When I run into a roadblock while coding Lines of Questioning, I sometimes mess around with other tools and ideas as a way to clear my mind. Recently that’s meant experimenting with the Flying Drone Toolkit. (Full disclosure: I know the Toolkit’s creator.) It’s basically a pre-programmed setup for implementing VTOL drones in 3D games.

To date I’ve just been poking around and learning about the Toolkit’s features. That’s fine so far as it goes, but there’s a natural temptation during that sort of exploration to focus on what the Toolkit does easily rather than on what it can do with some effort. I need a project to really test its–and my–boundaries.

In searching for ideas I’ve tried to draw inspiration from the way the drones fly. They don’t act like jet planes; rather, they move like helicopters. What else flies that way, and what interesting things to they do?

– A news helicopter that has to fly around getting good footage.

– A guardian angel that has to protect someone without being seen doing it.

– Superman, being Superman.

– Vehicles moving in zero gravity, that have to pick out precise orbits or land on broken extraterrestrial terrain.

– Vehicles that move like they were in zero gravity–martian landers, repulsorlift speeders in Star Wars, the U.S.S. Voyager when it lands–carrying people to and from adventures, often through hostile terrain.

I like some of these ideas (let’s be honest, I basically like any idea involving Superman), but I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. If you could make any game involving something that flies like a VTOL drone, what would you do?