Hey everyone!
Today's a special day - five years ago, our very first release, A NIGHTMARE'S TRIP, arrived on Steam and itch.io, marking the world's debut of SKY HOUR WORKS and our PROJECT NATURA series. To everyone that's helped make these games happen, whatever it be the amazing friends that have helped with each project, or the small yet amazing fanbases for these games, thank you!!! The fact that these games have resonated with an audience at all means the world, and I'm proud of all of the work we've put into them.
So I thought I'd like to do some special things for our fifth year anniversary - that's half a decade, and surely we've got some cool things coming up! Well, we do - so let's talk about them!
HAOxSORA =THE SKY'S ABOUND= RIDE TO OUR FINAL will be arriving on Steam in the near future!
Our latest release in the PROJECT NATURA series, last year's HAOxSORA =THE SKY'S ABOUND=, is finally arriving on Steam as a standalone, fully upgraded version that includes new system changes, content, and polish. This'll be the definitive and final take on our ENDLESS RUNNER X GEAR-BASED RPG project, and mark an end of an era for SKY HOUR WORKS as we start to jump into larger, more ambitious projects.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3231250/HAOxSORA_THE_SKYS_ABOUND_RIDE_TO_OUR_FINAL/
You can wishlist it on Steam now, and we'll announce the final release date when we're ready to do so. It'll be priced at a cheap $3 USD, making it an accessible game to pick up (and is also representative of the final game's scope and bite-sized experience), but a full $10 USD version, titled "HAOxSORA =THE SKY'S ABOUND= RIDE TO OUR FINAL /ANNIVERSARY MIX/" will include the original version from Indiepocalypse #45, plus our usual swathe of digital bonuses for those who want to support our work. Ruky's soundtrack for the game will be released on Steam as a separate release as well.
For those supporting us on Patreon, if you're currently a Natura Explorer by the release of the game, you'll receive Steam + itch.io keys to play the game. If you're a Natura Connoisseur, we'll provide you with a key of the /ANNIVERSARY MIX/ edition!
THE NATURA PROJECT: SEASON ONE [2019-2024] IS ON THE WAY!
An anniversary bundle, featuring all of our PROJECT NATURA releases* will be arriving with the release of our new version of HAOxSORA =THE SKY'S ABOUND= RIDE TO OUR FINAL on both Steam and itch.io in 2025! The bundle is accompanied by this amazing anniversary artwork featuring our games' lead characters, drawn by the amazing novaborealis!
The itch version will be released as a standalone game, containing a new launcher (Windows only) compiling all of the games and digital bonuses.
And that's not all...
WE'RE PLANNING A PHYSICAL RELEASE FOR THE NATURA PROJECT: SEASON ONE!
More details will arrive in the future, but we want this release to be a special one. It'll be limited, but lovingly homemade, and will be available online + at a handful of IRL events in 2025. There'll be cool bonuses attached to it, whatever I can put together that won't break the bank basically!
We can reveal one of those bonuses today - take a look at the first ever official KATO sticker!
We just approved the final size / finish for the sticker that we'll be going with over the weekend - special thanks to Sticker Goblin for doing the production and design for this!
* The Steam version of this bundle will not contain the following releases: Garden for Gato, PACK-CAT, and Deceived Voice - Whisper's Redux. These will remain itch.io / physical only!
BIG CRAZY SALE
We're gonna put all of our paid releases on Steam and Itch.io at record-low discounts for two weeks, so this is your chance to snag these releases for absurdly cheap! You'll notice the Steam store page artwork for A NIGHTMARE'S TRIP and SPACE / MECH / PILOT will be different during the duration of this sale, featuring our fifth-year anniversary rendition of these characters!
THE A NIGHTMARE'S TRIP 5TH ANNIVERSARY PATCH
A NIGHTMARE'S TRIP is getting its first update in nearly 5 years, including an updated pass of the game's english script, a full localization in Simplified Chinese by Yuan Liu, and various bug fixes and minor tweaks. It'll be available on Steam and itch.io on October 14th!
COLLECTION OF COMMENTS FROM SKY HOUR WORKS ALUMNI
We've compiled anniversary comments from SKY HOUR WORKS alumni from across all of our projects. Please read at our SKY HOUR WORKS 5TH ANNIVERSARY Guestpage!
THE FUTURE OF SKY HOUR WORKS ~ STUDIO UPDATE
As you know, we've been working on our future projects internally, while supporting both Beatblock and vivid/stasis as publishing endeavors, and so far, so good! It's gonna be awhile until we share more about our next PROJECT NATURA stuff, largely due to people on the projects being busy with lots of stuff (note: next year is gonna be a VERY busy year for me and I expect my ability to get SHW related stuff done to be a bit difficult). Expect our operations next year to primarily focus on our current publishing projects, Beatblock and vivid/stasis, as we want to best support those releases for their upcoming milestones, while giving everyone involved with the PROJECT NATURA series the space to breathe in regards to prior commitments.
Personally speaking, more than ever, I really wanna continue creating cool stuff for this label, and make cool stuff with this circle of creatives more than ever. I'm hoping to budget more time into that after other major milestones in my life, such as the wrapping of UNBEATABLE's development (my day job), passes by in 2025. So know that I'm still thinking about the future of SPACE / MECH / PILOT, that I'm still working on RE: DECEIVED VOICE, and that there's still more to come for PROJECT NATURA in these coming years! Just give me a lil' time, haha.
Thank you all for waiting and continuing to show your love for these games - it's proof that we've made something special over these past few years.
BELIEVE IN OUR FUTURE. CHASE THE WORLD!
-Jeff, SKY HOUR WORKS Director