Nowhere is the realization of flight grander or more satisfying than in video games. When done right, flying in a game can leave a lasting impression on both players and developers that impacts every game they play or make going forward.

Telltale Games designer Mike Stemmle pointed this out while demoing Tales of Monkey Island Episode 3 for me in September. I asked what gameplay inspirations helped him develop for Monkey Island and after a moment's pause he said, "Kingdom Hearts."

"Oh, because it has pirates?" I asked.

"No," he said. "It's the flying." The way the game introduces flying the player -– about halfway through its storyline after you've been running and jumping on the ground the whole time -– was like a revelation in game design for him. "Because once you get [to fly in Never Land], it's like you knew it was coming. It just felt right."

There's a fantasy fulfillment that comes with flying in video games. And even if flying in a game is just another way to get from point A to point B, it's appealing to a part of your senses that you don't use very much in everyday gameplay.

"We live in a very X, Y world," Dark Void Senior Producer Morgan Gray said. A veteran of flight games like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance, he knows his Z axis and isn't afraid to build his games around it. "If you look at … shooters, when they first came out, everything was flat. [There was] a roof over your head and walls on all sides. It was only really when you got to games … where you had enemies [above or below you] where you had to start exploring the Z axis."

Like Doom players that had to learn to use the mouse to enjoy Quake, your average gamer has to put in effort to master flight. Instead of thinking in only one or two directions, he or she has to think in a 360 degree bubble where enemies can come from any angle. They have to be aware of their character's (or aircraft's) physics so that they don't get lost when trying to execute a turn. Some games make it easier for the player by limiting the range of flight to forward-only like Star Fox or Panzer Dragoon; other games like Dark Void layer on tutorial after tutorial to make absolutely sure you internalize the controls before cutting you loose in the wild blue yonder.

By that same token, developers without Gray's flight-filled background have to work a lot harder to implement flying. Whereas Gray can look back over both his career and his childhood and see Chuck Yeager's face mocking him after Gray had crashed and burned in Advanced Flight Training, some developers only have memories of Star Fox or Wing Commander as their flying inspiration. They don't realize that there's more to flight than getting off the ground.

"Don't get me wrong," says Gray. "[Wing Commander's] level design was great, the ship design was great, progression was great. The actual nuts and bolts of flight? All pretty arcade-y because [it didn't feel] like there was meat to the simulation."

Developers with traditional level-making experience on shooters or adventure games that have the walls on all sides and the roof overhead have new challenges when making an enjoyable flying sequence or full game. They have to relearn how to organize a level around enemy spawn points in spaces with no walls or roofs.

"You really need to use enemies not only as a way of making a challenge for the player, but as defining space because [players] have to have that frame of reference for ‘where am I in the terrain?'" said Gray. "If you get [the timing right], it really gives the [flight] meaning and puts a plot to the [enemy] encounters. It's different than ‘And now we walk you in this room and find the blue key,' because you don't get blue keys in the air."

He compared a perfect flight level to a map called De Dust in Counter-Strike. To him, it was obvious that some developer had sat down with a stopwatch and timed how long it would take enemies to reach players when spawning from two different points on the map. That developer knew exactly where the player would be and what they would be doing when the enemy got to them, and they build the level outward around the player from that point.

Flying levels, Gray said, should be built the exact same way.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the upcoming Avatar for the Wii. A flight level with a giant lizard bird was the centerpiece of a demo given to me by creative director Daniel Bisson and he wasn't shy about telling me it was the hardest level to design. In early efforts, the enemies spawned too fast and the Wii Balance Board was over-responsive to even the slightest shift in weight, causing the lizard bird to pitch wildly and slam into spawning enemies. As the level developed, they added more environmental boundaries like tunnels and trees to define the flying space and confined 360 degree movements to quick time events.

So what began as a flying level instead turned into an arcade-style on-rails experience. Sure, you're up in the sky on the back of a bird. But, there's not much fantasy fulfillment and no raw freedom in having your hand held.

The trick is keeping reality from ruining fantasy. Yes, it's a lot of work to pilot an X-Wing in the Star Wars: Battlefront games; but if you get to blow up a TIE Fighter as a reward for your patience, you don't mind sinking effort into learning how to be a pilot. Likewise, War in the upcoming Darksiders would look silly with a pair of wings sprouting from his burly back; but hijacking a gryphon from an angel for a quick joyride through a ruined city appeals to the fantasy of the character and doesn't last so long that the game needs to bog the player down with real physics.

Above: The lone flying level in Darksiders.

With Crimson Skies and flight sims on side of the spectrum and our Star Foxes and Panzer Dragoons on the other, there are so many ways gamers can fulfill the fantasy of flight. Each new game that introduces a flying segment or builds its entire experience around the thrill of strapping on a jetpack builds on the collective fantasy gamers and developers share of taking to the skies.

The ultimate dream of flight in games, says Gray, is this: "I don't know where I'm at, but I'm having fun."

Image Cred — Kingdom Hearts
Title Image: The Fall of Icarus, Peter Paul Rubens, 1636

superannuation picked up four trademarks in all, for the following titles: Populous, Theme Park, Road Rash & Wing Commander.

