Sky Team is a tense two-player co-op about landing a plane, designed with help from Concorde pilots

A new co-op board game will put players in the cockpit of an aeroplane as it prepares to land.

Sky Team is an upcoming release from Decrypto and Turing Machine publisher Scorpion Masque and designer Luc Rémond, which is due to launch next year.

A two-player-only co-op, the 20-minute game puts players in the roles of pilot and co-pilot as their plane approaches an airport for landing.

The players have a limited number of rounds - representing the plane’s decreasing altitude - to prepare it for landing, needing to successfully lower its landing gear, raise flaps and keep its wings level.

To do so, the players will roll dice hidden behind a screen, before taking turns to assign the dice to slots on the board representing various controls on the plane’s panel. The players can only speak before they roll their dice, needing to react to their partner’s actions.

Each player has access to a different set of controls - for example, the co-pilot can radio the airport tower twice to remove planes from upcoming spaces on the approach track (which cause an instant loss if collided with), while only the pilot can apply the final brakes.

The dice results are used to calculate the plane’s speed - potentially speeding it towards occupied airspace faster than expected - the roll of its wings, tipped by the difference in numbers between the players; which spaces can be cleared of other planes; and other elements such as which flaps can be raised or the dice results required to brake in time during the final round. Dice can also be used to brew coffee, which allows either player to modify a die by one point.

Sky Team will include 12 different airports, which will each introduce new gameplay mechanics to the tense co-op challenge. For instance, one airport will require the players to additionally manage their remaining fuel as they cruise towards their destination.

Rémond designed the co-op board game with input from former Concorde pilots, adding to the game’s immersive feel - which included a transparent dial in the centre of the game’s control panel in the prototype played by Dicebreaker at Essen Spiel 2022.

Scorpion Masque is planning to release Sky Team as early as next August at Gen Con 2023.