Jeffrey Takes to the Air
------------------------

#Author

Game design and code by: Dave B Stevens (Reprisal) - www.davebstevens.com/my-games

#Testing

Many thanks to Chris Stevens for his testing during the Jam and input to the game design.

#Theme

Game Jam 57 Theme: "Something Borrowed" - Jeffrey's magical abilities are based on Borrowing. His fighter's engine borrows power from the constant storms, as do his lightning attacks. There is a brief themed backstory at the end of this readme.txt.

#Key Controls Summary

Main Game Screen:
SPACE - Centre the screen on your current plane
TAB - Move to the next plane and centre it on the screen
A,S,W,D (or arrow keys) - move the map around
M - change the size of the minimap (press M repeatedly to cycle through 3 options)

Mouse:
Left click and drag the map to move around
You can't currently click on the minimap

#Tutorial

The objective is to shoot down the enemy plane. Player 1's plane is green and Player 2's is red. You can see them on the minimap. To make the minimap bigger press M. To turn it off press M again. And to bring it back … you guessed it, press M.

You can left click and hold to drag the map around. You can also jump between planes by pressing TAB.

You need to move towards the enemy plane and shoot it down.

Each turn is split into 4 phases:

Planning - where you plan you set your move. You can choose one of 5 standard movement cards (left turn, left bank, straight, right bank and right turn). If you choose one of these you can change your Speed or your Altitude (but not both). There is a Green card labelled "Drag Movement Card Here". Mouse over the movement card and it will highlight and a zoomed in version will appear on the right hand side of the screen for ease of reading the card text. The cards aren't as sensitive to mouse overs as I'd like (I'll fix that in the next release). Drag the card you want to use to the Green "drag it here" card and a Next Player button will appear.

Alternatively you have five cards in your hand. Blue ones are movement cards that can be played in this phase. Each has card text explaining what it does. Again just drag it to the "drag it here" space. Then click the Next Player button.

Because the mode is Two Player's on the same device, there is a privacy screen which appears between player's turns so they can't see each others cards.

Once both player's have completed their Planning Phase and Player 2 has dragged a movement card into place and clicked Next Phase, the game moves to the movement phase.

This is self explanatory. The game previews your movement, you press ENTER to move, the plane moves along with a propellor noise which needs to be louder, and you click Next Phase.

It's 3 minutes to 12pm so I've run out of time. Key points that may not be obvious:

Your max speed is 4 and max altitude is 3. Your minimum for both is 1. The game won't let you exceed these limits even if you play a card that should force one or both of these parameters outside of their limit.

You cannot attack a plane that is two levels of altitude different to yours.

I hope you enjoy it. If so, read the Menu > Roadmap and consider becoming a beta tester for the Steam release in mid 2026.

#Sprites

Jeffrey               based on image from PNGtree.com              Free to use
Plane Type 1          based on Bipolar from Unlucky Studios	   Free to use
                          http://www.unluckystudio.com
Clouds                by Freepik (no author)                       Creative Commons License CC0
                          https://www.freepik.com/

#Background Images

Aerial Map            by Barnabas Davoti (Unsplash)

#Sound

Game music             "The Descent" by Kevin MacLeod              Creative Commons License CC0 4.0
Main Menu music        "Hero Down" by Kevin MacLeod                Creative Commons License CC0 4.0
                                              https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html 
Pre & Post Game music  Parts of "The Last Skyhawk" by the Author
Player explosion       from Splice                                 Licensed
Other sounds           by Kenney (kenney.nl)                       Creative Commons License CC0 1.0

#Pre-existing Code

Text Input Box tools    Rezonator Tools                            Creative Commons License CC0
Card Handling Tools     Based on Gamemaker Solitaire Template      Free to use

Some tools were written by the author prior to the game jam including code for managing: card handling, 
buttons, menu objects, slider objects, dropdown text objects, instructions object, settings objects and 
hiscore tools. 

#AI Generated Assets

Logos and some aircraft graphics were AI created from my designs before the jam. Most were then edited.


#Theme - brief backstory

Jeffrey looked up from the miniature tornado spinning between his paws and gazed at the horizon, where dark grey clouds churned in a slow, ominous dance. Bolts of lightning illuminated the sky before slamming into the earth with thunderous cracks. The storm between his hands pulsed in sync with each strike, its energy borrowed from the tempest above.

He gave a nod to his mechanic, who promptly opened the engine cover of the Honey Badger biplane fighter. Inside, the compartment was bare—save for a single shaft leading to the propeller. Jeffrey placed his hands into the hollow space and whispered the invocation taught by the Master Borrower, so many years ago.

The tornado slipped from his paws and coiled itself around the propeller shaft, which began to spin—slowly at first, then faster—until the shaft matched the storm’s furious rhythm. Jeffrey climbed into the cockpit, flashed a thumbs-up to his mechanic, and adjusted the pitch of the propeller. It bit into the air, dragging the fighter forward towards the grass runway.

Time to go hunting!