alt.hn

7/20/2026 at 10:30:40 AM

Airport Simulator

 https://airport.apunen.com/

by apunen

7/20/2026 at 12:40:50 PM

I was only thinking about Flight Control[0] the other day and how I wish there were more modern takes on it! There was Mini Metro[1], but that was released over a decade ago.

--

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Control

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_Metro_(video_game)

by sarreph

7/20/2026 at 3:15:36 PM

In 2022 [0], Jan David Nose (jdno) released a game / programming challenge called _Auto Traffic Control_ [1]. Rather than controlling airplanes with UI interactions, the simulation is a GRPC server that expects the player to construct a game client that issues flight paths.

I tried to make a game client for jdno's ATC [2]. My client was deficient, as I tried to treat the movement as a fixed interval, by only submitting flight plans that moved in cartesian directions. Only by cheating, modifying the simulator, could my greedy algorithm land any planes [3]. I suspect I was supposed to continuously model and poll the future positions of airplanes when developing a flight plan.

I suspect that I won't have much competition on the leaderboard, despite the asterisk, as jdno eventually archived the project [4]. Originally, the project was self-publication while looking for work. The Rust Foundation hired him a little while afterward.

[0] https://jdno.dev/auto-traffic-control/

[1] https://auto-traffic-control.com/

[2] https://github.com/Nzen/hircine-anise-okkoz

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czsSjy1Uqyk 1.5 minutes

[4] https://github.com/jdno/auto-traffic-control/commit/b5972dfb...

by Nzen

7/20/2026 at 10:35:26 PM

I think about this game quite often and would love to eventually pick it up as a project again. I was only able to scratch the surface of what I had in mind, and I’m sure there’s so much to learn from players about what makes a good programming game.

by jdno

7/20/2026 at 5:09:58 PM

Imagine how cool it would be if something like this was based on the actual FF-ICE / FIXM flight plan format.

by Mammux

7/20/2026 at 10:15:35 PM

I have to admit that I have exactly zero knowledge about actual flight plans or anything else related to air traffic control. Just loved playing Flight Control and used it as inspiration for this game.

Having said that, I think there are tons of interesting ways to build on the idea. :)

by jdno

7/20/2026 at 1:19:18 PM

Flight Control was one of my favorite iOS games of all time. Simple, polished, quick to play. Sucks that there is no way to play it on iOS again, seems it is still available for purchase on Steam, but it was really well suited to the phone format, not really something I'd sit down to play at a desktop.

by jclardy

7/20/2026 at 3:16:28 PM

Flight Control was very closely remade as "Planes Control" [1] and gets regular updates with new levels, etc. Not sure if the developer acquired the assets of the original, but it's very close to what I remember playing as a kid

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/planes-control/id1015114550

by bnc319

7/20/2026 at 12:44:27 PM

Heathrow ATC (for the ZX Spectrum) was one that I played extensively back in the day: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/10530 I wonder if there are earlier examples of popular ATC games? They're simpler than flight simulators so you'd think there would be more of them.

Edit: playable version - https://archive.org/details/zx_Heathrow_International_Air_Tr...

by rwmj

7/20/2026 at 1:04:25 PM

Mini Airways - ATC simulator comes close in base mechanics but adds some complexity

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2289650/Mini_Airways__ATC...

by jstummbillig

7/20/2026 at 1:24:01 PM

It's looks like they literally cloned the UI and graphics from the Mini Metro/Mini Motorways games (not just the map style).

by nacs

7/20/2026 at 6:06:13 PM

Yes, they did, which is unfortunate, as the game is very good in itself. They gave a nice twist to the formula.

by rubslopes

7/20/2026 at 1:43:05 PM

There’s an open source ATC sim called OpenScope that’s a bit more complex and is mostly keyboard based. I think HN would appreciate it.

https://github.com/openscope/openscope

by iron_albatross

7/20/2026 at 1:51:50 PM

Flight Control HD was one of the first iPad games I had. I under-appreciated how much easier this game was with a finger than a trackball.

by eddieroger

7/20/2026 at 8:34:05 PM

I missed Flight Control so bad that I sent Claude on a wild goose chase to decompile the IPA in ghidra and rewrite it in Swift 6. Still working through it, obviously will never get released, but it's been cool to watch.

