Hot Air
- Adventure
- Action
Mouse
Flash
Hot Air, also formatted as Hot Air!, is an action-adventure Flash game released on December 6th, 2005[1] commisioned by Miniclip and produced by Nitrome. It is the first installment of the Hot Air series, and Nitrome's first released Flash game.
The goal of the game is to guide a hot air balloon through a series of obstacle-filled levels by using a fan to blow it.
A sequel for the game named Hot Air 2, which was also coincidentally Nitrome's first sequel, was released on July 16th, 2007[2]. After a five year break, the latest installment, Hot Air Jr, was released in June 18, 2012.
Descriptions[edit | edit source]
Nitrome.com 1.0
Direct the fan using your mouse pointer. Hold down the mouse button to start the fan. Blow the Hot Air balloon from the green start block to the red end block to progress to the next level. Avoid spikes, traps and enemies![3]
Nitrome.com 1.2
Guide the hot air balloon through 25 levels of spikes and traps - try not to pop![4]
Nitrome.com 2.0
Use your fan to blow a balloon safely through each trap filled environment.
Controls[edit | edit source]
Move the mouse - Move fan
Mouse click - Activate fan
Gameplay[edit | edit source]
The fan is what propels Hot Air, the balloon, throughout the levels of the game. While in game, the fan will replace the player's mouse cursor, allowing it to move anywhere on the screen. The player must click the left mouse button in order to activate the fan, which will immediately starting blowing the balloon away from it. Every level has all of its surfaces covered in spikes, which the player must avoid to take Hot Air safely from the green pad to the red pad.
Levels[edit | edit source]
Initially only the first level is unlocked. The remaining nineteen regular levels can be unlocked by completing the level preceding it. Collecting all the stars in a level rewards the player with one star token. The accumulation of star tokens unlocks the extra five bonus levels.
| Bonus level | Numerical level | Star tokens prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21 | 10 |
| 2 | 22 | 14 |
| 3 | 23 | 18 |
| 4 | 24 | 22 |
| 5 | 25 | 24 |
The level sections below detail the design and demands of each level.
Level 1[edit | edit source]
- Stars: 5
- Hazards: N/A
The first level is a simple introduction. The player has to guide Hot Air through a course lined with spiked walls, in the shape of a backwards C. There are a few easy-to-reach stars to be collected at the corners.
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Level 2[edit | edit source]
Stars: 5
Locked gates: two
Hazard: Axe
A degree of difficulty is introduced in this level, with space constraints and a need for timing to avoid the obstacles. The player has to guide Hot Air to two keys on the sides of the screen, then to the pad, while avoiding an oscillating axe. The stars, as well as the keys, involve timing to reach. Two stars are placed beside the anchor of the axe.
| Video |
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| Level 2 begins at 0:34 |
Level 3[edit | edit source]
Stars: 6
Locked gates: one (optional, access one star)
Hazards: None
This level tests the control of the player. Hot Air has to go through a fairly narrow oval-shaped path. Five stars are located conveniently along this path. However, the sixth star is in a locked compartment in the middle of this oval, blocked by a locked gate. The locked gate has to be unlocked by landing on the orange pad with a key at the top of the oval.
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| Level 3 begins at 1:49 |
Level 4[edit | edit source]
Stars: 5
Hazards: Balls on chains
This level tests the player's fan control in a changing neighbourhood (the immediate surroundings of Hot Air). Hot Air has to travel past one double balls on chains, and another quadruple balls on chains, housed in two circular spaces. Stars are placed at the circumference of these circular spaces.
| Video |
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| Level 4 begins at 3:39 |
Level 5[edit | edit source]
Stars: 4
Hazards: Lava
This level tests the player's timing. The lava level in this level rises and falls, and three wall pockets above the lava provide a safe respite from the lava. A star is located in the middle pocket, while the green pad and the red pad occupy the remainder. The lava rapidly switches between 'high tide and low tide', and three stars can be be found within the tidal range.
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| Level 5 begins at 5:23 |
Level 6[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 4
Hazards: Mouth monsters
This level is a test of the player's agility and perception of position.
The player has to go through a six toothed mouth monster, and avoid the crushing teeth.
