GateBound

Inspiration

Mini Motorways made me want to build a game where you draw a network and then watch it work. I kept wondering how that idea would feel at an airport. Planes need runways, gates and space to move, so the choices would be different from drawing city roads. That became GateBound.

What it does

GateBound is an iPhone strategy game where you build an airport while flights arrive. You place terminals, add gates for different aircraft colors and draw taxiways to connect everything. Between shifts, you choose what to build or upgrade next.

The game has six cities with different terrain, plus World Tour, Endless, Daily Operation and Weekly Circuit modes. You can play World Tour in Madrid for free. Captain Pass opens the other airports and modes and removes ads.

How we built it

I built the game in SwiftUI, with separate Swift packages for the airport rules, simulation and pathfinding. The simulation handles aircraft movement and growing demand. I used seeded runs and tests to check how the same airport behaves after a change.

We generated artwork for parts of the game, including the icon, aircraft, buildings and terrain. Getting those images into the game took more than dropping them into an asset folder. I adjusted their scale and colors so they worked together on the map and stayed readable beside the taxiways and controls. RevenueCat handles Captain Pass purchases and restores.

Challenges we ran into

The touch controls took a lot of work. A drag might mean “draw a taxiway” or “move the map,” depending on where it starts. I added a route preview and confirmation step so players can see what they are building before they use their tiles.

The art was another challenge. Generated images can look good individually and still feel wrong together. Aircraft, terminals and terrain needed to read at the same scale, including when the map was zoomed out. I also had to balance six different layouts without making one airport feel much easier than another.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud that GateBound became a complete game rather than a single map or a prototype of the routing idea. It has six airports, several ways to play, saved operations and a visual style that carries through the maps and menus.

Madrid is a full free starting point. Players can learn the game and finish an operation before deciding whether Captain Pass is for them.

What we learned

Making the assets was only the first step. Once they were in motion, I had to judge them by how quickly a player could read the airport, not by how they looked on their own.

I also learned the value of repeatable tests. When a change affects aircraft routes, upgrades and several maps, I need to be able to run the same situation again and see what changed.

What's next for GateBound

I want to see where new players hesitate during their first operation, especially when placing a terminal or drawing a route. From there, I'll keep refining the controls and balancing the existing cities. New maps and challenges can follow what players enjoy in the game we have now.

Built With

• revenuecat
• swift
• swiftui