We contacted with developers of an unusual strategy game Airborne Kingdom, in which you will be able to travel through a desert by your own fly city, and asked them a few questions.
How did you come up with the idea of creating such a game?
The concept started very organically. We began prototyping ideas for strategy genres we enjoyed and we just kept playtesting and iterating until we found something we thought was unique. «A flying city that moves» is far from where we started, but the loop we’ve found, which combines exploration and management, feels pretty special when you play it.
Please, tell the story of your world. Why did people have to build the flying city originally?
All interesting questions! And I’ll be excited to answer them… eventually. Right now, we’re staying quiet about the story. We have a world lore that we’ve developed, but some of that lore’s details, how we present it, and how much we keep hidden, is still something we’re working on.
Will there be any other levitating cities or other cities standing on soil? Can players interact with them?
There are other kingdoms scattered across the desert floor. The player can assign envoys to interact with these kingdoms: trading for new building blueprints, recruiting new migrants, and discovering the desert’s mysteries.
While watching the trailer, we can notice, that city needs some sort of balancing in order to fly. So, hypothetically, can it fall down?
Balance, weight, and lift are all important variables that the player has to manage. The game isn’t trying to be a physics simulation, but if the player doesn’t have enough lift for their weight, well…
Will combat be presented in the game and will there be a multiplayer mode?
No, we’re focussing on a tight loop of exploration, construction, and management. This already feels really special to us, and we want to make sure we perfect that core experience.
Any uncoverings on release date? Do you plan to go into the early access?
We have a vision for the game right now, but we love the idea of building with a community. Getting constant feedback, understanding where our focus should be, and iterating on our gameplay systems — that’s how we want to build this game. But before that, we need to build a game that’s worth your money and time, which is what we’re doing right now. Rest assured we’ll have a very open development process, and we won’t release anything until we’re sure you’ll have a good time with it.
How high will be the price of the game? Will there be regional prices on Steam?
I could give you a very corporate «nothing to announce at this time» answer. But the honest truth is that we’re a team of four (Chee, Fred, Zach and Ben) and we just haven’t sat down and had a real conversation about it. We all play building and management games, so I’m sure we’ll be within the standard range of price points.
Do you plan to support your game via DLCs and updates?
Yes! Free updates are a staple of this genre, and building the game with the community means taking your feedback and acting on it. Once the game releases, we want to constantly support it.
Will there be a campaign mode or do you plan to make a full sandbox?
There will be a story to the game, but we’re developing the gameplay first, to make sure our mechanics pass muster. Once we feel confident in that, we’ll start layering deeper threads of story. I hesitate to separate the two as traditional «Campaign» and «Sandbox» — really, our current vision is that they’re both integrated in the world, and you can choose to follow your curiosity.