This week, the City Builder & Colony Sim Steam Fest takes place. For this occasion, we prepared something special: To celebrate Ground of Aces’ feature in the Steam Fest, we’re launching a week-long Giveaway Challenge and we are giving away City Builder games that inspired us.

Just download the Ground of Aces demo and launch the game. The Giveaway Challenge can be accessed in the main menu. Go there to learn more!

So gear up, take off, and claim your rewards. Don’t miss this opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of Ground of Aces while winning awesome prizes.

Play the free demo of GROUND OF ACES:
https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/2308690/Ground_of_Aces/

Today is a special day, we are excited to release the official demo based on our latest Alpha 5 build.

We reworked the aircraft models, we added new features to the building and resource management system, and we improved and polished many aspects of the general playing experience based on the feedback from the community. We also made the game more accessible to new players by improving tutorial features and adding more languages with the help of our amazing community translators.

Play the new demo:
https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/3068740/Ground_of_Aces_Demo/

Check out our new demo trailer, celebrating this milestone:
For people who have played the previous alpha versions, here is an overview of the most significant changes. Play the demo and discover the new features and how they make your base building more efficient:

• Improved aircraft models
  
• New grid-based building system
  
• Improved workbench management for more efficient resource production
  
• Improved information bubble system (the speech bubbles over your NPCs and assets)
  
• New animations for the NPCs
  
• New background music
  
• New highlighting system (i.e. for displaying the resources you need on your map)
  
• Balancing and resources adjustments (for example, Tier 1 parking spots don’t need bricks any more)
  
• Community Translations: This demo now has British English, German, French, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Malay, Russian, Dutch and Swiss German localization thanks to the efforts of our community translators.
  
• New tutorial texts and tooltip feature
  
• Many more UI, UX, and other quality-of-life improvements
  
• (The roof building still sucks, we promise we are working on it - sorry!)

Your base can’t get attacked yet in this version, but we are working on that for the next Alpha.

For this demo, we have set up a separate Steam page. This allows you to review the demo now. It's easier than ever to share your feedback on the game with us and help us make the best game possible. Not to mention that feedback will also help more players discover the game and join our community. Leave a review here!

If you want to give us more extensive feedback, we also have our demo survey form[us8.list-manage.com] and the in-game feedback button.

You can also join our community on Discord[discord.gg] and talk with our devs there.

Thank you to our community and Alpha testers for their support.


We would also like to thank our community translators. It means a lot to us that you love the game enough to make it accessible in other languages.

British English (proofreading)
_divine_duck_, aquinn, Gas_mask, Heja Ali (hejaali84), Mental Stress (mentallystress), olla (olla.ch), Pazifischt, Spcstambo

Dutch
Aitor Vermassen Martin (aitorvermassen), Icedcoldthie, Jik Huijberts (__Kowalski__), Joeri van Groningen (joerivgroningen), Lucas Evers (levers14), MajorTom, Mathijs H

French
jeff poulin (jfpoulin79), kartouche, Initiative_Consolidair, Matthieu Nickels (matthieu.nickels), Mazotti Gaëtan, nicos (metalmachine1985), olla (olla.ch), Nicolas "STorMzZ" Bernard , Valentin Gebhart (gebhart.valentin.67), woontala, Yasser Toor (yasser.toor)

German
Adrian Zuschlag (adrian.zuschlag), Alexander Koch (Hodlar), André Schaaf (andreschaaf87), Benjamin Lines (BenjaminLines), H. Timcke (Bearguard), Jan, Jens Schubert (Santorium), Josef Dalibor (StormDoom), Lars Zielinski (zielinski.1992.lars), Lysandro, olla (olla.ch), Pazifischt, Sir.Seadragon, the_great_duncan

Malay
Westfalen247

Russian
Ezra5005000, bobrisssss

Simplified Chinese
866401080, 45231hgjkl, a sc (asc19215), Adamame, an99-, Angelia Jiang (AngeliaJiang), Aslan Whiterock (Aslan_Whiterock), Baimiao2534, BeathofGod, bukeiqm, DSI0420, EragonPaladin, ERVOCONITESNOWER, Feng Ling (JunjieZhang), FrostFlash, HUYouran123, iallemege, Kikooo Zeus (zeuskikooo), legion236, Li_CloudGood, Lix Lou (Ramjet120C), Mar Lee (MarsLLL), muyu5243, Otch, perpetuity, poorzhou, Qianyue Jin (supremacy17det), Sources, 三土 (1594057335), 明翰李 (liminghan13hz), perpetuity

Swiss German
olla (olla.ch), Nuria Massó (NuriaBFS)

Turkish
Hakan Berkay Boyar, olla (olla.ch)


I also want to say a special thank you to the whole Blindflug team for their hard work!

