What is Duelling Skies?

Duelling Skies is a new strategy game that gives the player the chance to manage a squadron of the Royal Flying Corps in the early days of air combat, during the First World War.

At the outbreak of the war, aircraft were slow, flimsy and, in most cases, unarmed. Rapid development in this new field of warfare led to massively varied designs and ideas for how to best exploit the aircraft as an effective weapon. Reconnaissance, which had been carried out for centuries by cavalry, was the main use for the early aircraft as the front lines stalemated into the mud and trenches. However, it didn’t take long before new, more powerful designs appeared capable of carrying devastating machine guns, and air combat truly emerged.

Beginning with the Fokker Scourge in the summer of 1915, you’ll be able to manage a new squadron in a turn based campaign.

By recruiting pilots, requisitioning aircraft, researching new planes and technologies and upgrading your base, you’ll be able to take on a varied set of missions. If you succeed in missions and complete objectives set by high command you’ll be rewarded with extra resources and aircraft.

The missions take place on a real time strategy map but this is not a flight simulator.

Instead you’ll issue orders, attack enemy aircraft, complete recon objectives, shoot down observation balloons or intercept enemy bombers. You’ll be able to take the pilots and aircraft you have available into the missions, and they can then gain experience and extra skills, such as loops and rolls to evade the enemy fighters.

A Fokker Eindecker attacks a British recon plane over the trenches

The game is early in development but is available to wishlist on Steam here. Make sure to wishlist to keep track of updates and developments.

Stay tuned for the next blog where we’ll explore more of the game's features in more detail.

Duelling Skies is being solo developed, and is scheduled for release in 2026.

Devlog 1: first flights