Source note: Local copy of a Summer Into AI 2026 submission originally published on Substack. Screenshots, video, and audio found in the post body are mirrored locally when publicly accessible; profile and avatar images are intentionally not copied. Read the canonical post.
Week 2 of Summer into AI 2026 hosted by @advisoryhour — theme: Red, White, Boom.
Ride for Liberty is a pseudo-3D rocket runner built entirely in a single HTML canvas file. You pick a founding father — Franklin, Washington, or Revere — saddle up a rocket, and blast down three lanes of a giant scrolling American flag toward July 4th, 1776. Smash powder kegs for firework explosions. Dodge Redcoat soldiers or lose a life. Reach July 4th to win.
The whole game — sprites, fireworks, physics, music, ElevenLabs voice acting — runs in a single HTML file with no frameworks or bundlers. Fireworks use line-trail particles with ctx.shadowBlur glow; background shells launch upward and burst at their apex exactly like real fireworks. The music is Battle Hymn of the Republic synthesized live with dual-oscillator Web Audio nodes.
How the AI works
The AI role is ElevenLabs voice acting — each founding father speaks to you at the start, at victory, and when the Redcoats finally get you:
Character voice lines — ElevenLabs TTS fires three times per run: game start, win, and loss. Franklin, Washington, and Revere each have custom lines and a real ElevenLabs voice model. Franklin loses it over rockets. Revere trash-talks the British. Washington is stoic until he wins.
Serverless API proxy — A Vercel serverless function at
/api/speakkeeps the ElevenLabs key off the client and streams audio directly to the browser asaudio/mpeg.
If ElevenLabs is unreachable the game runs silently — the voices are bonus atmosphere, not gameplay.
How to play
← → arrows — switch between three lanes
SPACE — rocket boost (recharges; shown as the orange bar in the HUD)
Fly into powder kegs 🛢 — triggers a firework explosion, side bursts, a shockwave ring, and a speed boost
Dodge Redcoats 🪖 — they cost a life (you have 3); hitting one triggers screen shake and a red flash
Progress bar counts down to July 4th, 1776 — reach it to trigger the win fanfare and fireworks finale
Where to play
Demo: boom-or-bust-plum.vercel.app
Code: github.com/GlimmerForge/summer-into-ai — README
Summer into AI 2026 · Theme 2: Red, White, Boom · advisoryhour.substack.com
Original source
Canonical Substack URL: https://jakestrait5.substack.com/p/summer-into-ai-2026-ride-for-liberty.