- Moritz aka Dark Zero, Blindflug Studios

On the 12th of March, we will release a new demo of Ground of Aces!

In our free demo, you will get a preview of our strategy base building game. Build your first Royal Air Force airbase and manage an array of aeroplanes while getting your pilots ready for their first missions. Discover the building and management mechanics while expanding your base and make your first strategic decisions when taking on different missions from HQ to help the war effort.

Thanks to our community, the demo will also be available in several languages, like German, French, Dutch, Turkish, Russian, Malay, and Simplified Chinese. We even have Swiss German dialect available! Thank you so much to our community translators that helped us with the translations.

You can help us make more translations available and check the already existing translations here:

HELP US TRANSLATE THE GAME[crowdin.com]

Even if your language already reached 100%, you can vote on existing translations and add new suggestions.

One fun thing about the translations: Half of our team are Swiss German dialect native speakers and to our surprise, a community member volunteered to translate the whole game into a Swiss German dialect. So you will get to see how Swiss German writing looks like. (And it is a language, despite what the German might say. :P) Just now the questions is, which dialect from which Swiss region will prevail until the final release because there are many different dialects…

We can't wait for you to check out the new demo and discover for yourself how Ground of Aces is shaping up to be.

Until then, have a look at our new screenshots that we have added to the Steam page of Ground of Aces:
Check out the rest on the Steam store page:
https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/2308690/Ground_of_Aces/

In the name of the whole team, thank you for your support!

- Nuria, Community Manager from Blindflug Studios

Our team finished the Alpha 4 version of Ground of Aces and we updated the demo with its new features.

Here is the list of the major changes of the Alpha 4:

HQ relationship & airbase rank system

• Different types of airfield ranks and requirements.
  
• Weekly goals of started and successful missions.
  
• Get served more missions as your base levels up.

Victory Points system

• Earn victory points after completing missions.
  
• Purchase new, more powerful planes with victory points.
  
• You can decommission unwanted plane crews in the plane management screen.

Weekly resource delivery system

• Get weekly shipment of resources from HQ.
  
• A truck delivers exclusive military grade resources.
  
• Resource amount is tied to HQ goals success.

Game Over scenario: it’s possible to fully lose the game.

• Brand new Game Over screen animation.
  
• Lose the game by low base morale.
  
• Lose the game by not fulfilling HQ expectations for three weeks in a row.

New wall and floor decorations

• Posters, Flags and other wall decorations.
  
• Carpets, rugs and other ground decorations.
  
• Posters are custom designed, inspired by historic war posters.

Improvements to plane taxi

• Planes now take more realistic paths according to their sizes.
  
• Planes can use multiple runways at the same time.
  
• Smarter scheduling on which runways to use by distance and occupation.

Balancing updates

• Missions majorly affect base morale, depending on their success.
  
• Missions are more dangerous, potentially inflicting damage on successes.
  
• Higher fuel consumptions across all missions.
  
• More realistic, larger fuel tanks for large bombers.
  
• Fuel is more scarce and harder to get. Shipments are important.
  
• More range in food production, the 4 seeds feel majorly different from each other.
  
• More punishing effects from work and war. Harder to keep up base morale.
  
• More severe punishment from not sleeping on proper beds.
  
• Workbenches now either need to be built inside or outside by type.
  
• Size of parking spots have been slightly reduced.
  
• Several resources now don't degrade anymore when stored properly.

Improved UX & UI

• New particle effects for workbenches and tasks
  
• Ability to build several assets in the same rotation while holding shift.
  
• The current time of day is visible in the schedule window.
  
• New shipment truck UI showing your upcoming shipments.
  
• More historic plane details in the plane order detail window.
  
• Building projects now have different placeholder box sizes.
  
