ABOUT THIS GAME
You join an RFC squadron in the first winter of the war and fly until the last spring. Before the campaign opens you earn your wings over five tethered Caquot balloons on your own side of the lines - a training ground that cannot hurt you and has no clock, where each station teaches one thing the aeroplane will not tell you. Then the war: five periods from 1914 to 1918, each with an authored sequence of orders issued one at a time at the briefing - patrols, balloon-busting, intercepts, escorts, offensives over the trenches, reconnaissance, and hunts for named German aces. Every order says what must be done and what fails it before you commit an aeroplane to it. The flying is an energy trade: height is speed you have not spent yet, a pull bleeds it, and the pilot who runs out first is the one who breaks off. Rounds hit what they physically cross; damage cuts control wires, cooks radiators and stops engines for the rest of the sortie; a wounded pilot has about ninety seconds to get down at the aerodrome. Death is permanent. The next pilot on the squadron roll takes the seat, and the service record keeps the dead exactly as they were.
KEY FEATURES
An energy fight, not an arcade dogfight
A fixed-timestep flight model with lift, drag, induced drag, thrust, density falloff and a stall. Height is stored speed and a hard turn spends it; the enemy AI breaks off on the same energy ledger you fly by.
A fixed-timestep flight model with lift, drag, induced drag, thrust, density falloff and a stall. Height is stored speed and a hard turn spends it; the enemy AI breaks off on the same energy ledger you fly by.
Earn your wings over tethered balloons
Five balloon stations over your own trenches teach rudder, climbing, leading a drifting target, the zoom, and committing to the pass. The trainer has no timer, no score and no way to fail - a mistake puts you straight back in the air.
Five balloon stations over your own trenches teach rudder, climbing, leading a drifting target, the zoom, and committing to the pass. The trainer has no timer, no score and no way to fail - a mistake puts you straight back in the air.
Orders that fly differently
Patrol, balloon, intercept, escort, offensive, reconnaissance and ace hunt each carry their own objective, their own failure condition and their own enemy. An escort fails if you leave your charge; a reconnaissance fails if you are still over the lines when the light goes.
Patrol, balloon, intercept, escort, offensive, reconnaissance and ace hunt each carry their own objective, their own failure condition and their own enemy. An escort fails if you leave your charge; a reconnaissance fails if you are still over the lines when the light goes.
Guns that shoot where the barrels point
Every aircraft has its own mounts, convergence and muzzle velocity. Rounds are swept through the air so a fast shell cannot skip a target between frames, and a Nieuport's over-wing Lewis has a real blind spot close in.
Every aircraft has its own mounts, convergence and muzzle velocity. Rounds are swept through the air so a fast shell cannot skip a target between frames, and a Nieuport's over-wing Lewis has a real blind spot close in.
Damage that stays for the sortie
Severed control wires take half an axis, a holed radiator boils, a prop strike stops the engine. Nothing repairs in the air; the crew put it right overnight and the debrief tells you what they fixed.
Severed control wires take half an axis, a holed radiator boils, a prop strike stops the engine. Nothing repairs in the air; the crew put it right overnight and the debrief tells you what they fixed.
Ninety seconds of blood
A hit to the pilot starts a visible bleed-out clock. Land at the aerodrome before it runs out and he lives; run out in the air and he does not.
A hit to the pilot starts a visible bleed-out clock. Land at the aerodrome before it runs out and he lives; run out in the air and he does not.
One life per pilot, and a permanent record
A dead pilot is written into the ledger with his date, cause and totals, and the next man on the squadron roll takes over. The career's totals are the sum of everyone who flew it.
A dead pilot is written into the ledger with his date, cause and totals, and the next man on the squadron roll takes over. The career's totals are the sum of everyone who flew it.
Named German aces
Wintgens, Immelmann, Boelcke, Lothar von Richthofen and Voss each fly their own aeroplane with their own skill, and only in the months they were actually at the front.
Wintgens, Immelmann, Boelcke, Lothar von Richthofen and Voss each fly their own aeroplane with their own skill, and only in the months they were actually at the front.
An aerodrome that is a place
Between sorties you stand on the field among the hangars, the tent lines and the windsock. Balloon stations you burnt out still lie where they fell, and the squadron roll, your stats and the news from the front are there to read.
Between sorties you stand on the field among the hangars, the tent lines and the windsock. Balloon stations you burnt out still lie where they fell, and the squadron roll, your stats and the news from the front are there to read.
320x180, drawn in three.js
The whole world renders to a 320x180 target with toon lighting and fog, and is enlarged by a whole-number factor with nearest-neighbour sampling so no pixel is ever resampled.
The whole world renders to a 320x180 target with toon lighting and fog, and is enlarged by a whole-number factor with nearest-neighbour sampling so no pixel is ever resampled.
GAMEPLAY
Perspective
Third-person chase camera, with an opt-in cockpit view
Focus
Energy-managed dogfighting, balloon-busting and getting home alive
Players
Single-player
Native Resolution
320x180 internal, 1280x720 presentation
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