🎈 Balloon Drift
Keyboard: hold Space, ↑ or W to heat the burner. Touch / mouse: press and hold the game screen.
About Balloon Drift
A storm front has rolled in over the valley, and the only balloon daft enough to fly through it is yours. In Balloon Drift you are not steering left and right like an arcade plane — you are a balloonist, and the sky does what it wants. Your one tool is the burner: heat the air and you climb, cut the flame and gravity takes you back down. Between you and clear blue sky lie flocks of startled birds, bruised storm clouds crackling with lightning, and a wind that changes its mind every few seconds. It is a game of vertical rhythm — reading the sky a second ahead and floating through the gaps.
How to play
Your balloon drifts forward on its own; you control only its altitude. Hold Space, the Up arrow, W, or your finger on the screen to fire the burner and rise — release to stop heating and sink back down. The burner is powerful but the balloon is heavy, so every correction needs a little anticipation: start climbing before you need the height, not when you are already under the obstacle. The top of the screen shows the current wind: a gust arrow means the air itself is pushing you up or down, so sometimes the smartest move is to do nothing and let the wind carry you through a gap. Flying off the top or bottom of the sky costs you a heart, so keep the balloon on screen.
Hazards & pickups
- Birds flap across the sky in loose flocks, bobbing up and down — they are small but fast, so thread between them rather than chasing them.
- Storm clouds are big, slow and crackling — touching one, or the lightning it throws when you fly close, costs a heart. Give them a wide berth.
- Stars drift in the gaps between hazards. Each one is worth 25 points — worth a small detour, but never worth a collision.
- You have 3 hearts. After a hit you flash with brief protection — use those seconds to get back to safe air instead of panicking.
Scoring
You earn 1 point for every 10 metres drifted plus 25 per star. The sky gets faster and busier the further you fly, so late metres are the real prize. Reach 600 metres and you punch through the storm front for a victory flight. Your best score is saved on your device — beat it when the next front rolls in.