I tried it some more. The mouse wheel does allow for a bit of zoom-in, but it's not much. I was able to collect some balloons, although they're quite small, and the gameplay is rather slow. It would nice if there were more zooming options like you'd see in Star Wars 1 Racer, or any 3D F-Zero game. I do like the idea of Itch.io having its own version of Pilotwings.
yeah- i didn't look at other flight sim games during development (i knew i wouldnt have the time to make a really great flying sim, and I didnt want to recreate an existing game). i was mainly focused on the setting and how to illustrate the story in a compelling, memorable way. if i had a team of people, and a little more time, i could have developed the gameplay alongside the story- i spent the first week on mechanics and 1 week on the story. i had a lot of ideas on what to do, but had to cut them to make sure I could stay within scope. so i settled on a shorter game experience (<5minutes playtime), 3 unique stages, and a gentle play experience that didnt demand too much. thanks for checking it out, this was really cool to see! :)