Hijong Park's Defender Patrol 2.0 (Completed)
A downloadable game for Windows
Hijong park's defender patrol is a low poly helicopter combat flight simulator featuring MD-500 defender, with fully interactable cockpit and simple randomized missions.
The development of this project is officially ended. This game will forever be available for free here, as nobody will be crazy enough to burn money to fly this little shit helicopter over apache or blackhawk.
- Semi-realistic flight model that is a lot simpler than real life helicopters but still feels like you are riding a helicopter.
- Directly interact with switches in the cockpit. You don't need to memorize tons of keybinds ! (But you can still use keybinds for switches, if you wish)
- Offers 3 different play modes for flight sim enthusiasts :
1. Flatscreen : play in just simple flat screen monitor with joysticks or Keyboard and mouse. Various snap view functions are available to aid your limited vision.
2. TrackIR : Use your TrackIR device to quickly look around the cockpit.
3. VR : Play with VR controllers alone, or mix some joysticks. If you just want VR headset and don't want to mess with controllers, disable VR hands and use your joysticks and mouse. various combos are possible.
- Equip weapons in each 2 pylons of MD-500MG to destroy things, or carry 4 troops with MD-500E.
- Encounter various AI units including infantries, MANPADS, stationary turrets, armored cars, tanks, howitzers, and SPAAVs. Kill bad ones, help good ones.
- Fly with your AI helicopter wingmen to complete missions, and fight with enemy AI helicopters.
The enemy have fearsome Hind attack helicopters while your team is too poor to afford an attack helicopter. Get over it with your passion and grit.
- Use ANVIS for night operations.
- Out of ammo ? Draw your victorious model 10 and keep fighting for your victory.
If you pay 5 $ or more, you'll gain access to the supporter edition, where you can use MD-530F : the upgraded variant of MD-500MG featuring twin minigun pylons and improved engine !
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3982130/Hijong_Parks_Defender_Patrol/
Also try my game on steam !
Visit my discord server : https://discord.gg/ng5TjDWC7d
Download
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Development log
- Low Level Hunters pre-release page is now available !19 days ago
- Low Level Hunters Development news #4 - New actors coming in22 days ago
- Low Level Hunters Development news #3 - camouflaged social collapse58 days ago
- Low Level Hunters Development news #2 - New Humans, New Skybox92 days ago
- Low Level Hunters announcement news - The Snake is coming !Dec 22, 2025
- 2.53 patchNov 09, 2025
- 2.52 patchNov 08, 2025
- 2.51 minor patchNov 02, 2025
Comments
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Most hard-working indie dev ever!
I'm glad to hear that !!
check it out on steam! whole new update with a new bird,.. i mean snake planned coming for froseeable future 2027 ,
edit: that is for the sequel.
ive seen this game from another page and i didnt want to pay so i love you for doing this please continue doing like that to save all of us gamers
The sequel will be a priced game, this game is a tech demo for that game so it's free.
Is there any downloadable key map for the Xbox Series X Controller? Id really like to play this on a controller but there is just too many options to configure in the keymapping setup - An already configured config file that works good would save tons of time
This game is mainly designed with VR in mind that the VR mode is is plug & play with not much configurations required, but as a throwback it's not really optimized for common controllers.
I suggest to configure right analog as cyclic X and Y, left analog Y axis as Collective, and left analog X axis as pedal at 'General', and then bind trigger button as Gun trigger axis at 'MD-500 specific', and handle the rest with mouse.
where do we find the trigger botton?
i also ask how to change the option for using mouse or the controller
Go to settings - controls - change keybinds.
In MD-500 specific tag go to cyclic functions section and configure gun trigger key binds.
Sorry I thought they I was in the MD and not in the genera l thank you Now I can play this game well
After downloading the game, when I try to use it with TrackIR my software doesn't detect the game at all. I have it turned on in the Gameplay settings but nothing happens?
I noticed that the latest version of TrackIR 5.5.3 version no longer works for my game. I'll fix it soon.
I have published 2.38 version, it should work now with latest version of TrackIR.
