Ola Totora

Ola Totora is a racing game about the caballitos de totora, the reed boats that fishermen on Peru's north coast have ridden out past the surf for some three thousand years. Each boat is a tapered bundle of totora reeds tied by hand, light enough to carry on one shoulder, and the fishermen paddle it kneeling or sitting astride with a split-cane paddle, out to their nets and back. When the work is done, they stand the boats upright on the sand to dry in the sun, a row of reed silhouettes along the beach. The game puts you in the shallows at Huanchaco with a caballito of your own, the paddle in your hands, while the other fishermen are already watching the sets roll in. In Ola Totora each heat is a race out through the break to the nets and back to the sand. Tap left and right to paddle, hold to kneel low and punch through a breaking wave, swipe at the nets to turn, then pick a wave and ride it home. The sea is real: swell, wave period, wind and tide come from live Open-Meteo marine data for each beach, so the race is different every morning. Low tide pushes the break further out, and an offshore wind helps you on the way out but slows you on the way home. Your reed boat soaks up water with every heat and gets slower, unless you spend a heat standing it on the sand to dry, so deciding when to race and when to rest the boat is part of every day. The rivals have their own habits, and learning them is how you start to win. Your logbook keeps every heat, your record times and your streak of days on the water, so there is always a time to beat tomorrow. Features: • Four real beaches on Peru's north coast: Huanchaco, Pimentel, Santa Rosa and Chicama, each with its own wave, sand and distance to the nets • Live swell, wave period, wind and tide for every heat, cached so you can keep racing offline • Rivals with habits you learn to beat: Don Teófilo waits for the third wave, Mayra cuts across your bow, the Llontop twins draft each other, and Chepa sprints early and fades • Five heats a day, from the dawn heat to the afternoon, with a boat that soaks and has to dry • A logbook of every heat, record times per beach, day streaks and the honour net of rivals beaten • Your own portrait on the race board, taken with the camera or picked from your photos • An optional dawn call each morning with the sea conditions at your home beach Push off, read the sets, and race the sand in Ola Totora.

First release.