Our New eCommerce System

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fs_button05We have made some changes to the way we collect money and provide download links to customers.  After five years with PayPal, we’ve switched to Fastspring, a leader in the eCommerce and merchandising industry.  PayPal has always been a handy service, one that I use personally for a great deal of online shopping.  But what I dislike about it is the experience a customer has after they click that shiny yellow ‘Buy Now’ button.

You are immediately whisked away from our website to a checkout page, much like when you buy a pair of used ski bindings on eBay.  After payment is made, some are redirected to a download link, others not.  Our back end system attempts to send customers an email with a download link, but not everyone receives this.  I have always stood by, waiting for angry emails so that I can manually send download links to customers, but it’s probably not the best way to do business.

We tried such a change three years ago to a different eCommerce company, but immediately noticed a sharp drop in sales.  I suspected that customers felt safer using PayPal, so I switched back to them.  Are people more likely to purchase when it’s the familiar PayPal form?  I am personally very cautious about where I give out credit card information, but when I see that the website is verified with the ‘lock’ symbol in the address bar, I feel safer.

I sincerely hope that this new system pleases everyone.  All customers are now receiving their product links immediately and securely.  Fastspring is the best in the industry.  By the time Airport Madness: Time Machine releases, the new system will be running like one of those fancy Swiss pocket watches.

Notice how vague I was just now, regarding Airport Madness: Time Machine’s release date?  That’s another blog post entirely 🙂

AMTM Progress

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Airport Madness: Time Machine is progressing nicely.  If things seem quiet around the website lately, it’s because we are hard at work on our current project. I’ve promised you all that this game will be ready by May.  Wow, I sure am good at setting challenging goals for myself, aren’t I?  May should be do-able.  I’m sticking with May.

blogImageSo far I’ve bragged about all of the stuff I am ripping out of Airport Madness in this version, such as radar and pilot voices, but I haven’t elaborated much on what’s getting added.  The coolest part of AMTM definitely has to be the story, which is based on the history of aviation with a few twists.    Each level begins with a popup, introducing the current year, what’s new, as well as a newspaper that describes the real-life aviation events that took place in that year.  As much as I love this newspaper feature, it’s taken a bite out of my time and pushed back the launch date by more than a week.  This is the story of my game development career.  I come up with an idea that a few folks will look at and say, “Hey, neat”, then I spend an inappropriate amount of time creating it.  My new motto should be, “If it’s not adding fun, don’t do it”.  Oh, well.  I will learn for next time.  What number are we at now, Airport Madness 5?

The heaviest workload has been endured mainly by our artist, who has had the task of managing the growth of an airport against aviation history’s timeline.  You see, we add new detail to the airport in 6-month increments.  So from 1925 to 1970, the airport evolves with nearly 100 small expansions.  In 1930, for example, we build a beautiful passenger terminal, only to bulldoze it seven years later for a bigger one.   And in 1933, our beautiful farm with it’s red barn gets bulldozed to make way for airport expansion.  A new terminal gets built, which takes nearly three years to complete.  After construction is complete, WWII breaks out and this area becomes a military base.

Another challenge is real estate.  What starts out as a small piece of farmland becomes a busy airfield.  As this field expands, we begin to run out of screen space.  When this happens, we do a zoom-out, which enables us to show you more detail. 1934 is when we first start to run out of room, so we shrink the details to fit.  The next zoom-out happens in 1955.  As the background detail gets shrunken to fit the screen, so must the airplanes shrink, to fit the smaller appearance of runways, taxiways and parking spots.

As usual, I’m running fashionably late with my latest game.  Look for it here next month, and if you haven’t already signed up for our newsletter, be sure to do so, and stay informed of Airport Madness: Time Machine’s release.

Designing Gameplay

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So I was playing Airport Madness 2 today, and I managed to beat my old high score of 260,000. In fact, I beat most of today’s high scores, which means I’ve still got it. 20 years of real-world ATC experience was not all for nothing.

With each new version of Airport Madness, sales increase. But I often wonder if that’s only because my following has grown. Is AM4 really as good as AM2 was? I am trying to put my finger on what was really cool about this game in the beginning, and I plan to stick to that like glue.

