Indie Highlight 001: Series Start
- Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza
- 5 minutes ago
- 7 min read
The start of an idea that was long time coming
SERIES INTRODUCTION
I am proud to say that coverage of indie flight games is a considerable part of our content on the website. We now plan on increasing that ratio a bit more with this new series: Indie Highlight.
The origins of this type of article can be directly traced to our Steam Next Fest compilation articles. In those we briefly cover multiple new indie games that have active demos during those events to try and direct more attention to the devs showing off their progress milestones. This series follows a similar spirit by discussing multiple indie flight games at once while presenting direct links for readers to get in contact with teams and community around each game and purchasing every indie game we can while providing coverage.
Going forward, we are making it a point to do this type of article more frequently to look at the efforts of indie developers outside of those festivals as well. There is also an entirely new part of the website being prepared to further represent indie games. But for now, let's get to it!
QUICK UPDATES
Supermaneuver
This is going to sound crazy, but a lot of people may have first seen this game because of a few videos of a Tu-160 Blackjack the size of a city block. This game was officially named Supermaneuver on January 22nd, 2025 by developer and 3D artist Gabriel Solon. At this stage of development the game visually reminds us of Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere and uses a level inspired by that game in its early development phase. With aircraft able to perform post stall maneuvers, a hangar interface not seen in the original Ace Combat game and mentions of fictional countries like Karazinov, Levaria and Anglia this doesn't seem to be a fan remake. There are videos of combat, aircraft selection and now supersonic flight as of just last week. | Links: X.com - YouTube
Nova Squadron
According to indie developer Clara Gale, May 8th, 2025 was the fifth anniversary of the beginning of Nova Squadron development. The original plan was to release major update 0.4.0 on the anniversary, but it is now being moved to July 2025. This is for the sake of ensuring quality, improved graphics, new missions and locations and an all new fictional Attacker aircraft - the Valkyrie. An aircraft that is easily one of the more visually interesting fictional designs to be seen in an indie flight game in a bit. | Links: Bluesky - Steam - X.com
Tiny Combat Arena
The beloved retro aesthetic flight sim lite circa 2020 had its X.com account publicly announced as inactive on February 17th, 2025. Now, of course Tiny Combat Arena as a game is still alive under publisher MicroProse, but the decision of developer Why485 to leave social media was jarring for his following on social media. Not to fear though. Besides being active in the official MicroProse Discord, Why485 is continuing to provide development updates on their new Bluesky account, opened on April 16th, 2025. Feel free to continue showing support for them directly on Bluesky as well, if able. | Links: Discord - Bluesky - Steam
At Skies' Edge
This shadow dropped flight game hit a massive milestone on October 3rd. 2024. Developer Mackerel Sky made the decision to pursue developing this title into a full game, rather than an increasingly complex demo after the demo saw consistent success starting in May 2023. It should be noted that the Itch.io iteration of this game is still available for download, but it will not represent the future of the final product. Development progress since then can be tracked on their Bluesky and X.com accounts. New aircraft and weapons are being modeled, new terrain, new VFX and further core game development - all can be found on their social media accounts. There is no new demo to try out these improvements at this time. | Links: Bluesky - Itch.io - X.com
Project Red Sun
AOA Productions continues work on this upcoming title with a few known individuals from other flight arcade games rumored at being involved in the project. The demo for the game was confirmed as feature complete on February 3rd, 2025 with refinement underway for an eventual Kickstarter and Steam demo; something mentioned in the description of their March 10th, 2025 Dogfight Refinement video. Project Red Sun is a project I would love more information about, but for now public facing information is best found on their social media accounts and YouTube channel. | Links: Bluesky - X.com - YouTube
Helio Stratos
A curious in development title that labels itself as a third person jetfighter game. Its developer, Amalgam Studios, is still deep in the trenches with core game development, but what has been shown in written and video devlogs has been interesting. We see flashes of aim down sights style camera angles during close range combat, "jet drifting" aircraft whipping energetically to intercept passing aircraft and lore that sounds like it would be right at home in something like Destiny or Halo. On May 8th, 2025 a test build was uploaded to Patreon for initial feedback while supporting the developer directly. | Links: Linktree
IN FOCUS
FEBA Gunship R by rucsgames is an attack helicopter focused combat flight game that had some rather interesting extra features unrelated to flight itself. Its developer describes the game as having simple controls that are easy enough to use without having any experience with flying helicopters while also being "unforgiving" with "even a moment of carelessness" leading to defeat. I started out planning to do a "quick playthrough" of the game to get a feel for it... and I found myself turning the game off about five hours later! I was sucked in rather quickly. I feel as though I want to write a full article about this game.
The way the gameplay is balanced certainly allows for both in a way that seems daunting at first, but is highly reward within 10 to 20 sorties from my experience.
The flight model of the game is decidedly arcade. Altitude is controlled with two face buttons on the game pad. There is an altitude limit that does not let players crash into terrain and does not let them fly at the theoretical maximum altitude of whichever helicopter they are flying. Not a big deal considering that most of the combat happens fast and primarily focuses on land and naval targets. Players are able to climb, strafe, yaw and other familiar rotary-wing flight controls, but do not expect to pull a scout helicopter through a full loop or a barrel roll.
Thus far the signature feature of FEBA Gunship R adds immense replayability is its system of unlocking, crafting and purchasing weapons, vehicles and even bases and base defenses. This entire customization system is tiered with what feels like game mechanics similar to mobile games. Items in the item shop rotating every 15 minutes or so, purchasing items outright or gradually building them scrap parts and blue pints gathered via combat.
As more airframes and weapons are purchased by the player, their helicopter can be assigned to up to three wingmen that can receive basic orders from the player mid-combat. Even the very military base that players must defend from attack each mission can be customized with specific types of support functions and hand picked defense weapons ranging from machine gun emplacements up to surface-to-air missile launchers.
With each enemy destroyed giving points, random chances to find parts one the map during combat and a reasonable "grind" to gather currency and improve equipment is actually enjoyable once players learn the finer parts of how to be selective in which battles they jump into and how to manage their currency.
The deciding moment in me feeling as though I want to write a full article on FEBA Gunship R was when I bought a noticeably better attack helicopter with newly crafted radar guided anti-tank missiles while commanding two lower power AI wingmen from a customized heliport.
While I have reached a point in the game where I can access more advanced game functions, it still feels early to write a full piece on this game. I need more time with it and look forward to putting in the effort.
Connect with 'FEBA Gunship R'
REVISIT
Project Skyscape was an ambitious flight game that incorporated first person view ground movement and original aircraft with somewhat simplified but fully interactive cockpits. At the time it was being developed game testers drew parallels between it and VTOL VR by Boundless Dynamics in terms of cockpit interaction.
Flyleap Studios, the developer of this game, announced its closure on June 11th, 2022 citing a career change of its lead developer, their opinion of the flight genre being a competitive field and the realities of being a solo dev attempting to make this line of work their only source of income.
Skyward Flight Media wrote an article about its use of an in-game gyroscope flight simulator. This is still an interesting way to teach players how to fly and fight without without building out a series of tutorial missions. While a dedicate flight game where players never leave the cockpit of the aircraft could not benefit from this, a game with first person or third person movement outside of an aircraft could capitalize on this concept.
Thanks for joining us for the first installment of our Indie Highlight series. The format of this series is bound to change a bit over time, but it is great to take the next step in supporting indie flight games and their developers. Until next time!
About the Writer
Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. [Read Staff Profile]
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