Airheart

Background

Airheart was Blindflugs first attempt to make a game for PC & consoles. Airheart continues the world of Cloud Chasers by telling the tale of a migrant in a strange world: Amelia lives as a fisherwoman on Granaria, the flying city above the clouds. Living in relative poverty, she dreams of being the first person to find and hunt down the skywhale, a creature that would bring fame and fortune to anyone who finds and hunts it in the stratosphere. So she tinkers on her airplane to continuously fly up into the skylayers above Granaria

Gameplay:

Airheart is a twin stick shooter with rogue-like elements. In every level you have to find an exit point to launch yourself higher into more dangerous territory. You progress through seasonal stages while encountering more and more dangerous enemies like merciless skypirates and automated defense drones. As you catch fish and destroy enemies for loot, you have to cleverly decide when to dive back home to the city of Granaria, for should you be shot down, you might actually crash outside the flying city and lose all your progress.

Design:

One of they key aspects of Airheart is that it is an airplane game with an emphasis on progression. You constantly look down on the city of Granaria, showing you how high you climbed. On your way back all previous islands you flew over become obstacles to avoid. And should you start to crash, the whole view becomes a frantic search for your home base, to not miss it and lose your progress.

Special care has also been shown to Airhart's ecosystem of flying fish and its inspiration of overfishing. The game keeps track of every fish species of every layer. And should the player disturb the balance through overfishing or destruction through weapons, secondary species will slowly take over or the whole ecosystem could even collapse. In the long run, players need to learn to not be greedy, or else they destroy Airheart’s world forever.