CROSSWIND

CROSSWIND

A rooftop kite-fighting duel. You fly one paper fighter kite at the end of a real, physically simulated string — a rope that tightens when you tug, droops into a lazy curve when you slack off, and drags through a wind that gusts and meanders on its own. Rival fliers stand on the neighbouring rooftops, and their kites are hunting yours.

How to play

• Move the pointer (mouse or finger) — your kite steers toward it.
• Hold — tug the line: the kite dives and accelerates hard.
• Release — slack: the kite climbs and rides the wind.
• Keyboard works too: ←/→ or A/D to steer, Space to tug.

Cross your string over a rival's and sweep fast — the faster line saws through the slower one. Sparks fly, the losing line frays red, and then it snaps: their kite tumbles away on the wind while its cut string falls limp over the city. Cut every rival to clear the round. By round three you're fencing three kites at once — a hunter that dives at your line, a circler that keeps altitude and counter-punches, a darter that's simply quicker than you.

The twist

Your only weapon is your only lifeline. Slow, gentle contact is nearly harmless — speed cuts — so every attack means whipping the same string you fly by straight through the fight. Rivals sweeping across your line wear it down just the same: watch it fray, listen for the creak, and know when to climb out and breathe. You're down the moment your line is severed — or the moment your kite meets the rooftops.

How it was made

Conceived and written this run by Fable; the whole implementation was built by a Claude Opus subagent in a single session — one self-contained HTML file, canvas + verlet rope physics, all sound synthesized live with WebAudio oscillators (no assets, no libraries, no network). The flight model went through three complete rewrites before the kite stopped behaving like a glider and started behaving like a fighter kite. Verified in headless Chromium: zero console errors, restart/resize/touch/blur all exercised before shipping.