Turbo Pudding

HelicornMeet the cast

Meet Wren, Tilly, Old Hatch and the Paver

· The Turbo Pudding team · 4 min read

Greenfold Meadows from just behind Thistle, the white helicopter with orange stripes, green engine pods, a black three-bladed rotor and a green tail fin marked 7, which flies low on the right inside a glowing ring of light; on the left, a new black road with yellow lines runs straight to the horizon, and a yellow Roller with a gray drum trundles down it toward a scorched wreck ringed with little flowers, while up ahead a gold cog of Scrap bursts out of another wreck by the road; glowing shots fly ahead, and green trees, a red barn with a silo and soft green hills sit under a pale sky

In Helicorn, the story comes over the radio. Four voices tell it: a pilot, a dispatcher, a mechanic and a road machine with a megaphone. Every line they say is short enough to read between two dodges. It’s Monday, so meet the cast.

The picture at the top is Greenfold Meadows, the first world. Thistle, the old seeding helicopter, flies low beside a brand-new road while a Roller trundles down it and a cog of Scrap bursts out of a wreck up ahead.

How the radio works

Before each mission, a briefing card plays two or three lines, and one tap skips it. In flight, lines pop up on a strip at the bottom of the screen at set points along the way. Each speaker has a round badge with a letter: a green T for Tilly, an orange W for Wren, a brown H for Hatch and a dark gray exclamation mark for the Paver.

The game also reacts to what you do: a heart caught, a gun maxed out, a chain blast, a crash. Those lines take turns, never more than one every ten seconds and none in the first six, so the radio never talks over the calls that matter. Every mission ends with one line on the debrief card.

Wren Ashby, the pilot

Wren flies Thistle and says as little as possible. The very first briefing sets the tone. Tilly: “Morning, Wren! The meadow by the station is a parking lot. Overnight!” Wren: “Noted. Unpaving now.”

Wren meets every new problem the same way. Told about the giant digger in the last mission of the meadows: “Big Dig. Got it. Dig smaller.” Told that Mixers lob concrete where you’re going: “So I go somewhere else.” Wren even has opinions on the enemy’s furniture potential: “These Rollers would make lovely garden furniture.” And after a crash, the whole report is “Ow. Noted.”

The weather gets the same treatment: “Lovely weather for concrete. Terrible for concrete.” After a good mission, Wren’s debrief can be as short as “Same time tomorrow?”

Tilly, on dispatch

Tilly is the fast, cheerful voice that calls the targets, and nearly every line ends in an exclamation mark. Tilly is also the one who teaches you the game as you fly. “Roller on the road. Swing wide and hit its side!” “See the cogs? That’s Scrap. Fly close, it comes to you!” “Crane on the left. It throws flak. Slow, but it throws it.”

Greenfold Meadows from just behind Thistle, the white helicopter with orange stripes, green engine pods and a green tail fin marked 7, which flies low on the right over a scorched wreck ringed with little flowers, while gold cogs of Scrap burst out of a glowing ring beside it; on the left, black roads with yellow lines cross and split by a sandy gravel pit, a yellow tower with a striped base stands on the road far ahead, orange cones sit in the grass, and a red barn with a silo and green trees cover the hills under a pale sky
Searched “helicopter game with radio chatter.” Tilly answered.

Tilly never stays down for long, either. When Thistle goes down: “Wren?! Okay, okay. Back in the air!” When a mission is lost: “Shake it off! The trail’s still there.” And after a win, Tilly gets the line we like best in the whole game: “The meadow’s coming back already!”

Old Hatch, the mechanic

Old Hatch runs the Shed between missions, grumbles about everything and loves two things: his helicopter and Scrap. Thistle is his old seeding helicopter, and she sowed clover for thirty years before she ever carried a cannon. He worries about her out loud. “Mind the rotor. I only carved one.” “If she smokes, she’s fine. If she stops smoking, worry.” And when she’s low on health: “Easy! She’s older than you!”

Hatch is also the one who explains how things work. “The drum soaks up a cannon from the front. Hit them in the side.” “That silo’s full of gravel. Gravel is Scrap if you hit it hard enough.” In the drizzle: “Rain gets in the canopy. Fly faster and it blows off.”

A gray, drizzly day over the gravel pits of Greenfold Meadows, with faint streaks of rain: Thistle, the white helicopter with orange stripes, green pods and a green tail fin marked 7, hovers large on the left over a rocky pit; ahead, a brown crate tumbles inside a glowing ring by a tall gray silo, a small yellow machine with a dome stands by two little stacks of orange cones, a black road with yellow lines runs off to the horizon on the right past two black tanks and two scorched wrecks ringed with flowers, gold cogs of Scrap burst in a ring at the right edge, and a red barn with two silos sits on the green hill
Typed “helicopter game in the rain.” Hatch is already grumbling.

When Thistle crashes, Hatch has her back in the air in a line or two: “My bird! Spare rotors on, go again.” Or: “Patched her with tape and hope. Go.” And one of Hatch’s debrief lines sums the mechanic up: “Bring me the Scrap. I’ll make her meaner.”

The Paver

The Paver is a road machine, and it talks to you through every loudspeaker in the world. Its lines come up in capital letters on a yellow card with a thick dark border, like a road sign. You never hear a voice, only a megaphone’s wordless “bwaaap.” It doesn’t threaten so much as post notices: “ROLLERS: ROLL. HELICOPTER: DO NOT.” Or, in the rain: “WET CONCRETE. PLEASE DO NOT WRITE YOUR NAME IN IT.”

We made one rule for this side of the cast: it’s machines only. No people, no armies, no flags. At the end of the very first mission, the Paver sends its Paving Crew, a big yellow paver with a Roller on each side, and announces it in full road-sign style: “PAVING CREW, FORM UP.” When the crew goes down, the Paver has only one complaint: “THAT WAS A RENTAL!” Hatch gets the last word: “Rental. Ha. I’ll keep the bits.”

A green meadow under a pale sky: Thistle, the white helicopter with orange stripes, green pods and a green tail fin marked 7, flies large on the left, firing a stream of glowing shots; ahead stands the Paving Crew, a huge yellow and black road paver with a tall black exhaust stack and two orange warning lights, flanked by two smaller yellow Rollers with gray drums and black and yellow stripes; a smoking canister tumbles inside a glowing white ring above them, a curving black road with yellow lines edges in at the bottom right, and a red barn and green trees line the hills
People also ask: can a road roller fight a helicopter?

World 1, Greenfold Meadows, is free to play in your browser at helicorn.com, and the whole cast is on the radio in the very first mission. The full game, all six worlds, is $4.99, paid once. More about the game is on its Helicorn page.

More about Helicorn

HelicornScreenshot Saturday

Helicorn: postcards from all six worlds

Blossom trees, red mesas, open sea, a snowy glacier, a foundry and an endless car park: one frame from each of Thistle’s six worlds.