Cleared to Land is a 1950s-styled air traffic game for iOS. Players guide planes, helicopters and specialty aircraft to the right landing zones, time their approaches and keep a busy pattern moving without a collision. We designed it, drew the art, built the game loop and shipped it to the App Store, with an Android version in progress.
Everyone gets down safely, or nobody scores
Planes, helicopters and specialty aircraft arrive at an airfield and every one of them needs a landing zone. You decide who goes when, hold the traffic that would otherwise cross paths, and keep the score climbing. Land cleanly and you're rewarded. Let two aircraft meet and the run is over. Each type moves at its own speed and wants a particular zone, so the airspace gets harder to read as the mix changes, and keeping a filling board readable was most of the design work.
Smooth jazz and fake radio ads
The look is 1950s flight control: warm skies, travel-poster colour, hand-painted airfields that open up as you play. The audio went further than we planned. The menus run satirical period radio spots for the game's fictional airline, and the gameplay sits on smooth jazz. None of that changes how the game plays. It's the reason people remember which landing game it was.
The build
A native iOS build, done in-house: the game loop, spawn logic, scoring, achievements, the First Class Pass purchase, and a daily challenge seeded on the date so two scores from the same day are comparable. We drew the art and laid the interface out to hold the period look across menus, airfields and aircraft, then took it through App Store review. Android is in progress.
Where else this work applies
The parts that took the time here transfer directly: a real-time loop, spawn and collision logic, achievement tracking, seeded content that is identical for every user on a given day, in-app purchases through the platform store, and the release work to get past review. Art direction counts too. A product that looks like nothing else on the store is a decision someone made early, not a coat of paint at the end.
Build notes
- Drag each aircraft to the landing zone it needs, hold the ones that would collide, and keep landing planes to score. The board has to stay readable as it fills up, which is most of the design work.
- Planes, helicopters and specialty aircraft, each with different landing rules and speed, so the airspace gets harder to manage as the mix changes.
- Hand-painted airfields, each with its own layout and hazards, opened up as you play.
- A daily challenge that runs the same airfield and the same spawn order for every player on a given date, so two scores from the same day are actually comparable.
- Achievements, a personal best to beat, and an optional First Class Pass upgrade.
- An original soundtrack that carries the period: the menus play satirical 1950s radio ads for the game's fictional airline, and gameplay runs on smooth jazz.
- Designed, drawn, coded and shipped to the App Store in-house, with an Android version on the way.
