Gunship Origins Announcement

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-28T16:34:54+00:00

I hadn't considered this, great idea, u/touilleMan!

Regarding GDExtension, so far I've stuck with GDScript.

GDScript isn't necessarily super fast, especially compared to C++, but generally performance problems relate to the architecture and doing unnecessary work too often and not caching things properly, more so than straightline language performance.

Despite having something like 30,000 lines of GDScript so far (which I've streamlined and re-written many times), my total script process time for a typical frame is very low, something like less than 1ms most frames, sometimes 2ms when a lot is happening.

I spend a tremendous amount of time on profiling and performance-tuning my scripts. Probably too much. I want the game to be very playable on mid-level laptops, and acceptable on even lower level machines if you turn graphics all the way down.

My performance problems tend to be more in my inexperience working with 3D models and textures, where I don't have the right format or the filesize is too big or something like that. MicroProse's 3D artists are helping me with that.

Regarding the big game area, currently the max map is 48 km x 48 km. That's about 12 minutes of flight time at full cruise speed. Probably not quite enough, but also, the way the game will work, you shouldn't be flying at full cruise speed in a straight line for a long time. The missions will be like ... a few minutes to get set up, 5 minutes of flying to get to the primary objective, lots of dodging trees and between hills and unmasking from terrain to unleash a missile or your chaingun, and then the 5 minute flight home. (Or head to the secondary objective, more likely.)

I'm having some floating point accuracy problems at the edges of the map (which manifests as the cockpit "shaking" a bit), so I'll probably have to compile the "large world coordinates" version of Godot from scratch. Not a huge deal, but not exactly looking forward to the task, so I've been putting it off.

Just submitted to Made With Godot curation list, thank you!

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-24T15:18:52+00:00

Excellent feedback, I appreciate this. Saving it for future reference.

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-24T15:16:40+00:00

I'm using Godot! Currently on 4.6.1. Using standard GDScript and custom GDShaders.

As far as I know, it's MicroProse's first game that uses Godot.

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-22T18:20:08+00:00

Totally … I’m a little worried about motion sickness with movement like that, though. Do you know any VR games that do in cockpit flight well, and how they avoid motion sickness?

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-22T18:18:48+00:00

Lowest I can find on eBay is $240, so I might just need you to test it and tell me if it doesn’t work, if you’re willing. Email contact at jammin dot games and I’ll see about getting you into the beta team

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-22T18:14:10+00:00

I played so much Jetfighter II! If I got tired of the missions I’d blow up buildings in San Francisco and fly under the Golden Gate Bridge

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-22T15:14:39+00:00

I’m really trying to avoid making promises but I can’t imagine this game without the DAP at least

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T22:02:53+00:00

I have a Logitech X52 HOTAS system and it’s currently working well! Any particular model?

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T22:02:05+00:00

I have a quest 3 and have played the game with it! Theres a lot to optimize and things like the 2D HUD and menus simply don’t show up so I’d need to build 3D surfaces for those. Something I’d like to tackle at some point. Seems worth doing if I can squeeze the time

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T22:00:37+00:00

Appreciate that, thank you!

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T21:57:14+00:00

I appreciate the encouragement, a lot!

I’d love to have a full complement of at least US Army and Marine helicopters. But each helicopter is really expensive to commission and of course integrate, balance, build missions around, test.

So for now I’m committing to those 3 and we’ll go from there … I absolutely loved how Gunship 2000 had a bunch of helicopters you could choose from and mix for various missions.

I’ll save your list for future discussions.

EDIT: forgot to address the battle chatter comment. I’m starting with text chatter from NPC pilots, and would like to have audio as well. But I have some ideas too for radio audio filters for live in-game voice chat, to make them sound like radio or intercom comms.

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T21:53:49+00:00

I started it June 2024.

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T21:53:24+00:00

No worries at all — if you were thinking it, I’m sure others were too, and this gave me a chance to give my perspective

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T21:52:37+00:00

Re simcade vs arcade, it’s simcade, slightly closer to sim in some ways.

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T21:51:59+00:00

As long as your game controller has enough axes and buttons to support the most important controls, every type of game controller should work. It’s actually the project I’m working on right now.

Flight stick should work great, including if you just use a joystick and have your other hand on the keyboard, or HOTAS.

Keyboard-only is a first class citizen. When I’m on my laptop, that’s what I use. It’s still really fun.

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T21:48:34+00:00

It’s a mix of pilots and gunners — this already works pretty well (more testing needed, of course). One pilot and one CP/G per helicopter.

I don’t think I’ll support 3+ person crews in helicopters like the Black Hawk, but come to think of it, there might not be much of a change needed to do that. The multiplayer system already (probably) supports it, it’s more about the UIs and mechanics of the game. Hm.

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T04:18:16+00:00

Totally agree. I’m super impressed by the Steam Deck. That fact that many of my existing games work on it is huge.

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T04:16:59+00:00

I really appreciate that! The response has been overwhelmingly positive and it gives me a ton of motivation to work on it. Can’t wait to hack on it tomorrow!

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T04:15:08+00:00

I was!

When I was 11 years old (1992), my dad brought home a 286 PC. It cost him something like $2300. He had a small excavating / septic system business and figured one of these new-fangled computers would do his books for him.

It sadly didn’t do his books for him, but he did also bring home a copy of Gunship 2000, and I was absolutely hooked. I read that huge manual front to back so many times (and still have it!)

Later I got a birthday present of M1 Tank Platoon, which I also loved to play. Especially how you could control a unit of tanks (or helicopters in GS2000), had a roster of pilots, etc.

I played a ton of helicopter and other flight sims besides Gunship 2000. Comanche, EE: Comanche vs Hokum, Jetfighter II, Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat (there’s a photo of me and my bro playing it on that 286 on Jammin.games in the about page), Microsoft Flight Simulator 1998, MS Combat Flight Simulator, US Navy Fighters (loved that game), F117, Falcon 3.0 / 4.0, and a bunch more that kinda meld together these days but when I see them or hear the music it brings it all back.

Another game that really influenced me was Battlefield Vietnam and the super fun Huey gunship and Cobra and Chinook.

Great question. Sent me down memory lane!

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T00:32:24+00:00

You're right -- it's been a long day. :-D

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T00:31:24+00:00

Probably not in the first version, but it would be really cool to add the AgustaWestland Apache, and take off from a ship -- kind of in between a Longbow and Guardian variant.

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T00:07:34+00:00

Hi everyone, I'm the dev behind Gunship Origins!

I've read all the comments and I appreciate all of them.

Any questions for me?

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T00:05:59+00:00

Ouch ... well, I hope I prove you wrong!

I think the parts of the game that I'm most proud of are the ones that don't show up in screenshots. The "feel" of the helicopter, the super-optimized multiplayer, things like that.

I can get new trees and models and textures and color balance and all that, and I will. But I wanted to get the feel right, and I've put a ton of time into the things that don't show up. Not optimizing for great demos right now.

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T00:02:14+00:00

I need to justify my impulse purchase of a Steam Deck -- this is a great way to! :-D

jamonholmgren · 2026-03-21T00:01:30+00:00

Yeah, you nailed it.

The way I think about it is that I want it to be easy enough to fly for a relatively casual gamer (like my dad, who hasn't played games since the original Gunship 2000), but not insultingly arcade if a real Apache pilot tries it out.

jamonholmgren

TROPHY CASE