The co-founders of Skyward Flight Media take a pause from content creation to reflect on the third year of operations.
Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza
My reflection on Skyward Flight Media's third year of operation is late, as our anniversary is formally on March 24th. In retrospect, I was still writing flight-related articles as early as 2015. From then until 2019, it was mostly about a single-game series: Ace Combat. Going even farther back, my first serious try at creating something was an English database centered on that series, all the way back during my time as a High School student in 2005. Despite what I publicly produced only reflecting that series, in private I routinely flew in just about every flight game or flight simulator I could get my hands on. In 2019, I learned a tough lesson about doing what is expected of me and doing what I truly want to do. A portion of what caused the 2020 rebrand can be described as coming to the realization that doing nothing but the same thing over and over can make it unenjoyable.
For me, this was the driving factor in making Skyward Flight Media an organization that "creates content about flight games and simulators across all levels of realism from past and present." I had hoped this would broaden our horizons. Not wanting to potentially fall into the single-subject creation loop I was in before, I willingly took up the position as the unofficial variety writer for Skyward. Old flight simulators, new fast-paced flight games, experimental titles that are hardly known - everything is open to me. This is the exact opposite of what I wad doing before.
Reviewing the assortment of content Skyward produced in the past year has once again made me genuinely smile and appreciate the journey so far. One of my first releases for the website in the past year was for Creator Highlight Month 2022, in which I interviewed someone that was creating aviation machinima videos and gameplay assets in Besiege (of all places!). I discussed strafing Jedi in Star Wars Battlefront II, the F-14 Tomcat Simulator that used the Atari 2600 itself as a controller, and my continued bedazzlement with VRChat aviation. All while still writing about my ongoing love of Digital Combat Simulator, my original muse, Ace Combat, and pursuing any aviation related project that grabs my interest.
I am most proud of the engagement with indie developers. As with everything in this life, it is the need to innovate that drives small business, entrepreneurs and in this case, developers trying to strike out on their own to make a name for themselves. In my opinion, this is where consistent innovation and experimentation meets the love of aviation. Being able to make direct contact with these developers, interview them, create pre-release content or even help test their creations has been a privilege.
In 2023, I want to continue this trend with more of an effort to connect with developers of all types and sizes and flight peripheral manufacturers. A key part of this may be our involvement with Flight Sim Expo 2023 and attendance to the event this year. It will be my first time travelling to an event like this in many years because of COVID, so I'm equally excited and nervous for many reasons.
I want to thank everyone that supports us and the developers and content creators that have supported us so far. I know Skyward is an odd duck in terms of the content we create about the flight sim genre, so having your support while we pursue our interests without reserve means so much to me. Here is to another year.
Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos
For me, this last year was one of progress and discovery. We finally passed three hundred posts and managed to, in a way, find our own place in the flight sim community. We got to work with developers of many sizes, from big to small. So to say that it was an eventful year would be an understatement.
I am most proud of all the reviews I was able to write about both DCS World modules and some indie games like Tiny Combat Arena. These reviews are the bread and butter of my content on the site, and I look forward to adding even more aircraft and games to this growing library of long-form content we have in our site. Additionally, a highlight of 2022 was getting to work with more small and upcoming developers in the DCS arena. Meeting and talking to developers like PeeJott and Fredrik about their projects was an awesome experience that helped me understand a bit more about how these passionate developers work behind closed doors to bring these mods to life.
Sadly, due to where I live, I will not be able to attend Flight Sim Expo in person. Does that mean I will not cover it? No, of course not. I will be there every second of the event, publishing all the new information as it comes out. That being said, Aaron will be there in person, so do expect some exciting coverage from him.
We accomplished most if not all the goals we set for ourselves and built upon the foundations we already had since 2020. Our audience has grown, too, all thanks to the effort we continue putting into the site every day. I sincerely thank everyone that has stuck with us for this long and those who have collaborated with us in any capacity, without you, we would not be the organization we are right now. Now, here's to many more years of Skyward!
Skyward Flight Media is an aviation enthusiast organization that creates content about flight games and simulators across all levels of realism from past and present. Our passion to pursue and discuss simulated aviation wherever it can be found has resulted in unique articles, interviews with development teams, insights into module creation, access to closed alphas and closed betas for upcoming projects, contacts with international flight sim organizations and more.
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