DownHeel

DownHeel is a dignified winter sport involving a princess, a snowy mountain, and the brave decision to use her royal backside as transportation.

After surviving ghosts, haunted castles and the Hauntosphere, The Princess has earned herself a little recreational break on the journey home to Castle Creep.

Unfortunately, her idea of recreation is ButtBoarding®.

The rules are simple:

Sit down. Point heels downhill. Slide. Scream. Regret. Repeat.

Gravity provides the engine, snow provides the road, and rocks provide immediate feedback on your life choices.

How to Play

Your mission is to guide The Princess down the mountain and reach the finish line as quickly and as intact as possible.

The longer you slide, the faster you go.

This sounds excellent right up until the mountain introduces walls, trees, rocks, sharp corners, cliffs and suspicious red stains left behind by people whose previous run did not proceed according to plan.

Steering helps.

Braking helps considerably more.

Panic is emotionally satisfying but has no measurable effect on the physics engine.

Controls

• W — start sliding; hold while starting for greater initial speed
• S — brake
• Q — turn left
• E — turn right
• F4 — pause / resume

Survival Guide

Braking may help preserve the structural integrity of your skull.

Brake early.

Brakes become progressively less effective on steep terrain because gravity, unlike the player, has a very clear idea of where it wants The Princess to go.

Turning uphill can also reduce your speed and may be considerably more useful than desperately holding the brake when a wall already occupies most of the screen.

In short:

• Build speed where the slope allows it.
• Brake before dangerous sections.
• Use the terrain to control your descent.
• Avoid solid objects.
• Try not to become scenery.

Features

• Fast 3D downhill arcade gameplay.
• Increasing speed controlled by terrain and gravity.
• Steering and active braking.
• Steep slopes where braking becomes progressively less effective.
• Rocks, trees, walls and other mountain hazards.
• Multiple downhill courses.
• Best-result tracking.
• The continuing adventures of The Princess.
• A complete absence of skis.

ButtBoarding®

Yes, there is a name for this noble discipline.

ButtBoarding® consists of sitting directly on the snow, pointing your legs downhill and allowing gravity to make most future decisions on your behalf.

The term was invented by Trina Selič, thereby making her at least partially responsible for everything that subsequently happens to The Princess.

Success means reaching the bottom quickly.

Failure usually means reaching something else quickly.

Under the Hood

DownHeel was written in JavaScript and GLSL and runs entirely in the browser using my custom LaughingSkull ENGINE.

The game is fully 3D and uses a combination of procedural mountain topology and predefined terrain sections to construct its downhill courses.

Building it was also an experiment in moving the ENGINE beyond convenient cubic environments and into irregular outdoor terrain, where surfaces have the unfortunate habit of refusing to align themselves politely with the coordinate axes.

DownHeel was inspired in part by C64 skiing games I played many years ago, particularly Olympic Skier and Slalom / Ski64.

The obvious modern interpretation was therefore to recreate downhill skiing in 3D, remove the skis, add a princess, and make her slide down the mountain on her butt.

Progress.

Before You Start

DownHeel is a desktop browser game.

A keyboard and a reasonably sized screen are strongly recommended.

The game loads approximately 50 MB of assets before play begins, so the initial launch may take a little while depending on your connection.

Play DownHeel

▶ Throw The Princess Down a Mountain on LaughingSkull.org

Free to play. No account. No installation.

Reach the finish line. Set a record. Preserve as much royal anatomy as circumstances permit.