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.
