Damn This Plane!

(Fullscreen recommended)

"Come on pilot, get in that fighter and give those Jerries a good old beating!"

"Sir, isn't that the plane whose lever keeps getting stuck and forcing us into a loop?"

"Nonsense! That plane right there is Britains finest fighter plane, serviced by the best mechanics the islands have to offer!"

"If you say so, sir."

Fly your plane and shoot down as many German planes as possible in this 2D sidescrolling dogfighting game set during WW1. Gain points for the enemies you kill but watch out, they'll want to kill you as well. Using W or the up arrow to boost you can outrun the enemy and by turning off your engine using S or the down arrow you can outturn them but they have a massive advantage over you, their planes are mechanically sound! Your planes controls will randomly lock temporarily forcing you into an upwards or downwards loop so you have to be careful not to be too close to the cold hard ground or the oxygen-poor sky when your plane decides to stick you in a loop. Flying too high will cause you to pass out and you can guess what flying too low does yourself. 

This is my second Ludum Dare game and I personally think it turned out a lot better than the first. The flying mechanics were quite Luftrausers-inspired so if you've played that before you should feel right at home with turning off your engine and boosting. In case you're intrested I can tell you that the British plane is losely modelled after a Sopwith Camel and the German an Albatros DIII.

Tools:
- Unity
- Aseprite
- Bosca Ceoil (first time using, good program but I'm a poor composer)
- Sfxr provided explosion and warning sound effects
- Audacity and objects around my flat provided the rest

Controls:
- A/Left Arrow: Turn "up"
- D/Right Arrow: Turn "down"
- W/Up Arrow: Boost, twice the speed but dangerously wide turns
- S/Down Arrow: Turn off engine, allowing gravity to take a hold of you and giving twice the turnspeed
- Spacebar: FIRE!
- M: Mute music (Machine guns and engines probably provide a better symphony than what I made)
- Escape: Quit

Tips:
- Using W and S you can maintain quite a bit of manuverability even during a forced loop
- Enemies will die if you fly into them but it costs you a lot of health, don't
- Enemies will try to avoid flying into you, if you're clever you can use this to force them to crash
- If you go too high and pass out you will regain consciousness after a little while closer to the ground
- Enemies have friendly fire enabled, just saying...

Critique is encouraged! And so is of course praise if you against all odds happen to have any.