So let's go back down memory lane where it all started
So, MSFS2020 was just released. I got back into my flight simulators as it was Covid times and I was bored. I remember playing FSX and X-Plane 11, however, I was no expert on it. I could just barely take off and land. Anyway, MSFS2020 days. I found that it was missing a lot. Even something basic, immersion. Using my streamdeck I created a soundboard for announcements and some additional sound fx. I only had easyjet and BA. I took a picture of it and posted it on a flight sim facebook page. The amount of requests I got to make it an app was unreal.
Back when OMSI came out, I made an app for OMSI. It was called OMSI Live. Basically giving you the ability to run your own bus company. However due to server costs I had to shut it down as I couldn't maintain it.
Now lockdown started, I had extra time so I thought, yeah, let's make that ap. It was very basic. Wrote it in a day and uploaded it to flightsim.to and other sites. It got over 10,000 downloads overnight. So I was like, yeah I'm onto something here. I started expanding the app, made it look better, more user friendly and less hustle. Again, I'm no coder or UI designer by trade. Back then I was just a London Bus Driver. I named the app LukeAirTool, it got really popular so I kept expanding it. Then I wanted to add passenger simulation. As I found SLC bit stale at that time. I am aware that they had updates over time that improved it. I wanted to simulate passengers behaviours a bit better and focused on that as well as announcements. This was challenging in it self as it was nearly impossible to create what I wanted to make. I just lacked the knowledge.
CoffeePanda has joined the team to help me get the app into a better state and get PaxSim of the ground. Eventually, we done it. We had first paxsim. On my birthday 28th November 2020, we released PaxSim. It had received amazing reviews from streamers and online flight sim articles. I started expanding it by adding more and more to the app. Eventually we hit a wall with LukeAirTool. We reached the codes limitations and current version of AirTool, cannot be built further. This doesn't mean that I have scrapped it.
It was time for a rewrite, using a different language and make the app to server connection more stable. As covid started to be a thing of the past, people that were working with me have left the team and I was left on my own. I started learning a new programming language but at that time, I had hardly any experience in it and as the world started going back to normal, so was my job.
Last year, I did put something together and first ever version of AirTool 3.0 was working, finally managed to get it to work. An unreleased version is out there somewhere with few users to this day. However, as I had a working version of AirTool available at that time, I thought I would go to my second project, start fresh, learn new tricks and UI design. The start of flyLAT began. A basic version was already available in AirTool but that's where limitations hit. I always wanted to separate it from AirTool as they both are different apps.
First ever flyLAT flight happened over a year ago. Around November 2023. However development has stopped due to someone on the team refusing to work on a programming language that I wanted. This person insisted on another rewrite which would have caused the app to be delayed even more. I'm sorry but servers cost me £20 per month (in 2023) and now in 2024 they cost me £40 per month. I really want to make flyLAT a sandbox experience for all players. Try to copy how real airlines function and create a gap between fun and realism.
I have huge vision for flyLAT and AirTool, @sim_k hates hearing "I have an idea".... honestly, with what you see now is probably 5% of what I want to achieve with it.
It has been challenging creating the project. I spend at least 1-2 hours every weekday after work and at least 7-10 hours on a weekend developing it. With the likes of WebApp now appearing in flyLAT universe, giving players more ways to manage their airline away from their desk. I have another idea for something else to be implemented but I need to test it when the time is right.
Overall, this has been an experience that I want to expand into something beyond flyLAT and AirTool. I would love to design my own game in the near future and this is where my investment will also go. Once flyLAT becomes a paid service, I want to pay off the servers for at least 5 years, invest it back into flyLAT to give you all more features and another project which is a spinoff of flyLAT. Something that we did not announce yet and probably wont for another year. After flyLAT is stable and fully functioning with features that I want to release (probably by 0.7), I will be resuming my work on AirTool 3.0.
Hopefully I didn't bore you to death reading this and if you like our transparency and would like us to write more dev blogs (promise that next one will be shorter), et us know in the comments bellow.
Until next time
Luke