I’ve learned that making the planes faster does not increase fun. Keeping things slow makes it more challenging, because the decision and it’s consequence are farther apart in time. The fun in AM is predicting whether a takeoff will work. Is it a good decision to ‘line up’ a departure while still waiting for crossing traffic to land? Sometimes we dig ourselves a hole, but fail to get out later on.

I’ve learned that adding pilot voice does not increase fun. Nor does radar. Nor do user profiles. These are gimicky, and will not exist in Airport Madness: Time Machine.

AM1 and AM2 were cool because the airports grew. The reward for playing was the unlocking of runways over time. I truly hope that AMTM will deliver on this. It offers an airport that starts as literally nothing, and grows up to handle 747s, 50 years later.

After building nearly 20 games over the years (autocorrects to tears, LOL) I’ve learned that some aspects of a game can be added immediately before release, but others must be baked in from the beginning. Like, for example, the story. A time machine? Why? Does it matter? I have a rough idea of how I will explain this to players, but there is still time to change my mind.

I copied Angry birds. Well, not completely. I merely stole their concept of short, unlockable levels. In AMTM, if you pass a level, you have the option to move on, or replay the level to earn more stars. I think it’s a good fit for this game. There will be some who want everything unlocked all at once. “I want to play the FINAL level, damnit!” And there will be some who don’t want the levels to be short. Some people like to play for endurance. So I will add a ‘continuous play’ feature.

The good folks at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco think I should add a virtual currency system to the game, so that you have to open your wallets every time you want a special new aircraft or an additional runway. Statistically, there’s more money in it for me if I do. But I truly hate such games. I did this only once, in Approach Control iOS, but it fit. Each additional sector cost a buck. Your game play was not limited in any way, but additional levels were a buck.

I am old-fashioned. I like the idea of offering the product with a front-end price tag. Gimme your money, and the game is yours. The levels are all locked, but that’s your job to unlock them by being the best air traffic controller you can be.

Upcoming Airport Madness 5

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While it is true that we have been busy porting some of our games to iOS lately, our priority is always Airport Madness. Our upcoming next version in the series offers an airport that grows and changes over time.

This next version is named (drumroll please)…. “Airport Madness: Time Machine“. That’s right. You time travel. Without spoiling the game’s storyline, let’s just say that the game definitely has story to it.  Check out this teaser video!

As we test the completed parts of our game so far, watching the little grass field slowly develop into a major international airport across a lengthy time span, it feels like watching a child grow into an adult. I’ve given the game a few test plays, and it’s definitely got the “fun” factor. But it’s got something more than just fun play mechanics. It’s an experience. A really neat creation that does not simply describe aviation history to us, but shows it to us, and allows us to interact with it. “AM5” will be particularly special to aviation history buffs, although I don’t look forward to the corrective emails that I am sure to receive. “Hey, the Douglas DC3 did not enter service until 1936.”. Sure, I can’t wait until those start coming in.

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Although most of AMTM is based within the 20th century, the image above is from the year 2068. There are only a few key changes to the present day. Most notably: moving taxiways, airships and gyrocopters. In addition to the year 2068, there will also be the opportunity to zoom way ahead, to 2173. What will future airports look like? Our concept is basically what we feel is obvious. Airplanes will become faster and larger. Airports will become more efficient. What we will show you is an airfield where things happen fast. Planes move at ludicrous speeds, and decisions must be made quickly. Thousands of people are moved in and out of the field every minute. We will post a screenshot from the year 2173 shortly. 2173 is the real future airport we’ve mentioned before.

What’s the story?

Oh, yeah.  About that.  You are a training air traffic controller at a small airport, present day. You go on your lunch break. As you exit through the tower basement, you hear a strange humming noise. What is it? A brief investigation leads you into the old ‘equipment room’, essentially the tower’s junk yard for old radar equipment. You fall through the floor. Ouch! Falling through a floor really hurts! But what do you discover? A strange device which takes you back to the year 1925…

This next Airport Madness should be a good one!

Sky Madness Update Now Available

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144Four years ago, in an attempt to offer something really simple and straightforward for all audiences, we developed Sky Madness.  It was sort of an “Airport Madness takes to the skies” concept.  The game is extremely simple to grasp, just drag the airplanes to their correct color-coded flight levels, while avoiding other objects.  The first few levels are pretty easy, but the game gets challenging once you get into the double digit levels.