Is the VR version for the game bugged? or does it require having WMR? I'm trying to run the game on steamVR but it isn't picking up or detecting the VR entirely.
update: didn't realize you had to run it via a shortcut with the -VR command, installed it via Itch.io app so I didn't see the the folder itself, woulda been nice to read a word of warning about it in the game description since i got confused 💔
Yea I included a shortcut file in the zip that runs the game with -VR command. In Steam release you'll have a convenient VR launch option and that's why I'm so hell bent on steam release of this small sim...
Best of luck! I loved the experience it was so fun, You got this <3
Happy to hear this is getting a Steam release! :) Fingers crossed!
It's a great game, but I was unable to use the weapons with the mouse. I had to bind the keys to two keys and it still didn't work correctly.
Have you turned on master arm and selected the desired pylon to use ? If you hear the trigger sounds on press, that means the inputs are working.
I did turn on master arm and selected the desired pylon yet it didn't work
have you actually heard the trigger press sound ?
Nope. Everything's on but it doesn't press the trigger.
I recently found that the mouse is not assigned for the player by default, it was where all the mouse input releated issues came from.
The steam version will be released in 3 weeks along with 2.35 v and it will solve the issue.
Awesome little study sim for the MD-500, will buy whenever it comes out on steam.
Thanks ! I'm preparing for the steam release with the help of publisher at the moment.
After putting this on steam i'll start new adventure of adding more stuff upon this project to make real game.
This is really cool, I wish I could donate with something that isn't paypal ^^'
Also I keep finding you all over the internet as a modder, on H3 and I think I saw you on ravenfield too-
After bunch of unity game modding lifes i decided to make my own thing.
I'll soon publish this on steam and make the supporters edition as 4$, which gives politically distinct AH-6J as a reward.
After that I' ll burn another year making something that worths 12 dollars.
Alright, I hope you become filthy rich from this ngl lolz
Good luck!
Do you plan to add a Linux version?
I don't have the environment and experience of using Linux, I can't do that at the moment.
I encountered 3 bugs in version 2.1:
- had to manually bind cursor-press-1 to left-mouse-button to be able to shoot with the gun
- training 'using atgms': doesn't recognise when I turn on the copilots tv screen and doesn't continue with the tutorial
- training 'mfd functions': doesn't continue when the gunner fires (f-key)
Great game, love it!
Thanks for reporting, The 2.2 patch is released addressing training mission bugs.
Unfortunately I could never fix the default mouse keybind issue. it's just working perfectly for me and only handful of people are reporting it that I could never replicate and track down the source of this issue.
Version 2.1 is working great for me now. Thanks!
Glad it works !
I just installed version 2.0. After launching I get a Language Selection screen where I can choose English or Korean but I cannot get past this point. Nothing seems to work except killing the app. =( All versions through 1.95 work fine for me...
Is nothing happening when you pressed 'NEXT button' ?
Is the next button not even changing its color when you put cursor on it ?
I don't see a "next" button anywhere. Don't know if it matters but I am running on a 3840x1080 display.
Additionally - I just tested lowering my resolution to 1920x1080 and I can see the other buttons now. I would prefer to be able to run at native resolution though.
thanks for detailed reply. So it was the resolution issue, I'll work on it and fix it in the next minor patch.
Thanks very much! And thanks for all the great games you make!
Congratulations on completing the project! =)
Yo, I'm getting this problem where the helicopter keeps shaking when I enter cruise/hover mode.
This only happens in arcade. When I switch to default, the heli cruises smoothly.
Is there any way I can fix this
Oh this is because the auto hover PID numbers are only optimized for default FM and not arcade one.
I'll fix it in the next patch, introducing separated PID number for arcade FM.
Alright thank you, I thought it might be a problem on my end.
I get stuck at the first tutorial mission when it asks me to "press mouse 3" to interact with cockpit, nothing happens, even resetting controls to default did not help.
Have you tried changing keybinds ?
Mine works just fine.
It looks like not all the controls are assigned; at least for me. It worked after I manually rebind MOUSE 3.
