AirportSim Has Landed on Xbox: The Journey So Far

After a profitable touchdown on PC again in October, AirportSim, the superior airport floor dealing with simulator, arrives on Xbox Right this moment. For the previous few months, Polish studio MS Video games have been onerous at work bringing their highly-detailed airport expertise to console. With the discharge of AirportSim on Xbox now on the horizon, Iceberg Interactive’s Ben Kobs sat down with producer Krzysztof Stabryła to speak about their journey thus far!

Are you able to inform us a little bit bit concerning the historical past of AirportSim? How lengthy have you ever been working on it and the way did the event go?

We’ve been working on AirportSim since late 2021. We’re all aviation followers at MS Video games, however Mateusz, our CEO, has been a loyal aviation fanatic since childhood. Not solely does he have a pilot’s license, however he has additionally been creating software program for flight simulators since 2008. The concept of growing a floor dealing with simulator has been floating round in his head for a very long time and we felt like that space was typically unexplored within the sim house, so we had been desirous to get to work on a sim focussing on floor operations.

The improvement had its ups and downs, nevertheless it was a number of enjoyable. We had the chance to fulfill many great individuals and collaborate with them to create our sport. From precise floor dealing with corporations to car producers, we had been fortunate to get entry to meticulous technical documentation and first-hand insights into the intricacies of airport life, which made the event course of lots simpler.

How thrilling is it for you to have the ability to deliver your sport to a console like Xbox?

We’re very excited to introduce AirportSim and the world of floor dealing with to Xbox. It will assist us attain aviation fans who might not have entry to the sport in any other case. Bringing our sport to a console like Xbox is an exciting milestone for us, because it permits us to share our ardour for aviation with a wider neighborhood!

What function does an lively neighborhood play within the improvement of the sport? How does fan suggestions have an effect on you?

Throughout manufacturing, we acquired huge quantities of help and suggestions from our neighborhood. We launched a few demos for individuals to check out, and their suggestions was invaluable in fine-tuning some options and fixing key points earlier than launch. The aviation neighborhood has at all times been an enormous assist in creating tasks like this one, and their insights had been essential to our improvement course of.

How vital was it so that you can give gamers a sensible expertise in AirportSim? Are you able to elaborate on how lifelike the sport is in comparison with real-life floor dealing with?

It was vital for us to ship a sensible floor dealing with expertise in AirportSim. We’re proud to say that our mechanics are almost similar to actual life! We visited many airports and floor dealing with corporations, and, throughout manufacturing, partnered with Welcome Airport Providers, LS Airport Providers, Warsaw Chopin Airport, and numerous others. These partnerships supplied us with huge help.

In fact, some procedures can fluctuate from nation to nation, airline to airline, and even metropolis to metropolis. This implies there could also be some discrepancies as sure duties may be carried out in another way than what some gamers are used to. That’s why we determined to standardize these procedures. We wished to maintain issues lifelike, but additionally wanted to make sure the sport was cohesive and pleasurable for gamers.

What challenges have you ever confronted within the design and execution?

Earlier than we partnered with trade consultants, one of many greatest challenges we confronted was the shortage of documentation and clear and detailed photographs. Creating and recreating these fashions took a number of effort and time and it was powerful to start out working on correct fashions and representations. We dug by 1000’s of pages of documentation. It was a tedious and time-consuming job, however important for the extent of realism we had been aiming for.

Sound recording was one other massive hurdle. Airports are extremely loud locations! It’s tough to get clear audio recordings. However our sound designer, Łukasz, did a tremendous job navigating this and made positive all the things sounds excellent within the sport.

So, what’s subsequent?

For now it’s focussing on Xbox! The sport is out at the moment and we’re stoked to see the way it goes. We’re happy with the way it turned out, so be certain that to take a look at AirportSim on Xbox and benefit from the fulfilling expertise of the duties of a floor crew member at numerous airports!