The first version’s graphics were pretty bad, I’ll admit.  Four years ago, I was still a one-man band.  It’s hard to be a one-man band.  You have to play a steady drum beat, while holding a trumpet in your right hand and a tamborine in your left.  Or in my case, you have to know how to write game code, create art, manage a website, and be 24/7 customer support.  I now have lots of help.  The new Sky Madness art was not done by me, but somebody far more qualified.

The game play has also changed dramatically.  I basically modeled it after Angry Birds.  I figure the folks at Rovio have this game dev thing all figured out, so I borrowed a page from their book and set up a structure of unlockable levels.  I think it’s a good fit, and I plan to add this design to future versions of Airport Madness.

Oh, and I also added some cool game logic that detects how good of a player you are.  If you are failing miserably it gets easier.  If you are a rock star, the difficulty increases.  I also plan to add this to Airport Madness 5, due this spring.

Sky Madness can be played on PC and Mac computers, or if you have an iPhone or iPad, get the app!  Enjoy!

Approach Control for iOS

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ac_appstore_smApproach Control is now available in the Apple App Store!  Those of you who have tried our earlier games will recognize this app right away.  In 2008 we published “Radar Game”, which was really a game without a name.  We’ve given this game a name, plus an additional level.  If you don’t have an iPhone or iPad, you can get Approach Control on PC, Mac and Linux here.

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And now for the sales pitch I am using in the App Store:

Approach Control is a highly realistic air traffic control simulation, designed by real world air traffic controllers. It uses authentic pilot voices. This app is designed to give aviation enthusiasts a taste of the world’s greatest job. The radar behavior in this app is identical to that of real-world air traffic control radar screens, utilizing a 3-second sweep that air traffic controllers are accustomed to. Much work has been done to make such a complex job fit inside the palm of your hand.

You are the approach controller whose job is to manage arriving passenger jets at various busy airports. Establish arriving aircraft onto ‘final approach’ as safely and efficiently as possible. As in the real world of ATC, you must walk a very fine line between being cautious and being expeditious. A top notch air traffic controller knows how to bring planes in ‘tight’, without breaking the ‘three mile rule’.

Upcoming Sky Madness Update

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We are pleased to announce an update in the works for Sky Madness.  You may be wondering, “Why Sky Madness?  Aren’t you supposed to be making Airport Madness 5?”. The truth is, Sky Madness has always been special to me.  I like the game.  It’s fun.  Plus, our artist created beautiful new artwork for it a year ago, and I’ve been sitting on it ever since.

Background

Sky Madness has always been one of our “bargain bin” games, with a price tag of $4.99.  When we recently decided to port the game to iOS, it occurred to us that it needed a larger resolution and more polish.  We now offer a huge 1000×750 resolution, improved graphics, better game structure and more levels.  If you own Sky Madness already, contact us after the release and we will give you a free link for the update.

When BFS got started five years ago, our first game was insanely complex.  To an almost unplayable degree.  So we dumbed it down and made an easier radar game.  Then came our hugely successful Airport Madness.  We thought we were on the right track with keeping our games simple, and Sky Madness came next.  It was the ultimate ‘easy’ ATC game.  It never did that well, however.  The original graphics were horrible (made by me) and the game play was poorly designed.

The Sky Madness update will bring a new look and feel.  It will be available on PC, Mac, Linux, iPhone and iPad.  We hope you will support us and help keep our little pirate ship afloat by purchasing Sky Madness after it’s upcoming update.

New Upcoming iPhone/iPad Game

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approachControlThose of you who have played our earlier games may remember one called “Air Traffic Controller“.  This was a very basic radar game, focussing only on vectoring arrivals, the toughest real-world ATC job there is.  When we created this game in 2008, we were well aware of the issue of screen space.  It’s hard to cram an entire air traffic control experience onto a home computer.  A couple of months ago, we began selling Radar Chaos on the iPad App Store, with absolutely no intention of ever putting it onto iPhone, because it’s impossible to play on something so small.

That got us thinking.  Our original “Air Traffic Controller” game was designed with the small-screen concept in mind.  All it needed was some reshaping to work well on an iPhone.  So we did that over Christmas, and even tossed in a fourth level.  When it was given to me for review, I absolutely hated it.  The buttons were impossible to tap.  The planes were difficult to select.  And the heading control wheel was annoying.  Maybe my fingers are too big, I dunno.