Populous and Theme Park are interesting, since it was only yesterday EA were saying how keen they were to take a look at some of Bullfrog's classic PC titles. And there have been plenty of rumours surrounding the return of Road Rash.

That's all well and good. I don't really care. Not when there's Wing Commander being mentioned. Sure, it's only a trademark (hardly concrete confirmation that a new game is even in the planning stages), and sure, the last Wing Commander game was a crime against humanity, but none of that matters. My love for the series is so strong it can withstand anything. Movies included.

I like the implications of this [superannuation]

Awesomely named website Paper Commander (YES!) has relatively simple models from the WC franchise available for download. You too can make these. Isn't that delightful? Of course it is. Silly.

Welcome!!! [Paper Commander via Make Thanks Mark!]

Spacetime Studios Acquires Blackstar IP from NCsoft®

Blackstar is a highly stylized science-fantasy universe from developers of Wing Commander, Privateer, and Star Wars: Galaxies

AUSTIN, Texas - May 8, 2008 - Spacetime Studios, LLC announced today it has acquired the rights to the Blackstar IP from its previous publisher NCsoft. Spacetime Studios, an independent game development studio made up of industry veterans, now fully owns all the tools, technology and intellectual property from their previous publishing deal.

Set in the far future, Blackstar is a fresh universe full of wildly original space fighters, horrifying demonic enemies and epic drama. "The IP lends itself to almost any kind of gameplay that one could ask for, and was specifically designed to be a long-term franchise," said Cinco Barnes, creative director and co-founder of Spacetime Studios. "It's a nice sweet spot when you own all the puzzle pieces and we now have extraordinary flexibility in where to take the game universe next."

"After two years of development, the Blackstar universe is quite near and dear to our hearts" said Gary Gattis, executive producer and co-founder of Spacetime Studios. "Owning the IP as well as the engine and tool set puts a tremendous amount of potential in our hands. With all the developed components under the Spacetime team's control, the options for the IP are diversified."

The new "Blackstar Chronicles" development underway is a space fantasy combat game based on the single-player traditions of "Wing Commander" and the multiplayer feel of "Descent." "The Blackstar Chronicles is a very powerful product," said Jake Rodgers, art director and co-founder of Spacetime Studios. "The Blackstar universe has the potential to be something special and it's great that we are able to bring the IP to fruition."

Download a PDF about the IP at http://www.spacetimestudios.com/downloads/brochure_LoRes.pdf
More information about the studio can be found at http://www.spacetimestudios.com.

1 Sega Genesis w/Sega CD
- 2 Controllers
- 4 way Controller Adapter
- Wing Commander Sega CD

1 Super Nintendo
- 1 Controller
- Wing Commander SNES
- Wing Commander: Secret Missions SNES

1 Playstation Console
- 1 Controller
- Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger Playstation
- Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom Playstation

One Panasonic 3DO
- 2 Controllers
- Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger 3DO
- Super Wing Commander 3DO

Game Boy Advanced
- Wing Commander Prophecy

Gateway 2000 Pentium One PC w/Windows '95
- 1 CRT Monitor
- 1 Mouse
- 1 Keyboard
- 1 Set of Speakers
- Wing Commande
- Wing Commander: Deluxe Edition
- Wing Commander II: Vengence of the Kilrathi
- Wing Commander II: Vengence of the Kilrathi Deluxe Editio n
- Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tige
- Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom
- Wing Commander Academy

PLUS
Xbox 360 Elite Hardware + 11,200 Microsoft Points (not pictured)

Two runners up will receive 11,200 points for Xbox Live!

To enter you just need to sign up for the EA Arcade Newsletter.

More glad tidings from the land of PSP! Electronic Arts has confirmed its EA Replay collection, which will be a nice budget series of adventures for the nostalgic.

EA noted that the collection will include a total of 14 games from a number of the company's fondly remembered franchises, such as the Strike series, Road Rash, and Wing Commander. Specifically, EA Replay will include Syndicate, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Road Rash I-III, Wing Commander, and Wing Commander: The Secret Missions.

Other titles confirmed include B.O.B., Budokan, Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, Haunting Starring Polterguy, Virtual Pinball, and Mutant League Football. In addition, some titles in compilation will include a number of newly introduced features, such as head-to-head multiplayer, unlockable original game art, and the ability to save the game at any point.

Not mentioned: graphical upgrades. I'm wondering how good Wing Commander is really going to look on a PSP. Probably pretty crappy. But I'm hoping for Privateer! Eliza "Maniac" Gauger

More Here [Gamasutra]

There's some decent games coming in the upcoming EA retro compilation for the PSP... some decent games slopped together in some of the worst ports in gaming history.

Coming October 3rd, the EA Replay back for the PSP will feature some truly excellent games like Syndicate, Wing Commander and Ultima VII? The problem? Syndicate is the Jaguar version (I wouldn't want to try to play this game without a mouse) and the Wing Commander games and Ultima VII are the SNES ports.

But there's one title that makes this compilation a much purchase. Yes, Mutant League Football is coming to the PSP. That's worth $29.99 by its lonesome. Florian Eckhardt

Retail Radar: PSP to get EA retro comp [Gamespot]