“We’ve tried to replicate that, together with looking at other airports and their set-ups.” “One guy from Copenhagen spoke to us about how the baggage handling part works, and even sent us a few drawings of what their setup looks like,” says Kindblad. In particular, the game’s developers wanted to ensure vehicle models bear close resemblance to their real-life counterparts. Though Airport CEO sports cute visuals, Apoapsis Studios prefers the term ‘soft realism’ for its aesthetic. “People actually reached out to us – pilots, cabin crew, ramp workers, even some management in some airports – to offer their expertise,” says Apoapsis Studios’ developer Frederik Lindahl, who claims Airport CEO stemmed from his love for the now-aged Airport Tycoon series.
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“We are trying to look at how to follow the current technology trends, but also play around with a bit of humour and talk about stuff like artificial intelligence and automation,” says Kindblad.Ī great deal of research has gone into making Airport CEO as authentic as possible. SimAirport features a research tool that allows players to invest in upgrades for their airports, such as standby gates to reduce the number of cancelled or delayed flights.Īpoapsis Studios is working on its own research system that will allow players to implement technologies such as self-service check-in machines, which are being more and more widely used at real-life airports to speed up operations. The need to develop new technologies and processes is also vital for the would-be airport manager. “We have some ideas on how to improve that into sort of a negotiation with airlines, but right now it’s quite basic.” “We’re looking at how a CEO can work with big companies, contractors and lenders,” says Kindblad. Key to both games is establishing relationships with external parties, whether it’s hiring a contractor to help build the next big expansion, or making deals with airlines to create revenue. “Equally important is throughput if you're only clearing 20 passengers and crew through security every hour, then you’re clearly going to have a substantially lower ceiling until those issues are uncovered and addressed.” “In SimAirport, it's absolutely critical to create an airport layout that is efficient, keeps staff in the right areas at the right times, has ample services for passengers in the correct areas, and has well-thought out roadways to allow passengers and staff able to move about at all times,” says LVGameDev CEO and SimAirport co-creator Arthur D. This not only means considering the length of taxiways and your airport’s proximity to public transport and pickup zones, but also reducing bottlenecks and ensuring passengers can move swiftly through security. For example, creating an effective layout can make or break operations. The upshot is that a successful in-game airport will largely share traits of the best real-life airports.
In both games, the pixelated passengers are all individual entities, with artificial intelligence informing their behaviours. But just how closely can a simulation reflect current trends in the sector?īoth SimAirport and Airport CEO rely on deeply simulated systems to power aircraft, passengers, employees and even baggage handling systems. Players’ priorities in the games are in many ways aligned with real-life airports. This covers everything from constructing terminals to keeping airlines and passengers happy, with an overall goal of making the most profitable aviation hub possible. “It’s a massive task to develop a game that tries to accurately at least depict some aspects of it, and that kind of challenge was super interesting about this project.”īoth Airport CEO and SimAirport, a similar but distinct title from LVGameDev, give players the chance to helm their own virtual airport. “They're kind of like small ecosystems in themselves and there are a lot of complex aspects to it that you as a traveller can perceive but not directly see,” says Olof Kindblad, one of two developers behind 2D top-down management sim Airport CEO. Nevertheless, according to the creators of two new simulation games, this makes them an interesting nut to crack, both from a developer and gamer perspective. Odern commercial airports are complicated, to say the least.
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