So we decided, instead of pushing the control panel off into the corner and making it really small, we would make the panel extra large.  Huge, in fact.  When an aircraft is selected, you get a full-screen control panel.  The drawback is that you can’t see your radar screen very well while making inputs, but it’s a fair tradeoff.

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So now we have a bit of a dilemma.  A new iPhone/iPad game that is basically a refactored version of an old flash game.  Do we give it a new name, or call it what it is?  Since it’s name is “already taken” on the iOS app store, it’s getting a new name, “Approach Control”.  This eliminates our dilemma of having to synchronize the two games every time we push out an update.

Look for “Approach Control” on January 15, 2013!

 

Our Next Big Thing: Part 2

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Our office is feeling a bit like Santa’s workshop these days.  We are hard at work on our fifth version of Airport Madness.  Back in July, when I decided that there would be a fifth version, I made a clear rule that our assembly line be super efficient, capable of building additional game levels with ease.  But of course, this game has taken on a very interesting shape, and now contains a great deal of complexity.  The efficiencies that we built in early on are now feeling rather slow and antiquated.

It really amazes me how much code is required to drive a few planes around.  In Airport Madness, an aircraft must have a reasonable degree of logic.  It must have the ability to recognize a runway that it isn’t supposed to cross.   And know that it must wait for a parking gate that’s occupied.  A 747 must know better than to attempt to park at the flying school, and vice versa.  No Piper Cubs are allowed to park directly in front of the main international terminal.  Conflict management is complicated, too.  I’m not just talking about the ability to detect collisions.  When two taxiing aircraft are converging, they must mutually decide who will give way, and who will keep taxiing.  This requires a bit of trigonometry magic (anyone remember inverse tan?).  It gets interesting when you have four or five aircraft in a cluster.  Sometimes you get a dead-lock, a stale mate.  There must be logic that deals with this.

In the fifth edition of Airport Madness, your airport grows.  Slowly.  And as the little changes are introduced year after year, the code must change with it.  In 1938 I decided to lengthen a runway.  This means every aircraft must understand the specific new taxi routes, arrival routes, and departure routes.  But only for that particular year, because in 1939 high speed exits get added, and every aircraft must now understand these new routes, too.

The biggest nightmare I think has to be the artwork.  Our artist must be an architect, an airport designer, a city planner, and must be an expert at dealing with people like me.  The game’s timeline is very delicate, as airport and city objects are in a constant state of either generation or destruction.  The artwork for AM5 is going to be truly amazing.  There’s a great deal of it, and it’s demanded that we be as efficient as possible with regard to the user’s CPU, GPU and system memory.

We will keep you posted as we make progress!

Radar Chaos: Hawaii Edition Update 1.02

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An update is available for Radar Chaos Hawaii Edition.  We’ve mostly fixed the numerous issues that existed in the High South sector.  A huge thank-you to everyone who has reported bugs to us.  We read and respond to every email, and do our best to process all of it.

While we do take all feature requests into consideration, we take bug reports very seriously.  If you know of a bug that has not been fixed, and is not on this list, it’s likely because we either could not reproduce the problem, or have not determined how to resolve the bug.

I’ve had more than one person report that certain aircraft will not fly an approach, but rather, will fly a holding pattern at the IAF waypoint.  This is one that we cannot find.   I suspect that the problem could lie within our instructions, as perhaps the correct procedure is not being implemented within the game.

Here’s the list of what we’ve fixed in this update:

  • Miles-in-trail issue resolved in High South sector;
  • “How busy would you like to be?” selector made brighter;
  • High South PHNL arrivals incorrectly displayed destination ast PHOG;
  • Game timer display issue beyond 100 minutes of play;
  • High South issue with pending flights not showing up (WAPPO LIH PHLI);
  • Oahu Sector PHNL departures showed incorrect destinations;
  • Airspeed selection now shows proper rounded values (e.g. 320);
  • RCHE ‘Lite’ version now available.
  • Unable to reproduce issues with arrivals circling IAP waypoint instead of landing.
  • Unable to reproduce “less than 5 miles” error between generated aircraft.