Skywatch #28 - Development Update (Special Edition)

Welcome to Skywatch #28: Take to the Skies! (Special Edition)

Welcome to the final Skywatch before the full release of Lost Skies! The entire team has been working incredibly hard and we've been absolutely blown away by the journey we've taken with you all from Dev kickoff through Early Access. This update is a celebration of that journey! A huge thank you to every single one of you who shared feedback, reported bugs, built incredible islands, and helped us shape this world. Your passion and support have been the wind in our skysails.

So let's take one last deep dive into development before we all take to the skies together for the full launch on September 17th!

Core Tech Evolution, Issues & Solutions

As we approach launch, a massive amount of work has been happening under the hood. Updating the game's core tech is an incredibly complex task and it's something we'll likely be refining right up until the final moments. For a deeper look into the nitty-gritty of the upgrades, the issues that come with them and the improvements, our wonderful Tom (sync) shared some insights a few weeks ago which you can read all about here.

Quality of Life and UI Overhaul

The crafting system has also received some love! We're exploring alternative views and new categories to make finding and crafting what you need a smoother experience.

We’ve given the entire user interface an overhaul to ensure a cohesive and consistent experience across the whole game. This includes:

• Standardised fonts, text/button sizes and highlight colours.
• New crafting categories added across build menus for easier navigation.
• An autofill option for crafting slots to speed things up.
• Full implementation of Steam Achievements.
• Adjustments to ADS sensitivity and other player settings.
• Improved lighting on multiple objects and items like the hip lamp.

Bugs Fixed

As we consistently mention, your feedback has been invaluable in helping us hunt down bugs. Here is a comprehensive list of the fixes made since the start of Early Access. Thank you for helping us make the game better for everyone!

Check out THIS LINK for a full list.

Islands and Regions

The world of Lost Skies is about to get a whole lot bigger! For the 1.0 release the map has been expanded from 54 to over 120 islands split between four distinct regions: Green Pines, Azure Grove, Atlas Heights and Midlands.  

A huge number of these islands were crafted by our amazing community in the Island Creator contests, including the latest contest. There are so many more fantastic creations to explore in the Steam Workshop so be sure to check them out!

New Cloudscape & Atmosphere

Luke and Tony have also been working on the comfort system implementation. In short, the more effort you put into decorating your ship, the more rested you will become! Furnishings like plants and other nice items will grant a buff while you're on board. As you can see in the video, walls will also affect line of sight for these comfort zones.

The incredibly talented Lead Artist Klaudia has been putting in a monumental effort to transform the very skies you travel through. Here’s a word from her on what to expect:

The new map includes an update to the cloud visuals, introducing a new cloudscape for each region. As you progress into later regions, not only islands and wildlife have their own palette, the sky also changes to give each region a unique look, making ship exploration and island discovery more engaging.

The starting region, Green Pines, has fluffy towering clouds, with islands positioned near the peaks. The valleys between them give an opportunity to put the ship's steering to test.

As you cross into Azure Grove, the sky clears up, however islands being hidden in lower valleys are more common. The purple sunsets go well with the islands’ blue foliage. From the higher islands you have a clear view of the various weather barriers to help plan your journey onward.

As you cross into Atlas Heights, you enter into a darker, overcast region. The stormy weather infuses the atlas in the terrain, causing the foliage to glow in atlas colors. Islands are scattered between tall cloud arches, which also hides the Seraphs from sight, being alert while flying through these shapes is more important.

To enter the final region, the Midlands, you must pass through the red Storm Walls. Beyond them lies a vast teal sky with a long visibility distance, with islands resting on a thin layer of misty clouds. Diving under this layer of cloud can uncover more islands to explore.- Klaudia

Weather and Storm Walls

A small but mighty improvement: when you move your ship's core, any attached core upgrades will now move with it!

Separating these new regions are formidable weather barriers designed to test your ship and your crew. These are tough-to-navigate environmental challenges that will damage your ship as you pass through.

Windwalls: Found between Green Pines & Azure Grove, these will shred your sails, requiring engines to push through. The barrier between Azure Grove & Atlas Heights is more intense, with rain and debris battering your vessel.

Stormwalls: The ultimate test. Found between Atlas Heights & Midlands, these raging tempests feature dramatic lightning strikes and will push your ship's power and endurance to the absolute limit.

The Sounds of the Skies

Olly has been designing a menagerie of new creatures to populate the skies, particularly for the upcoming Region 4 biome.

Our audio maestro Mark has been composing an entire soundscape to bring the expanded world to life. All four regions now have a distinct musical identity with new tracks that align with each region’s unique theme and atmosphere.

The weather walls mentioned above also have new distinct music designed to evoke tension and a sense of danger, complemented by impactful sound effects like thunder and lightning to reinforce the threat they represent.

