SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

Blue TIGAR (Tactical Information Gathering And Retaliation) is a helicopter sim inspired by Airwolf and Blue Thunder, written for Windows in BB4W and a bit of C.

This here's a link to a short video, just to prove the thing does fly:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jJC5WgmfPVp-eYgg5wiSrFX1p4nnE0jj/view?usp=sharing

...And this is the game:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BMpdnxu2K-IFLkkK3rHdsBumAILpVtj3/view?usp=sharing

I advise the use of mouse or joystick - not total keyboard.
There are 6 training scenarios, plus 5 of level 1, 5 level 2 and 3 level 3. The missions are shuffled on the start of a new campaign, and you only have to complete a fixed number of each to win. Between shuffled missions and some variations in graphics/scenery, I wanted it to be replayable.
I hope you enjoy taking on the role of Longfellow Stork 

Phew... first impressions (run under windows, as with "wine on linux" it stuttered here and there).

I started it and was welcome by some text menu... puristic - or "sugarcoated" - retro ;-). No worries, accepted that without trouble.

Trouble begun when trying to play. How to control that beast (I saw the key mapping and the "names" in front of it - but am a bit rusted when it comes to helicopter-sims, last one was "Werewolf vs Comanche" in the 90s)? WASD ... ah ok, moved up a bit, now how to.. how to move forward? Cursor keys? Hmm, keeping "up" pressed leaded to the helicopter nose diving down more and more. Releasing it did not keep the current position, so movement stopped. So I thought of tipping "up" a while, releasing, tipping again ... but it did not work either (or worked but not always).

So: HOW TO properly move the vehicle? Just to get started with it ;-)


What I noted during the tutorial level: as you use so few colors, it is hard to see if you move or not. There is some kind of river etc - but especially with low velocity you won't see if you move or not (except "rotation"). I think this is the same thing than with RemiD's last compo entry (hidden object search game). You need to have more "near" objects (as they move faster on the screen then).

Will test it again once you (or another user) explained to me how to properly control it. Maybe controls are too "complex" (in the sense of you knowing more about helicopter/flying sims - or real vehicles than I do). Maybe one needs to add an "automatic" flying way. So you only need to have "up/down", "forward/backward/left/right" - and maybe "rotate/roll" (but this should only be "cosmetic" then - to not make it "required" for the average-joe-user like me).


bye
Ron

the initial menus not actually telling you to press 1/2/3/4/5 etc for the missions was a little confusing as were the controls.
I opted for keyboard only and just got on with things.

Overall, I am seriously impressed. I liked the low poly flat shaded look and the sounds actually added to things.
It just got better when I started firing and the missiles went in the water.

Great work here

just tried the game...very nice

The game looks interesting and maybe freeman69 is a helicopter pilot. The graphics in the game are simple but quite nice. Nowadays most gamers want to play computer games in full screen mode. A full screen mode may be essential.

There is a PDF file in the folder. If instructions for operatiing the helicopter are written in this PDF file, gamers can learn this game faster and easily. 

If freeman69 will continue to make this flight simulator perfect, I will suggest adding background music. Appropriate backgound music for different kinds of missions can really create correct and very amazing atmosphere.

All good points...

To steer a helicopter takes a lot of input, so I was worried that only die-hard flight sim fanatics would find it of any interest. The blurb and the video both advise the use of mouse (or joystick). Keyboard control was almost an after-thought.

The menus were minimalistic, in that I spent as little time on them as possible. (Which obviously shows). Function over aesthetics every time. The retro (bitmap) font made it easier to colour the text background, although BB4W is perfectly capable of displaying standard fonts.

Finding the balance between scale and movement for a sim like this is difficult. At low level, ground markings appear to help with the sense of movement. (Texture mapping would also help, but that's a whole different approach the the one I took.)

I'm not a pilot, but did put a lot of effort into the control system, from steering to trying to mimic a bit of ground effect.

Full screen mode would be possible to do. Not sure how it would affect the frame rate though. Working with a fixed window size simplified some things.

Sound is not my forte, although I am learning (there is a stereo/bias/pan effect). Music however, is for other people. I did have some James Bond themes playing through the CD player on occasion though!

Graphically it reminds me a lot of Corncob 3d but I suppose all early flight sims look very similar.
Is the players range of flight limited in anyway? Did you have to code a process known as homecoming? (the world moves around the player)

Hi Magos - sorry for the delay in responding...

The graphics are about one step up from wire-frame, so it would look similar to many 'old' games.
Each mission has partially randomized map stored in memory. Every object is drawn relative to the player's position and orientation, so every frame each object is rotated, offset from the player and then rotated about the player's direction of view. Lots of calcs.