Aloft News

[h2]Hello Friends,

This week again, Nico will be live on Twitch.

Date 📅: Friday, March 17th

What time ⌚: 3PM EST

[h2]👉 Live Twitch 👈[/h2][/h2]



[h3]Feel free to join us! [/h3]

[h3]In the first part, he will play the Demo and then, Mary-Jane, our fantastic 3D artist will join him to talk about the 3D models of Aloft 🤩[/h3]
[h3]
We'd love to chat and answer your questions.[/h3]

[h3]Don't forget to join our Discord so you can follow the development of the game 💪[/h3]

[h3]Cheers travelers 💫[/h3]



[h3]👉 You can find the previous Dev Streams on our Youtube Channel [/h3]

[h2]Hello Friends, [/h2]

[h3]At 3 PM EST today,
our Game Designer Nico will be live on Twitch 📽️[/h3]

[h2]👉 Live Twitch 👈[/h2]



[h3]Feel free to join us! [/h3]

[h3]In the first part, he will play the Demo and then reveal information about the future of Aloft 🤩[/h3]
[h3]
We'd love to chat and answer your questions.[/h3]

[h3]Don't forget to join our Discord so you can follow the development of the game 💪[/h3]

[h3]Cheers travelers 💫[/h3]



[h3]👉 You can find the previous Dev Streams on our Youtube Channel [/h3]

Hello everyone!

We hope you are doing well! On our side, everything is good and we’ve been busy!

As you may know, we just finished a big marketing period with the release of an update to our demo and a new trailer. Of course, the biggest news of all still is the Early Access release date: Early 2024.
If you didn’t read our last devlog, you should! A lot of nice things happened for us in the beginning of the year!

[h3]So, what’s new? [/h3]
First, we welcomed two new talents in our growing team: Simon as our second developer, he will focus on multiplayer development and Anthony as our 3D Environment Artist Intern. Anthony’s work really shines and his textures are simply gorgeous!

Then, we are now on Tik Tok & Youtube short. We’re going to try to post regularly but be patient with us, we’re just getting started :) Don't hesitate to like and follow for more Aloft shorts!

The Photo Contest is over and let me tell you, we have some very creative talents in our community. It was a real blast to look through all the pictures, but judging them was tough! We’re going to do a Tik Tok recap with the pictures so stay tuned!

In the meantime, here are the winners in the 4 categories :

[h3]Best Base:[/h3] Yutapo


[h3]Best Photo : [/h3] OrchideeFan944


[h3]Best Tiny House : [/h3] Professor Muddles


[h3]Most Creative : [/h3] Yonack Dreven



While the Photo Contest might be over, our community members are sharing stunning screenshots of what they are creating on Discord. Please feel free to do the same :)

To fit the short format of Youtube, we did a short version of the trailer. Let us know what you think about our huge leviathan in the comments ;)

The last, and most recent, piece of news is amazing: we were lucky enough to win the Ubisoft Indie Serie grand prize! In addition to the prize money, we will receive support from Ubisoft, something truly invaluable. We’re really happy to share this night with Lucid Dream Studio, who won the second prize, offered by the National Bank of Canada. You should check out their newest project, Biomorph, it’s really cool!
What a day to be part of the Indie community!



[h3]Now, what are we working on?[/h3]

As you may know, some islands in the game are corrupted by dangerous fungi. This corruption won’t only attack the players, it’ll target the animals as well! Jeremy, our VFX artist, is currently working on the creeping effects of this corruption on the creatures. For the occasion, we wanted to share with you the artistic evolution of the sheep. The wool can look a bit thin at the moment, but it’ll grow over time in the game to be super fluffy!



Corruption, animals and corrupted animals aside, our team is moving forward on a lot of projects:

[h3]Concept Art - Kenzie [/h3]
Kenzie has been working on the alchemy concept for the last weeks.
You already know that, in the game, you can build a base, fly your own island, grow your own veggies… A new, cool, feature will allow you to develop your alchemy skills!
We can’t spoil everything yet because there is so much new cool stuff coming, but here is the concept art for the terrarium!



