Skywatch #23 - Development Update

Hi everyone, and welcome to Skywatch 23! We’re excited to bring you this month’s updates. From UI overhauls to shipbuilding tweaks and epic creature designs, the team has been pushing forward on multiple fronts. Let’s get into it!.

UI Improvements

Ellen, our UI artist, has been hard at work on various screens to enhance your experience. Here you can see that Ellen has also revised the inventory prompts to make navigation easier and introduced contextual cues on the toolbar to keep everything intuitive

Ellen also continued our ongoing “Bar vs. Wheel” debate for the stamina display and after a lot of back-and-forth with our programmers, we’ve decided to test the bar option first. The wheel might be trickier due to the dynamic movement of the character, but it’s not off the table just yet!

Additionally, Ellen refined the helm-controlled ship’s toolbar for smoother solo boss fights. Ellen has been super busy! :D

Ark Concept Art

We’re thrilled to share Jon B.’s stunning concept art for the Ark. This colossal structure will play a vital role in your exploration and survival.

Ship changes

Tony has implemented a series of quality-of-life improvements for shipbuilding. Ship frames now feature a beveled extended lip on the external beams, enhancing the look while keeping the deck practical.

Material rendering has also seen improvements, allowing crafted items to display their proper textures.

Thanks to our artist Jon, all ship assets are now correctly scaled to fit the new deck size.

Herald, Herald, Herald!

Our team has been working on making the Herald truly epic. Jon, with the help of several others, has brought this boss to life. A new players first encounter should now feel really intimidating!

We’ve also started adding greebles to the Herald (the pieces you can shoot off) These pieces will be key to breaking down the Herald’s defences and make the encounter feel way more dynamic.

Behind the scenes, Kev, one of our programmers, created a new tool that lets designers experiment with different orb formations for the Herald fight. This lets us test out different combos of attacks to optimise the fight so players have the best experience.

Audio Programmer Mark has been focusing on the sound design for the Herald fight, layering the tension to match the visuals. The results are already sounding really moody! We love it!!

Ship Diagnostics & HP

Tamas, our programmer, has introduced a new ship core diagnostics feature that lets you check your ship’s stats remotely. This should be a handy addition for those long journeys.

Particle Effects & Atmosphere

Our VFX artist Ian and tech artist Andy teamed up to bring more atmosphere to the sky. Imagine embers gathering and intensifying as the tension ramps up during fights.

Machine Guns

Tom has introduced ship-mounted machine guns—currently the most powerful ship weapons in the game. They take heavy rounds and are REALLY good against swarm-style enemies and multiple projectiles. Machine guns come with big recoil and can rotate 360 degrees, so try not to kill your teammates. They still need a VFX and SFX pass, but imagine the damage you can do with one of these bad boys!

Shipwreck & Cannon Models

The shipwreck model is finalised! After the core is destroyed and your ship implodes, what’s left floating in the sky looks truly eerie. When testing this, one of the team had to be rescued after holding onto the wreckage with a grapple when their ship was destroyed! :D

To add some clarity here, Shipwrecks are the end state of a destroyed skyship which are held together by atlas energy when the core implodes. The twisted heap of metal and wood will remain airborne until retrieved by a player. Warning! They attract limpets!

3D artist Kenny also finished an amazing new cannon model.

Thuntomite

Behold the Thuntomite! Ed has revisited this creature model from Worlds Adrift, bringing it into Lost Skies with a fresh coat of paint.

Skywhale Update

You can now board Skywhales! Use your mining tool to atlas crystals from their backs or just hang out and enjoy the view. Careful though, grappling these can be tough.

Limpets in Action

Remember Limpets? Those pesky critters that latch onto your ship when you go through a cloud and eat away at it. Tech Artist Danny has rigged and animated them with the help of Matt on the code side.

That’s it for this month’s update! We hope you’re as excited as we are about all the progress. Keep an eye out on our socials for more behind-the-scenes sneak peeks. Thanks for your support and see you in the next Skywatch

Cheers,

Adam