Happy Holidays! Preview of 2019!

Happy Holidays from the LVGameDev team!

We're just shy of two years into Early Access as this year comes to a close and we begin to look towards 2019 and what it has in store for SimAirport. We're incredibly excited about the contents of the next default patch, and we really couldn't be happier with the state of affairs right now -- gameplay has evolved tremendously, even just this past year, and we're extremely well-positioned to really start pushing content out & hitting home on quality-of-life desires.

Upcoming Patch - Highlights & Status Update

The next cycle is well under way, and it's already shaping up to be an awesome one -- it's absolutely packed full of new content and several incredibly impactful new gameplay systems. Substantial improvement to the continued desire for 'depth', numerous new objects, and a renewed attention to visual fidelity all combine to make the upcoming release one of the most anticipated since the Multiple Floors update went live just under a year ago!

Here are just some of the highlights:

Tutorial - Several of them!


Long requested and finally delivered -- multiple tutorials to help players of all skill & experience levels. New players can start with the basic tutorial while those who have the basics down can play through more advanced tutorials to help master game concepts such as Baggage Systems and multi-floor construction.

Staff Scheduling


No longer will your staff be working 24-hours shifts, unless you want them to! Staff up to handle the travel rush & scale back during the sleepy overnight hours. Airport operations efficiency taken to a whole new level.

Complete Overhaul of Cafe/Retail & New 'Shops' Zone


Long needed & finally delivered. No longer will your retail workers be running confusingly between the kitchen and the cafes -- now your Chefs will work the kitchens & do their best to keep food flowing to their respective retail establishments. Pax are smarter too, with quicker & more realistic interactions that won't bog down your airport. True retail corridors are now possible; a wide array of new shop related objects & new sellable merchandise options will keep pax happier & increase your profits.

Clone Tool


Yep! Restroom placement just got a whole lot less tedious, and it's a very welcome change. Copy an area, rotate the entire thing, and 'paste' it with the new Clone Tool. Previously-annoying placements instantly become satisfying again!

Enhanced Visual Fidelity - Renewed Focus


While we've never focused heavily on graphics it's become more clear, especially as gameplay quality & depth has improved so substantially, that the game visuals have started to become the weakest link. Our focus remains gameplay, but the visuals must not be allowed to detract from the overall experience. We've already upgraded flooring textures, redone several sprites, and we're almost finished with completely revamped aircraft/airline sprites as well. You can also expect some technical art improvements -- namely anti-aliasing and color grading improvements -- to be coming, too!

Is it ready yet? When is the next DEFAULT Update?!

Several of the headliners above are publicly available now over on the edge branch -- though it's not quite stable yet. -- and the rest will make their way to Edge in the next few weeks.

Once the cycle is complete & the builds are stable we'll move towards default; we'd currently estimate that to be late January 2019 or early February 2019, should we run into any hurdles between now and then.

As always we'll do our best to get things stabilized and ready for Default as quickly as we can, but most importantly we want to ensure that the Default branch remains stable. In the meantime, check out the 2019 SimAirport Roadmap or, if you're anxious to try the tutorial or do some staff scheduling (and you're not afraid of some new bugs), then hop on over to the edge branch and give it a whirl right now!

Thank You & Happy Holidays!

We appreciate your continued support and patience, and we hope you're enjoying the exciting evolution of SimAirport just as much as we are! Thank you for being such great members of our community, and for being as passionate about the game as we are -- your support & feedback continues to be instrumental to our success and we can't thank you enough.

Happy holidays & safe travels to all!