How to play
DRIFT TOWER is a one-button driving game. A little clay car drives along a zigzag road that floats on pastel towers above the clouds. It is always moving, and it is always drifting either left or right.
Hold the mouse button, a finger on the screen or Space (or Left, Up, A or Enter) to drift left. Let go to drift right. That is the whole control scheme. Switch at each corner so the car follows the road. If it runs off the edge, it falls into the clouds and the run is over; tap or press DRIVE AGAIN to try again.
Your score is the number of corners you clear. Every road piece has a clay tower under its first corner, and new pieces pop up from below as you drive towards them.
Tips and strategy
- Switch at the corner. The car takes a moment to swing round, so change direction just as it reaches the bend. Too early and you cut off the edge; too late and you run off the end.
- Watch the slide, not the nose. The car's nose turns quickly, but its path follows a beat later. That lag is the drift, and the tyre smoke shows how much the car is sliding.
- Find the rhythm. The car starts at a gentle pace and gets a little faster with every corner, until it reaches about twice its starting speed at around 106 points. The straights keep getting shorter until 120. At that point it is easier to feel the beat of left-right-left than to react to each corner.
- Look ahead. Keep your eyes on the next bend or two, not on the car. Short pieces can come two or three in a row.
- Gems are a bonus. Gems you pick up are kept even when you fall, so they always count. But a gem on the very edge is not worth losing a long run for.
- Do not panic at a new zone. Every 20 points the colours change. The road works the same way, so keep your rhythm.
What's in it
An endless zigzag road. Speed rises with your score, and every 20 points you enter a new zone with its own sky, road and tower colours. There are four zones, Dawn, Mint, Lilac and Dusk, and after Dusk they come round again.
About half of the road pieces carry a gold gem. Gems are banked between runs and buy car colours in the GARAGE:
- Peach: free, the car you start with
- Mint: 25 gems
- Sky: 60 gems
- Butter: 120 gems
- Plum: 200 gems
- Cocoa: 320 gems
The game-over card shows your score, your best and the gems you picked up, and marks a new best. From there you can drive again at once or open the garage.
Everything is soft matte clay with rounded shapes, puffs of clay tyre smoke, gem bursts and towers that fade into a pastel sky. The engine, skids and chimes are all made in the browser, and there is a mute button.
Behind the game
The road is built a piece at a time just ahead of you, always turning between the two diagonal directions, so it zigzags across the screen. The length of each piece is picked at random between a short and a long limit, and both limits shrink as your score rises. Early on you get long, easy straights; past a hundred points most pieces are short and the corners come thick and fast.
Driving is two simple pieces. When you hold or let go, the direction the car faces swings towards its new heading quickly. The direction it actually travels follows that heading more slowly, so for a moment the car slides sideways. That small gap is what makes it feel like a drift rather than a sharp turn, and it is also why you need to switch a little before the bend. The car is only safe while it is over the road; the moment it leaves the edge it tips over and falls.
The camera looks down from a fixed angle and follows a point a little ahead of the car, so you always see more road in front than behind.
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. Your best score, gems and car colours are saved in your browser.
Is there a brake?
No. The only control is left or right, and the speed is set by your score.
How do I change my car?
Open the garage from the game-over card. Click a colour you own to drive it, or one with a price to buy it with gems.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes, held upright. Hold your finger down to go left and lift it to go right.
Does it flash?
No. There is a small shake when you fall.