Same for me. I had to re-bind the cockpit interaction to the same Mouse 3 and then it started working. I guess my "Mouse 3" is somehow different :)
sounds like I need to change default keybind to something else.
not bad.
Hello great game. I cant download the latest version as microsoft says it is a virus.
I noticed that too, really weird !
After bunch of rebuilding, I found that naming the project name to 1.7 instead of 1.7.5 eliminates false flagging my game as a virus. I can confirm windows no longer detect it as virus as I can now download my game on itch.io and play it normally.
So I renamed the project name to 1.7 despite the actual contents being 1.7.5 I hope it works for you too !
thank you
Further Update, I know how to start up the engine, but I can't actually fly, like control the throttle, go forwards/higher, etc.
you can fly by controlling collective and cyclic simultaneously.
If you want to fly up, you need to increase collective while adjusting cyclic to maintain 0 pitch and roll degree.
To fly forward, you need to control cyclic to find and maintain the pitch angle (usually between 15~20 degree pitch down) where the helicopter flies straight forward, watching vertical speed indicator. then you can slightly move the pitch around in case you want to fly up or down while flying forward
I think Cyclic is actually mouse.
It can be either keyboard, joystick, mouse based on your configuration.
And Collective is W/S, right? Also, I find myself overcompensating for some bits, like if the heli is leaning to much to one side.
if you did not turn on arcade flight model, the helicopter will constantly pitch up and roll to right due to dissymmetry of lift and gyroscopic precession.
Anybody else experiencing performance issues? is there LOD? weird.
I hadn't worked much on optimizations yet because the game had been running fine in my laptop.
I think it's about time to work on optimization, can you tell me which mission and Unit amount option have you experienced the performance issue ?
I tried specifically for the least amount to get myself used to the controls, it ran at about 2 FPS.
I'd recommend looking into analyzation tools to find the root.
Thanks. I start investigating it !
hey, can I ask your computer's spec, like cpu, ram, and gpu ? That would be helpful to monitor my game's performance.
Hey, I just published the new update introducing tons of optimizations. Can you try it ?
This is awesome! Reminds me of old games like Gunship 2000. I love following your work as I also make my own way through indie game development, thank you for the inspiration.
Looks amazing and plays great! Well done and hope to see updates soon!
hey - that’s quite a step up from your pico8 days.
Excellent work👌
Looks promising!
I'll definitely will be monitoring your progress with interest! Hope you get to where you want to take this flight sim :-)
Awesome! Fingers crossed for further development!
FINALLY, AFTER 5 YEARS, NIGHT OF THE LITTLE BIRDS 2
So far all I've done is fly around a bit and after getting my controls configured this is really fun to fly around in! I love the VTOL VR simplified cockpit systems and startup, and the physics feel like a fantastic "just realistic enough to be interesting and require skill, but not so realistic that it's unflyable without a ton of practice."
It took me a couple flights to realize how easy it is to overload the helicopter. Flying with much less than full fuel made a huge difference. Maybe the default fuel could be lower, or maybe a warning to let players using the "default" flight model know they're going to have a hard time could be nice.
I haven't done any combat, just flown around a bit, but the only thing I think it needs with regards to the flight model is more trim options. Some way to apply rudder trim, since I don't have pedals, would be fantastic. I think my ideal trim setup mirrors DCS' with the push button force trim (that also applies to pedals) and then a return to center before you get authority again.
The foundation here for the flight model is rock solid though, and just throwing the little helicopter around is a blast.
I wonder if the other Hijong Park heli games count as practice. Also, YEEEEEEEESSS!!!!
Thanks for feedback WHY485. I'm currently working on adding more trim options !
update tiny combat
can u pls make a game like this but for planes
There are already bunch of plane games in the similar style. Tiny combat, sky on fire, Linux air combat etc.
I'm making this game due to serious lack of helicopter sim-lite games to play.
i know but there are no plane games that have interactive cocpit
have you tried VTOL VR ?
i dont have vr and i dont like it
Play falcon 4.0
ok, thanks
Hey Dayzr, im making a simple multiplayer aircraft game and your models fit very well to the games aesthetic. Could you give me your discord and I could show you? my discord is 'gameburger'