5 ms·

For those of you thinking, "I'd like to take a crack at running an airport" or think you'd be able to do better, there's a game that just got through Steam Gree

For those of you thinking, "I'd like to take a crack at running an airport" or think you'd be able to do better, there's a game that just got through Steam Greenlight and that will be releasing soon which will allow you to do exactly that. Obviously it's "dumbed down", but it still tries to stay realistic & uses a 'systems-based' logical approach for gameplay; the total operation is basically just the sum of all the different inter-dependent systems and how they relate to eachother, how failures cascade, etc... http://www.simairport.com/ http://www.simairport.com/ Disclaimer: I'm involved in the project.

jdpedrie 10y ago
Looks pretty cool! The art and UI seem quite similar in style to Prison Architect. Is Sim Airport related in any way to PI, or is it just an inspiration?
- adanto6840 10y ago
  We're not affiliated with the makers of PA, but it's definitely been a huge inspiration for us -- IMO it's largely responsible for modernizing & reviving the 'tycoon genre' in many ways.
avar 10y ago
Is it possible to go outside the bounds of what a typical international airport looks like today? E.g. no security screenings so people can pretty much just walk on the plane like it's a train station? That would mean you don't need space for restaurants, or lots of space for people to pool as they're waiting past security. It would be very interesting to experiment with changes like that and see how it would look. Edit: There's now an entire discussion downthread about how airports did and didn't look like before 9/11. That misses the point of what I'm asking, which I'll rephrase. I'm asking as a simulation game, how customizable is this? E.g. in in SimCity 2000 it initially looks like you can do anything, but really you can't design something that doesn't look & function either like an American suburb or car-centric Los Angeles. There's no way to construct something that looks & functions remotely like the city of Venice in SimCity. Similarly in this game, can you really design your own airport that works anyway you want from scratch? Or are you just placing all the pieces in your typical international airport in different places on the board, while the NPCs walk in some pre-determined route from parking, to checkin, to security etc. There's nothing that appears in the very brief trailer that suggests that it isn't highly constrained in the same way SimCity is. But I'd love to know if that's really the case.
- hueving 10y ago
  >That would mean you don't need space for restaurants Restaurants existed in airports long before 9/11. People arrive early because missing flights costs you hundreds of dollars. Security adds maybe 20 mins to the process.
  - rwmj 10y ago
    That just means that people should be able to turn up and get on any flight without pre-booking. I'm going to guess that pre-booking is some sort of way to maximize revenue or minimize wasted empty seats.
    - hueving 10y ago
      Definitely minimizing wasted empty seats. Additionally, by encouraging people to book far enough ahead, they can change equipment to match the demand or add another flight to that day. It also allows them to price discriminate against business travelers who tend to have deeper pockets (flights expensed to their company) and tend to make lots of last minute travel changes (need another day to close a deal, etc). Losing the ability to ramp up the price on these types of travelers would mean higher fares for everyone and likely fewer ticket sales.
    - closeparen 10y ago
      There's already a frustrating degree of uncertainty as to when (if ever) showing up at the airport will actually yield a seat towards your destination. Adding the uncertainty of other people's demand and even more highly variable waits in line sounds like hell. I'd much rather cope with the Christmas rush by booking months early than by waiting at the airport for days.
      - rwmj 10y ago
        I can at least imagine a system where (a) planes aren't assigned to destinations until the last minute and (b) more planes are made available at the obvious times of the year (holidays and so on). That might yield a very flexible turn-up-and-go system. However I've never run an airport so I can also imagine that there are important factors that I don't even know about that make this unworkable.
sametmax 10y ago
While I love those kind of games, there is always a serious limitations in it : a real human system has a pyramid of humans in charge. They are all able to make independent decisions on a local level, or sometime step in to an upper or lower level, avoiding failures cascade on a daily basis. An omnipotent system manager cannot exist on complex systems, that's why we delegate.
bastian 10y ago
I love this!
jharger 10y ago
This game looks cool, but I'm somewhat worried that you're going to end up getting sued by EA/Maxis since the game name/logo is so similar to their Sim* offerings. I hope you aren't, but I'd be careful... If you're affiliated with, partners with or have licensed the name from EA/Maxis, then never mind!
Andrenid 10y ago
First i've seen this, and I'm already excited for it. Love Sim games, love Airports.

