* static background noise and some audio crackle *
* ... *
- “Err.. Airport CEO Tower, Dev AC301, 10 miles south with Delta inbound for a new dev blog”.
- “Dev AC301, Airport CEO Tower, commence dev blog delivery!”
It’s good to be back! Although we’ve had a few months break from the dev blog, we’ve certainly not had a few months break from Airport CEO. In excess of ACEO back burner development, working on some new stuff not related to ACEO and taking a few extra Rocket League breaks we’ve also been working on something new for ACEO... so you know what? Let’s just get into it.
A few months ago, Airport CEO left early access as a fully released 1.0 game. It took about two years of prototyping and learning Unity as well as software engineering for games and then, after the initial early access release, another three and a half years to complete the game. On the day of the launch, we also deployed Airport CEO: Supersonic, a free DLC bringing the Concorde and Tu-144 to Airport CEO! Since that day, March 4th 2021, we’ve been watching the reception of the full game across the globe, partly by the press but mostly by the new airport CEOs who’ve joined us since the full release. It turns out that Airport CEO is a fun and challenging, but sometimes very quirky, game and we couldn’t agree more. It’s a game built by tycoon and aviation fanatics, for tycoon and aviation fanatics with years of community involvement that really set its mark.
While the game launched as 1.0-0, it’s current version on the default branch is 1.0-23. That’s because we’ve since the launch been deploying several very minor updates targeting primarily specific fringe case bugs as they are reported, but also some additional balancing as a result of the large influx of new players since the 1.0 release and even the odd new feature such as intersecting runways. For the back burner development, we’ve devoted about one to two days per week, including support, and the other days have been spent on future project prototyping, playing games and leaving work a little early on some rare afternoons. On top of that, Fredrik has become a dad for the second time(!) and with Swedish midsummer festivities coming up as well as the summer vacations, we’ve been taking it just a little bit slower than usual... yet, today we’re happy to announce the launch of the next Airport CEO aircraft pack, the Airport CEO Vintage DLC!
“Props, small jet engines and quirky fuselages! Those are just a few of the components that summarize the golden age of flying, a time when traveling was just as glamorous as the leg room and gourmet meals served onboard. While the golden age of flight primarily lasted between the 1950s and 1960s, the Airport CEO Vintage DLC contains a total of seven different aircraft models typically flown between the 1930s and 1980s.”
All throughout the development of Airport CEO and the aircraft that it consists of, there’s always been a very, very notable request amongst the airport CEOs for those classic aircraft, the ones that define the very birth of the aviation industry, but the ones that also always have been a bit out of scope for Airport CEO’s somewhat undefined yet noticeably modern time setting. But with the full version of the game finally out of the gate we’ve been able to devote some of our time to finally honor the golden age of flight and together with Lucas Eliasson, the artist behind the new line of Airport CEO logos and some of the new airlines, we’ve breathed life into seven classic aircraft from that golden age! It hasn’t been easy as high-resolution reference images for the shape and appearance of fuselages and details, as well as for example video of flaps movement, are not that plentiful. Not only that but simply limiting the aircraft fleet of the DLC to the models we did end up choosing was also a difficult task as there are so many great, classic aircraft out there. Eventually, seven aircraft models were selected and developed for the Vintage DLC and these include the...
These aircraft span between the small and medium weight class and are accompanied by new retro versions of the Maple, Nordic, Tulip, OK Air and Swiftly airlines, meaning that if you want to traffic these aircraft at your airport you will need to sign separate contracts with these exclusive retro airlines (they will be offered just as regular airline contracts). Having the aircraft separate from the modern airlines also allow you to choose whether you want modern, mixed or vintage air traffic only at your airport. We’ve had a lot of fun developing these aircraft and making their legacy justified in Airport CEO and we hope you’ll have just as fun experiencing them.
You can read more about the Airport CEO Vintage DLC over at the Steam store page. It contains seven new classic aircraft and five retro airlines and all aircraft will, once all of the companion MDKs are released, be fully moddable just as every other aircraft. The DLC retails at $7,99 (€6,59) and with the addition of these aircraft the total amount of aircraft models in Airport CEO is now a staggering 55! But if you don’t feel like these classic birds are of any interest to you, do not worry as we do have a few additional aircraft in the pipeline for the base game as well, to be added free of charge a little bit further down the line when we have the time.
So that is it for this time. We’re not sure when we’ll be back with another dev blog but we still have that Airport CEO postmortem to write, perhaps we’ll be able to get to it during the summer. Regardless we wish you a fantastic and hopefully normal summer and hope to see you around the community!
Fly safe!
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