Development Platforms

Big Fat Simulations develops games and simulations using Adobe Flash Technology. This is our preferred platform, as Flash is capable of producing web-based content as well as desktop applications.

All of our games have free versions that rely on the distribution power of game portals all over the web. The full versions, however, are too big to fit in the browser space, and owners of our full versions do not want their purchase to be dependent on a web connection. Hence the need for both an 'online free version' and a 'downloadable desktop version'.

Adobe Flash has always been great for being able to deliver both. However, a number of users have experienced difficulty with Adobe AIR, and so we develop 'alternate files' for our games, which work fine, but have ugly icons and don't contain our 'digital signature'.

What development alternatives do we have? Should we hire new coders that can write the C++ language, and learn a new platform like Unreal Engine? Or switch to mobile development using Apple's xCode, requiring coders who are familiar with the Objective-C language?

We could use Unity, which delivers for both, like Flash does. It requires a knowledge of C# and Javascript languages. And it has better performance. However, it's content cannot be circulated throughout the online game portals as well as Flash content can.

The time I spend thinking about all this would probably be better spent focusing on simply making fun games.

So is Flash the best platform for what we do? Considering the time and money required to port our games over to another platform, a change would have to offer very substantial improvements to make it worthwhile. Almost all of our user complaints involve missing game features or bugs, but very few involve performance.

"But everyone's playing games on mobile devices now!". There is money to be made with mobile games, but there's a lot of noise out there. To make a buck in the mobile world, you need to create a truly stellar game. As for PC and Mac game opportunities, there are more PC's and Macs being sold now than ever before.

Since 2008, mobile games have steadily grown in popularity, and many have asked us to port our games over to iOS and Android. We have done this, with the assistance of our partner company, who specializes in mobile development. Android is extremely difficult to serve, as there are so many different device resolutions and device capabilities. The app stores that are available on Android are still evolving, and not quite as good as developers would like, compared to iOS.

Airport Madness is our biggest seller, and we have more versions coming, but it definitely won't last forever. In fact, next year we will begin development of 3D games. At that time, we will likely transition to Unity technology.

Radar Chaos Hawaii Edition Now Available

The impossible is never easy, but we've managed to do it.  Radar Chaos Hawaii Edition is now available for instant download.

We were fashionably late, as usual.  I must learn to better estimate a project's size before making promises.  Initially, RCHE seemed like a simple spin-off of the original Radar Chaos.  However, we were determined to pack more features into the control panel, add life-like procedures and a real-world location.  In the end, the entire project was basically rewritten from scratch.

Our first instinct was to add "Hawaiian" music, since the location of this radar simulation is the Hawaiian Islands. However, this gave the simulation a feel which we did not like.  We hated it, actually (especially after some 50+ hours of testing the beta version, which contained such music with ukuleles and flutes).  Ukuleles and air traffic control?  They don't go together.  One is relaxed, happy and care-free.  The other is intense, and it puts you at the edge of your seat, stresses you out, and causes you to mutter, "How am I gonna handle THIS mess?" repeatedly.  So we went with that.  In fact, the music we chose for Radar Chaos Hawaii Edition is filed under the genre of "horror".  You may think that sort of music wouldn't fit inside a game,  but I actually like the fit.  It is suspenseful, dark and haunting, created by composers Roland Rudzitis and David Flavin.  Music only exists during the introductory screens of the game, not during game play.

Our coder worked hard until late last night (and early this morning) to get everything functioning exactly as it should.  We are now in 'wait and see' mode, poised at the computer with the email program open, waiting for any complaints or bug reports we can jump on.

We really hope that you enjoy Radar Chaos Hawaii Edition.  It truly is a fun game, for those who love aviation.  Airport Madness 4 is by far more popular, but it's content aims at a much broader spectrum of users.  Radar simulation is a niche market.  It's my favorite type of game, by far.  In fact the very first game we ever created was a radar simulation, originally intended to be a commercial training product.

