I spent a week with Remeko working on what was essentially a prototype. The only map you could play was Moose City, and the orbs had this dithering effect on them without proper transparency.

At first we didn't even have a level selector. You pressed "P" to visit the "Testing Level", which eventually was named Fly Zone. Stout made some Lego-like(legally distinct) textures.


The controls were really unresponsive at first, but some big improvements were made. Most importantly, when your torque meter was halfway it would increase much faster so that you could start flying much sooner.

We had a problem with Moose City lagging really badly, so I added Visibility settings on the 1-5 keys which set the max render distance. Eventually we figured out that it was the map importer creating 331 dynamic lights. After creating a component to remove these, instantly we had good performance at max render distance.

We added particle effects for players that had established WRs. Lilly was the first to beat my time and got to put a special message at the finish line on Moose City.

We added speed boost volumes, and now your rotors would start spun up so you could get going right away. And Lilly beat my time on Fly Zone, again..

And, finally, we had a basic level select screen courtesy of Remeko. And we had loading screens for when you were downloading maps.

Added Big City as a level you could play.

Added Gas powerups, improved maneuverability further, added new textured facial expressions by stout, balloons that pop you upwards.

Scoreboards in the main menu. Looks basic here, doesn't it?

Added SlowMo clocks, and made the Gas super maneuverable. It still is today, but I kind of went overboard with placing so many gas pickups and felt like I ruined the original charm of the game, so I reset the scoreboards(at the time being you couldn't remove them, just add new ones) and placed them much more strategically.

Ducc originally suggested I add an Ikeafinal level as a joke, but I decided to actually do it. Turned out to be a fun level that was a good testing ground for the Gas powerup and SlowMo clock together.

Improved the look of the scoreboard quite a bit. Also added a trippy Drugs powerup that made your screen rainbow-y for a bit. It used a pill bottle model.

Added a tutorial level, Cozy Castle, so that new players would have something to help get their bearings before taking on the "actual" levels.

Added Bombs. They blast you back when you touch them. Also added a feature where you could "like" each level individually.

Improved the look of the main menu a LOT with custom font, animated background, and W~A~V~Y rainbow text. 🌈

Also added Coins, level image preview, and extra stats. A proper profile system that is obfuscated so you can't easily edit it.

Started working on a motherfucking level editor. It lets you edit levels.

Basically just kept working on the level editor.


Added a maps tab where you can load any visible asset.party map.

And then just.. continued.. working.. on the level editor.

Here's a relatively short list of the features added:
- Copy/Cut/Paste
- Being able to duplicate by dragging widgets with SHIFT held.
- Cloud Asset Streaming (load models/sounds/maps ON DEMAND).
- 3D Text
- Lights
- Grid Snapping & Increase/Decrease
- Physics Prop w/ Model Selection
- Wall Tool
- Camera Axis Panning
- Frame Command (F)
- Material Tool
- Decals
- TONS of Quality of Life Fixes/Additions

and then the...

Which, when finished, will basically allow you to create your own minigames within the Helicopter-chan game itself.

It is comprised of
Triggers: things that happen in the game which then check for-
Conditions: filters that must succeed before executing-
Actions: which vary between winning/lose the game, setting/incrementing global variables, applying force, deleting objects, setting models, spawning things, toggling lights.

I grinded like mad for over a month, and now that there's a competition I have even more reason to keep working like this.

Been trying to get custom models, sounds, music, and all the stuff that makes a game feel complete. And I wanna have some more custom maps. If this pace keeps up, I should have something I can feel confident submitting to the game jam.

If you like what you see and want to follow the project or maybe even lend a hand(and get a part of the potential prize money) you can join our Discord server.

https://discord.gg/NUX7ChqXyT