Interview Just Pocket Games, Developer of Pocket Flight
- Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza
- 20 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Discussing a soon to release "cozy" flight game with a new dev team. Coming March 12th, 2026!
A few weeks ago during one of my usual social media platform patrols for flight game updates, Pocket Flight by Just Pocket Games flew onto my timeline. A few seconds of gameplay in the announcement video showed various types of aircraft flying above treetops, punching through storms and collecting strings of floating coins.
During Steam Next Fest February 2026 we went hands on with the public demo to get a feel for gameplay. Now, shortly before the game’s release on March 12th, 2026, we interview the developers to learn more about them, the project and some future plans.
Hello! Just Pocket Games is a brand new studio to me. I know very little about it beyond some of the promotional posts on social media. Please introduce yourselves.
We’re Just Pocket Games, a small indie studio founded by two longtime friends who met while studying Game Development at university. We’ve known each other for years, worked on student projects together, and always talked about building something of our own one day. Pocket Flight is the result of that promise. We’re developing it after our regular day jobs - late evenings, weekends, whenever we can find time. It’s very much a passion project. Marcin is responsible for the art direction and overall game design. I support the design process and handle all the programming - which basically means I turn Marcin’s ideas into something that actually works on screen. That’s our system: he dreams it up, I make it run!
What inspired the members of Just Pocket Games to create the studio?
The idea of starting a studio had been with us since our university days. Back then, we worked on multiple small projects together and realized we complement each other naturally - creatively and technically. Over time, as we moved into our professional careers, the desire to build something personal kept growing. We didn’t want to wait for the “perfect moment,” so we decided to start small and build in our spare time. Just Pocket Games was created as a space where we could experiment freely, without external pressure, and design the kind of experiences we personally enjoy - focused, atmospheric, and emotionally driven rather than competitive or overwhelming.
Do you have any previous experience with game development? How did you learn?
Yes! Our foundation comes from studying Game Development, where we gained both theoretical knowledge and practical experience by building multiple projects from scratch. After university, we continued developing our skills independently. A lot of our growth came from hands-on experimentation - prototyping systems, refining mechanics, testing ideas, and learning from what didn’t work. Marcin developed his visual style and design approach through constant iteration and artistic exploration, while I focused heavily on programming architecture, gameplay systems, and technical optimization.
Where did the concept for Pocket Flight come from? What does “cozy flying” mean?
The idea for Pocket Flight emerged from conversations about how most flying games feel intense: fast, competitive, or combat-driven. We started asking ourselves: what if flying could feel calm instead? The concept evolved around that thought. We imagined a game where the main experience isn’t about winning or losing, but about atmosphere and flow. "Cozy flying" for us means removing pressure and focusing on sensation - smooth movement, soft lighting, minimal UI, gentle audio, and a sense of openness. It’s designed to be something you can play after a long day, the same way we build it after ours. In many ways, Pocket Flight reflects our own rhythm: balanced around daily responsibilities, created slowly and intentionally, with care for small details.
You know, I felt the rhythm you mentioned during Steam Next Fest February 2026. I was bouncing through other demos as well, but it was easy to casually slip back into Pocket Flight to wander around for 10 to 20 minutes. The short game play cycles work well in sandbox mode. Is story mode also going to be suitable for short play sessions?
Yes, story mode is being designed with short play sessions in mind. Most missions are intended to fit within roughly 15–25 minutes, similar to the rhythm you experienced in sandbox mode. The narrative will be delivered through small quests and story moments, but the structure is intentionally divided into clearly defined stages. This way, players can complete a meaningful piece of the story in a single session without feeling obligated to continue playing in one long stretch. So whether someone has 15 minutes or wants to chain several stages together, the progression should still feel natural and satisfying.
For people wondering what a story mode in a game like this would be, can you give them a general idea of what they can expect?
Without giving too much away, the story mode focuses on a more personal side of the pilot’s life. As you progress, you’ll uncover fragments of his past and revisit events that shaped where he is now. The narrative unfolds gradually between flights through small story moments and memories, so players piece things together over time rather than receiving everything at once. And you won’t be alone up there! Along the way, a female voice will appear in the story as well.