by selectodude

7/20/2026 at 11:32:46 PM

You should release it though.

by Computer0

7/21/2026 at 9:53:55 PM

Rather not take the chance of getting sued by EA.

by selectodude

7/20/2026 at 7:08:56 PM

I love both of those and actually only started playing Mini Metro this month. Such synchronicity(!), although mediated by whatever is probably happening on the Play Store, this is less surprising then it would have been 50 years ago.

by snthpy

7/20/2026 at 2:09:07 PM

On Android there is Endless ATC. It also appears to be on Steam.

by mnw21cam

7/21/2026 at 5:20:05 AM

I'm quite surprised it's available on Android, this specific take on air traffic control games doesn't really strike me as mobile-friendly game. Good to know - I played it a lot on Steam back in the days.

by Vedor

7/21/2026 at 9:38:10 AM

Yeah, it works really well on a tiny screen, surprisingly enough.

by mnw21cam

7/20/2026 at 12:45:00 PM

I was reminded Mini Metro too. It has a fun sequel on PC, mini motorways.

by bakies

7/21/2026 at 1:08:08 AM

Oh, it's from an ATC point of view. I was expecting simulations of actual airports, for example to simulate Heathrow you wander around a construction site, to simulate LAX you stand in an endless queue that never moves, and to simulate Munich you get something like the backrooms but with more glass and less pits.

by pseudohadamard

7/20/2026 at 10:25:06 PM

After trying this one, I'd agree it seems mechanically identical to Flight Control but with a sort of stylistic low-res pixellated 3d look.

Gameplay from 2011:

https://youtu.be/WLHI5Fu--0I?t=48

by vunderba

7/21/2026 at 3:10:10 AM

Did planes take off in Flight Control? I don’t remember.

That was one of my most played games of all time. SO PERFECT for the iPhone and on the go play.

by MBCook

7/21/2026 at 3:14:07 AM

I... don't think so but it's probably been over a decade since I last played it. Completely agree that game was tailor-made for touchscreen interfaces.

by vunderba

7/20/2026 at 12:49:35 PM

This was really fun to play with, I have a few suggestions: - As the airspace gets more congested, it becomes difficult to click the airplanes as you can also grab an existing path, messing everything up.

- The big stats table on the top left completely obscures a good portion of the map, making it harder than necessary. A togglable or semi-transparent option would be nice.

-The possibility of zooming or moving around could be nice

by thanzex

7/20/2026 at 1:43:14 PM

ctrl-shift-<minus> until the stats table is as small as you like

by kronk

7/20/2026 at 2:11:03 PM

added a button to hide the scoreboard on desktop! was originally only available on mobile viewports

by apunen

7/20/2026 at 4:33:53 PM

On phones the cramped view is particularly pronounced. The “pointing device” is fat and the edges of the screen are usually reserved for swiping the tab or back/fwd. This leaves even less of the screen available for acting on a plane.

I played a few runs and every crash happened on the edge of the screen where I couldn’t route the planes or I was dragging the tab as I dragged the flight path (iOS, Safari). That’s the only time the view moves and I can see outside the initial border.

Anyway, really cool game!

by close04

7/20/2026 at 10:36:21 PM

The pilots in this game are complete dum-dums and not following 14 CFR § 91.113 (b):

When weather conditions permit, regardless of whether an operation is conducted under instrument flight rules or visual flight rules1, vigilance shall be maintained by each person operating an aircraft so as to see and avoid other aircraft.

I had some aircraft pop in from off-screen and just run into another one that just took off.

by DarmokJalad1701

7/20/2026 at 10:45:09 PM

This game would also be better if I could actually decide when to clear departures.

by foo4u

7/20/2026 at 10:57:01 PM

Also, altitudes matter after about 5 mins here.

by foo4u

7/20/2026 at 2:30:57 PM

Nice! But whatever happened to "Show HN"? I see more and more people posting their own projects here (which is completely ok!) but avoiding (or unaware of?) the "Show" option.

