📖 About & How to Play

✏️ The Nostalgia Behind the Game

If you ever sat in the back of a classroom with a sheet of lined notebook paper and a No. 2 pencil, you remember this game.

Before smartphones, tablets, or portable game consoles, kids drew stick figures and tanks on one side of a sheet of notebook paper, folded the paper tightly along the center crease, scribbled furiously with graphite on the reverse side to transfer the pencil mark across the fold, and unfolded the paper with bated breath to see if they scored a direct hit!

Stickman Fire & Fold is an authentic, lovingly crafted digital simulation of that schoolyard classic, bringing the tactile charm of ink doodles, realistic pencil sound synthesizers, and 3D paper folding right into your modern web browser.

🎮 How to Play: Core Game Mechanics

1. Setup Phase: Deploy your 5 stickmen on your half of the lined notebook page. You can drag and drop them anywhere on your paper, or tap "Quick Deploy" to scramble them in smart tactical formations.
2. Obstacle Defenses: Position brick walls, rock barriers, and notebook doodles to shield your stickmen from incoming graphite strikes. Obstacles absorb damage and must be chipped away before stickmen behind them are exposed!
3. Aiming Your Shot: When it's your turn to fire, touch or click to position your crosshair on your half of the paper. Use the Aim Spyglass (🔭) for micro-precision adjustments on mobile phone screens.
4. The 3D Fold & Graphite Scribble: Hit the FIRE button! The virtual notebook paper animates into a realistic 3D crease, folding your shot directly over to the opponent's territory. A pencil scribbles on the back, transferring graphite through the paper.
5. The Reveal: The paper unfolds. If your transferred pencil mark touches an enemy stickman, it's a DIRECT HIT! If it hits an obstacle, the obstacle chips or crumbles. If it lands on blank paper, it's a MISS. Take turns until one player clears the board!

🕹️ Four Distinct Game Modes

• 🤖 vs Robot Bob (AI Match): Battle against our cunning AI pencil master, Robot Bob. Choose from Easy (casual practice), Normal (balanced tactical challenge), or Hard (relentless target-hunting algorithm).
• 👥 2-Player Pass & Play: Pass a single phone, tablet, or laptop back and forth with a friend or family member. Secret placement shields prevent screen-peeking during the setup phase!
• 🏆 100-Level Campaign Odyssey: Embark on an epic single-player adventure across 10 distinct chapters! Face moving obstacles, windy paper zones, laser barriers, and epic Boss Bobs. Earn up to 300 stars and collect Golden Paperclips for clutch bonus shots!
• 🌐 Real-Time Online Multiplayer: Challenge opponents anywhere in the world with instant, zero-install WebRTC peer-to-peer matchmaking. Share a 6-character room code or join an open lobby in seconds!

💡 Pro Tips & Strategies

• Remember the Crease: Shots mirror across the vertical center fold. A shot placed close to the middle crease will strike close to the middle of the opponent's field, while shots near the outer margin strike the opponent's outer margin.
• Use Obstacle Decoys: Clumping obstacles without stickmen behind them can trick opponents into wasting precious shots on empty covers!
• Toggle the Spyglass: On touch screens, enable the Spyglass Tool (🔭) in the top header. It renders a magnified loupe offset above your finger so your thumb never blocks your target view.

💻 Technology & Open Web Standards

Stickman Fire & Fold is built entirely on modern web standards with zero heavy dependencies or external plugins:

• Pure HTML5 Canvas 2D API with sub-pixel crisp rendering on Retina and 4K displays.
• Web Audio API sound synthesis generating authentic graphite scribbles, pencil taps, and paper crinkles.
• PeerJS WebRTC signaling for direct, ultra-low-latency peer-to-peer multiplayer.
• Fully responsive CSS and touch gestures tailored for iPhone, Android, iPad, and desktop widescreen displays.