Howdy!

I’ve been thinking about doing this for several months and always had some excuse to postpone doing so, but I finally set aside a few hours to make it happen. Hopefully those that peruse my blog will find something of value and worthy of your time.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Paul Lange and I’m the lead game designer for Flight Simulator X. Prior to this role, I was the aircraft program manager on Flight Simulator 2004 A Century of Flight (which I also did for the first year of Flight Simulator X development). Being a huge aircraft and aviation nut, I welcome discussions about aircraft of any type. I’m only a private pilot flying off and on over the last 25 years and I’m not an expert on all types of aircraft, but over time I’ve learned a lot about flying and what makes different aircraft tick. Working on Flight Simulator over the last 4 years has increased my knowledge more than I developed over the prior 21 years in aviation!

Before Microsoft I started working in the game industry in 1988 as a game counselor at Nintendo and became a Nintendo game designer in 1989. I’ve worked at several game companies over the years including a short stint in the world of web development just as the internet bubble was bursting. Like most game designers I know, I have a stack of game designs that will likely never see the light of day, but that’s okay because it’s fun just coming up with creative ideas.

Many Flight Simulator enthusiasts may wonder what a game designer is doing TO Flight Simulator, and I will go into that (as much as I can) in a future post.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  I'm hoping we get more than one post out of this fellow...   :)
  http://blogs.technet.com/p-12c_pilot/archive/2006/02/21/420153.aspx...
• Anonymous
  February 21, 2006
  Hi Paul!!  Welcome to the growing list of ACES bloggers!  I look forward to your interesting perspective on the whole FS franchise!
  
  Best,
  
  Owen
• Anonymous
  February 22, 2006
  Hi Paul,
  
  Hope too read some intersting post about the development of FSX!
• Anonymous
  February 22, 2006
  Howdy Doody
  
  if the lead FS designer calls himself a GAME designer than MS FS MUST be a game!
  
  this at least will stop some discussions at the FS forums  ;-)
  
  JC
  
  
• Anonymous
  February 22, 2006
  Wow, that was quick... And yes I will be posting more than I really have time for. If anything I will probably have to throttle myself back to be sure I have enough time to do everything else in my life.
  
  Thanks to everyone for your comments. JC, I will talk about the subject of game design as it applies to FS, but I encourage you to not take too much of a black and white view of this. In my mind, FS is a simulation with game elements. We have no intent to shortchange anyone on simulation features :)
• Anonymous
  February 22, 2006
  Hey Paul, glad to see you dive into the blogging universe.
  
  Your link has bagged tagged and shipped off to my Favourites!!
  
  Jason
  (No, the other Jason)
• Anonymous
  February 22, 2006
  Hi Paul, welcome to the world of blogging. Looking forward to some interesting posts on game design, and FS.