Support the dev
Headwinds is free, there is nothing to buy to play it properly, and that is not going to change. If you want to put something back toward the servers, this is where.
$5 a month makes you a supporter: the ♥ SUPPORTER badge on your airline in every world, and private worlds you can open for your own group of friends. A one-off tip of any size is just as welcome — it goes on the same bill, it just carries neither.
♥ Support on Ko-fiWhere it goes
Headwinds and its single-player original, Tailwinds, are built and paid for by one person. The costs are the boring kind: the API and worker that run the worlds, the database holding every airline in them, domains, and the map tiles under the route map.
The unusual part of this game is the expensive part. A Headwinds world advances a simulated week on a fixed clock — every hour at the default pace — around the clock, for months of real time, recomputing demand, fares and market share for every route flown by every airline in it, whether or not a single player is logged in. That clock is the whole point of the game and it is also the bill.
There are ads, and they cover a slice of it. Chipping in covers more.
What $5 a month gets you
A ♥ SUPPORTER badge
It sits next to your airline name everywhere it appears — standings, the rivals list, the news feed, direct messages, your player profile — in every world you fly. It works the same way as the ✈ OG veteran badge: it lives on your account rather than in your airline's name, so it survives renames and restarts, and nobody can fake one by typing it (airline names containing bracketed look-alikes are rejected).
Private worlds for your group
Supporters can open their own private Headwinds world from the lobby, built from the same options as the public ones — length, pace, rule set, even a historical start year — with a password you choose and a link you hand out. It is for a group of friends who want a world to themselves: everyone who joins needs the supporter badge too (each world is another simulation ticking around the clock, and that is what the tip pays for), and each account can be in up to two private worlds at a time. If a monthly tip stops, the badge comes off and so does access to those worlds — your airline keeps flying on autopilot in the meantime, and you are back in as soon as the badge is.
Nothing that touches the game — on purpose
No starting cash, no cheaper aircraft, no gate priority, no extra restarts, no faster weeks. The ads do not come off either — they stay on for everyone, supporters included, because they are part of what pays for this. Every rival in Headwinds is a real person, and a league table where position can be bought is not worth climbing. Inside any world, private ones included, every airline is on identical terms, and the flag behind the badge is not readable by the simulation at all.
How the badge reaches you
The badge (and with it, private worlds) comes with the $5 monthly tip. It is granted by hand, which means it is not instant. Ko-fi emails each donation through with whatever name and message you left, so put your Headwinds username in the Ko-fi message — that is the only reliable way to match a donation to an account, since the email on your Ko-fi is usually not the one behind your sign-in. It normally goes on within a day or so. A one-off tip is a straight contribution to the servers and carries neither the badge nor private worlds — it is no less appreciated, there is just nothing to match up. If a couple of days pass and nothing has appeared, nudge me in Discord or on the contact form and I will sort it out.
Other ways to help, all free
- Bring someone into a world. Headwinds is more fun the fuller it is, and word of mouth is how nearly everyone arrives.
- Report bugs with enough detail to reproduce them, in Discord or on the contact form.
- Argue with the balance. A lot of what is in the game started as a player saying a number felt wrong.
- Play fair and report the players who do not — see the fair play rules. Moderation time is the other scarce resource here.
- 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 subscription to a service — the game is not gated behind it and nothing you can do today stops working if you never give. The badge and private-world access are a thank-you rather than a product, and they can be removed if a donation is reversed or a monthly tip stops. No refunds are promised, but if something goes wrong, say so and it will get sorted out.
♥ Support on Ko-fi