We’re excited to share a major update on the development of Skyclimbers!
After multiple delays, we have decided to reduce the scope of Early Access to expedite release, while still delivering a strong foundation of content.
Deep Forest Jarl, Warg, and Mage class
Early Access was initially planned to ship with three playable dynasties: Drakonian, Foryoku and Rokkuhito. Instead, each Dynasty has now been fragmented into multiple unique Districts. Early Access will be limited to the Drakonian Dynasty, featuring multiple unique playable Districts.
Jarls control each District, and your relation to them will dictate diplomacy.
Deep Forest District Jarl on the left, Coastal Meadow District to the right.
Rivalries between districts will lead to conflicts that you can resolve through one of three methods: diplomacy, trade, or warfare.
This District dynamic is bound to each biome, which will be a small scale representation of Dynasty conflicts across continents.
Districts have unique warfare capabilities, for example the Coastal Meadow Infantry carry spears, while Deep Forest Infantry carry one handed axes and oval shields.
These changes in armor and weaponry will influence the outcome of district conflict, and encourage the player to conquer all 5 districts to attain all distinct unit types.
One of the more prominent results of our procedural design architecture is the character randomizer system.
Artists define the rules of variation (body proportion ranges, curated outfit sets, hand-picked color palettes, hairstyles) and procedural generation creates unique characters by randomizing within those boundaries. The result is a division of labor where artists control quality and visual coherence, while the engine handles the work of populating the world with hundreds of distinct looking characters.
Deep Forest character attributes include pointed ears, thin frames, dark face paint to reflect the ancient woods they live within. These restrictions apply to villager generation and character creation.
Generated villagers support dynamic hair and improved animations.
Every detail from candlestick, to table has been built custom to each district, ensuring players have a completely new experience when exploring Drakonia.
Players can construct blueprints from other Districts after conquering them.
Below is a side by side comparison of Deep Forest [Left] and Coastal Meadow [Right] architectural styles, showcasing the contrast in both materials and construction methods.
Procedural Village Generation
Another powerful result of procedural generation is our new village generator.
Designers put together the "ingredients" for a town, i.e. what buildings exist, how dense each neighborhood is, what decorations or clutter go where, how roads should sprawl. The engine then assembles unique variations from these hand-crafted building blocks, producing anything from small farming outposts to large sprawling settlements. NPCs automatically populate the resulting village, wandering between buildings and roads in natural looking patterns or gathering in small groups at key locations.
Unique village iterations of various shapes and sizes above.
The preview gizmo system that allows designers to review village presets before generation.
Everything is runtime generated, including villager pathways and villager profiles.
This is a work in progress, and as the town generation evolves, our goal will be to generate settlements will look and feel lived in.
Deep Forest Architecture features dark wood harvested from the redwood forests, dragon head beams, and thick angled roofs to account for snowfall.
All districts specialize in unique resources not found elsewhere, with each having a unique crop: wheat for Coastal Meadow, and cabbage for the Deep Forest.
Villagers in spawned towns have basic routines, including specialists such as farmers, blacksmiths, ect...
Specialist buildings such as the Tavern, Blacksmith, and Farmhouse, will offer items to the player for sale, and in some cases workers eligible for recruitment.
As we develop future Eras, Village generator will have to evolve to support different architectural and industrial features.
Procedurally generated cabbage farm with a walking path above
Deep Forest Mage Class
The Deep Forest is home to unique Sentius only found in this District!
Ashrett design update.
Ravos, Ravan, Avalynx, Fyrett, and Moosleif are some of the Sentius unique to this biome.
We're creating efficient and lively animations for new Sentius.
Avalynx will spawn at higher elevations
Minor Continents & World Generation
Below are screenshots of an example minor continent consisting of a single biome, the Coastal Meadow. To create more variation between continents, some minor continents will have fewer than 5 biomes, so that each destination is less predictable.
Exploration will be a core aspect of the Early Access launch, allowing players to customize world settings, or allow random generation to dictate the experience.
