How Emberwing works

What is Emberwing?

Emberwing is a 3D flying game in which you ride a dragon through a sky full of floating islands. Below you lies a sea of clouds, around you drift rocks, trees and other dragons, and you breathe fireballs at anything that gets in your way. You can play the story of Highmoor on your own – seven chapters with rings, lanterns, wild wyverns, sky pirates, a race, a siege and a final boss – or fight a dogfight against up to five friends or bots.

Emberwing runs right in your browser, on a computer as well as on a phone or tablet. There is nothing to install and no account – your stars are saved in your browser.

Controls

Computer

• Mouse: click into the picture once and the mouse aims – your dragon flies where the crosshair points. Left click breathes fire, right click boosts.
• Keyboard: W/S or ↑/↓ climb and dive, A/D or ←/→ turn, Space fires, Shift boosts, Q brakes.
• Esc opens the menu and frees the mouse. In the story the game pauses; in multiplayer it keeps running. In the menu you can also set the mouse sensitivity and invert the mouse.

Phone and tablet

Put your thumb anywhere on the left half of the screen: that is where the stick appears. Push up to climb, down to dive, sideways to turn. On the right are the big Fire button and the smaller Boost button. Fireballs get a little more aim assist on touch screens.

Gamepad

Left stick steers, A or the right trigger fires, B or the left trigger boosts, X brakes.

Flying

• Speed: your dragon always flies forward. Diving makes it faster, climbing slower. Boost makes it much faster but drains the blue stamina bar; it refills when you stop boosting. Brake helps in tight turns and when lining up with a ring.
• Islands: if you hit rock, you bounce off and lose speed. A glancing touch is free, a head-on crash costs up to 10 health.
• Sea of clouds: the clouds below burn – every second inside costs 22 health. Climb out quickly.
• Storm wall: at the edge of the world a storm pushes you back. The warning “Storm wall – turn back!” tells you when you are close.

Fire, heat and health

A fireball flies about 290 metres. Each one heats your dragon up – watch the heat bar at the bottom. If it fills up, your dragon overheats and can't breathe fire for a moment. Short bursts are therefore better than holding the button. Fireballs bend slightly towards a target close to your aim, and the crosshair flashes when you hit.

Your health comes back by itself once you have not taken damage for five seconds. Below a quarter of your health a warning tells you to get away.

The story of Highmoor

Highmoor is a land of floating islands high above the clouds. You start as a young dragon rider and end up facing Tempest, the storm dragon behind the sky pirates of the Black Gale. Each chapter unlocks the next, and each gives up to three stars.

1. First Flight: fly through 12 rings in order. 3 stars under 70 seconds, 2 under 95.
2. Lantern Hunt: shoot down 14 drifting lanterns within two minutes. 3 stars with 55 seconds left, 2 with 25.
3. Wild Wyverns: defeat three wild wyverns. Stars depend on the health you have left (70 % / 35 %).
4. Sky Pirates: destroy three airships of the Black Gale while two pirate riders hunt you and the ships fire cannons. 3 stars under 150 seconds, 2 under 240.
5. The Great Race: three laps through ten rings against Talon, Vesper and Rook – fire is not allowed. First place gives 3 stars, second 2, third 1.
6. Siege: protect the lighthouse from three waves of pirates. Stars depend on how much of the tower is left (70 % / 35 %).
7. The Storm Dragon: defeat Tempest. He throws storm orbs in fans, calls down lightning – watch out for the red columns – and brings help when he is weak. For this fight your dragon has more health. 3 stars under 150 seconds, 2 under 240.

Multiplayer dogfight

Click Create a dogfight: you get a five-letter code and a link. Friends open Emberwing and type in the code – or simply open the link. Up to six dragons can play; bots fill the free places, and if a friend joins a full game, a bot makes room. Everyone plays on their own device, connected directly between the browsers.

• Knockouts to win: 5, 10 or 15. Whoever reaches it first wins. After eight minutes the dragon with the most knockouts wins.
• Bots: easy, medium or hard – they aim more precisely and lead their shots better the harder they are.
• Sky: random, noon, dusk or storm.
• Shot down? After four seconds you are back in the air, protected for a moment.

Don't have friends at hand? Dogfight alone against bots starts the same match without a code.

Strategy and tips

• Fire in bursts. Three or four fireballs, then a short pause – that way you never overheat at the wrong moment.
• Use the height. A dive gives speed for free. Attack from above, then climb again while your stamina recovers.
• Brake in turns. If a target slips out of your turn, brake for a moment instead of circling it.
• Being chased? Boost and turn hard behind an island – the pursuer has to go around it.
• Sky Pirates: deal with the two pirate riders first, then the airships are an easy target.
• Siege: stay near the lighthouse. Pirates attack in runs – catch them as they approach.
• Tempest: keep moving sideways, never fly straight at him for long, and stay out of the red columns.

Frequently asked questions

Does Emberwing cost anything?

No. Emberwing is free, without ads in the game, without purchases and without an account.

The game is jerky. What can I do?

Emberwing needs WebGL. Make sure hardware acceleration is turned on in your browser and close other tabs with videos or games. On phones the game automatically renders at a lower resolution.

My friends can't join.

Check the code and make sure the host still has the lobby open. Some networks – schools, offices, some mobile networks – block direct connections between browsers; a different Wi-Fi usually helps.

Are my stars saved?

Yes, in your browser on this device. If you clear your browser data or use a private window, they are gone.

Behind the scenes

Everything in Emberwing is made from code: the islands, trees and clouds are generated from a seed, the dragons are built from simple shapes and flap their wings in real time, the sea of clouds is a small shader, and all sounds and the music come from the Web Audio API. The 3D picture is drawn with three.js. In multiplayer each player flies their own dragon, while the host's browser decides health, knockouts and the score.