About the game (sorry, sim) itself: it was really fun once I realized that I have to drag the airplanes to the runway threshold matching their color. You can draw a straight line from the plane to the runway, and it will land even if it has to do an instant ~360° turn directly before touching down, which is a liiiitle bit unrealistic :) Also, while landing the planes just float with constant speed right until the end of the runway and then taxi away. A nicer animation would be if they would touch down somewhere in the middle of the runway and then decelerate gradually before taxiing away. Same in reverse for take-offs.

by rob74

7/20/2026 at 2:58:19 PM

Maybe it's by design, but Show HN posts seem to just get completely buried, whereas posting stuff directly is more successful

I've spoke to other people who've had the same experience, maybe just a coincidence but could be why people avoid it?

by jmkni

7/20/2026 at 8:35:19 PM

Show hn was overrun by ai slop for a while so I and presumably many others filtered it out of our feeds. That would have resulted in show hn getting much less interaction and potentially led to people not wanting to use the feature.

by cure_42

7/20/2026 at 12:45:53 PM

Took me far too long to work how to get a plane to land, was drawing lines along the runway rather than dropping them on the coloured spot at the end and they were overflying. Was thinking the paths weren't straight enough, once I figured it out was quite funny to find the planes can do 180° turns mid air to land.

by wjdp

7/20/2026 at 12:57:04 PM

Yeah to be more realistic they should be able to land from either end of the runway. Mayve depending on wind.

by paxys

7/20/2026 at 3:18:15 PM

Landing either way is not realistic. Even with no wind airports have a designated runway open. For example a straight North and South "runway" has runway 0 and runway 18, and only one will be open at any given time regardless of windspeed.

by skeater15

7/20/2026 at 5:33:45 PM

If an airport is uncontrolled, planes can land in either direction. Whether the pilots choose to do so is a different matter.

At airports with towers, the controllers can allow landings in either direction. That they usually don't is more of a function of existing traffic.

by einhard

7/21/2026 at 12:45:11 AM

Runway 36

by sdh9

7/20/2026 at 2:40:08 PM

When playing for the first time, a simple pop up tutorial would be nice, explaining what to do. Figuring out how to land and how to drag the planes takes a second, but it is fine. However, I still haven't figured out what to do with starting planes? I can't change their route, so how do I prevent two starting planes from crashing?

Edit: I would also add some “crash margin” around the border of the screen. A plane coming from the top right corner and crashing into a plane leaving just to the right of the top right corner is frustrating.

by V__

7/20/2026 at 4:18:01 PM

yeah, not being able to vector departing planes is also a pain. Kinda makes sense I guess, but still annoying

by tenacious_tuna

7/20/2026 at 12:55:50 PM

Not enough of you played Flight Control in 2008 and it shows.

by paxys

7/20/2026 at 1:04:31 PM

I was 3 years old

by istoleabread

7/20/2026 at 1:17:31 PM

I’m gonna need you to explain yourself. What a strange choice

by totallymike

7/20/2026 at 1:54:35 PM

They did it to dodge taxes.

by moffkalast

7/21/2026 at 6:42:43 AM

Get off my lawn!

by jojobas

7/20/2026 at 11:12:54 PM

Babby.

by bigbuppo

7/20/2026 at 12:33:05 PM

Think it needs just a little zoom out on my phone but had a fun time. Both my games ended off screen

by bakies

7/20/2026 at 12:35:18 PM

Android makes this a chore with all its gestures too!

But I'm not sure it could (or that I'd want) it to supress gestures like back and close application

by rustyhancock

7/20/2026 at 5:12:38 PM

This is super fun! Really gets your heart rate going. I tried various tactics borrowed from actual ATC/tower techniques (drawing common approach paths; throwing in some 360 degree turns) but it never seemed to be enough as the traffic picked up :P I'm curious if anyone figured out any good strategies.

by keito

7/20/2026 at 5:35:48 PM

At some point I started to send incoming planes away like no airport for you!

by tom2948329494

7/20/2026 at 8:37:15 PM

Had a crash happen super far from the airport after I did this, found it funny do to how unlikely it seemed

by cure_42

7/20/2026 at 10:17:08 PM

Super fun game! Minor modifications that would be fun: * As you draw a path, at the same rate gradually bold/pulse all other planes' existing drawn paths from their current location forward so I can visually see if two future lines will not just overlap, but overlap at the same time * A slider to control game speed * A clearer arrow over the landing zone. It took me quite a while to realize how to land a plane * A timer over each runway to next takeoff

by micah_chatt

7/20/2026 at 6:16:29 PM

Long ago I played this game called Airport Mania.

