Hey there travelers, settle down and listen,
Hello everyone!
Happy new year from everyone at the Astrolabe Interactive studio! We really hope your holidays were restful and that you could spend time with your loved ones during that period or since then. We took some time off to take a breather and prepare ourselves for what is going to be our biggest and most intense year ever!
We started the new year strong with a new team member; Jeremy is our VFX and technical artist, responsible for all the shader and VFX work in the game. He just got here, so be kind to him, he has a lot of work on his plate! We are 12 people now, almost a full team.
New demo update
Now for the big, important, amazing part. There’s a new demo update, and it’s coming out today! If that comes as a shock to you, it’s because you’re not on the Discord server or following us on social media, because we’ve been talking about this for a while now! We decided to launch it at the start of the Steam Base Building Fest to celebrate all the awesome creative energy our fans have been putting in Aloft.
So the demo is getting an update, all the things mentioned in the last devlog will be there, of course, and much more, but that’ll be in the last section of this Devlog.
Another HUGE and AMAZING news is that we have a new trailer out! You just need to go on the FRONT PAGE OF IGN to watch it! We’re honestly amazed that IGN decided to showcase our game, it’s such amazing news! We really hope that this coverage will help Aloft get a lot of visibility, wishlists and new Discord community members.
Furthermore, we’re also flabbergasted at the new video the youtuber Real Civil Engineer cooked up for us. He takes the time to present the game for new players, but also tries and break the limits of the demo in his own unique brand of humorous creativity. You should really take a look at it, it’s well worth the time to watch it.
Photo contest
One of the new features included in the demo is the Photo mode! Our programmer decided to make it during his holiday break, because he’s just that great. There are still some things to polish, but we’ve been taking just the prettiest photos and screenshots out of it! One thing we learned in the last couple months is that our community is creative like no others and that’s just the best. To encourage that creativity, we organized a photo contest for you to participate in!
The rules are simple: there are 4 categories to participate in and you can submit one photo per category. If you are picked for the best photo in your category, you get a (secret) prize! The categories are:
- Best base (it is the Base building Fest after all)
- Best photo overall
- Best Tiny House (because it’s cute)
- Most creative construction
To participate, simply use this Google form and drop your screenshots! There are more rules and information needed in the form, so make sure you read everything.
Of course, any kind of inappropriate content will result in an immediate disqualification. Stay wholesome folks!
What has changed since last time?
All the stuff in the last devlog is going to be in the game, but there’s more too! Since he got onboard with the team, our composer/SFX has been hard at work implementing sound effects to the game. They are still unfinished but at least there’s sound in the game now! The infamous sound bug that plagued many of you has received a temporary patch. We are confident that it should fix the bug, but if it still happens, please let us know in the discord channel #feedback-bugs.
We have some VFX added to the game as well, all that Jeremy has had time to work on in his few weeks with us. It’s not much yet, but it absolutely helps the game feel more alive!
Character and monster animations are mostly done! Some might need a little rework, but otherwise they are complete! We’re really happy to see the game come alive with assets, animations and effects made in-house. It absolutely makes all the difference to the visual experience.
For a more comprehensive list of changes, please consult the changelog here.
Private playtest
Finally, we had a private playtest last December and our testers had a great time and were super professional and useful! Our deepest thanks to all who participated in the playtest! Thanks to them, we revised the gliding controls and added a cookbook to remember all your recipes! For anyone who hasn’t been able to participate, there will be more and the best way to know about them is to join our Discord server!
Friends of Aloft
We always like to share our time in the spotlight with friends! If you want to flex your science brain-muscles, look no further than Honeycomb, where you can bioengineer the flora and fauna of a whole planet!
We also encourage everyone to take a look at Roots of Yggdrasil! It's a viking city-builder currently in development by our friends at Manavoid Entertainment. They have a kickstarter coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
What’s next?
2023 will be a big year for us, actually the biggest so far! We have a bunch of new team members in every discipline quickly ramping up to peak efficiency, and we need them! We’re aiming for an Early Access release at the beginning of 2024, which means that we need to get to work and make an amazing game for everyone to enjoy!
For now, we’ll let everyone enjoy the Aloft demo during the Base Builder Fest and the Games from Quebec Fest over the next two weeks. We are absolutely looking forward to seeing all your beautiful creations in the Photo Contest!
In the meantime, thank you all for reading and stay wholesome!