It's not easy to write instructions for air traffic control.  Our original promise was a radar game with "no instructions required", but that quickly became an impossible promise.  We have created nearly a dozen tutorial videos for this game, as well as several pages of written instructions, which should be enough to get you going.

Enjoy!

Our Big Fat Simulations Promise to You

Big Fat Simulations is a small company. We read all our e-mails, we love our customers, and if you are sad, we are sad. We're literally a Mom & Pop company, and we believe in the personal touch. So here are our three promises to you ...

1. No Obnoxious DRM! Pirates exist. Sad, but true. But we won't let hatred of people who rip off our games drive us to annoy our paying customers. When you order from us, you immediately get a download link to your game, requiring no keys or passwords. That's it. No online authentication. No need to keep a disk in the drive.

• If your computer dies and you need a new registration key? We're sorry to hear that, and your replacement is free.
• Register on the Mac and switch to Windows? A new key is free.
• Your child wants to play the game on his or her own machine? That's awesome, and an additional key is free.

2. Money-Back Guarantee! If you don't like our game, we don't want your money. We have a no-questions-asked One Year Money-back Guarantee. Game stops working? You wake up one morning and realize that it sucks? You decide that you hate us personally, and our adorable children too? Money back within one year. You might think, "Hmmm. I wonder if people ever buy the game, play it through, and demand a refund." The answer is: No. This has never happened. You know why? Because our customers are awesome people.

3. Free Demos! That means that you get a chance to play and make sure that 1. It works, 2. You are having fun, and 3. The retro graphics don't enrage you. If the demo works for you and is fun, you can buy the full game and be confident that it will still work and still be fun. And if it doesn't? Have we mentioned our Money-Back Guarantee? We love that almost all of our customers played a demo first. It means we're earning our pay honestly. Because, again, If you don't like our game, we don't want your money.

100 Million Airplanes Moved in AM4!

Wow, great work everyone! Holy smack. That's a lot of airplanes moved in Airport Madness 4 within just seven months. That's 200 times as much traffic as Chicago O'Hare moves for the same time period. I'd better hurry up and get the next edition of Airport Madness 4 out. You folks are going to LOVE this one!

New Teaser Video of Radar Chaos Hawaii

Enjoy!  Radar Chaos: Hawaii Edition will be releasing soon, hopefully by the last day of July.  If it's not available by July 31, just wait longer :)

Download the HD version here!


Radar Chaos Hawaii: Honolulu TRACON from Big Fat Simulations on Vimeo.

Production Mode

If it seems quiet around the website, our Facebook page, our blog and Twitter feed lately, it's because we are focused on the completion of Radar Chaos Hawaii Edition.  Our original goal was June 1 (thankfully we kept that one a secret from you, because we missed it).  In May, I mentioned on Facebook that RCHE would be available July 1, but later deleted the comment.  We have since been keeping the date vague, but promising 'some time in July'.   We are aiming for the last day in July.

Our sincere apologies for not being quick with the email responses these days.  Of course, we always respond to emails involving issues or complaints immediately.  However, it's those daily emails that we get from users who have an idea for a game that we should make:  "Hey, you should totally make a game that involves trains.  People love trains!  Can you make that next?".  I always try to respond to these idea people, since this is where all of our great ideas come from.  However, while we are in production mode, sprinting for the finish line, our email efforts are minimized to that of keeping existing customers happy.

Our dream is to take August off.  However, it will likely be dedicated to resolving bugs, assisting customers with their downloads, and adding critical game features that players feel are missing from Radar Chaos Hawaii Edition.   Not to mention, a new version of Airport Madness in time for Christmas (you will love this one!).  There is no rest for game developers.

Look for news of Radar Chaos Hawaii Edition's release right here in about two weeks!

New Screenshots of Radar Chaos Hawaii

Radar Chaos Hawaii is coming along, folks!  We hope for a release in about two weeks.  Check out the new screenshots of Oahu and Hawaii here.  We will be adding a second video shortly, including screenshots of Kauai and Maui.