Feels like we're almost there!
There has been a lot of back-end progress this month that makes us feel like the end is in sight! But there is still plenty to do so stay tuned for more and more updates as we get ever closer to release. 💖
Spells and Saving
A large part of having a magical crook to farm and terraform your Skystead, is to be able to cast spells.
As of the creation of the prototype, all spells have started unlocked for the player to use, allowing you to make whatever you like right from the start of the game.
Although freedom of choice is important and fun, the current setup wasn't particularly good for game progression, we want you to feel like you are achieving goals and unlocking rewards. therefore we have begun work on tying the spell unlocks to the tutorial and to the game shop. As you progress through Skystead Ranch, more spells will become available leading to more variety of Skylets being attracted to your floating islands!
As you can see, there is still a lot of work to be done on the shop layout to make it more attractive, but the functionality is there and the remaining work shouldn't take too long, touch wood! 🤞
Another of the spells we wanted to address was the ability to destroy items. This was already in the game but the issue we had was the aiming this spell was notoriously difficult as unlike the other spells at your disposal, there was no visual indicator to help you aim your spell.
A small temporary UI has been added to show you where you are aiming, this effect will also snap to a nearby object, making your aiming that little bit easier as well. Small changes have been made to the particle effect too, see if you can spot it in game.
A small update on the saving and loading from last month! More corrections and fine-tuning have been made to the functionality - you can now delete saves to keep your game files clean! It's the little things that matter.
Importing Work
A lot of work behind the scenes has been happening with Rob importing all (well, a lot) of the assets that our Artists have been working on over the past few months into the game engine.
Our Patreons with access to our Trello boards will have noticed the art cards moving from left to right as they are being QA'ed and put into game!
Plushies
Most of the new items are cute little plushies of the Skylets! These plushies will be linked to the Field Guide progress. The concept is, that once you have 100% of the information on a Skylet, you will unlock the ability to build a plushie of your favourite little friend that you have spent so much time learning about.
Here are a couple of examples, have a look in Sandbox mode if you want to see more!
Player Character Bag!
Remodelling and Retexturing work has been done on the bag that your player character carries on their hip.
This was a task that needed doing to provide the promised reward to those of you who backed our Kickstarter back in October with one of the Pet tiers (or above) - A huge thank you once again to those of you who helped us reach that goal!
Jack spent some time editing the model of the Bag to make variations for the Cat, Dog and "Animal Lover" Tier rewards that you will have in the game only if you backed at one of these tiers.
When tackling this task, Jack also took a moment to retouch the original texture for the basic bag design to better match the new bags which are now being textured in Substance Painter instead of directly in Blender.
If you would like to see Jack making these bags, you can find the VODs of the Livestream where Jack worked on there here.
Bigger Assets than before!
Our artist Laura is back from her holiday and working harder than ever! She has been working on the "large assets" that are found around the Sky Islands. The first of the tasks was to finish and/or break the large assets Jack has made. These include the Lift and Water Wheel which will be unlocked throughout the game and will eventually provide you access to new islands.
The lift itself was a little tricky in the fact that we had to find a way to create a working elevator that does not look modern or use electricity. We managed to find a number of references in both real-life history and other fantasy settings to create this finished product, which we think, looks like a working lift whilst keeping that mystical yet rustic flair.
We say "working" but you can't ride the lift just yet!
The largest, and arguably most important of the big assets, is the player house! You may be aware from previous posts that the house itself was finished a long time ago with work even being done on the interior of the house too. But what we wanted to address was the house upgrades. The player house will be able to be upgraded in size as well as add on important room extensions, each that will serve its own purpose, from a greenhouse to grow crops in a more controlled environment, to a library to keep a record of all your hard work and progress.
We wanted the house upgrades to represent their purpose from the outside as well as inside, and we hope we've achieved this here, let us know what you think!
New Skylets!
As always, the bit you've been waiting for. New Skylets!
Meet Wendi and Rhoss.
Wendi is based on the Wendigo from folklore but made 100x cuter! A hound like Skylet with a skull hiding its real face. This Skylet can only be found at night and appears to have many mysterious markings, I wonder what they mean? 🤔
Left: Rhoss, Right: Wendi
Rhoss is not fully finished, hence the lack of eyes to see where it's going! But don't worry, I'm sure by this time next week he'll be rolling around as happy as ever. A rolling rock covered in moss - Rhoss. Creative right? This little fella was designed because we thought something that rolled around the sky islands instead of walking or running would be super cute and we just wanted to give it a go!
Thank you!
As always, thank you all for your support!
Share Skystead Ranch with your friends and make sure it's added to your Wishlists! Beta is getting closer along with more demos to try out. Keep an eye out for more news on this in the future.