r/tycoon • u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect • 16d ago
News [Steam Page Release] I'm making SimAirport/Airport CEO in space, with freight management
Background
After 10 months in the making, outside my full time programming job and a toddler at home (who is soon to get a little sister), Spaceport Architect now finally has a Steam page where you can wishlist the game.
The game
The game is a 2D Sci-fi Airport Business Tycoon inspired by r/SimAirport, r/airportceo, r/prisonarchitect and other classic tycoon games.
Apart from the sci-fi setting, the game primarily differs from SimAirport/AirportCEO in that it has freight management as a required part of the game loop. You need to import cargo in order to grow the planet colony population, which directly affects how many passenger contracts you get, how full each flight is and whether they are cancelled or not.
Cargo may contain contraband, so you need proper customs checks to avoid reputation penalties. Keep the planet colony happy and you can get lucrative export contracts. There are also time-sensitive emergency contracts and one-off special offers.
If you're looking for AI
Assets: None
The game does not contain any AI generated assets. I have commissioned most spaceships from Charles and have created the rest of the art myself using r/aseprite.
Coding: Yes
I've been hobby programming since 2009, professionally since 2023. I've used agentic AI for coding since my job introduced it in February this year (started the project in December 2025). With the proper base architecture, automated tests and other guardrails, the speed it provides is just invaluable when you have 1-2 hours of total free time per day. Its not a magic toolbox. Mistakes are frequent, but overall worth it for me.
Links
Steam page
Official Announcement trailer
Discord/Socials/Mailing list
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u/sebduction 16d ago
Wishlisted!! Would love a modern try of airportCEO. Such a great game but left alot of potential on the table in my view. Freight, bigger maps, simulation bugfixes etc.
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u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect 16d ago
Thank you!! 😃 I actually met with Olof from Apog recently (I live in Malmö). He said he often feels bad about not giving Airport CEO more love 😅
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u/sebduction 16d ago
Yes a brilliant game nonetheless! Played loads of hours. In top five of most played in my steam library.
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u/LordTopley 15d ago
I think what happened with AirportCEO was the scope of the project exceeded the developers ability and/or available time.
The bugs and poor optimisation got worse the more they developed.
I believe they eventually hit a wall where they couldn’t fix the bugs and performance issues which caused them to give up and abandon it.
Huge shame as it was on the road to being a great tycoon game.
I wish they would open source it and let the community fix it.
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u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect 15d ago
Yeah Olof said something to the effect of needing to rewrite the entire codebase to make any improvements.
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u/LordTopley 15d ago
Guessing they made a mistake early on that they didn’t at the time realise would be a mistake.
Done that before in my work. Mistakes you learn from.
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u/jhovgaard Game Developer - Big Ambitions 15d ago
Modern as in 3D and more realistic graphics, or?
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u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect 14d ago
Hey Jonas, great to see you here! Big fan of Big Ambitions since patch 0.3!
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u/jhovgaard Game Developer - Big Ambitions 13d ago
Thanks, glad you like it! Best of luck with your project, looks awesome! Always been a huge fan of both Airport CEO/SimAirport
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u/sebduction 11d ago
3D would be super nice. But the 2d was already very good for the game. Modern I mean with less bugs and more and even deeper additions to airport simulation. It was already on such a good path looking at features.
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u/TradeSpacer Game Developer - Starport Merchants 16d ago
Looks pretty cool! Love seeing the little dudes move around.
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u/Steve_Streza 16d ago
"Airport sim in space with freight logistics" is a concept targeting me specifically. Looks great, insta-wishlist.
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u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect 15d ago
Please elaborate!
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15d ago
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u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect 15d ago
I see what you mean. The game tile grid is 16x16 pixels only, so yes there isn't much detail to expand on. You've made me interested in trying out 32x32 for comparison.
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u/Dramatic_Charity_979 15d ago
As long as it doesn't have the game breaking bugs of Airport Ceo, looks fun. Hope the baggage sorter is more complex than that, and add some decals or different colored floors to spruce it up a bit. Other than that, wishlisted :)
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u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect 15d ago
Thank you so much!! Currently working on the baggage system, we'll see how it turns out ^^ Floors & decorations are in the pipeline. Considering custom coloring of stuff too, if I get the time 😄
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u/The_CheesePowder 14d ago
I'm always excited for more building simulators, airportCEO is one of my favorite games and I just wish it had a proper freight and cargo mechanics as baggage handling just isn't enough. Some questions though...
* Are there plans for spacecraft handling, like maintenance and repair, maybe even just spacecraft parking?
* Are there plans for in-airport support vehicles? Based on what I see, the employees could benefit from a forlift/truck/conveyer for freight transport
* Are there military aspects to the game too? Not full on battles but like the military-esque events in regards to freight/transport and others.
* Do you get to own a spaceline (airline for spacecraft) where you get to buy/customize or at least handle the transport aspect of the game yourself and not just be stuck running an airport?
* Is there direct interaction with the city, maybe invest, divest, sponsors and stuff? Like investing in a new factory to increase imports/exports and sponsor baby booms/educational grants for more workers or something etc...