In it you’re an ATC. There’s like 10 stages (airports), with several levels in each stage in increasing difficulty. There are different capabilities to add to the airport (such as de-icing, defogging, upgraded terminals, upgraded fuel pumps, layover spaces, additional runways etc). Different types of planes had different patience levels (for example, Concordes needed quick service) etc. Very sophisticated. It was fun.

About 5 years ago a slightly watered down version of it was available on Android. I think it’s gone now. Even as an adult I found it engaging. It may look childish in the screenshots but it’s really fun.

It’s the only game I have bought online. They sent me the CD from Portland Oregon to my home on the opposite side of the Earth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_Mania:_First_Flight

by 2143

7/21/2026 at 3:16:34 AM

Fun take on the ATC type genre but for some reason ATC style games have never really hooked me.

I'd love to see a modern take on Airport Tycoon where you layout runways and terminals etc.

I also fondly remember an airline management simulator while in college. I started playing with IdleFlightManager on iOS but it was just insanely easy so I lost interest quickly. The software I used while in college had you manually set fares and fare pool size in addition to buying aircraft, dealing with maintenance expenses, and choosing routes.

by bronco21016

7/20/2026 at 3:30:32 PM

Should the leader board be cleared of the folks with 10,000 landings in 1 second?

It looks like the true leader right now is 90 landings in 7:29.

by SamBam

7/20/2026 at 6:11:27 PM

Yes, that would be good! I got to 86, and on a macbook trackpad, and those fake scores are making my RSI flare up.

by robertlagrant

7/20/2026 at 7:56:34 PM

done!

by apunen

7/20/2026 at 4:14:59 PM

Play this for a few minutes and you start to realize why sequencing and published flight paths are so important!

Really fun, thank you!

by ivraatiems

7/20/2026 at 11:14:06 PM

And traffic patterns.

by bigbuppo

7/20/2026 at 1:37:32 PM

The appeal of ATC-style games is that the entire difficulty curve comes from one mechanic: you're never doing anything hard, you're just doing too many easy things at once. Flight Control nailed that on touch screens. Curious how this one handles the difficulty ramp — more planes, faster planes, or tighter airspace?

by koko443

7/20/2026 at 1:43:41 PM

thanks for playing! yes, over the first 5min the spawn rate ramps up from ~5s to ~1.5s and the aircraft cap goes from 3 to 12. also wanted to make things more interesting with the takeoff mechanic to add some predictable congestion

by apunen

7/20/2026 at 3:48:08 PM

Fantastic game! I miss the old iOS version. My suggestions:

The predictable congestion gets a bit tedious and makes the game impossibly difficult quite quickly. It guarantees needing to keep readjusting almost every plane, otherwise a crash happens while trying to select the correct plane to move. It's a great mechanic earlier on and as a tutorial, because collisions happen rarely, but knowing that so many planes spawning or taking off on a calculated crash path when it's already chaotic seems to actually take skill out of the game as it progresses.

Planes that land should turn gray as it's confusing vs. planes taking off (especially consecutive takeoffs).

Volume slider rather than just on/off.

Drawing paths to the landing area should be more forgiving. If there's a short section of weird path at the end, it messes up timing for the planes landing and causes crashes.

by pardon_me

7/20/2026 at 1:39:26 PM

Great little game! Thanks for sharing!

Just two little niggles:

- I feel like I should be able to fly over a runway without crashing in a landing/taking-off airplane. The vertical separation would allow for that.

- It would be nice to have an (optional?) zoom-out level, to have a bit more space for routing.

But a lovely little game, thanks again.

by fransje26

7/20/2026 at 3:22:31 PM

High Score: 81 Succesful Landings in 6:53!

