HDL Helicopter Defense League
A Germ of an Idea
You’re probably wondering where I got the idea for this game from, or just interested in how game ideas come about in general, well these’s a story to this one, one that goes way back to 1992 (or there abouts), I used to own an Acorn Archimedes and started writing a top down scrolling shoot-em-up on it, I knew the game was about a helicopter, but I couldn’t think of a good name (IIRC I originally called it HeliFight, talk about a crap name).
Well I was at university at the time and wandering from my home to the uni I was pondering what to call this master piece, as I was walking into the town I was passed by a lorry, with three magical letters on the side, H.D.L. normally you wouldn’t notice it, or think it was significant, but something about it jumped out at me, Helicopter Defense League I thought, and bang that was it, I had my name (if only all game names came that easily, although DiceMan in The DiceMan Cometh came pretty quickly). So I rebranded my HeliFight game into HDL and started working on sprites and a level editor, but it never really got any further.
Jump to just before christmas 2006, I was trying to think of a good idea for a real game for XNA, one that wouldn’t require any human characters (since I can’t draw them, and getting them animated at present will be a pain), so I thought about helicopters, and somehow my brain pulled up a name from the past, HDL, along with a raft of memories about the original game, I realised that this would work, that I could make a new game, in 3D using a helicopter, I’d keep the top down perspective, but change it to rotate around the helicopter (the original game was a straight shoot-em-up), from there other ideas started to form, the idea of breaking it down into missions with objectives, having a controller who talked to you and updated your mission status.
From there I started to think about the story of the game, and got my first idea of how the game would play out, the sort of levels I needed, and even a couple of the characters.
I built the helicopter model first, it’s not a final model, but it’s good enough to test the engine and make sure everything works, I think I’m going to make the final version sleaker and a bit more angular (like a commanche, but not as narrow, and with side pods like the apache), it should cast a recognisable shadow on the ground.
Next steps
Next I built some simple map tiles, the map is actually a 2D array of tile types, just like a 2D game, it also has a height for each cell, and a rotation to one of 4 angles (0,90,180,270 degrees), this allows me to quickly throw together a map with relief and contours, there’s also an object map on top of this which allows me to place static objects directly onto the map, adding another layer to the map.
I built the terminal just to test placing multiple objects, the chain fence is deliberate so that I could test alpha channels in the shadows. This is going to be replaced, it’s not really the HDL head-quarters, I may replace it with a water plane (using my new water effect) and the Xena (one of the HDLs fleet of support vehicles) since this is what you’ll be working out of most of the time.
I built the Xena as a test model since I had this idea that they used this ship to bring the helicopter close to the objective and it would act as a base for operations, in the full game I may allow landing on the Xena to both repair and rearm your helicopter. The model will need to be redone, just like the helicopter, but it’s nice to be able to have something on screen and it shows how selfshadowing works complete with transparency on the ladders and railings.
This is the first model I built for enemy vehicles, it’s a tank (well duh!) it’s to scale with the helicopter and Xena, since I chose a really simple scale (1 unit = 1 metre) making things to scale becomes really simple. There’s a lot more detail on the model than is strictly nessessary, there are raised armour sections on the top, there’s even a ring under the turret to connect it to the tanks body (which is invisible when viewed from above), the tracks are indented, and the side skirts are full 3d, not just a textured plane, this allows me to view the tank close up and from any angle, which will be useful for building cutscenes into the game using the game engine.
I also wrote an editor directly into the PC debug build which allows me to construct levels directly in the game and see what they’ll look like in realtime, I was going to use Mappy to make the maps, but realised that I wouldn’t be able to set the height map easily, and that trying to see sloped tiles in 2D wouldn’t be possible.
Marked Missions
As well as mission maps I needed a way of making missions, so I decided to work with what I’ve got, the .NET Framework provides classes for handling XML files, this means two things:
- I’ve got a ready made parser for easily editable text files, and
- I dont have to add any code for my parser to the game file since the libraries are already on the Xbox 360.
The first means that I’ve got a working file parser right in front of me, no need to re-invent the wheel, the second means that I dont have to have my parser in the executables reducing the size of my game code. Another advantage of using XML is that since it’s extensible by nature adding new features to the engine is simple and will just work. The final reason is that I like XML and it’s perfect for just this sort of application, it supports nesting of blocks and best of all, it’s readable by humans, making debugging a mission a lot easier, plus since lots of people use XML in various forms (most notably HTML) it’s easy to understand even if you’ve never seen a mission file before, the concepts used are similar to any other XML file.
Back Story
Okay, I’ll be brief here, in 2011 a series of major terrorist attacks around the world let to the formation of a rapid response force designed originally to deal with the aftermath of any new attacks, using helicopters was the obvious choice since they could travel anywhere and land where no other aircraft could as well as get to places inaccessable by traditional land vehicles. The remit was soon updated when intelligence picked up rumours of a terrorist strike and the newly formed HDL was sent in to intercept and foil the terrorist plot.
The force has grown in size since then, originally using Apache and Commanche helicopters in 2014 a new Helicopter was required and the tender put out to leading aviation companies, the result of this is the new MRCH-17 (Multi Role Combat Helicopter) a versitile helicopter designed to operate in numerous environments and perform multiple roles.
In October of 2017 the HDL took delivery of their first prototype MRCH-17 helicopter and after several successful trials it was ready for it’s first field trial, in the hands of Chris Sharp.
Characters
Chris Sharp – Ex-Special forces and veteran pilot, Sharp is the best pilot and fighter in the HDL as such he was the obvious choice to fly the new helicopter on it’s first field trials. Sharp has earned several medals during his military career, including 3 purple hearts, 2 bravery medals and several special commendations.
Angela Bishop – Recently promoted to mission support, Angela worked in Intelligence, first for the Navy, then later for the HDL where her natural talent and ability to think on her feet saw her rise quickly to a lead role in the intelligence group, her job was to liase with support agents and provide detailed and concise intel for the agents in the field. The MRCH-17 field trials are her first time on support and she relishes the chance to prove herself.
More characters to come later…