We have published a minor update to Airport Madness 3. The changes are:

• A different supervisor image;
• Click anywhere to close command panels;
• Maximizeable screen;
• Reduced "continuous play" traffic levels .

There are many more changes coming, but these are the ones that we felt needed to be done right away. Plus, it gives us an opportunity to test the game's auto-update feature. Updates are free, by the way. Those who purchased Airport Madness 3 Build 1.0 should see the message, "An update is available" appear at the bottom of the game screen.

During its' first few days of release, our latest air traffic control game "Airport Madness 3" has received generally positive feedback. Unlike AM2, which we launched early to meet a deadline, Airport Madness 3 was thoroughly tested by a team of six from the very beginning of its' construction. We intend to release a new update in approximately one week, that adds a few improvements and fixes some minor issues:

• Keyboard Shortcuts;
• Click anywhere to close panels;
• Resizeable screen; and,
• Landing lights for night aircraft.

If you would like to add anything to this list for build 1.1 (full version), please contact us. Updates are free to those who have purchased. The application automatically checks for updates each time you play.

After more than eight months in the making, Airport Madness 3 is now available for purchase. Like it's predecessors, AM3 also includes a free 'lite' version, which limits players to one level and just one mishap. The lite version also has a much smaller screen size. The full version is a substantial step upwards from the lite version, and I certainly hope that you enjoy playing it.

Airport Madness 3
US $9.99

Enjoy this video clip of an emergency that occurs in the full version of Airport Madness 3 :

I would like to thank the following volunteers for their extraordinary efforts in assisting with the beta testing. Without their assistance, this project would not have been possible.

• Dunk Cummins - Macclesfield, England
• K. Bromham
• Rich Newpol
• Richard D
• Sebastian G. - Munich, Germany
• Thomas Boon - Chelmsford, UK

Due to a number of minor bugs within the beta version of Airport Madness 3, release will have to be delayed a few days. I shall try to keep my promise of "June", and will resist the temptation to delete all prior blog posts containing promises of release dates :)

I've received some great last-minute ideas that I decided to implement, including several emergencies. The tornado was not my idea, but that of my young son. He was insistent that it would be a crowd-pleaser, and even sketched out his vision of an air traffic control supervisor who warns of approaching doom.

Here is a brief update on the progress of our latest air traffic control game, Airport Madness 3. We are putting on the final finishings to this product, as well as final testing for problems. We are aiming for a release date of Friday, June 25, 2010. Airport Madness 3 will have a sticker price of US$9.99. There will be a free version available in early July.

Unlike the full version, which offers a one-hour 'level-based' exercise as well as 'continuous-play' mode and 'challenge mode', the free game will offer a sudden-death 'How much traffic can you handle?" challenge that gradually builds in intensity and complexity. The free version will exist on Facebook as well as a variety of game portals on the internet.

My apologies for not posting more progress updates for our latest air traffic control game, Airport Madness 3. I've been a bad blogger (Sigh...). Progress on Airport Madness 3 is actually moving along very well. We estimate a release in mid-June.

We have lots of neat new features to brag about: Emergencies, challenges, snow, runway assignment, speed control, holding patterns, change of active runway, plus a mammoth-sized resolution of 1000x725. That's about as big as we can make it without disqualifying the 15% of you who are still running 1024x768 resolution (You know who you are :)

Probably the coolest feature of Airport Madness 3 is the Adobe AIR platform, which automatically checks for product updates. The release of Airport Madness 2 in May of last year was rather painful, as there were several minor adjustments that needed to be made during its' first month after release, requiring buyers to have to visit the website for update information. Now it's all automatic. Technology is so amazing.

Here are some screen captures of Airport Madness 3. Please bear in mind, the actual resolution is much larger than the images below. These images are only meant to show off the parallel-runway operation. To view an actual-size screenshot, click here.

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Here is a quick video capture of Airport Madness Mobile, now available in the iPhone App Store:

Get it here! http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/airport-madness-mobile/id365735712?mt=8

Thursday, April 22, 2010
Airport Madness Mobile Now Available on the iPhone

After months of work, Airport Madness Mobile has hit the iPhone App Store! A huge thank-you to everyone who has supported my efforts with their words of encouragement and by purchasing my products. Please give this iPhone game a try and leave it an honest review.