jdpedrie 10y ago

Looks pretty cool! The art and UI seem quite similar in style to Prison Architect. Is Sim Airport related in any way to PI, or is it just an inspiration?

adanto6840 10y ago
We're not affiliated with the makers of PA, but it's definitely been a huge inspiration for us -- IMO it's largely responsible for modernizing & reviving the 'tycoon genre' in many ways.

avar 10y ago

Is it possible to go outside the bounds of what a typical international airport looks like today? E.g. no security screenings so people can pretty much just walk on the plane like it's a train station? That would mean you don't need space for restaurants, or lots of space for people to pool as they're waiting past security. It would be very interesting to experiment with changes like that and see how it would look. Edit: There's now an entire discussion downthread about how airports did and didn't look like before 9/11. That misses the point of what I'm asking, which I'll rephrase. I'm asking as a simulation game, how customizable is this? E.g. in in SimCity 2000 it initially looks like you can do anything, but really you can't design something that doesn't look & function either like an American suburb or car-centric Los Angeles. There's no way to construct something that looks & functions remotely like the city of Venice in SimCity. Similarly in this game, can you really design your own airport that works anyway you want from scratch? Or are you just placing all the pieces in your typical international airport in different places on the board, while the NPCs walk in some pre-determined route from parking, to checkin, to security etc. There's nothing that appears in the very brief trailer that suggests that it isn't highly constrained in the same way SimCity is. But I'd love to know if that's really the case.

hueving 10y ago
>That would mean you don't need space for restaurants Restaurants existed in airports long before 9/11. People arrive early because missing flights costs you hundreds of dollars. Security adds maybe 20 mins to the process.
- rwmj 10y ago
  That just means that people should be able to turn up and get on any flight without pre-booking. I'm going to guess that pre-booking is some sort of way to maximize revenue or minimize wasted empty seats.
  - hueving 10y ago
    Definitely minimizing wasted empty seats. Additionally, by encouraging people to book far enough ahead, they can change equipment to match the demand or add another flight to that day. It also allows them to price discriminate against business travelers who tend to have deeper pockets (flights expensed to their company) and tend to make lots of last minute travel changes (need another day to close a deal, etc). Losing the ability to ramp up the price on these types of travelers would mean higher fares for everyone and likely fewer ticket sales.
  - closeparen 10y ago
    There's already a frustrating degree of uncertainty as to when (if ever) showing up at the airport will actually yield a seat towards your destination. Adding the uncertainty of other people's demand and even more highly variable waits in line sounds like hell. I'd much rather cope with the Christmas rush by booking months early than by waiting at the airport for days.
    - rwmj 10y ago
      I can at least imagine a system where (a) planes aren't assigned to destinations until the last minute and (b) more planes are made available at the obvious times of the year (holidays and so on). That might yield a very flexible turn-up-and-go system. However I've never run an airport so I can also imagine that there are important factors that I don't even know about that make this unworkable.

sametmax 10y ago

While I love those kind of games, there is always a serious limitations in it : a real human system has a pyramid of humans in charge. They are all able to make independent decisions on a local level, or sometime step in to an upper or lower level, avoiding failures cascade on a daily basis. An omnipotent system manager cannot exist on complex systems, that's why we delegate.

bastian 10y ago

I love this!

jharger 10y ago

This game looks cool, but I'm somewhat worried that you're going to end up getting sued by EA/Maxis since the game name/logo is so similar to their Sim* offerings. I hope you aren't, but I'd be careful... If you're affiliated with, partners with or have licensed the name from EA/Maxis, then never mind!

Andrenid 10y ago

First i've seen this, and I'm already excited for it. Love Sim games, love Airports.