Flight Sim Expo 2019 Postmortem

Hello, World; the Roger Meatball devlog lives!

I am in a hotel room, 1/3 through my twenty hour drive home from Orlando, and I just uploaded my Flight Sim Expo build expecting I recruited a couple new players. FSE 2019 was a fantastic show and I left flattered that so many people played my games and shared kind words and encouragement. If we met at FSE the last two days, thank you and please say hello :)

The Game I Showed

My FSE build was intended to represent a final prototype of both Roger Meatball and my personal style of flight simulation in general. This weekend gave me more time than I have ever allowed myself to put into words my vision for a flight simulation by Jon Coughlin. I want to make games about flight that are mechanically and aerodynamically sound and deep, but accessible to players without the hardware or ground school overhead of serious flight simulation. The winning formula seems to be robust physical simulation, high-fidelity flight instruments, and charming/disarming presentation. 

Roger Meatball, today, is an hard but playful game about learning to land a plane on an aircraft carrier, and it plays with a gamepad.

Near-term Features to Consider

• Additional planes (a no-brainer for extending content)
• Airframe damage: wings, tailhook, fuselage separation, G-loading damage
• VR (this game is a natural fit for VR)
• Remappable controls (would allow joystick support for sim people)
• Weather and day/night cycle
• Static runways on land
• Navigation instruments and gameplay

Bugs and Deficiencies (High priority)

• Trim needs to be more accessible (the untrimmed aircraft is incredibly sensitive, can ruin the experience)
• The game cannot run indefinitely (reach edge of map, and possible memory leaks)
• Rumble, sound, VFX are missing and inconsistent
• Briefings and tutorials must be better on the kneeboards

These lists are by no means exhaustive; they are my fifteen minutes of reflection before bed. Thanks for playing, and please help with more feedback.