Hey everyone!
We’re thrilled to share that the official release of Dark Sky is just around the corner, launching on September 24th on Steam. It’s been a journey, and we’re so grateful for all the support and feedback we’ve received during development.
As we gear up for release, we wanted to share a few exciting updates around development, localization, controller and Steam deck support, and highlight the new demo and a 5 minute gameplay walkthrough video from our own Felipe Cassina (Lead Designer). Let’s dive in!
Updates on development
As we get into the final weeks before launch, it’s been all about details, game balance and bug fixing. Our team is working hard to squash all the bugs and ensure a smooth launch.
Revive changes
Game balance wise, we received feedback from our weekly playtests that the revive ability felt over-tuned, because it was too easy to stabilize a character after they were revived and in some cases letting a character die to revive them with 10 HP was the optimal play. This also caused healing cards to be less effective, so we’ve now changed revive from healing with 10 HP to healing with 1 HP and getting 4 regen. You end up with pretty much the same HP after the regen is over, but now those first turns where it hasn’t fully kicked in yet require you to play more defensively with the revived character.
This has felt much better as now getting a character down creates more of a strategic choice. We previously had revive set at just at 1 HP without regenerate, but that felt too punishing and could lead to a death spiral - so this has been a good middle ground. Additionally, healing cards become more valuable because they provide a burst of healing that allows the character to get right back in action.
Card range icons
We’ve also added an icon displaying the range on every card. This change makes it easier to build decks and upgrade cards since you don’t have to remember the range of every card by heart. You’ll have all the information you need to think about your tactics and how your build takes into account range, positioning, and team comp.
Outside of development, our team has been busy supporting publishing efforts like refreshing the Steam page assets, feedback on the launch trailer, and preparing our soundtrack/art supporter pack. There’s a lot going on. It’s a very busy and exciting time for the team.
Localization
As we’re so close to launch, we also wanted to shed light into the localization process, as it’s an area that is often not discussed in game development. Localization is important to the team, as a multilingual team, we want as many people as possible to play and experience Dark Sky.
Dark Sky will be localized into:
- English
- Chinese (Simplified)
- German
- French
- Russian
- Spanish (Spain)
To give you a glimpse into the localization process, here’s what Rebecca, the localization producer at our publisher, Midwest Games, had to say:
“Localizing Dark Sky, I’ve been fortunate to work with incredibly talented teams, including Ganymede and our language service provider, Terra Localizations. Ganymede prioritized depth of lore and documented it well, so we just don’t have the challenges you would normally face with deep narratives. In fact, we had almost zero questions from the linguist about backstory and context while doing translations. For a ~50k word game, that’s unreal, and it makes my job so much easier. The focus has instead been on technical aspects of translating the card strings. Terra has done an incredible job of making sure no line has a sloppy translation, even if that means creating unique strings and translating each one so that it works well in each language, rather than plugging in a generic translation that may or may not work well in all occurrences. That’s a lot of work for myself and Terra, but if it means a player in Beijing has a seamless experience playing Dark Sky because our translations make it feel like the game was made in Simplified Chinese, then it’s worth it. That’s always the goal.”
Steam Deck Playability and Controller Support:
TLDR: Dark Sky will have controller support and be playable on Steam Deck at launch; however, Valve’s recent process changes for official Steamdeck certification prevent us from having the Steamdeck status on the store page.
We’ve also been working hard to ensure controller and Steamdeck players have a good experience. Our team has been playing and testing the game on Steamdeck, and it’s been running great. We fixed some Steamdeck specific bugs with the tutorial videos, size of card range icons. Steam recently changed their process to get the official “playable on Steamdeck” tag, so while we can’t get the tag due to that Steam process change, we can say from our experience that it runs well overall.
For controller support, we’ve been working hard to ensure Dark Sky can be enjoyed with a controller. There are still aspects of it that require polish, but even with bugs it’s clear to us that this is a feature that will feel right at home when complete, so we’ll keep putting our best efforts towards delivering this experience.
New Demo and Walkthrough:
In case you missed it - we recently updated our Demo here on Steam. This demo is very focused on showing off some of the improvements we've made to the combat and the HUD and UI. You can read more about that here.
We also have a nice walkthrough from Felipe showcasing some of the updates, and gameplay combinations you will find in the demo. This is just a small slice of what you’ll get in the full game in just a few weeks.
That's all for this one - With just a few short weeks before launch we ask that if you haven’t already consider dropping us a wishlist, it's a great way to support us and makes the game more discoverable for new players.
-Team Dark Sky
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1454960/Dark_Sky/