Save the date: Livestream on the 18th of October!
over 2 years ago – Tue, Oct 03, 2023 at 09:10:12 AM

See exclusive new material in our livestream!

We are planning a livestream for the 18th of October, in which we will discuss the development and the current state of the alpha directly with you. We will show you behind-the-scenes material like a premiere of our new NPC models. The livestream will take place in the evening, 7pm Central European Time. We are planning to do it on Twitch and/or YouTube. Exact details will follow in the week of the livestream when we remind you with another update post.

Reminder: Complete your Backer survey!

Around 90% of you have completed the Backerkit survey, that's amazing, thank you!

229 people are still left, so if you haven't completed the survey yet, please complete it this week because we will lock the orders for most rewards on the 5th of October (we need to prepare the orders of the physical rewards). Check your email and spam inbox for a mail from Backerkit for the backer survey, or go here to activate a resend of the survey link.

If you still can't find the Backerkit mail, please write a comment here under the post or send us a message directly. Our community manager Nuria will check the Backerkit system and give you your personal survey link.

To our backers at the pledge level of €1,250 and above: You don't need the survey, we will contact you directly to arrange your special rewards. This will happen at a later point when we're further along the fulfillment process.

How is development going?

Work on the alpha version continues! And we want to share some behind-the-scenes material here.

Our 2D artist Dave is reworking and expanding the user interface designs, as you can see here in a current screenshot of the development build: 

Our programmers have been focusing on programming and testing the resource management and building system, and they also worked on the in-game time system. Here is a video showing how the night & day cycle is set up in our game engine by our programmer Matej:

Here is a special video from one of our programmers, Nicolò, who tested the particle effects when the in-game time is sped up (and this poor deer had to be the test subject):

Our 3D artist Brian is focused on grayboxing more 3D models: 

(When Nuria took the picture, there was a discussion going on between Brian and Nicolò about the correct placement of the saw on a WWII saw table and where the NPC would need to stand. The Google Image screen that you can see here was used in the discussion but not as base for the model.)

After the grayboxing the models need to be overpainted. Here are some work-in-progress examples:

Our other 3D artist Frédéric has reworked the NPC character models so that they can have more body types and facial features, to give them more personality and variation. We will show you footage of the new models in our upcoming livestream on the 18th of October. We will also talk about how we plan to fulfill the "You or a relative as a NPC" reward.

If you want to see more behind-the-scenes tidbits, like funny bug situations, you can find more of that on our Discord: 

We also started sharing more BTS content on our social media channels:

TikTok | YouTube | Instagram | Twitter

We hope you enjoy these various insights into our game dev work (including bugs and weird glitches, which is a normal part of the process). Thank you again for being part of this journey!

PS: Standard reminder but we gotta mention it to make sure ;): If you haven't already, you can wishlist the game on Steam, it really helps a lot: 

Backer survey is open! And a visit to the British Imperial Museum 🛩️ 🇬🇧
over 2 years ago – Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 07:02:24 AM

Check your mail and fill out the backer survey!

Most of you should have now received a mail with a link to your BackerKit survey. Please respond to your survey, so we can get the necessary information to fulfill your rewards (like how to credit you in the credits, your address for shipping, etc.). The deadline for the survey is the 2nd of October. We will send out reminders.

You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like. If you missed your chance to get a reward like the access to the CLOSED ALPHA, this is your chance to get them now.

To our backers at the pledge level of €1,250 and above: We will contact you directly to arrange your special rewards. You don't need the survey, which is why you won't get that mail today.

A visit to the British Imperial Museum

Our game producer Moritz and game designer Jeremy traveled to London over the weekend and visited the British Imperial Museum for research purposes. We shared many photos on our Discord (you get the invite through our newsletter), but we can post a few here as well: 

How is development going?

Our programmers and artists are working diligently on the alpha version and we can share some behind-the-scenes material here.

Our 2D artist Dave is working on improving the user interface design:

 3D artist Brian is working on new map and resource objects:

 And our programmer Nicolò, who is also organising the QA department, has shared some funny bug situations in our Slack, including this one:

 Please keep in mind: bugs are normal in this stage of development! All of this is a work-in-progress.

If you want to see more, we continue to share pictures and videos on our Discord:

And don't forget to wishlist the game on Steam:

 Thank you so much for your continued support!

Alpha Development in Full Swing! + Backer Survey Info
over 2 years ago – Tue, Aug 15, 2023 at 07:31:17 AM

Hello everyone, we hope you are all having a great summer!

Alpha development is in full swing!

Our game designer has been focused on preparing a development and scope plan for the alpha version. Since the last weeks, all our developers are primarily working on laying the foundation for the alpha with the goal of getting it ready for later this year. 

