Balloon Journey Japan, a Hot Air Balloon Flight Simulator for iOS, Now Released

UNVELL Inc. has released Balloon Journey Japan, a hot air balloon flight simulator for iOS, on the App Store.

Balloon Journey Japan is about crossing the real Japan at full size, carried by the wind. It takes about a minute to learn. Burn to rise, vent to sink — those are the only controls, and the wind at the height you choose decides where you go.

■ Two controls, and height is the steering

Hold the burner and the balloon rises; hold the vent and it sinks. Let go, and it settles at the height it drifted to. The wind at 300 metres and the wind at 2,000 metres rarely blow the same way, and finding the layer heading where you want to go is the whole of a real balloon pilot's craft.

■ A forecast that comes true

The wind is generated from place and time, and your device and the server run exactly the same formula. What the wind sheet shows is therefore what will happen, rather than a probability. Read it correctly at dawn and you will be over the mountain you picked.

■ It keeps flying while the app is closed

The flight runs on the server, so the journey continues whether the app is open or closed. Open it in the morning and the night plays back: the track across the map, the ridge crossed while you slept, and the few photographs the balloon took by itself. Notifications stay quiet, and the ones that arrive carry good news only.

■ Not stages, but one continuous Japan at full size

Terrain raised from real survey elevation data is flown at its true scale. Everything above the horizon is a destination from the first minute. Time and season come from the real calendar and the sky from a physical model, so any given view happens once.

■ Cruise at 20–40 km/h, where an hour in the game is an hour of yours

The balloon moves at the speed a real one does, so Tokyo to Osaka costs one to two days of real time. Fuel burns by the second you hold the burner, and flying low makes a full tank last close to a week. Opening the app once a day keeps you flying indefinitely; leave it a week and the balloon quietly descends, moors itself, and waits.

■ Other players, riding the same wind

Other people's balloons are genuinely there, riding the same wind you are. As the seasons turn, everyone gathers in the same places — north with the cherry blossom front in spring, above the fireworks in summer, onto the riverbed at dawn in autumn. You reach each other by waving, sending a set greeting, handing over a gift, and flashing the burner after dark.

■ Platform and pricing

iOS 16.0 or later (iPhone and iPad), in Japanese and English. Free on the App Store. Android, Steam (Windows) and Nintendo Switch versions are planned.

See the article "Balloon Journey Japan Released" for details.