Aloft News

Hello everyone! First of all, let us apologize for the delay since the last devlog. Aloft has reached a turning point in the project and, our solid demo in hand, we are now looking for serious funding to back the production. Fortunately, there are some very interesting grant programs in Canada that we want to use to launch the production in full. We are also in discussion with several publishers that are interested in Aloft as much as we are. In short, we’re in a good place, and it’s going to get better.

That being said, we kept working on Aloft during the last month, and we have a bunch of stuff to show you today. A lot of the things we were discussing and presenting during our firsts devlogs have now come to fruition.

If you want more regular updates, we do encourage you to join our discord, it’s full of good stuff, and we share updates more often and in a more casual way.

[h2]New Trailer[/h2]
You might have noticed our Steam page got a little update with new screenshots and a new trailer, so without further ado, here you go!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Vegetation[/h2]
The first thing you may have noticed is that the trees and foliage have been upgraded from our placeholder trees to much nicer placeholder trees. They’re from a great Unity asset that suited our art direction, and we decided to include them in our game for now. Given the limited time available to us, we decided to put our efforts in all the other great features you can see in the trailer right now, rather than trees. Of course, good-looking trees add a lot of character to our islands, that’s why we went that way.

[h2]Wind walls[/h2]
You also noticed all that nasty weather and the damage it caused, right? Well that’s because our intrepid hero ventured into the very first Wind Wall. They are the primary gating
mechanism in Aloft as they block the three rings and the Hurricane walls block ascension to higher levels of altitude.

When going through a wind wall, the players and their islands will be assaulted with powerful winds, rain, sleet, thunder and more exotic dangers. They must steer the island, repair their sails and protect their buildings all at the same time, to be able to get to the calm zone. Once they are through, they will be able to access the second ring, getting ever closer to the hurricane.


[h2]Tools[/h2]
Last time, we were fighting and gathering resources with puny placeholders, and they weren’t bad, but they were not game-ready. Behold our tools in all their 3D glory!


Now, the tools and weapons in Aloft are something interesting. They’re the same thing! Mostly! Players will be able to build and repair their tools, and they are all used for both resource gathering and combat. The only exceptions to this are the bow and the sword, which are exclusively combat-focused. The first tier is built of stone, wood and rope to tie everything together. The second tier is made of sharpened petrified bones, as seen below.


The third tier isn’t modeled in 3D yet, but it’s made of lightning-smelted glass and malachite fused together to create glass and copper weapons. Does it look absolutely awesome? Yes, yes it does. We cannot WAIT to get them in 3D and in the game!


[h2]Combat[/h2]
We’ve shown you the dynamic movement before in the Devlog #4 and that was pretty cool! How about you pit your movement skills against a real, live* mushroom guard? Well now you can!


Use combos while fighting to optimize your damage output, but watch out for the flanking maneuver of the Guards, they’re not fighting fair! Each creature has its own combat style, but for the guard it’s all about rushing in and going for the kill. Be careful however, because if you aggro too many creatures, you will be swarmed, and that’s never a good thing. For now, players will be able to escape by flying away, but with the different monsters we have planned for you, you may not be able to do it for long…

* Mushroom creatures aren’t real and cannot hurt you

[h2]Corruption[/h2]
You may also have noticed the weird, mushroomy, smoky island full of shroom guards in the trailer, well that’s one of the many corrupted islands you will encounter during your travels in the world of Aloft. The mushroom disease in Aloft eats all the flora and fauna and leaves only empty shells of islands, full of giant parasitic fungus. They look pretty, but they’re not good for you or the ecosystem.


So how do you get rid of those darn fungi? Well, that’s a topic for another devlog, but it involves those big-ass mushroom cores that spew toxic spores all over the place. To get rid of the corruption, you will have to go in, kill the monsters protecting the core and whack it until the core is exposed. Then, use some extra-strength alchemical purifying liquid to clean up the mess. Sounds messy and kind of difficult? It’s on purpose, you didn’t think Aloft was going to be all sunshine and rainbows, right?


[h2]What’s next?[/h2]
For this summer, we will be working at a reduced pace, because summer is nice. This means that we will publish devlogs less often, because we will have less things to share with you on this platform. However, we stay active on our discord, so you should really follow us there.

That being said, we will be working on getting the sails and windmills in 3D, they’re complex pieces of machinery, and we are glad to be able to take the time to render and texture them correctly. Of course, along with windmills come building automation, which we will be overhauling to make it smoother and more coherent with the updated windmills.

Our concept artist will also take the time to craft some delightful key art which will adorn every conceivable surface of our office as soon as possible. She does incredible work, what can we say?