Video here so you can copy my sweet strats: https://youtu.be/7f1WgnAqckk

I'd love to watch a professional SC: Brood War player give this a try.

by DevDesmond

7/20/2026 at 10:38:14 PM

A few months ago I built a piloting harness for LLMs[1] in X-Plane. You can give the AI pilot instructions as though you are ATC, and I imagined what it might be like to scale it up and make an ATC game out of it, talking to dozens of AI pilots. The most open-ended ATC sim ever…

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiXcLURL7yo

by jjwiseman

7/20/2026 at 8:26:52 PM

If you enjoy this, you may also enjoy the `atc` binary that is shipped alongside tetris and other classics in Debian's bsdgames package. Also exists for Ubuntu (https://packages.ubuntu.com/noble/bsdgames) and probably other Debian derivatives. I enjoy the keyboard controls there, a lot more deterministic than trying to mouse around the screen!

by lucb1e

7/20/2026 at 8:39:09 PM

I love this emerging "3D pixel art" trend. Stylized graphics always age better than realistic. And it definitely has more charm

by hexator

7/21/2026 at 3:35:03 AM

Strange. Can’t write “e” in the top scorer input box. Anyone else have this problem?

by rsendv

7/21/2026 at 3:36:41 AM

I just noticed that myself. It seems to wiggle the map or something instead of input the letter e.

by ssl-3

7/21/2026 at 3:55:56 AM

Interestingly a lot of high score names contain e. BR, rsëndv :)

by rsendv

7/21/2026 at 3:26:02 PM

fixed! q/e was being intercepted for world rotation but this was breaking scoreboard functionality

by apunen

7/21/2026 at 3:38:34 AM

R-ally? It s--ms to work fin- for m-.

by kirubakaran

7/20/2026 at 12:41:59 PM

Absolutely delightful, just played a few rounds.

I really love ATC games and the "draw it by hand" aspect makes this kinda funny. Maybe I need to try with a real mouse, kinda slow on a trackpad. For a more serious entrant in this genre (with speeds, altitudes and radio navigation), check out Endless ATC on Steam.

I landed some 40 flights and made it near the top of the leaderboard.

The scoreboard is taking too much screen space and occluding the planes, would be better to have scores at the top or bottom.

by exDM69

7/20/2026 at 1:44:20 PM

added a button to hide the scoreboard on desktop!

by apunen

7/21/2026 at 3:16:56 PM

Thanks for listening to feedback. Seems like you've made many improvements since yesterday.

I played a few more rounds today. Fun!

by exDM69

7/20/2026 at 3:34:55 PM

I love the airport style, bilingual interface. One of my favourite parts of flying is getting to see different combinations of languages on the signs!

by przemub

7/20/2026 at 2:10:57 PM

Fun little game

However I notice people have realized they can set their own score with an HTTP request (I mean, it's Hacker News), maybe put in some sort of mitigation?

by jmkni

7/21/2026 at 12:16:16 AM

In my experience there is little you can do to "mitigate" that kind of thing outside of running the game completely server-side, which usually makes a tiny project into a much larger undertaking.

by naet

7/21/2026 at 4:57:47 AM

Recording the game start and end time server-side to perform a plausibility check of submitted score vs. time played would help, but this would require tracking individual users games, and still doesn't solve the problem entirely.

by pardon_me

7/20/2026 at 8:51:38 PM

There was a game for the C64 (or VIC20.. I forget) in which your were an ATC. I remember either the packaging for the game or the credits on screen saying something to the effect of "If you like this game, call us". "Us" being a number to contact the FAA for a potential job.

by BigDataNinja

7/21/2026 at 2:02:29 PM

If you like this game, call us! The President just fired all our controllers.

by projektfu

7/21/2026 at 1:47:36 PM

I was surprised by the controls, but actually quite interesting.

by strzibny

7/20/2026 at 12:30:20 PM

When I was growing up, there were two airport simulator games that were pretty fun to play. One of them I remember playing on my Sega Genesis.

by cebert

7/20/2026 at 12:34:30 PM

Aerobiz? I had forgotten about that one, such an awesome game. Rented it from Blockbuster many times.

by mathgeek

7/20/2026 at 10:22:34 PM

Yes! That’s it. I forgot the name, but it was fun.

by cebert

7/20/2026 at 3:59:06 PM

Very satisfying to play! I made airpordle.com a bit ago when the dle craze happened, where the goal is to guess the airport you are controlling and the ATC score you get allows you to buy hints. https://airpordle.com

by Avio223

7/20/2026 at 12:30:48 PM

This is super fun! Could be neat to add keyboard controls for auto routing (i.e. select plane number n and auto route it to strip x or have it fly a go-around to wait). Would also be sick if you added models of real world airports to play.

