Puffin Planes is an airline strategy and simulation game built around a playful geographic challenge: fly from Tokyo to Los Angeles “the short way” while assembling a network across a custom-made globe. The game also offers a terraformed Mars setting, giving its route-planning premise a distinct alternative backdrop. Original music accompanies the process of building an airline, tying the map-focused design to a relaxed, hands-on management experience.
Network design is the central choice. Players can concentrate flights around hubs in a hub-and-spoke system or send planes on longer, multi-city cycles. Airports can begin with random bonuses and evolve as players decide whether to add hubs, lounges, and other facilities. Competition adds a sharper edge: airlines can advertise, build hotels, take concourses, and seek to remove rivals from hub airports or buy them out. Different flyers bring distinct bonuses, including extra lounge income for the Flamingo and greater plane range for the Eagle.
The format supports both solo planning and play with friends: Steam invitations and joining let players build a global airline network together, while the listed modes also include multiplayer and online co-op.