[h3]3D art - Mary Jane [/h3]
We were waiting for these for a while now!
Though that’s the case in the current version of the demo, inventory will not be infinite in Aloft. Fortunately, you will be able to decorate your home and organize your inventory with the new chests.
Nico, our game designer, showed them in exclusivity during a Twitch Stream. He is live most Fridays at 3 pm EST. Join us! It’s fun to chat with you live and share exclusive stuff. The Discord server is by far the best way to know if a stream is coming.



[h3]Character customisation - Calvin[/h3]
Character customization is a feature that many of you requested and so Calvin modeled all the different faces in 3D. The final system will have a lot more options such as body types, skin colors, hairstyles and much more!



[h3]Animal animations - Emma [/h3]
Emma is currently animating the upcoming animals.
Every Thursday, we do a review session internally and everybody shows what they are up to. Emma’s presentations have been SO cute and this is one of the reasons:


[h3]VFX - Jeremy [/h3]
We’re so thrilled to see the VFX coming to life with Jeremy's work!
The team is growing, every week we can see the game getting better and better. It’s a really rewarding feeling. One of the first VFX that Jeremy worked on is the Fungi fighting effect! It is still a work in progress but we can promise that the combination of sounds and VFX will have an impact. We will show it to you soon.

[h3]Sound Design - Kyle [/h3]
It's so exciting to share Kyle's work for the first time. Sound adds something so special, so relaxing to the game, we think it fits the environment incredibly well, but we will let you be the judge of that. Tell us what you think!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]What’s next?[/h3]
As we announced in the previous devlog and in our trailer, we’re aiming for an Early Access release at the beginning of 2024.
Manuel, our CEO, and Felix, our Producer, will be at GDC to meet with the professionals of the gaming community.
Are you going too? Join our Discord to let us know!
2023 will be mostly about development and growing our community but we’ll give you details when the time will come.

Cheers travelers 💫

As mentioned in the Devlog #10, you can find the patch notes for the demo.

Unfortunately, given the new features, assets and systems, previous saves will not be compatible with this new version of the game. Furthermore, at the moment french localization is temporary and can be improved. If you see any bugs or typo, please let us know on discord how we can improve!

[h2]New features[/h2]

• Photo Mode added
  [h2]Gameplay[/h2]
  
• New Caves
  
• New Forests
  
• New Ponds
  
• Simple Construction Mode
  
• New Survival System
  
• New Cooking System
  
• Added Hot Air Currents
  
• Changed the survival values
  
• Sails can get damaged in strong winds
  
• Added a slight progression in enemy difficulty
  
• Holding the attack button automatically chains multiple tool swings
  
• New Gliding Controls
  [h2]3D assets[/h2]
  
• New Guardian monster models
  
• New Character model
  
• Campfire, Fireplace and Cooking Plates
  
• Doors and Windows
  
• Added millstone
  
• New terrain textures
  [h2]Animations[/h2]
  
• New Guardian Animations
  
• New Character Animations
  [h2]Audio[/h2]
  
• Added volume sliders
  
• Added a lot of new sounds
  [h2]UI & UX[/h2]
  
• New UI Icons
  
• Added place-holder stats on the weapons and the meals
  
• Mixing crafting ingredient is more fail-proof
  
• Removed the place-holder ball while using the Dorkip
  
• Added an eye-catcher effect on new resources
  
• Added an highlight on harvestable plants
  [h2]VFX[/h2]
  
• Fireplace FX
  
• Torch FX
  
• Wood chop impact FX
  
• Enemy damage impact FX
  

Thank you for reading! If you want more Aloft content or would like to give feedback, be sure to wishlist the game on steam here and join the Discord server using the image below

[h2]Hey there travelers, settle down and listen,[/h2]

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.

[h2]New demo update[/h2]

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.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Photo contest[/h2]
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!

[h2]What has changed since last time?[/h2]

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.



[h2]Private playtest[/h2]
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!

[h2]Friends of Aloft[/h2]
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!

[h2]What’s next?[/h2]
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!