The in game currency system being designed to encourage exploration feels like it is a uniquely Pocket Flight style system. That is to say, I cannot think of a similar system off the top of my head. What types of upgrades can players do in the Plane Editor?
In the Plane Editor, players can modify both the visual appearance of their aircraft and its performance. There’s a wide range of parts available, allowing you to experiment with different configurations depending on the kind of flying you prefer. You’ll be able to swap and customize elements such as engines, wings, tail wings, and propellers, which can influence how the plane behaves in the air. On top of that, there are also visual customization options, including different colors, so players can give their aircraft a look that feels uniquely theirs.
Are the upgrades in the Plane Editor persistent? If I unlock a new engine for an aircraft using coins I gathered in sandbox mode, will that engine upgrade still be available in story mode?
Upgrades from the Plane Editor are separate from story mode. The modifications and parts you unlock are meant for sandbox play, while the aircraft used in the story campaign remains fixed. This allows us to keep tighter control over the pacing and the overall experience in story mode. Missions are designed around a specific aircraft setup, ensuring that the challenges and moments in the narrative play out the way they were intended.
Daily challenges seem to be a key part of the replayability for Pocket Flight. What sorts of daily challenges will players have during the full game release?
At launch, players can expect a set of simple but engaging daily challenges designed to encourage regular flying and exploration. Examples include flying a certain number of kilometers, spending a specific amount of time in the air, collecting a set number of coins. These challenges are meant to fit naturally into normal play sessions, giving players small goals to pursue each day while they explore the world.
Pocket Flight uses procedurally generated terrain to make very large maps for players to fly over. How large are these maps? Was it difficult to use procedural generation in this way?
In practice, the maps are effectively infinite. Each of the five biomes available in the menu is built from dozens of terrain chunks that are combined dynamically as you fly. These areas are further enriched with details like vegetation and wildlife, which help make the world feel more alive while exploring. One of the biggest challenges was hardware performance. Procedural generation can be quite demanding in terms of system resources, so a lot of work went into making the generation efficient enough to run smoothly during gameplay. In the end, we’re happy with how it turned out and feel we’ve built a solid world generator that allows players to keep discovering new landscapes while flying.
What were some of the biggest challenges during the development of Pocket Flight? Any tips for other developers to keep in mind while starting their projects?
One of the biggest technical challenges was the aircraft customization system. Handling all the different interchangeable parts, saving player configurations, and dynamically updating aircraft stats depending on the selected components turned out to be much more complex than it might seem at first. From the art side, creating the aircraft themselves along with all the interchangeable components was also quite demanding. Designing parts that fit together visually and technically across many configurations requires a lot of iteration. At some point you also start running out of good reference material, especially when working on stylized aircraft and modular pieces, and you have to rely much more on your own judgment and design sense.
If there’s one takeaway for other developers, it’s that systems which seem simple on paper can become surprisingly complex during implementation - so it’s worth planning extra time for iteration and problem solving.
How was Steam Next Fest for Just Pocket Games? Is this the first game festival the team has participated in?
You could say it was the first one we seriously prepared for. Overall, it was a very positive experience for us. We received a lot of kind words and constructive feedback about the game, which has been extremely helpful. Perhaps most importantly, we had almost no reports of serious bugs, which was a great sign for us during the event. We’re taking all the feedback we gathered, drawing conclusions, iterating on the game, and getting everything ready for the full release.
After the release of Pocket Flight, are there any plans for post-release content? New maps? Aircraft?
Yes. We’re already planning a free content update scheduled for late March 2026. The update is planned to include several new aircraft, a new biome to explore, and a new mini-game for sandbox mode. Our goal is to expand the variety of activities and environments available to players after launch while keeping the core experience fresh.
Thank you for the pre-release interview. I appreciate the team making time to talk to Skyward Flight Media before the game release.
Thank you for your interest in Pocket Flight and for taking the time to speak with us. It’s always great to share a bit about the project and the work that has gone into it. We appreciate the opportunity and hope players will enjoy exploring the skies when the game releases. Clear skies!
Connect with Pocket Flight and Just Pocket Games
About the Interviewer
Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza
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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