Support the dev
Tailwinds is free, it has no paid upgrades, and it is going to stay that way. If you have got some hours out of it and want to put something back, this is where.
♥ Support on Ko-fiWhere it goes
Tailwinds and its multiplayer companion Headwinds are built and paid for by one person. The bills are the unglamorous kind: servers, the database behind the multiplayer worlds, domains, and the map tiles under the route map. Headwinds worlds in particular run a simulated week every hour or two, around the clock, whether anyone is logged in or not — that is the part that actually costs money.
There are ads on the site, and they cover a slice of it. Chipping in covers more, and it is the difference between the project paying for itself and not.
What you get
In Headwinds, the multiplayer game
Supporters get a ♥ SUPPORTER badge next to their airline name, in every world, permanently. Headwinds has accounts, so there is something to attach it to. Leave your Headwinds username in the Ko-fi message and the badge goes on within a day or so.
In Tailwinds, this game
Cloud saves. Monthly supporters (the same monthly tip that carries the Headwinds badge) can keep up to three airlines in the cloud and pick them up in any browser, on any device. Open Save / Load, sign in with your Headwinds account (the same login: Google, Discord or an email link), and leave the email address you signed in with in your Ko-fi message. Uploading is switched on within a day or so.
It is a thank-you, not a service. It runs on the same hobby servers as everything else, on a best-effort basis. If you stop supporting, the cloud saves you already have stay yours to load and delete; only uploading new ones pauses. Saving in your browser works exactly as it always has, for everyone.
What supporting will never buy
Nothing inside the simulation. No starting cash, no head start, no cheaper aircraft, no faster weeks — not here and not in Headwinds, where you would be playing against real people. The ads do not come off either — they stay on for everyone, supporters included, because they are part of what pays for this. A management game where the standings can be bought is a different and much worse game, so the perks stay outside the game itself: a badge beside your name, and somewhere to keep your saves.
Other ways to help, all free
- Tell someone who likes this kind of game. Word of mouth is how nearly everyone arrives.
- Report bugs with enough detail to reproduce them, on the contact form or in Discord.
- Argue with the balance in Discord. A lot of what is in the game now started as someone saying a number felt wrong.
- Leave the ads on. That is a real contribution and it costs nothing.
The small print
Ko-fi handles the payment; it takes cards and PayPal, and you can give once or monthly and cancel a monthly tip yourself at any time. A tip is a tip, not a purchase or a subscription to a service. The perks are thank-yous rather than things you are buying: nothing in either game's simulation is gated behind a tip, and nothing you can already do stops working if you do not tip, or if you stop. No refunds are promised, though if something goes wrong, say so and it will get sorted out.
♥ Support on Ko-fi