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| Level 6 begins at 0:05 |
Level 7[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 3
Hazards: Three Spinning spike paths
The player has to go through three spinning spike paths to get to the finish. This level has been reputed to be a challenging test of the player's control of the cyan fan.
| Video |
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| Level 7 begins at 1:05 |
Level 8[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 4
Hazards: Volcanoes, Lava droplets
The player has to get to the right side of the volcano while avoiding roaming fire shot from it.
| Video |
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| Level 8 begins at 2:49 |
Level 9[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 4
Hazards: Parallel moving spiked platforms
The player has to get to the finish pad as fast as possible before the walls crush the player, while making tight squeezes between spike balls.
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| Level 9 begins at 3:18 |
Level 10[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 10
Locked gates: 5
Aggressive enemy: Green bug
Hot Air has to unlock five locked gates to land on the red pad. The enemy of this level is a green bug that follows Hot Air.
| Video |
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| Level 10 begins at 3:45 |
Level 11[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 9
Hazards: beam with teeth
Hot Air has to race through an S-shaped curve while a spiked wall catches up from behind.
| Video |
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| Level 11 begins at 0:00 |
Level 12[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 2
Hazards: Big mouth jr.
Hot Air has to go through three small mouths.
| Video |
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| Level 12 begins at 0:37 |
Level 13[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 6
Hazards: crusher blocks
Hot Air has to weave through four crusher blocks with alternate oscillations to reach the finishing pad.
| Video |
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| Level 13 begins at 3:37 |
Level 14[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 10
Hazards: fans
Hot Air has to survive headwinds generated by large fans along the walls along a long passageway.
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| Level 14 begins at 4:21 |
Level 15[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 4
Hazards: bullets
Hot Air has to go through two horizontal rows of slow moving bullets, with the top row bullets moving left to right and the bottom row vice versa.
| Video |
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| Level 15 begins at 4:54 |
Level 16[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 4
Hazards: Rotating spiked platforms
This level is unique as the entire level layout rotates clockwise about the centre.
| Video |
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| Level 16 begins at 0:00 |
Level 17[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 4
Hazards: fire droplets
Hot Air has to go through a passageway shaped in the form of the number 2 (or a linear Z/S), lined densely on both sides with fire droplets.
| Video |
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| Level 17 begins at 1:40 |
Level 18[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 5
Hazards: drills
Hot Air has to weave through drills falling from the sky from the left to the top-right-corner.
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| Level 18 begins at 2:41 |
Level 19[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 6
Hazards: giant fan
In the centre of the map lies a large two-bladed fan rotating counter-clockwise. Around the fan lies numerous spike balls.
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| Level 19 begins at 3:10 |
Level 20[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Stars: 3
Hazards: octopuses
Nine octopuses are scattered throughout the level. These octopuses are affected by the fan's blow and bounce off the spiked wall upon contact. The initial position and velocities of the octopuses are randomized.
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| Level 20 begins at 3:40 |
Bonus 1[edit | edit source]
Stars: 5
Hazards: dragon worms
A square shaped level with the red pad on a pole, located in the middle of the level. The red pad is circled by a small pink dragon worm, is who circled by an ever large blue coloured dragon worm. Both dragon worms are almost completely circle shaped, with an opening between the tail and head.
Passing through the opening of the blue dragon worm is easier than passing through the pink dragon worm's opening. Five stars are located in the level, two outside the blue worm at the top left and top right of the enemy (these stars easy to get), and three stars placed around the pink dragon worm - one above the worm, and two at each of its sides.
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| Level 21 begins at 0:00 |
Bonus 2[edit | edit source]
Stars: 5
Hazards: cage
In this level, Hot Air is trapped inside a cage - a cage lined with spiked all around the inside. The cage will move on a set course, at first moving slowly, but gradually picking up speed, to the point the player has to blow so fast that a sudden stop of the cage would kill them.
The cage will first move upwards, horizontally left, vertically upwards before moving diagonally right, horizontally right, then move in a half circle motion. This half circle motion ends via a diagonally left downwards movement, followed by a diagonally right upwards movement, which then move vertically upwards before a long horizontally right movement - the longest movement in one direction.