• There are depleted versions of wild seed plants.
  
• Gardening uses the proper tools like hoes and watering cans.

Improvement of game performance

• Less lag when upgrading runways and parking spots
  
• Better optimisation in task handling
  
• (under construction) Quality Settings in the Options Menu

Bugfixes

• Fixed issues with existing roofs not being able to be deconstructed.
  
• NPCs now face each other when talking and fighting.
  
• Fixed several issues with plane previews in the plane order window.

Why was this update released faster than the previous Alphas?

Because we wanted to give the community something special for Christmas! And during the Christmas break, many have more time to play and test the latest features.

Send us your feedback and shape the game during development!

How do you like the new progression system and the feel of it? What do you think about the missions? What do you think about the balancing?

Use the survey link and feedback button inside the game to send us your new feedback. With your input, we will know what improved, what we overlooked and on what we need to keep focusing. Together with you, we can make the game better for everyone.

We hope you have time to try out the new Alpha / new demo over the Christmas break.

Happy holidays from the whole Blindflug Studios team!

We are excited to report that our game is featured in the "Deutsche Indie Showcase", hosted by the German Twitch streamers Gronkh[www.twitch.tv] and PhunkRoyal[www.twitch.tv].

For this, we made an exclusive new Alpha 3 showcase video with special cinematic recordings.
Here is the English version:
Check out the whole Deutsche Indie Showcase with the German version of our video and discover more indie games from Germany, Austria and Switzerland:

Thank you so much to the Deutsche Indie Showcase team for giving a showcase slot to Ground of Aces!

We are looking forward to the feedback from fresh demo players! Play the demo and use the in-game feedback tool and survey link to tell us your thoughts, suggestions and wishes for the game directly. You can shape the game and its development with your input!

Get the invite to our Discord server by enlisting on our website:
[www.groundofaces.com]

The Alpha 3 update for all alpha supporters is here. And that means, we have updated the free demo of GROUND OF ACES as well!

See what is new in our Alpha 3 overview video:
KEY UPDATES:

• Four new aircraft
  
• - Bristol Beaufighter
  
• - Gloster Gladiator
  
• - Avro Lancaster
  
• - Bristol Blenheim
  
  
• New missions and mission types
  
• - fighter missions
  
• - surveillance missions
  
• - bombing runs
  
• - skill missions
  
• - transport missions
  
• - stealth missions
  
  
• Expanded mission systems
  
• - stats and modifiers logic
  
• - mission consequences logic
  
  
• Plane maintenance system
  
• - manage fuel, integrity, health of plane
  
• - multi seat plane logic
  
• - pilot class and task system
  
• - fuel as new resource
  
  
• New building blocks and assets:
  
• - hangar floor, walls and roofs
  
• - fences
  
• - metal shelves
  
• - water pumps
  
• - fuel tanks
  
• - two new sizes of parking spots
  
  
• Gardening system
  
• - gather seeds from wild plants on map: tomato, potato, grain and beans
  
• - assign gardening zones
  
• - grow plants and harvest your own food and seeds
  
  
• 3D preview of aircraft when ordering a plane

Other improvements:

• more metal wrecks on maps
  
• parking spot no longer needs to be adjacent to runway
  
• improved path finding of planes from runway to parking spot
  
• particle effects for workbenches and work animations
  
• particle effects for damaged planes
  
• trash now degrades in storage zones and disappears
  
• easier way to select zones via left click
  
• new category of airplane maintenance tasks
  
• cheaper costs for metal projects
  
• tweaks to UI window management
  
• mission timers stop once every pilot is seated
  
• faster runway building
  
• faster destruction rocks
  
• runways keep their previous tier when being upgraded to larger sizes
  
• adjustments to the game's credits
  
• and more bug fixes and balancing adjustments

NEXT STEPS

Our team is working on the next alpha update right now. Here is what you can expect as the main features for Alpha 4:

• relationship system with HQ & victory points
  
• weekly resource delivery system
  
• wall and floor decorations
  
• improvements to airplane takeoff, taxi & overall game performance

THANK YOU & TELL US YOUR FEEDBACK

Thank you so much for playing the Ground of Aces demo! Your feedback as fresh players is critical for the ongoing development of this game.