We rebuilt overworld generation to support better forest density, including an updated birch biome in the Coastal Meadow.
To create more variation within the Dynasty, continents will randomize in scale, biomes, hostility, and environmental factors such as Void presence.
Some continents will be devoid of points of interest but lush with Sentius, while others may be heavily developed with villages of impressive scale.
This continent is inhabited by a massive Magmaton herd, but minimal humanoid populations.
Boats are an essential form of travel between continents, including ships designed to match your District style.
Boat mechanics on the open ocean will allow for free exploration.
The open ocean will be fraught with dangers, including Sentius.
Our newest terrain engine supports real-time Void infections, which grow from spawned Void Eggs, and consume the overworld landscape.
Forests become barren and resources are made unusable by the Void as it spreads.
Land infected with Void cannot be used for city building or base building.
Destroying a Void Egg is critical to prevent it from growing into a Void Altar, and eventually a Void Portal.
The Void infection system is completely procedural and can adapt to any terrain formation and any objects present on it (vegetation, buildings, etc.)
As the Void spreads, Voidlings will begin to spawn, and will persist during the day.
Our next devlog will include Shoi systems used to combat the Void.
Outposts are a new building type that allow you to expand the radius of your settlements when in city building.
Players will be able to construct multiple outposts per townhall to greatly improve the scale and diversity of your settlements.
Each outpost can be surrounded by a limited number of buildings, compared to your townhall which can support the largest radius.
We spent time adding more detail and realism to the stages of construction for city-building.
With much of this development cycle being dedicated to engine level systems, we plan to showcase more gameplay updates in our next update.
Development Status Update
An update from the founders in a blog post: 👉 Two Man Army
We're equally frustrated with the delays Skyclimbers has faced during development, therefore by focusing on transparency and reasonable milestones, we feel there is a sound path forward.
The Current Phase
In 2023, all crowdfunding resources were exhausted paying staff, fulfilling rewards, and covering development costs, therefore all work has been self funded since then.
With limited resources, all work has shifted to the founders: Justin [Art, Sound, Design] and Tejas [Dev, Engineering, Design]
Throughout 2024 and 2025, we've had to focus solely on closed Beta development, with public testing taking a backseat to prioritize internal progress.
Since the two founders skillsets cover all aspects of game dev, the project is moving at a steady pace despite the lack of manpower.
The Roadmap
We're planning to release the Beta to crowdfunding supporters and existing Alpha testers in Q3
Based on how well the Beta is received, we will either move forward with an Early Access launch in Q4 or take the feedback into consideration for a launch in Q1 of 2027.
The Beta and Early Access are both our top priority, and if that means cutting the amount of total districts for launch we will make that sacrifice to get the game in players hands.
Challenges & Strategy
As a two-person core team consisting of Justin (Art/Sound) and Tejas (Engineering/Dev) the ambitious nature of the project has led to timeline shifts.
While open to expanding the team, Paratope is prioritizing the game's integrity, by actively avoiding predatory investments, restrictive publishing deals, or further crowdfunding.
The shift from Dynasties to Districts means fewer Sentius, biomes, and reduced scope creep, while still allowing for robust player experiences. Adding more Districts and Dynasties will only bolster the offering of content post launch.
To focus on progress of the core technology and game loop, there will be limited marketing until the release window solidifies to reduce distractions.
Funding Development
Paratope is open to funding where we retain ownership and self publishing rights as majority stakeholders. We aren't willing to sign away the game or be forced into a rushed launch. Since we are completely self-funded and running a lean two-man team, we have the stability to keep building the Beta on our own terms.
If a healthy and fair funding opportunity arises that protects the players and the project's vision, we will explore it. But until then, we're staying independent.
Thank you for reading this development update, and we appreciate all of the fans, supporters, and testers who have patiently waited years for the release of Skyclimbers.
Until next time.
Paratope Team [ Justin / Tejas ]