As one comes to the end of this long movement, the movements in a set direction become longer and more abstract. The cage will make a long diagonally left downwards movement, which is replicated again, only in reverse. A very short horizontally left movement is interrupted by an abrupt diagonal movement, a vertically downwards movement, and an even longer diagonally downwards left movement.
As the end nears, the cage makes it second curve, changing to a horizontal right movement, which drops down to a downwards vertical movement and a diagonally left movement, that curves upwards to the left and finally remains vertically downwards as the player zooms to the red pad.
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| Level 22 begins at 1:47 |
Bonus 3[edit | edit source]
Stars: 5
Locked gates: five
Hazards: fire droplets
A level with many drops down to activate a key pad, whilst blowing out fire droplets. Where the player starts, there is a pit in front of them that contains an orange pad and two fire droplets on the floor of this pad, in front of this pit being a locked gate.
After this gate is an almost exact room, but with two fire droplets on the ceiling. After this room is a very short drop, which is followed by an immense drop. At the bottom of this drop is a pit with an orange pad protected by two fire droplets - both droplets on the walls to the sides of the pits. Above the tips of the heads of the fire droplets is a star; to the right of this pit is a locked gate.
Past this locked gate is a longer pit, consisting of an orange pad at the bottom that has two stars, which has four fire droplets above it, both droplets sideways on the wall, with two droplets per wall. To the left of this gate is another locked gate, which features an even longer pit the same as the previous one but with an extra fire droplet on each wall.
Past the final gate is the longest pit in the level, having a red pad at the bottom and eight fire droplets protecting the pad - four on each wall.
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| Level 23 begins at 2:30 |
Bonus 4[edit | edit source]
Stars: 4
Locked gates: one (optional, access one star)
A level involving the traversal of exceedingly small openings, testing the player's patience and concentration. The level starts off with a horizontal hallway that goes vertically up, and then another horizontal hallway.
At the end of this hallway is a small, box shaped room. This room is incredibly small and is only accessed by pressing a nearby orange pad. The smallness of this room makes it very difficult to get the star at the end, this room only attempted by those who want to collect all of the game's stars.
After this room is an upwards corridor that then takes a short horizontal move left, that is followed by a vertical drop. To the right of this drop is a small pocket containing an orange pad, that when landed on opens the only gate in the level - the one leading to one of the level's stars. Aside from this is a left horizontal hallway, a short drop, and another right horizontal hallway.
Above this is a room that splits into multiple directions. This room has a small pocket at the upper left, this pocket containing a star. As with the first encountered star location, this pocket is small. Below this pocket is another room, the moves upwards, and finally ends with a right hallway with a red pad at the end.
This level features the smallest passage that the balloon has to squeeze through in the game.
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| Level 24 begins at 3:20 |
Bonus 5[edit | edit source]
Stars: 7
Hazards: fans
The final level of the game involves fans blowing on the player as they go past tight corners and near spikes. The stars are primarily located at the corners of platforms.
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| Level 25 begins at 6:52 |
Ending[edit | edit source]
This collapsible box contains a spoiler! Use [show] to reveal.
The ending depicts scenery similar to Hot Air's title screen except with the colour pallet being darker so that the sky and clouds are dark purple, the vines above and some parts of the plants below are dark blue, with the rest of the plats parts being bright colours. Presented in the middle in rainbow letters, slightly off-center, is written "Congratulations" with "you have the reflexes of a ninja" placed below in white text.
Interactive objects[edit | edit source]
- Green pads - The starting spot where the player can rest without getting damage.
- Red pads - Ends the level when landed on.
- Orange pads - Unlocks a locked gate when landed on. The player can also rest on these without getting damage.
Pickups[edit | edit source]
- Stars - Found all around courses. After collecting all of them in a course, a star token will be added to the count in the menu.
Enemies[edit | edit source]
- Male Axe - A giant blade that swings back and forth.
- Balls on chains - Grey balls that rotate clockwise around their chains, forcing the player to move in sync with them to get passed.
- Mouth monsters - Huge monsters with large gaps in between their teeth. The player can only progress to the end by going through the gaps made by the opened mouth of the monster.