As there are several air traffic control games with very similar names, please be cautious of which one you are buying. Our iPhone app is called "Airport Madness Mobile".

"You land a million planes safely. Then you have one little mid-air, and you never hear the end of it." - Air Traffic Controller, New York TRACON

Do you have what it takes to be an air traffic controller at a busy international airport?

As an air traffic controller it is your job is to keep aircraft from colliding, while avoiding unnecessary delays. You are paid the big bucks for your visualization skills and guts. Just like the real job of an air traffic controller, you must pay attention and keep your eyes moving. There is always something that you could be doing! You must give takeoff clearances, landing clearances and taxi clearances in a strategic effort to maintain safety and efficiency where there would otherwise be total chaos. This is not a spectator's sport! After successful completion of all 14 levels of this simulation you will become an expert at visualization and managing priorities.

This simulation contains 7 different challenging airport layouts. You will be required to work at night, and occasionally in poor weather conditions. Knowledge of air traffic control is not required to be a top-notch air traffic controller in Airport Madness Mobile, but you do require nerves of steel.

Airport Madness 2 was always meant to be a casual game, the kind you might play to fill the minutes of a coffee break. You might play it while eating a bag of chips, while listening to your iPod, or while bouncing a one-year-old on you knee. Airport Madness 3 however, has a more serious mood. You will need to put your chair in the upright position. Airport Madness 3 "brings it". It is for those who couldn't get enough of AM2, and have a strong interest in the world of air traffic control.

When you build a sequel you really must offer up something new, otherwise your product runs the risk of being dismissed as simply "more of the same". We wanted to brag about more than simply offering two new airport layouts. AM3 is more complex. It has a different feel. The pilot voices obey real-world ICAO phraseology. Your control options include runway assignments, 360-degree turns, downwind leg extensions, and full speed control. The resolution is massive.

AM3 runs the risk of driving away those who are merely looking for something light and simple. But if you've mastered AM2 while blindfolded with your hands tied behind your back, by all means sign up for our newsletter to be the first in line for Airport Madness 3 this June!

Saturday, April 10, 2010
Airport Madness 3 Progress

Airport Madness 3 is progressing well. You may have noticed that the release date has been pushed back to June 2010. We learned from the release of Airport Madness 2 the value of thorough testing before release, and we intend to launch a solid game with hopefully no major issues.

When you create an air traffic control game or simulation, you must build a great deal of "intelligence" into the aircraft. For example, if two aircraft are taxiing towards each other on crossing paths, how do they decide who-stops-for-who? What at first seemed like a programming challenge quickly revealed itself to be a trigonometry nightmare. For example, how do two artificial aircraft decide who should stop in the image shown here? The answer is, whichever aircraft has a smaller relative angle to the other shall stop. I almost had to phone up my Grade 10 math teacher to figure that one out. Creating this simple rule added a couple of weeks to our project. We also received a great suggestion from someone to incorporate pushbacks into our game, whereby an aircraft is moved backwards out of its' gate before commencing taxi. However, the concept of backwards-moving airplanes threw a wrench into our formula above, since all of the relative angles get thrown out of whack when you reverse direction. As always, we developed a workaround to the problem. However, these things require time.

You may be asking yourself, "Doesn't air traffic control decide who taxiis and who stops?". In reality taxiways are controlled, however parking aprons are not. In the real world of air traffic control, most of the "action" is on the runways and in the air. Controlling taxiways is generally kinda dull. Like the earlier version of this game, Airport Madness 3 is about runway management including airborne conflictions. The apron/parking conflictions are left to the pilots to figure out.

Airport Madness 3 has had a few other challenges, most notably the large resolution which increases CPU demand on computers. After building out the game's foundation one month ago (a very basic no-frills single-level test platform) we noticed some performance issues as well as some unusual aircraft behavior. We decided not to move forward until these issues were resolved. I am pleased to say that these issues have been successfully eliminated and we are now moving forward with the addition of pilot voices, game options and other details. Please sign up for the newsletter above to be first in line for its' release.