Airport Mania: First Flight

Airport Mania: First Flight designer Russell Carroll took a minute to give GameTunnel reader's some insight into his own game. Essentially he figured the chance to discuss his own game on his own website was a rare opportunity that he couldn't help but take advantage of. So here is a look into that other life of Indie Game lover and GameTunnel Editor-in-Chief Russell Carroll, namely, how he spends his days.

Q - So first off, who are you and what's your connection with Airport Mania: First Flight?
A - My name is Russell Carroll, and we should start with a huge disclaimer that I'm the Editor-of-Chief and founder of GameTunnel. To answer your question though, I'm the designer of Airport Mania.

Q - So, as the designer, what was your roll with Airport Mania?
A - Well, I designed the game. Much like many who have dreams of creating games, I've kept a long list of game ideas for many, many years. Every once in awhile I flesh some of them out a bit more, and occasionally I come to think that the market is ripe for a certain idea. With Airport Mania, I started really fleshing out the design last February, and in so doing I thought it was right time to try and bring it to gamers. So I got in contact with someone (Juan Pablo at South Winds Games), who I thought could bring my vision to the screen. We started talking, and soon thereafter the first prototype of the game was finished.

Q - You mention having someone bring your "vision to the screen." How does that work?
A - It's an interesting process. In this case I sought out Juan because when I envisioned how the game would look, the 'feel' was light and cartoony along the lines of Dylo's Adventure. I was really happy he was available and interested in doing Airport Mania. However, at first it took a little bit of work to pass on what I was envisioning. We'd talked about how things would work, but we kept coming back to the question of how we could possibly fit everything on the screen. I also was concerned that maybe I'd miscalculated the space I'd needed in my notebook sketch mock-ups. So finally, I put together a crude image of how I thought the game would look. It launched us off in the right direction. Juan and his artist took my concept and made it much prettier, but throughout the project I was happy at how well that first crude image guided us to completion..

Q - So it sounds like Airport Mania had a three person team working on it then?
A - Well the team was a little larger than that. I did the game design and also the level design, South Winds Games had 3 people involved, doing coding, art and Mac porting. Reflexive, who is the financer and owner of the game, also had several people involved doing sound and music (along with lots of interesting suggestions and feedback along the way).

Q - Sounds like a pretty big project then?
A - It was, especially for Juan and I, though we've both worked on games before, neither of us has been involved with something of this scope. Creating the full game, start to finish, ended up taking close to 14 months.

Q - That's certainly a long time. What did you spend most on while you were in development?
A - That was really different for each person in the project, so instead what we spent the most time on, how about I tell you want I thought were the most crucial time was spent?

Q - OK?
A - Well the key to everything was the initial prototype. Unlike the many diner dash clones that have been released, notably most of them having been released since we started our project, Airport Mania really shakes up the click-management formula a lot. Instead of a single character doing everything on the screen, every plane is its own character. We don't take objects to customers, as you find in other click-management game, instead the customers are individually taken to each object.

In making such large changes to the formula, there was a big chance that my re-envisioning of the genre wouldn't be fun. It was very possible that having to care for so many things disparately instead of through a single-character funnel, would leave players confused or frustrated. I have to say both Juan and I approached the prototype with baited interest, wondering if it would 'work.' I was really happy after playing it to feel that it was capturing 'fun' in a unique way, and so we dug in more. So that was probably the most important part of the development. Going back to your original question, I think the single task that I personally spent the most on was level design and balancing. However, it's not all that interesting to talk about.

Q - So speaking of interesting, what do you think is the most interesting or key part of the game?
A - Well, I think our approach to gameplay is unique and can be a lot of fun. It's really a multi-tasker's dream, or an un-organized person's nightmare. I'm not sure which. However, the key to the game for me from the beginning has been fun. I've been working off of a phrase that I think I made up: "If it doesn't say fun, it needs to be redone." There are a lot of different types of games for different types people. I wanted this game to brim with happiness. I've said it many times, so hopefully it isn't getting old, but the key for me with this game was to make people smile. I wanted people to really have a good time playing it and felt, and still do feel, that if people smiled while playing it that I'd accomplished my goal. That should be visible in everything from the graphics to the music and plane voices. It's also very key in the difficulty.

I have often stated that I think most games are too hard. Maybe that comes from my personal love of journeys. I love to play through games like Zelda, Metroid, and Aquaria but I HATE running into end bosses that take me 30 minutes to beat. I just want to keep going and seeing new things instead of having to stop and replay the same scene over and over and over again. I like seeing and experiencing, but don't have much interest in what I see as the frustratingly difficult parts of many games. With Airport Mania, I embraced a 'make it easy' approach and have tweaked Airport Mania towards being a journey everyone could take.

Q - So with it being an easy game with friendly graphics, doesn't that make it a kid's game?
A - You know, I'm always disappointed at that kind of generalization. Airport Mania is really for everyone who is a kid at heart. Unfortunately, I have seen some people turn up their noses at the game's graphics, so I would guess that some people feel it is somehow beneath them. While I did make the game easy, there are a lot of challenges built in to push players of different skill levels.

For example, there are 4 score levels, goal, expert, master, supreme, that can be reached on each level. It's almost a little overkill, but I wanted to have something for players to push for. In addition, there are different awards to provide a secondary level of challenge for players. One award, for example, requires players to pass a full stage (8-12 levels) without buying any upgrades. Another award is given if the player can reach the goal after the timer has run out. These awards are pretty hard to get and provide a specific kind of challenge to overcome. My intent was for people of all ages and skill levels to find plenty of fun in the game...and those who look at the game and think it is just too 'friendly' for them, well, I hope that they will give the game a try anyway. I think they might be surprised by how much it makes them smile...and if they do, then the game's mission would be accomplished.

Q - Sounds like you've thought about this game from a lot of different angles. Is there anything else you want to add?
A - To the game or this conversation? I think I've probably talked enough. I will say that I'd like to follow more of the Aerobiz approach if we get the chance to do a sequel. It was one of the key inspirations of this game, but other than having airplanes, there aren't a lot of similarities between Airport Mania and that game. I'd like to add more sim aspects to the sequel...assuming we are able to do one.

Q - I hope you get to do a sequel as well. Are you working on anything now that Airport Mania is finished?
A - Oh is it finished? The process of getting it localized and out to all the portals, not to mention on the Mac, which I'm very excited about by the way, is a bit of a long one. However, I'm working on some new stuff and fingers crossed, you should see another title from Juan and I in the next 12-14 months.


A thanks to Russell for his time. And if you haven't taken a look at Airport Mania: First Flight yet, you can download it here, or see more screenshots through the images tab at the top.