Background

As you are probably well aware development of an airliner add-on for FSX at a professional level takes years. Long years. Interested flightsimmers have to sit and wait these years. People beg for previews, screenshots or anything!..

Community involvement program

We would like to ease the wait by making our customers more involved in the development process. But how?
We are happy to introduce a completely new approach to a developer-flightsimmer relationship: Community involvement program (CIP).
The first move under the CIP is three-step release concept.

Three-step release concept

The goal of the concept is to provide to interested flightsimmers with an accesss to a new product as soon as the Step is complete:

Release Steps description:

Step I: Exterior - release of an exterior model as soon as it is ready. We practice this kind of release since 2007 (727 Captain and on). Version 0.X.

(New!) Step II: Experimental - release of essential components (e.g. exterior model + VC + systems + sounds) in flyable (beta) condition. Version 0.X.
Same as in the real world the Experimental category is not for everyone, but test pilots and dedicated enthusiasts.
Note: The Experimental release does not mean we want you to test the product. We just give you a chance to get the product before the 1.0 release. But it is totally up to you to wait another month or an year for the 1.0 release.

Step III: 1.0 - an official and complete public release.

Pricing

Step I: Exterior - usually priced at 25% of the 1.0 release price.
Step II: Experimental - Usually priced at 75% of the 1.0 price.
Step III: 1.0 - The full 1.0 price.
Note: Payments for the Exterior and Experimental releases are 100% credited towards the 1.0 release.

Timing

Timeframe between release steps are very project specific. All steps released as soon as they are ready. No release dates are announced upfront.

Guarantees

No guarantees, as we all live in very fragile world. Step I release does not guarantee Step II release, and Step II release does not guarantee Step III release. All three releases are separate products with no promise or pre-payment. You pay for exactly what you get.
Captain Sim has no record of any projects dropped after Step I release, but we want to be 100% honest saying that everything is possible. Even if we drop a project at any Step there will be no refunds.

The first product with three-step release is 737 Captain.