We can share some behind-the-scenes videos from the visual work from one of our programmers, who is testing and refining the basics for the building process and the grid system. (All the footage here is a work-in-progress.) 

This phase of the development also includes refining shadows and shading systems:

Some of these clips were shared on our Discord as well.

Don’t forget, you can help the game by wishlisting it on Steam. So if you haven't already, wishlist it now!

Backerkit survey starts at the end of August

The start of the backer survey is planned to start at the end of August. Setting up the system with Backerkit took longer than expected because we adjusted our plans, so we can set up a "Pre-Order Shop" with Backerkit as well. We decided we want to give new people who didn't participate in the Kickstarter also the chance to buy the alpha access and help us test the alpha version of the game.

As a reminder, in the Backerkit survey we will collect the needed information for the physical rewards (like shipping address, T-shirt size) and your name for the credits. You will also have the chance to add rewards as add-ons if you missed something you wanted during the Kickstarter.

Project recommendation: Plank Builders 

A shout-out to our fellow Swiss game developers at Diditopia Games, who have launched a Kickstarter and a demo for their game Plank Builders. 

Plank Builders is a captivating yet relaxing construction game. Magical marbles have the ability to make stuffed toys come alive. Together with the monkeys, the player can plan and construct different buildings made out of wooden planks. Find all the monkeys and help them to come alive too!

They're almost at their funding goal, so go check it out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plankbuilders/plank-builders-relive-childhood-memories

Hello from the Swiss mountains ⛰️ And an update about Ground of Aces!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 05:23:01 AM

Hello everyone, we want to give you an update about what has been going on at Blindflug since the Kickstarter has finished.

Team get-together and game dev workshops

Several of our team members took a deserved break after the intense campaign efforts, but now our team is back together to focus on the next steps for Ground of Aces. This week, our programmers from Poland and Slovakia – Wojtek, Krzysztof and Matej – were visiting our main office in Zurich, so we could hold in-person workshops to talk about and plan the further steps in the production of the game. We want to share some pictures of our team during the workshops here.

Yesterday, we went on a hike in near Lucerne as a team activity, which gave us the opportunity to make a fresh team picture. You can see the team photo at the start of the post.

It doesn't happen often that we have most of the Blindflug Studios team at the same location because we have members living in and working from several countries. Unfortunately, we were still missing one team member. Our data analyst Yuriy couldn't join us because he lives in Ukraine and travelling out of and back to Ukraine is not possible for him due to the Russian invasion.

From the whole team, we want to thank you again for your support and for joining us on this journey!

Our pledge manager will be open soon

We are working with Backerkit to organize the necessary information for the various rewards and to later distribute the digital rewards when they're ready.  When the set-up and testing of the Backerkit pledge manager is finished, you will receive a mail with a link to the survey that you fill out with your information (like your shipping address, your shirt size and how/if we should credit you in the credits). Thanks to Backerkit's system, we can also give you another opportunity to buy rewards like the alpha access or T-shirt that are not part of your pledge. Stay tuned for that, we will inform you when the survey is ready.

For the organization of the rewards, we are in contact with companies that can do the T-shirts, caps, etc. and the shipment.

For the Discord roles, one of our programmers will set up a system with our Discord bot.

For the in-game rewards, like your own NPC, custom decal design etc., we will do a special survey and contact those backers at a later point. We have to be further along in development to properly organize those rewards.

To the backers of the highest tiers – "Business", "General - Plane Fan" and "Flight of a lifetime": We will contact you directly to organize your special rewards. Thank you so much for your generous support!

 Join the community!

Have you joined our hangar (= Discord server) yet? You can get the invite link by signing up on our website. We post behind-the-scenes material there and you can directly talk to the developers of the game. There's also extra channels to talk about WWII games, planes, movies, history etc. with the other community members.

PS: And if you haven't already, wishlist the game on Steam! ;)

Victory! ✌️ Operation Kickstarter was a success!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 02, 2023 at 08:56:05 AM

Our campaign ends with 2,043 backers, €109,925 raised! 

Thank you so much! You make this game possible!

Now, our team needs a bit of rest after this 30-days crowdfunding campaign. 🛌 And then we will continue our game design and development work and start organising the pledges and first rewards. You will receive surveys from us where you can submit information like your postal address, T-shirt sizes and so on for the physical rewards. We will keep you updated.

Join us on Discord

We will also keep posting behind-the-scenes titbits and insights at our hangar, aka our Discord server, so check that out if you haven't already.

How to get into our Discord?

• 1. Enlist on our website for the newsletter. 
• 2. You will get a mail that asks you to submit your call sign. Submit your call sign via the link in the mail.
• 3. Receive the Discord invite mail.

Stay tuned, we're just getting started!

PS: Don't forget to wishlist the game on STEAM!