Today, I am very happy to announce that the demo of Airline Founder has officially been released. You can now download and play it. The demo is a pre-release version of the game intended primarily to gather your thoughts, feedback, and suggestions before the full release.

The demo allows you to play for up to 18 in-game months, operate up to eight active routes and ten aircraft, and use up to two origin airports. The IPO feature and Steam achievements are not available, but Steam Cloud saves are supported. The full version will remove these gameplay limitations and add the features unavailable in the demo, including IPOs and Steam achievements.

The demo is free, and I plan to keep it available and continue updating it over time.

If you would like to share your feedback, there is a pinned thread in the Steam Discussions forum for feedback, suggestions, and bug reports.

I hope you enjoy the demo.

A Few Words from the Developer

Hello, everyone. I’m Nerowan, the independent developer of Airline Founder.

First, let me tell you a little about myself. I am a seventeen-year-old high school student from Beijing, China.

I have been interested in games from a very young age. However, rather than simply playing them, I have always seemed to enjoy something else even more, creating the kinds of games that interest me.

When I was twelve, I formed a team to develop a China map mod for Euro Truck Simulator 2. Over the following years, we created a mod that reached more than 20,000 players and built a community of over 3,000 members.

I have also been fascinated by the sky and aviation since childhood. I am currently a student pilot working toward my Private Pilot Licence. At the same time, I have chosen business and economics as my academic direction in high school. Eventually, my interest in aviation, my interest in business, and my experience in game development came together. That was how the idea for Airline Founder was born.

Recently, I happened to come across a discussion in the community of a similar game. Its developer had made many promises, but some time after the game was released, the developer disappeared and abandoned the project, leaving players feeling deceived. Some people have wondered whether the same thing might happen to Airline Founder.

I understand why players may have this concern. I hope to earn trust over time through the game, its updates, and my communication with the community.

I am fortunate to be at a stage in life where I do not depend on this game for my livelihood. This gives me the freedom to focus on creating something that I genuinely care about, rather than having to make every decision around short-term revenue.

For that reason, I intend to continue updating the game, listening to your feedback, and improving it over time. My current plan is to price the full version at no more than US$10. I strongly encourage everyone to try the demo first. Whether you decide to purchase the full game is entirely up to you.

I do not want players to feel that they had to purchase the game without knowing what they were getting. That is also one of the purposes of the demo. I also try to remain easy to reach through the game’s community and my public social accounts. I use the same name on Instagram, X, and LinkedIn.

I welcome all discussion about the game, including criticism, questions, doubts, and different opinions.

Finally, I would like to say something to everyone who has shown an interest in Airline Founder.

I developed this game with passion. If you have found your way here, I believe there must be something here that you are passionate about as well. So take that passion with you as you play, explore, and discover.

Nerowan
Developer of Airline Founder

Originally written in Chinese and polished with AI assistance.