- Volcano - Spews out lava droplets.
- Lava droplets - A small red bullet that homes in on the player when fired out of the volcano.
- Giant fan - A large fan that constantly rotates its blades around.
- Octopuses - Enemies that steadily move toward Hot Air, but can be blown away by the fan.
- Mines - Mines act much like hazards, as they cannot move but remain in the same spot throughout the whole level. They are usually placed in inconvenient places and will pop Hot Air on touch.
- Drills - Capped drills that will fall from the ceiling, and continue falling off the screen.
- Bullets - Large bullets that are fired from one side of the screen, and continue flying to the other side of the screen.
- Dragon worms - Long, centipede-like creatures that rotate in a circle.
- Fire droplets - Stationary enemies that will pop Hot Air on contact, but can be blown out temporarily by the fan.
Hazards[edit | edit source]
- Spikes - Small, triangular spikes that cover almost all surfaces in the game, and are located almost in every level, except level six.
- Lava - Orange and red liquid that will kill Hot Air on contact.
- Acid - Wavy green liquid That kills Hot Air on touch.
- Spinning spike path - A circular path of spikes that turns around. One opening/exit of the Path is usually bigger then the other. It is considered to be one of the most dangerous hazards.
- Fans - Fans blows Hot Air the to left, right, up or down, depending on their placement.
- Cage - The player starts inside of a cage and must avoid spikes in it while trying to keep up with the cage's movement.
- Moving spiked platforms - Platforms covered in spikes that move around the level in a set pattern.
- Locked gates - Locked gates that prevent passage until they are unlocked by an orange key pad.
Development[edit | edit source]
Hot Air was heavily influenced by the 16-bit era of video games[5]. Mat Annal claimed that he got the idea for Hot Air when he was blowing Lemmings around with a fan in Lemmings 2 [6] The decision to use a pixel art style, as Nitrome had not yet settled on making all their games in pixel art, was based on its retro influences along with an interest in the medium through working on Mobile Chick Flick[7][5]. Specific series' that influenced the game's art include Bubble Bobble, Kirby, and Mario[8]. The game was developed in 1 month[6].
Credits[edit | edit source]
| Artwork | |
|---|---|
| Programming | |
| Music | |
| Testing |
|
Unused and beta content[edit | edit source]
Unused locked level 1 sprite[edit | edit source]
At "DefineSprite (420)", there is an image of Level 1 that would be used if it is locked, however, it is always unlocked at the start of the game. This image is is also seen in "DefineSprite (431: level_button_1)" in the sprites folder, and in the copy of this in the scripts folder. If the save file is hacked into locking Level 1, this sprite is shown.
The unused locked level icon for Level 1
The locked Level 1 icon in-game on an edited save file
Temporary start and goal pad[edit | edit source]
Sprites for the start and finish pads can be found at "DefineSprite (134)" and "DefineSprite (136)". They likely were temporary sprites created either before the actual sprites for the finish and start pads were made or they were sprites used in a level editor for the game.
The temporary start pad
The temporary finish pad
Glitches[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Timer highlighting[edit | edit source]
It is possible to highlight the timer in the top right corner of the level screen.
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Accolades[edit | edit source]
| Site/Event | Year | Contest | Prize | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jay is Games | 2006 | Best of Casual Gameplay 2005 | Top 10 games of 2005 | Nominated |
Music[edit | edit source]
The music for Hot Air was composed by Lee Nicklen. Despite having nine unique tracks commissioned, only two were put into the game in order to conserve on filesize[9], one used for the menu and one used for the levels. The music for the game was made available for listening on Kayotix[9], Lee Nicklen's website, with the tracks that made it into the game being watermarked so that the listener would have to purchase the songs through Nitrome's Shop to listen to them without interruptions. The music was later made available to stream for free in Soundcloud[10], with some extra tracks listed separately[11].
