Airport Tower

Airport Tower puts you in the control tower of a small regional airfield, seen from straight above in a clean cartoon style. Planes call in on a seeded timetable and circle the field until you clear them: tap a plane, then a runway, and it lines up and lands. Tap a gate and it taxis in to the jet bridge while the bags come off. Then send the fuel truck, start boarding and clear it for take-off before its departure time. Leave early and the airline pays a bonus; leave late and it costs coins and a little happiness. Keep the gaps between landings wide enough, or the next plane has to go around.

Between days you grow the airport from the evening panel, where the day's income and expenses are laid out line by line. Open more gates, build a second runway, a bigger terminal, a café and a baggage belt, buy a de-icing truck for snowy winter days and a night-flight licence for flights until midnight. Hire ground crew who fuel and board planes by themselves and a second controller who parks them and sends them out. The weather changes every day: the wind flips which way the runways are used, morning fog slows the arrivals and snow means every plane needs de-icing before it leaves.

Twenty milestones lead from landing your first plane to a hundred on-time flights and an international route, each with a small prize. Sandbox opens with everything built for an endless, relaxed airport where nobody keeps score. Time runs at one, two or four times speed with a skip button for the quiet moments, and if the coins ever run short at night the airline pays a deposit so the crew still get paid. It is a calm brain teaser of timing and spacing, and it saves itself in your browser after every move.