says. A higher priority interrupts a lower one, a cooldown stops a taunt repeating, and a
`when` test fires only on its rising edge. The high-score table ranks scores, says whether one qualifies, saves to
JSON and loads back, dropping any invalid rows; the initials wheel takes up, down, left and right from any input.
Player slots each carry their own score, lives and rounds meters, a team and the actor they drive, and `next()` moves
to the next player with lives left. Because nothing runs on its own, a test can play a whole game in a millisecond.

## Features

- **Meters** — a value with a minimum, an optional maximum, a signed rate per second, a warning level and edge
  callbacks for low, empty and full.
- **Spend and refill** — take an amount only if it is there; reset with the edges re-armed.
- **Named resources** — score, lives, fuel and more on one object, stepped together.
- **Award rules** — every so many points or at listed values, re-armed when the meter falls back.
- **Callouts** — text and sound cues with priority, cooldown, a hold time and rising-edge triggers.
- **A blink helper** — `flash` turns a time into on or off at a rate and duty, for a blinking 1UP or a warning lamp.
- **A high-score table** — any size, pre-filled if you like, with placement, qualification, insertion and JSON save
  and load.
- **Initials entry** — a letter wheel of any length over any character set.
- **Player slots** — turns, lives per player, teams, a leader, and switching control to the actor nearest a point.

## Good for

- **Arcade shooters** with a score, a stock of ships, extra lives at set scores and a 1UP that blinks, in the style
  of Asteroids.
- **Games with fuel, ammo or air** that drain over time and warn once when low.
- **Puzzle and casual games** that want only the high-score table and initials entry.
- **Hotseat and alternating two-player games** that pass the controls when a player loses a life.
- **Team sports games**, where a player slot switches to whichever team-mate is nearest the ball.
- **Headless tests** that play whole games without a clock or a screen.

## Make it yours

The pack has no options; every builder takes its own definition, which can come from a level file. Meters take a
starting value, range, rate, warning level and callbacks. Awards take the meter to watch, a step or a list of values,
and what to give. Cues take text, a sound, a priority, a cooldown and a hold time, and `createCues` takes your own
`play` function. The table takes a size and starting entries; the initials wheel takes a length, a character set and
a starting entry; player slots take a count, starting lives and teams.

Two different uses: a lander game with a fuel meter that drains at four units a second, warns at a quarter with a
FUEL LOW callout and ends the game when empty; and a two-player, alternating-turns puzzle game that uses only player
slots for turns and the high-score table for a top ten.

## A quick look

Score, lives and a draining fuel meter, with an extra life every 10,000 points:

```ts
const res = createResources({
    score: {},
    lives: { value: 3, onEmpty: () => flow.go('over') },
    fuel: { value: 100, max: 100, rate: -4, warn: 25, onWarn: () => cues.say('fuel') },
});
res.award({ of: 'score', every: 10000, give: r => r.lives.add(1) });
res.update(dt);                       // once a frame
if (res.fuel.low) drawGauge(res.fuel.frac);
```

## Works with

- `wave-plan` — what arrives when, difficulty that rises with the level, and what counts as winning.
- `fsm` — attract, play, dying and game over as named phases.
- `typography`, `vector-font` or `ui` — to draw the score and lives these meters hold.
- `save` — to keep the high-score table between sessions.

## Good to know

- It counts and remembers; it never draws, plays a sound itself or reads input. Your HUD reads it, your input calls
  the initials wheel, and cue sounds go through your `play` function.
- Nothing advances on its own: call `update(dt)` on resources and cues once a frame. Awards are tested on `update`,
  not on each write.
- The table lives in memory until you save it with `toJSON()`.
- A meter's rate is applied in one step of `dt`, so a meter that must not overshoot inside a long frame needs smaller
  steps.

---

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