Updraft

Run off a grassy shoulder high above an Alpine valley and the ground falls away beneath you. There is no engine. You stay up by finding air that rises: warm thermals breaking off the sunny slopes, wind pushed up a ridge, the evening air still rising off sun-warmed rock.

Everything you see and hear is made in code as the game loads: the 12 km valley with its lake, village and forests, the clouds, the wing and pilot, the eagles, the sound of the wind, the vario and the music. There are no image or sound files at all, and the game never goes online once it has loaded.

READ THE SKY

- Cumulus clouds grow over the thermals that feed them, drift with the wind and fade away. Fly beneath a building cloud to find lift.

- Eagles and other pilots circle in the best climbs. A gaggle turning together marks the strongest air.

- Your vario beeps faster and higher as you climb and groans as you sink. Circle tighter where the beeping is fastest.

- Wind blowing up a slope lifts you along the ridge. Sun on a slope lifts you close to the ground.

HOW YOU PLAY

- First flight: a coached flight with a checklist. Take off, turn both ways, find a thermal, climb 150 m, try the speed bar and big ears, then land on the target.

- Free flight: pick one of three launches, the time of day and the weather, and fly for as long as you can stay up.

- Cross-country tasks: five routes from a 3 km valley tour to a 26 km grand tour of the whole range. Fly into each turnpoint cylinder in order, then land in goal. Gold, silver and bronze times.

- Spot landing: three rounds from 300 m above the field. Points for how close you put it down.

- Garage: three wings and eight colour schemes. Land a task in goal to unlock the sporty Kestrel 2; earn three medals for the high-performance Strato.

THE AIR CHANGES WITH THE DAY

Fly in the morning, at midday, in the late afternoon, at the evening glass-off or by moonlight, in calm, fair, strong-thermal, breezy or high-cloud weather. Each one changes the air as well as the light: thermals are strongest in the early afternoon and gone by night, and the weather sets the wind and the height of the cloud base.

HOW IT FLIES

- Each wing flies from the measured speeds and sink rates of a real wing of its class.

- The brakes slow you down; the speed bar speeds you up but you sink faster. Steer with brake and weight shift, and the wing banks into the turn.

- Big ears fold the tips to come down fast. Hold the brakes too long and the wing stalls; rough air can fold a tip under, and it reopens on its own.

- Land into the wind and flare at the last moment.

- Five cameras: chase, far chase, the pilot's own eyes, the wingtip and a hillside camera.

CONTROLS

Keyboard: hold W on launch to pull the wing up and run, A / D steer, S or Space brakes (and the flare), Shift speed bar, E big ears, C camera, hold B to look behind, Esc pause, M mute.

Gamepad: stick steers, LT brakes, RT speed bar, A runs, X big ears, Y camera, B look back.

Phone and tablet: slide your left thumb along the steering pad, drag down on the brake slider with your right thumb, and use BAR, EARS and RUN. Play in landscape.

COMFORT AND ACCESS

A calm, steady camera, separate music, effects and vario volumes, sound captions, three text sizes, a high-contrast display, Reduce motion, metric or imperial units, and full keyboard and gamepad menus.

RUNS ON

Any recent desktop browser, and phones and tablets. Graphics settings scale it down for older phones. Your progress is saved in your browser.

OFFLINE VERSION

Download the offline zip, unzip it and open Updraft.html in your browser. Nothing to install, and no internet needed.

CREDITS

An original game by Kayode Fashola, built with three.js and Vite with the help of AI. No ready-made assets: everything is generated in code. All places, pilots and wings are fictional.