And a special thank you to all our alpha supporters! Your support and input helps us so much and together with you, we can make the game better for everyone.

We want to know from all of you what you think of the new features. Use the survey link in the options menu and the feedback button in the game to send your feedback directly to us. With your input, we know what is most important to the playerbase, and we can keep improving the game.

And we also want to know: What will your new airbases look like? What does your dream WWII airbase look like? Share your best screenshots of your airbases with the community here on Steam so we can see what you built.

LIVESTREAM ON THE 4TH OF DECEMBER
We want to play and discuss the new alpha with you! For this, we are planning a livestream on our Twitch channel[www.twitch.tv] for the 4th of December, 7pm CET. Get game design insights, ask questions and learn more about what’s to come.

Follow our channel here[www.twitch.tv] and get notified when we go live.

- The Blindflug Studios Team

Ground of Aces is featured in the «Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Fest» on Steam! Discover other games for aircraft aficionados and play first demo if you haven't already!


To all the alpha and demo players who already participated: Thank you so much for playing and for all the phenomenal feedback we’ve received from you! We are very happy with how many people we were able to reach with our first demo and the input we collected.

We also want to take this chance and tell you a bit more about the upcoming alpha phase of Ground of Aces - which fittingly involves more plane-related features.


Two weeks ago, our whole team got together in Zurich for a team retreat, during which we held several workshops about the further development of Ground of Aces. We discussed the Alpha 2 feedback that we gathered from our Alpha backers and the fresh demo players, and the roadmap towards Early Access. Our dev team is now working on Alpha 3, and we want to share with you what we intend to achieve in that phase:

The Alpha 3 update will focus more on the tactical management aspects of the game, especially the management of planes and the mission system.

Our goal is to bring more meaning and complexity to missions and make them more rewarding to players. Factors like the state of your pilot, the type of plane and its condition will have a bigger impact on mission success. We are planning to introduce different types of specialized planes for different kinds of missions, including planes that will need more than one crew member, and the maintenance and repair of your aircraft.

More mission complexity and adding more plane types means there will be new logistical demands for your airbase. You will need more workers and pilots on your base, which in turn means you will need more food for the inhabitants. Here, we plan to implement a farming system, so your crew can feed themselves more efficiently and stay self-sufficient. The expansion of the mission and aircraft management also means that a system that lets you build more runways will be needed.

The question of how we will incorporate fuel management into the base life and how exactly missions can give you rewards will also be part of the Alpha 3 development process.

To look even further ahead, we can also give a quick preview of what we have planned for Alpha 4: focusing on enemy attacks and making them more impactful on the gameplay. This includes adding defence features that you can set up for your base. Furthermore, we plan to implement the relationship system between your base and HQ.

All of this is subject to change and adjustments to the plan of these alpha phases can still happen.
We are looking forward to sharing more of our progress in the coming months, testing the new features and getting your input along the way!

If you haven’t already, you can join our community on Discord for more discussions about Ground of Aces, similar games, WWII and aircraft topics:

[www.groundofaces.com]

GROUND OF ACES is featured in the SIMFEST! And with that, you have the chance to try out our demo for the whole week of the festival.

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/2308690/Ground_of_Aces/

This demo is based on our Alpha 2 version, which means this is a WORK-IN-PROGRESS version of the game because we are currently in the alpha development stage. Please keep in mind that many systems are incomplete and that more content is yet to follow. You can expect around 2-3 hours of gameplay in this demo, depending on your experience with base building games. The demo will be available for a limited time.

Hello commanders, we have big news!

For the first time ever, a free public demo of GROUND OF ACES is available on Steam!

This is because our game is part of TactiCon 2024, a Steam digital festival all about strategy games. We are very honoured that Ground of Aces is part of a selection that includes titles like Hearts of Iron IV and Manor Lords.

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/app/2308690/Ground_of_Aces/

This demo is based on our Alpha 2 version, which means this is a WORK-IN-PROGRESS version of the game because we are currently in the alpha development stage. Please keep in mind that many systems are incomplete and that more content is yet to follow. You can expect around 2-3 hours of gameplay in this demo, depending on your experience with base building games. The demo will be available for a limited time.

We hope you enjoy this Alpha 2 demo and we can't wait to hear your feedback!