That said I love this as is and will definitely be playing & sharing it.

by heresalexandria

7/20/2026 at 2:01:53 PM

I still miss flight control, seems wrong that such an important early iPhone OS game is just… gone.

by mrkpdl

7/20/2026 at 12:30:35 PM

Nice homage to Flight Control (2009)

by tantalor

7/20/2026 at 3:26:18 PM

Just playing right now inside airport waiting for a delayed flight, such an irony

by _zendar_

7/20/2026 at 3:03:33 PM

Very fun. Got a few minutes in. Is there a strategy for avoiding hitting the planes driving slowly across the runway for takeoff? It seems very hard to also pay attention to them when they have so little lead time.

by SamBam

7/20/2026 at 6:21:38 PM

Reminds me of C64 Kennedy Approach. Of course Kennedy Approach is 10x more stressful as you need to stack the planes at VOR towers and designate their elevation.

by socalgal2

7/20/2026 at 12:26:04 PM

Fun to play, I like it puts a close by airport on the high-score board.

by mattimatti

7/20/2026 at 2:39:48 PM

Losing because some collision off screen seems a bit unfair.

by tantalor

7/20/2026 at 3:58:58 PM

I think the landing box could be a bit easier to hit

by axelb152

7/20/2026 at 2:51:51 PM

It's surprisingly fun! You've inspired me to finish something aviation related I'm working on and post it soon. Cheers.

by WhyComboNadir

7/21/2026 at 12:40:00 AM

First line of action was to crash two planes into each other. Mission successful

by omeysalvi

7/20/2026 at 11:41:54 PM

I expected a backrooms-style game where you are lost at an infinite airport...

by Archit3ch

7/20/2026 at 12:57:36 PM

Fun how quickly i developed my own rules.

Yellow planes always get rerouted this way.

Put red in this circle to stay out of the way.

Thank you for sharing and thank you maker for makign!

by AlfredBarnes

7/20/2026 at 12:56:29 PM

Just a green background and some text on Firefox.

by tallanvor

7/20/2026 at 12:57:50 PM

Not with mine. Are you blocking your JS?

by brettermeier

7/20/2026 at 12:28:19 PM

Fun. But the ATC has a different UI I think?

by pir8life4me

7/20/2026 at 4:21:42 PM

Very fun. My only gripe is that you should be able to overfly taxiing aircraft, without crashing.

by consumer451

7/20/2026 at 3:53:17 PM

The real simulator feature is discovering how quickly one delayed plane becomes everyone’s problem.

by Khira_Moss

7/20/2026 at 11:42:01 PM

First thing I did was crash 2 planes, I should be in ISIS.

Fire emoji - nice touch

by orangeberrytea

7/20/2026 at 3:01:40 PM

This is cool. What is it built with?

by schnebbau

7/20/2026 at 2:44:22 PM

Perfect kind of intuitive. It was a joy to figure it out, and just "learn by doing".

by danfunk

7/20/2026 at 11:12:13 PM

every single one of those pilots is getting a number to copy.

by bigbuppo

7/20/2026 at 12:27:47 PM

Both me and my friend have been racing eachother to create airport simulators. Wildly on-topic for me.

by TechSquidTV

7/20/2026 at 12:50:12 PM

How do you plan to release them? Free? Mobile? And are you using AI to help deliver?

by leetrout

7/21/2026 at 6:43:04 PM

Oh we aren't really planning to. This was purely a vibe coding thing for fun. I mentioned I wanted an airport simulator similar to another game we both play. He started vibe coding one. So I started vibe coding one lol. His was in straight up dotnetcore, mine in unity. We got interestingly far but both kind of slowly let it go, they weren't high quality.

by TechSquidTV

7/20/2026 at 7:28:22 PM

pretty nice, the click targets are a bit awkward but otherwise really fun!

by verelo

7/20/2026 at 1:33:54 PM

Even if simple, it is quite appealing and fun, spend quite a while playing it.

by pjmlp

7/20/2026 at 12:52:02 PM

Nice and fun, but I'd like that the fame enforces a minimal turning radius.

by gus_massa

7/20/2026 at 4:53:51 PM

I got a slight flashback to Blue Max, just because of the graphics.