The naming of the tracks may differ between Kayotix and Soundcloud.
| Official links | File | Heard in | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kayotix | Soundcloud | |||
| Menu Theme | Menu Song | Menus | The track available on these websites has some additional sections that are cut from the in-game version | |
| Main Game Theme | Main Song | Levels | ||
| Extra Bonus Track 1 | Reject Extras 1 | |||
| Extra Bonus Track 2a | Reject Extras 2 | |||
| Extra Bonus Track 2b | Reject Extras 2a | |||
| N/A | Reject Extras 2b | |||
| Extra Bonus Track 3 | Reject Extras 3 | |||
| Extra Bonus Track 4 | Extra Song 4 | Later used as Hot Air 2's menu theme | ||
| Extra Bonus Track 5 | Extra Song 1 | |||
| Extra Bonus Track 6 | Extra Song 2 | |||
| N/A | Extra Song 3 | Later used as Hot Air 2's level theme | ||
Cameos and references[edit | edit source]
Nitrome cameos[edit | edit source]
- Jelly Beanstalk - Some assets in Jelly Beanstalk were reused in Hot Air, such as the vegetation and the font.
Cameos in other Nitrome games[edit | edit source]
- Sandman - Hot Air appears in some levels with a realistic design.
- Chick Flick - Hot Air's head appears as a rare pickup.
Cameos outside Nitrome games[edit | edit source]
- Classic - Hot Air, Octopuses, Dragon worms and Drills make an appearance in the skin.
- Party - Hot Air makes an appearance in the skin.
- Nitrome 2.0 - Hot Air and Octopuses make an appearance in the skin.
- 100th Game - Hot Air and a Drill make an appearance in the skin.
- Icebreaker - An Octopus makes an appearance in the skin.
- Shop - Hot Air appears on a shirt in the banner of the site. An Octopus is seen playing the drums in the Music section.
Cultural references[edit | edit source]
- The hills on the background of the menus and levels resemble similar hills that appear in numerous games throughout the Mario franchise.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
Logos[edit | edit source]
Logo as seen on the menu
Logo as seen on the slider animation
Logo as seen on the Nitrome 1.0 icon
Logo as seen on the Nitrome Jam icon for 8bit Doves
Icons[edit | edit source]
Nitrome 1.0 icon (early version)
Nitrome 1.0 icon
Nitrome 1.2 icon
Nitrome 1.5 icon
Nitrome 2.0 icon
Search engine thumbnail
Nitrome Jam project icon as seen in the game page for 8bit Doves
Screenshots[edit | edit source]
Slider animation
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Up until June 28th, 2013, this game was available to be played on the Nintendo Wii using Miniclip.
- This game and Chick Flick are the only Nitrome games that could be played with the Flash 7 Player.[12]
- Hot Air is the only Nitrome game that does not have a mute button for music or sound present in-game at all times, with the exception of Pixel Pop as that game is a rythm game. However, the mute options for Hot Air can be accessed by going to the options in the menu.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Nitrome.com October 4th 2006 - News: 06-12-05 - Hot Air! [Date is written in Day/Month/Year format]
- ↑ Screenshots.com: Nitrome.com - Nitrome, ?, retrieved 31 Dec 16.
- ↑ Internet Archive Wayback Machine: Nitrome - Hot Air, 15 June, 2006, retrieved 5 September, 2024.
- ↑ Internet Archive Wayback Machine: Nitrome - Play Free Online Games, 16 November, 2006, retrieved 5 September, 2024.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Gamespy: Indie Spotlight #2: Flash, Bang, Boom, 17 Aug 10, retrieved 26 Feb 21.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 FreeGamesNews: Matthew Annal (Nitrome) Interview, ?, retrieved 19 May 20.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome: Memory Lane: Chick Flick!, 22 Nov 13, retrieved 27 Feb 21.
- ↑ Pixeljoint: Hot-Air smaller sprites, 5 Oct 6, retrieved 27 Feb 21.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Hot Air site on Kayotix
- ↑ Hot Air playlist by one of Lee Nicklen's accounts on Soundcloud
- ↑ Hot Air rejected music playlist by one of Lee Nicklen's accounts on Soundcloud
- ↑ Nitrome.com 1.0 October 4th 2006: Hot Air! - Direct the fan using your mouse pointer. Hold down the mouse button to start the fan. Blow the Hot Air balloon from the green start block to the red end block to progress to the next level. Avoid spikes, traps and enemies! This game requires the Flash 7 Player