Build Journal / Godot
Kite Knights began with one idea: flap higher than the other rider and land on top. A grey arena with a single rival tested that. By the end of the first evening it had waves of rivals, a felt pond and folded paper planes with knights on top. The next day brought a hangar of planes, knights and helmets, a grandmother who teaches you to fly, and a co-op ball game. The biggest change came last: the old height fights were swapped for balloons you pop, and making that fight feel fair was the hardest part of the build.
These updates come from the same feed as the shelf. The illustrated build history follows below.
· 1.3.4 Ship check
Versus rounds now finish at two minutes if riders are still flying. Co-op crews can replace one balloon per wave, and a clearer approach cue helps riders read incoming hits.
See this milestone in the journal →· 1.3.3 Combat readability
Plane color identifies riders. Dash recharge moved to the HUD, balloon bundles hold their shape during turns, and a single outline shows which balloon is threatened.
See this milestone in the journal →· 1.3.2 Thor check
The new Hangar, Keep It Up loadout and built-in A button worked. Both Thor replays matched Windows. Frame pacing exceeded the late-frame limit on both runs.
See this milestone in the journal →· 1.3.2 Peg Knight update
Inspect planes, knights, and helmets separately in the Hangar. The smaller peg knights sit in saddles on flatter paper wings, and the Winged Helm trades the heavy brow for feather relief. Local exports are ready for further verification.
See this milestone in the journal →· Armoury 1.3.1
The Armoury update is installed. All 61 replay checkpoints matched Windows, the repeat frame-pacing run passed, and the physical A press opened the crew screen.
See this milestone in the journal →· U2 Balloon rules checkpoint
New balloon combat, dash, harmless bumps, Little Wings and a rewritten Granny Gust lesson. The fixed-route prediction passed, while free-play fairness and voice recording are still open.
See this milestone in the journal →· Flight Pack 1.2.1
The Thor exposed a double tap in the Hangar.
See this milestone in the journal →· U1 candidate
Granny Gust teaches the basics in five steps. The update also improves rider markers and keeps older scores and settings.
See this milestone in the journal →
Nov 7 · G1 toyA grey arena tests the climb
Nov 7 · U1 1.1.0Granny Gust teaches, and Little Wings helps
Nov 7 · Flight Pack 1.2.1Seven planes, eight knights and Keep It Up
Nov 8 · U2 Balloon rules checkpointBalloons replace the height fights
Nov 8 · 1.3.4 Ship checkLong versus rounds end, and the fight reads fair· G0 Plan
Six rules were frozen: flap, drift, jump onto ledges, and win by landing on the higher rider. A single picture was drawn in the engine first: a yellow player plane, a green ordinary rival, a red dangerous rival and a pond edge. The tag line on the title read "Flap higher. Land on top."
Turning point
· G1 toy
The toy had one grey arena with three ledges, a pond, three lives and a six-second hatch timer for seeds. A skilled test pilot scored 70,800 across 12 runs, 17.7 times a random pilot. A slow-reacting test pilot captured the first rival within 10 seconds in all 12 runs. Going higher beat the rival in three of the five set-ups, and chasing without height lost all five.
Turning point
· G2 Content
The full game went in: co-op waves with Spoolers, Skippers and diving Kestrels, ledges that crumble, a versus mode and a lobby for one to four riders. A skilled pilot scored 5.3 times a random one and reached wave 5 on average. An outside review failed to run twice because of login and fetch errors, so the build carried that as a release hold.
· G3 Polish
Riders became folded paper planes with a knight on top, perches turned to wood, and the pond became felt with a stitched safe ring around each spawn. A six-step hatch timer shows cracking cues. Original music and sounds were added. The screens were checked at 720p, 480p and 4:3.
· G4 Ship check
A fresh review of the first recording listed seven things hard to read. Seed rings overlapped, the pond loss was easy to miss in a busy scene, and it was not clear why a wave was still live. The fixes separated the timer labels, added a pond-loss cue and a count of rivals left. The 30-minute bot run finished with no crash, and the handheld replay matched.
Turning point
· U1 1.1.0
Granny Gust teaches five real actions in under 5 seconds of play. The update also added Little Wings, an optional co-op helper with softer gravity and no life lost on a pond fall, and one rival per early wave. Seat tags got tethers so a tag can never look like it belongs to a rival. A fresh reviewer rated it 8 out of 10, and the handheld replay matched all 61 checkpoints.
Turning point
· Flight Pack 1.2.1
Flight Pack added the Hangar, six new paper planes, eight toy knights, three windy arenas, nose-to-ring thrust and a co-op game called Keep It Up. In Keep It Up you flap a balloon, a beach ball or a soccer ball and keep it from falling. The handheld test next morning found one tap moved the Hangar choice twice, and 1.2.1 fixed it.
Turning point
· U2 Balloon rules checkpoint
Each plane now trails visible balloons and any part of the folded hull can pop an enemy balloon. Plane hulls just bounce off each other. An unfair loss was the hard problem: blind reviewers predicted the winner correctly on 12 of 12 set routes but only 5 of 12 in free play. The old build had scored 8 of 12.
· U2 voice
All 18 of Granny Gust's lines were recorded and packed into the game so they play offline. Music ducks while she speaks, there is a separate volume, and holding B skips. Three voices were auditioned on the same two lines and one was picked for being clear and short.
· Armoury 1.3.1
The Hangar gained an Armoury: chunky knights, four helmets (Great Helm, Open Sallet, Winged Helm, Plume Visor) and a preview that banks and slides. A harmless bump now shows a short tap. Rivals unfold into loose coloured paper that folds back into the plane when you touch it. On the handheld the Winged Helm carried into Keep It Up.
· Peg Knight 1.3.2
The Hangar now shows one part at a time (plane, knight or helmet), and riders became smaller peg-toy shapes sitting in saddles on flatter wing decks. The wing outline also sets the contact shape. Both handheld runs missed the frame pacing limit with 23 and 21 late frames against a maximum of 17.
· Combat readability 1.3.3
The floating dash button, cooldown rings, seat tags and travel arrows were taken away. Plane colour now tells you who is who, the dash recharge lives in the top bar, and balloon bundles sit in fixed slots on shorter strings. Only the balloon under threat is outlined. One three-seat automated versus bout still ran to the five-minute limit.
Turning point
· 1.3.4 Ship check
Versus rounds now end after two minutes, and the rider with the most balloons wins. In co-op, clearing a wave refills one lost balloon per rider. A blind review then called the winner correctly in 11 of 12 fights, up from 5. All 1,008 measured versus rounds finished. One problem is still open: Moon Canard won 48 of 72 rounds on Mill Race, and the handheld ran 20 late frames against a limit of 17.