Knowledge System

Also new to full release is the new Knowledge System! This allows you to recycle unwanted schematics and gain a new currency called Drift. When you find a schematic you can either learn it or salvage it for Drift. This currency (also obtainable from scanning data banks) can then be used at the Research Table to level up and upgrade the schematics you truly care about.

Flora and Fauna

The art team has been creating some stunning new assets for the 1.0 release.

With an expanded world comes new life! You'll see a bunch of new creatures, from sky-bound thornets and harpies to cave-roaming beetle hulks and more! Our creature-creator Oli has been designing and implementing the AI for a host of new species to populate the skies and islands. These new additions come with unique behaviors and drop unique loot and recipes.

Atterbane: The evolutionary pressures of the Midlands have granted the Atterbane with the ability to generate a toxic saliva which is wield with great effect. When charging it traps its target inside a maze of miasma. For those fortunate enough to think they've escaped, the Atterbane has a ranged spit attack that it directs at targets it cannot directly reach.

Thornet: The Thornet is an aerial ambush predator that languishes high in the air waiting for the perfect moment to drop like a spear onto unsuspecting prey. Only quick reactions and keeping a keen eye on the skies can beat a Thornet's superior eyesight and punishing dive.

Harpies: Harpies rely on their excellent hearing to track down prey that once located is battered with a series of powerful sonic screeches. Adult Harpies pairbond for life, raising juvenile broods they protect jealously from any perceived threat. Thanks to powerful wings and streamlined frames they move extremely swiftly which is bad news for those perceived, be they a threat or otherwise.  

Motus Beetle Hulk: This heavily armored cavebug moves surprisingly quickly for something so large. It utilises sensitive hearing to locate threats and launch a powerful burrow attack at its target. Getting caught inside the emergence zone will fling the hapless target many meters into the air in a disorientating tumble, making the next attack that much easier.  

Bosses

One of the most frequent pieces of feedback we received was the desire for more combat encounters and risk in the sky. We’ve addressed this by adding new points of interest guarded by enemies and by greatly expanding our roster of Seraph sky bosses.

Arbiters: Smaller-scale bosses you'll encounter in every region.

Heralds: Large formidable bosses that roam the skies of Azure Grove and Atlas Heights.  

The Harbinger: The ultimate Seraph threat found in the Midlands. This encounter will truly test your ship, your gear, and your crew!  

Skytravel

Thanks to our Lead Designer Luke's hard work, ship progression has received a major overhaul based directly on your feedback. We saw that stats from levelling and materials weren't always having a meaningful impact, so we've reworked the system to make those rare materials provide a substantial boost to your ship.  

The levelling cap for all ship parts has been increased to 50 and you can now find sub-components (propellers, barrels, wing tips) with randomised stat rolls. This allows for deep customisation and some even come with brand new stats like Energy Efficiency to reduce power costs! We've also added new fuel tanks, rig controls and a host of new furniture and decorations to make your ship feel like home.

A Special Thanks

As this is our final Skywatch we wanted to share a few words directly from our Head of Studio.

Hi All, I know you don’t hear from me much on here but trust that I am a frequent visitor and lurker I just leave most of the communication up to the team.

Saying that - as it is the last Skywatch, Adam and myself thought it was fitting for me to say a few words.

First off, it’s been an amazing experience building this game with this community from basically the beginning. Your work and feedback has been invaluable to us and it’s been an absolute joy seeing videos and comments from you all when we release builds with new features. Making games is a real pleasure when you’re making them with people that also have the same passion. This community and the Lost Skies team here at Bossa have gelled superbly and it’s made all the hard work that’s gone into this game feel more like a hobby than work for all of us.

Secondly, I want to thank everyone that’s played the builds, fed back, given your opinions (good or bad), designed and built islands, made videos, anything that has helped make this game possible. We’re a small team here at Bossa and we’ve made a game we’re extremely proud of - that wouldn’t have been half as good without you. What has been achieved goes toe to toe with games that have had x5 the budget so it’s something for each and everyone of us to be proud of.

Lastly a game like Lost Skies can never truly be classed as finished. The world has endless possibilities for growth. The bigger the success of 1.0 over the coming months gives us a greater ability to grow that world. We really believe in what we’ve made so one last request. Let’s try and get as much word of mouth marketing going as possible. Social shares, funny, amazing, Wow videos are all welcome. The more eyes on the game the better. Post 1.0 release we will continue to keep this community going so we can continue to get feedback and interact with you and hopefully be able to implement some of these things going forward.

Go raibh míle maith agat.

Anthony

Head of Studio

Bossa Games

Phew! And that's a wrap. We are beyond excited to welcome you all to the full version of Lost Skies on September 17th.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being the best community a development team could ask for.

See you in the skies!  

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