Airport CEO

Airport CEO is a 2D economic strategy game available on the PC platform, in which we play the role of an airport director. The production is a debut of the Swedish development group Apoapsis Studios.

Mechanics

The player's task in Airport CEO is to design a prosperous airport and develop it. We achieve this goal by taking care of many aspects of the entire facility: we plan the placement of infrastructure elements, hire employees of various levels, and above all - we sign contracts with airline companies and arrange connections in the flight schedule.

However, before the crowds of happy travelers delight our eyes, we will have to plan and build everything, using a brigade of contracted workers. We have different levels of detail when placing the buildings: large elements such as runways, control towers and hangars for support vehicles are placed in their entirety, remembering to connect them with appropriate roads. When planning a terminal, however, we can let our imagination run wild and take care of the elegant arrangement of even the individual seats in the departure hall or the washbasins in the bathrooms.

After defining the shape of the rooms we have to locate in them information desks, check-in desks and even security gates guarding access to internal zones. As our airport grows, additional facilities such as bars and stores are added to the necessary toilets and sofas to make the waiting time more enjoyable for passengers. However, some of these facilities require time and money to unlock.

Many installations need staff that we have to manually hire. Security gates are of little use without security guards working around them, and if there aren't enough cleaners, our airport will quickly become overgrown with dirt. We can also hire specialists in finance or human resources management, who will open up new opportunities for growth. When reviewing the list of candidates for a given position, we can check their education, experience, hobbies, as well as statistics important for their performance in the game (e.g. how well they deal with stress).

Built and staffed facility is ready to accept aircraft, both small avionettes and powerful machines carrying multitudes of passengers. Connections obtained through contracts with airlines are arranged in a special menu. From time to time there may be a need to deal with unforeseen events, such as emergency landings, disrupting the established flight schedule.

All events and decisions made by us ultimately affect the travelers, each of whom is a unique person with characteristic features that affect his behavior.

Gameplay modes

Airport CEO contains only one gameplay mode, in which we can choose the location of our airport on the world map, and then develop it from scratch. The game allows us to choose a name for our airport CEO, as well as name the airport itself and set the difficulty level (including a sandbox variant where we don't have to worry about funds).

Technical issues

The game was released on the PC platform thanks to the Unity engine technology. The visuals were realized in quite simple and clear 2D graphics, bringing to mind solutions from Prison Architect and RimWorld titles.

Other information

The same year as Airport CEO another game with a similar theme - SimAirport by LVGameDev LLC - entered the early access stage. Visuals of both productions are also similar and very similar to the one known from the popular economic game Prison Architect (Introversion Software).