Update 2.0.0 - We're back!
After a very long silence… Sky Knights is getting a major update. It’s honestly a bit surreal to write this. The last update was over 5 years ago. A lot has happened since then—both for the game and for me personally. I’m now a father of two (7 and 3), and I’ve been working full-
After a very long silence… Sky Knights is getting a major update.
It’s honestly a bit surreal to write this. The last update was over 5 years ago. A lot has happened since then—both for the game and for me personally. I’m now a father of two (7 and 3), and I’ve been working full-time in other game dev roles. Sky Knights has always been a passion project on the side, and while I never stopped caring about it, life simply took priority for a while.
But I never considered the game “done” in spirit.
Technically, it’s still in Early Access. Not because it lacks content—if anything, it has long since delivered on everything I originally set out to do (and then some). The reason I’ve held off on leaving Early Access has mostly been practical. There have been occasional discussions with publishers over the years, and keeping that “full release button” unpressed felt like keeping options open.
At this point though, I’m not actively pursuing that path. What I do want is to make sure that when I eventually hit that full release, I can give it the attention it deserves—especially in terms of visibility and community engagement.
So what is this update?
This is version 2.0.0—a major technical and visual overhaul, along with a bunch of quality-of-life improvements. It doesn’t reinvent the game, but it brings it up to a standard I’m really happy with.
Some highlights:
Upgraded engine and rendering pipeline
Completely reworked lighting and colors
New water, decals, and environmental improvements
Aircraft behavior improvements (landing, takeoffs, visuals)
Better shadows, heat distortion, and visual polish across the board
Various UI, networking, and gameplay fixes
Improved support for ultra-wide setups
And a lot more small things that together make the experience smoother and nicer.
There are still a few quality-of-life features I’d like to add, but in terms of scope—Sky Knights is now complete.
That said, this isn’t a goodbye. I may very well continue updating the game in the future. It just won’t be driven by a need to “finish” it anymore.
Lastly, I just want to say thank you.
Being a solo developer on this project, I’ve been lucky to have a small but dedicated group of players who stuck around, gave feedback, and supported the game over the years. That connection has meant a lot to me, and it’s a big part of why I wanted to come back and do this update properly.
I hope you enjoy it ❤️
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Changelog (2.0.0):
Game engine upgrade, including new rendering pipeline.
Overhaul of all light and color settings.
Nicer mountain coloring.
New water.
New decal technology.
Bomb explosions now leave craters.
Fixed camera glitch during touch-and-goes.
New smooth landing behavior, which varies between aircraft types.
Added landing lights on aircraft.
Aircraft now turn lights off after takeoff.
Aircraft will now attempt to deconflict from other aircraft on the runway.
Aircraft will not nose-down as much when descending, making it look more natural.
Improved shadows quality.
Added heat distortion behind jet exhausts.
New runways.
New taxiway texturing.
New landing gear models on the ones that had the placeholder "pucks".
In the main menu, an animation is added on selected buttons.
In the Time Race menu, the correct unlockable aircraft is now shown for each track, instead of always the MiG-21.
Improved support for super ultra-wide screens (32:9).
Pressing Back in the game lobby when the match is counting down to start will now stop the countdown instead of closing the server.
Fixed several issues with main menu gamepad navigation.
Several network position/rotation issues fixed and optimized.
Shorter light effect when taking damage.
Landing path particle effect in Tutorial changed.
Slightly broken SARH missile models fixed.
Fixed issue where vehicles and aircraft can get rotation stuck with the nose pointing offset.
Including the custom matches docs in the build.
Aircraft now turn sights off when not flying.
Increased sight opacity.
Added Su-17 position lights.
Added support for Playstation 5 gamepads.
Click for trailer!