The Flying Boy of VYN-5

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  Stage selection featuring Scrap Mimic — native iOS screenshot.

Inspiration

Flying should be fun even before an enemy appears. The Flying Boy of VYN-5 brings the momentum and controlled sliding of drifting into a two-dimensional action game built for touch.

What it does

Play as Vesper and fly through space with rocket boots, aerial braking, and sweeping turns. A floating flight stick moves from precise cruising to outer-rim boost. Sideways flicks create braking drifts and powered exits; releasing the stick settles Vesper into a hover for aiming. Fast flight, braking, near misses, and perfect dodges feed the Kinetic Core with energy for boost. Fire a laser, grab and throw asteroids, and ram targets with rocket-powered flight. An eight-stage boss campaign connects these abilities to progression.

How we built it

Built natively in Swift with SwiftUI and SpriteKit. Deterministic gameplay dynamics are separate from scene presentation. An articulated character rig connects shoulders, torso, hips, legs, and boot thrust so the whole body expresses acceleration, braking, and turning.

RevenueCat manages a non-consumable lifetime purchase through the full_game entitlement. The native purchase screen loads the current offering's lifetime package, shows the localized price, and supports purchase restoration. The first two campaign stages are available without Pro; later stages require Pro and earlier stage clears. Pro also includes revives without rewarded ads. Purchasing Pro preserves earned campaign progression.

Challenges

Making momentum readable while keeping touch controls responsive is the core challenge. Body direction, travel direction, boot thrust, and camera motion must stay coherent as players interrupt one maneuver with another. Paid access must remain separate from earned progression.

Accomplishments

Connecting flight, dodging, kinetic energy recovery, laser combat, and grabbing and throwing in one control system, with an original pixel-art character and orbital setting.

What we learned

Flight feel depends on the relationship between control response, momentum, animation, and camera motion. Separating gameplay dynamics from presentation makes these relationships easier to tune and individual maneuvers easier to review.

What's next

Continue handheld playtesting, polish encounter readability and flight transitions, and complete release verification for purchases and restoration.

Built With

• swift