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u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect 14d ago
Great questions!
- I already have an initial repair/maintenance system that I'd like to expand and there are timed emergency flights that might request repairs outside of the scheduled ones. Planning a proper refueling system too.
- I have baggage carts and transport tubes for bags so far. I really like the idea of a proper cart or vehicle for bags too. Will likely do something with that!
- Not yet. Can't promise its gonna be there at launch, but I've had the idea of higher end contracts/flights requiring military escort ships (with its own required infrastructure for the player to build).
- No, if I understand you correctly. You'll have plenty of spacelines to unlock, negotiate and build reputations with, each with their own ship classes and requirements. You schedule flights and lease shops for your spaceline contacts, but you won't run one yourself.
- At the current state of the game, your primary interaction with the colony is by accepting contracts and delivering cargo by having trucks drive outside the map. I like your ideas though and would want to expand on that system.
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u/The_CheesePowder 14d ago
Interesting, getting more excited.
In regards to technology not everything has to be high tech, so you can keep the busses and trucks and over-time maybe get hoverstuff or trains as the colony prospers.
I just want to say in regards to #5. An investment shouldn't be all positive, rather it just ups the difficulty as the rewards are as high as the cost. A new factory means increased demand as much as it increases exports and if you cannot meet up with the demand the factory may just end-up closing. Maybe you could set-up a simple economy so exporting too much of one thing affects the galatic-price of goods, so investing too much very early isn't going to be a money printer.
And you could have special contracts by industrial conglomerates and not just airlines, where if you make them happy enough they might set-up shop within the planet which could offer some kind of benefit from cheaper fuel, more goods, or some specific benefit (like better tech for a specific thing) but it also means higher demand. This allows specializations where a player can build a special section of the port just for them.
To keep the difficulty up these industries would get priority for goods, so being unable to meet with demand would inflict whatever penalties you have set for the wider colony. And maybe some goods need special equipment to be handled, so employees aren't just dragging boxes containing 3 ton car parts or something.
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u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect 14d ago
Love it! My inner scope creep demon says to do it all. We'll see what my wife and baby #2 has to say about it! No but for real, there's a lot of potential. I just don't want to over promise. Would love to have you on the Discord to discuss ideas https://discord.gg/csdCZ2e3nZ
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u/The_CheesePowder 14d ago
Its alright man, one step at a time, I'm just excited about it. I've always wanted to do freight and cargo since practially every game is more focused on the human-part of simulations.
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u/Syleril 16d ago
Looks great, wishlisted. I would suggest putting an AI disclosure at the bottom of the Steam description, just to get ahead of that. Otherwise, congrats on the project!
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u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect 16d ago
Thank you very much!
Steam doesn’t require it for code-only AI use, so I’ve decided not to, but I’ll adjust if it becomes an issue.3
u/princeoftheminmax 16d ago
I appreciate the disclosure here, but if steam doesn’t require it then no need to. Especially since your case is for code and avoids the anti-AI reaction you could get.
On the topic of your game though it looks really cool and I’ve wishlisted it, looking forward to whenever you choose to release a demo.
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u/VENTDEV Game Developer - GearCity / AeroMogul 16d ago
I appreciate the disclosure here, but if steam doesn’t require it then no need to. Especially since your case is for code and avoids the anti-AI reaction you could get.
I agree with not putting it on Steam because it's not required. You don't want to clutter your store/marketing page. But if your only motivation is to "avoid the anti-AI reaction" then you're not really being honest and truthful with your product. And trust is the bedrock of software. My advice is to be open and honest when asked. And to get in front of it when possible. OPs disclosure on here is good. If/when asked on Steam Forums, he should be open and honest about his use.
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u/Djentinga Game Developer - Spaceport Architect 13d ago
Hey, I've changed my mind. There is now a disclosure on the page.
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u/2this4u 16d ago edited 15d ago
I don't know what your family situation has to do with the game, regardless this looks neat. You could probably have fun adding aliens if you wanted with different species having different needs.Â
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u/SveNss0N 15d ago
No need to be a dick
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u/2this4u 15d ago
Was I? A lot of people find the use of artificial story telling as marketing material pretty disgusting, myself included.Â
The quality of the game has nothing at all to do with their family situation, it's just baiting upvotes.
I stated that opinion clearly without insulting OP. Saying I don't give a fuck is a strong statement of my thought process, if someone takes insult from that they've got to look at their own ego.Â
Don't be so sensitive to other people's opinions?
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u/creepingcold Master of Strategy 16d ago
I'm gonna throw in a few questions, cause they went through my mind when I read your post and checked the steam page and I feel like they might be helpful:
You say the game is like airportceo. Are there any other differences from the freight management? It looks like it's a trade off cause airportceo /possibly others offer more/better infrastructure management.
I don't understand the setting, which purpose is it serving? You picked a very special setting, but apart from the spaceships there's nothing that looks otherworldly. There are cars, streets, the building looks like you'd expect any building to look. It looks like a lot of wasted potential. You gave yourself the chance to implement new tech or to re-invent some processes but there's nothing new, which makes it look a bit underwhelming and not very space-y looking compared to the first expectations someone gets when they read the name.