Resources and Crafting - Devlog #2

For this second devlog, we would like to show you what we’ve been working on in the last months, but also what we’re working on right now. Aloft is a young project and, while we’ve made a lot of progress, there’s still much to do!

This devlog perfectly showcases that duality, as the resources and building machines were designed, but we didn’t have the assets to visually represent them. Fortunately, we now do and you can see them in this devlog!

[h2]Resources[/h2]
In Aloft, you have access to a bunch of different resources, but they might not be what you’re used to.

Wood and stone are there, of course! They are some of the most important resources in the game, allowing you to build structures, masts, foundations, crafting machines and much more. Wood grows back, so you are unlikely to run out, though that might require some patience. Rock does not, but it is one of the more plentiful resources around.


Other resources you will be using often are the bones of great beasts long since dead, bleached by the sun and the ceaseless wind bearing the floating islands. Bones are useful to cook, craft tools and weapons and dye stuff white. Because of everything that happened, you’ll find plenty of bones, you might just have to travel a little bit.


Another outlier that’s definitely worth mentioning here is Flax. This pretty blue flower has been used in sail- and rope-making for thousands of years and in Aloft, it will play a similar role. After harvesting flax plants, either wild or cultivated, you can break them into fibers which are useful to braid ropes and weave linen sailcloth!

Of course, we have many more resources that we’d like to share with you, but those will come in a later devlog.


[h2]Crafting machines
[/h2]We already have an array of crafting machines with which you can transform resources (wood into planks, for example), but also build tools and weapons.


You can see some concepts and their 3D assets we created for the sawmill and millstone. Each will have various uses and recipes associated with them, recipes which can be found by discovering the appropriate resources in the world. Obviously, the sawmill is used to transform wood into lumber and planks, crucial to construct buildings.


The millstone is an interesting one. As you gather rare and exotic ingredients throughout the infinite sky, you can grind them in pulp or powder and use them in cooking and more.

And the best thing about those machines is that you can automate them. By harnessing wind power, they’ll run by themselves and cut your planks, break your flax and much more! More information on that in the next devlog.

[h2]What’s next?
[/h2]In the coming weeks, we’ll be putting the final touch to the P2P multiplayer system as well as properly implementing the building and sail system in the game. Our artists are also designing the building parts that will go in the game. You’ll see how that’s going in the next devlog!

If you’d like to accompany us on this adventure, be sure to wishlist the game on steam here and join the Discord server using the image below