by westcoast49

7/20/2026 at 6:24:25 PM

Super fun! Gets very complicated with congestion, good work!!

by dariush624

7/20/2026 at 12:41:09 PM

4 successful landings before disaster struck, not a bad first day as ATC

by Aardwolf

7/20/2026 at 4:21:32 PM

Imagine modified version of this game having local AI voice recognition and you would have to give instructions to the air traffic over "radio" using callsigns and everything. Just like the real tower.

by harvie

7/20/2026 at 1:28:31 PM

The touch controls, at least on iOS, leave a lot to be desired.

by vlovich123

7/20/2026 at 2:57:36 PM

This is nice. And yeah, I've crashed after 33 sec ;)

by murzynalbinos

7/20/2026 at 3:35:13 PM

the hitbox on the landing strip is kinda odd, not sure why sometimes my planes don't enter into the landing state when entering the runway

by tonic_note

7/20/2026 at 1:37:20 PM

this is awesome, thank you for making this. Such a neat little package - I love that there are no instructions. And the graphics are so simple and neat

by mannycalavera

7/20/2026 at 1:24:16 PM

Add some color blind option, please.

I cannot distinguish the two reds/browns/greens or whatever hehe.

by yangosoft

7/20/2026 at 1:54:42 PM

This is addictive. Enjoyed it thoroughly

by dssagar93

7/20/2026 at 2:43:43 PM

Brought back fun memories! Thank you

by grwthckrmstr

7/21/2026 at 1:07:13 AM

Can I ask what programming language you uesd? Good game

by mscissors

7/20/2026 at 1:13:52 PM

Is this based on WebAssembly?

by opentestudox

7/20/2026 at 1:44:41 PM

sveltekit and pocketbase!

by apunen

7/21/2026 at 1:06:39 AM

Very fun game. Helps my mind relax

by mscissors

7/21/2026 at 3:26:21 AM

Addictive

by gfalcao

7/20/2026 at 3:33:11 PM

very sticky game, love it! my record is 18 landings

by arsenkk

7/20/2026 at 6:17:45 PM

Very cool!

by ignaciovdk

7/20/2026 at 2:14:22 PM

the graphics reminded me OpenTTD

by Erenay09

7/20/2026 at 1:20:55 PM

I'm kind of disappointed that this isn't a simulator for managing what happens inside the airport rather than ATC.

I'm also unsure why I feel that way as it sounds like a nightmare

by kbcool

7/20/2026 at 12:51:36 PM

Open up https://www.liveatc.net/ in another tab and you have a complete experience. Really fun!

by tdubey

7/20/2026 at 2:22:43 PM

Nice work!

by mrcwinn

7/20/2026 at 8:58:58 PM

Addictive! Made it to #16 but now got some serious PTSD about flying lol

by cmenge

7/20/2026 at 4:13:39 PM

Now I see why ATC is such a stressful job!

by WillowWithAWand

7/20/2026 at 9:48:21 PM

A bit better in real life since the world isn't 2D.

by outworlder

7/20/2026 at 12:48:42 PM

Sweet

by jsabess24

7/20/2026 at 1:48:45 PM

Cool. But, yeah, no, too stressful.

Give me a relaxing game. (I'm getting old.)

by JKCalhoun

7/21/2026 at 12:04:26 AM

Have you tried getting younger?

by yunnpp

7/21/2026 at 1:42:44 PM

Yeah. Also tried not aging.

But, seriously, I know I am an ass throwing any shade on a very cool game—I suppose I'm more or less putting the idea out there that, hey, as everyone around here gets older, do you find these "stress games" less fun than you used to?

(I suppose even Nethack might seem like a chore these days, but I haven't fired up an old game in some time now.)

by JKCalhoun

7/21/2026 at 11:12:20 AM

[dead]

by zsypsilon

7/20/2026 at 1:18:36 PM

[dead]

by Wilson2000

7/20/2026 at 2:41:17 PM

[dead]

by nicechianti

7/20/2026 at 12:47:37 PM

[dead]

by Unified-Mentor

7/20/2026 at 6:17:50 PM

[flagged]

by ignaciovdk

7/20/2026 at 4:24:58 PM

The departures kind of subtract from the "flow state" feeling you get when lining things up. Sure, that's an additional challenge, but it's not that fun.

by advisedwang