We have also started work on one of the most interesting aspects of Aloft, the Titans! There’s a sneak peek in the trailer, but we won’t say more right now, only that it’s awesome.

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

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

We decided to take a different approach for this devlog. Considering our development rate and the things that were coming down the pipeline, we waited a little longer before writing a devlog to make sure we had loads of content to share with all of you and IT’S GOING TO BE GREAT!

[h2]Buildings[/h2]
We’ve talked about buildings in the devlog #3 and shown you some UI and some of our concept art, and now all that’s been modeled, textured, integrated and polished! And you know, a picture is worth a thousand words, so we’ll just show you what our designer built this week with most of the building parts integrated. As you can see, we’re missing windows and the windmills still need some love ;)



We have more pictures and GIFs in our discord server that you can check out here

[h2]Island editor[/h2]
Did we mention how our team is awesome? Sometimes, we plan for a feature to take up to two or three weeks of work and our lead developer knocks it down in just a couple of days, because he can.

That’s pretty much what happened with this island editor! Now this definitely isn’t final, there’s still work to be done on the UX and some assets, but it’s definitely a great way to create something that’s truly yours. These islands can be exported from the editor and imported into any game, to appear as one of the random islands in the appropriate biome.

Now, that gif isn't great, but trust us, it's a fun tool to use!

[h2]Monsters[/h2]
Remember the guard monster concepts we showed in devlog #4?


There he is! At the time of writing, we are currently implementing that model in the game and you will be able to fight him for some precious loot. We’re really looking forward to showing everyone even more monster content!

[h2]What’s next?[/h2]
In the coming weeks, we’ll be working on implementing the guard monster in the game as well as getting combat right. We will start working on some weather events as well and modeling the protagonist character. We’re really excited for what’s coming!

Are you excited about these features as well? What do you like most about stage design systems like we have? Let us know in the comments below or on our discord, with the link below!

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

We have a bunch of great news this week! Things are progressing in the right direction and we’re keeping to our schedule. Game production is a curious process, as we’re fluctuating and pivoting off of events and challenges. It’s a challenge that we’re eager to take on every day!


[h2]New team members[/h2]
We’re super hyped to welcome to the team several new members, who’ll help us build a great game alongside all of you! You can read more about it on our Facebook page. Among them, we have a super talented 3D artist, an amazing character artist and two creative game designers. They bring a lot of strong talent to the team, we’re really excited to show you their work!

[h2]Monsters[/h2]
The monsters concepts are almost done! They’re gooey, spikey and mushroomy! We’re aiming for 4 different enemy types, each having three tiers of competency. Regular enemies are your run-of-the-mill antagonists while Veterans are tougher and have more skills or weapons. Elites are the meanest fungi on this side of the hurricane and will take strategy and skill to take down.

The guard enemy is a small and stylish little fungus. Common enough on the islands, he slashes away at the players, dealing high damage. Veteran and Elite versions carry a hardened shroom-shield that also doubles as a hat. Attacking the players is their job, fashion is their passion.


The 3D model of the Guard isn’t finished yet, but here’s a quick peek at the WIP model. Notice the twisty shroom-hair and a chin worthy of Gaston.


[h2]Combat movement[/h2]
We just finished implementing the combat movement for our protagonist. There is still some polishing to be done, but we’re quite happy with how it’s turning out. In the GIFs below, you can see the block, push, dodge, sprint and slide movement! You can also see me fall down the island like a doofus.


Below, you can see the axe combo. It can be used to split logs and enemies.


[h2]What’s next?[/h2]
We are currently working on the 3D building pieces that you saw in our last devlog. Some pieces are already done, but we’ll wait to have them all before showing it in a devlog. Our awesome game designers are also hard at work on the survival system and lore building of the game.

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

In this week’s devlog, we are going to show you some in-progress stuff! As you may know, we are a small team and we’re chugging along at a steady pace, so you’ll see a lot of WIP things in this devlog. We’re just really happy showing you our progress!

In any case, today we will cover part 1 of Aloft’s design philosophy and two things we hinted at in previous devlogs: automation and buildings!

[h2]The philosophy of Aloft (part 1)[/h2]
We have a strong design philosophy behind Aloft, something driving every design choice we make. Today, we will cover two of our core principles and will do more later, as it becomes relevant.

Aloft aims to be a relaxing experience where you get to heal an ecosystem and not reproduce the mistakes of humankind. For these reasons, fossil fuels, non-renewable energy and pollutants are not a part of the gameplay, which means that smelting is not part of the game either. Fortunately, it creates an opportunity for creative ways of creating tools and technologies. This includes bone-based weapons, and glass-forging techniques powered by lightning strikes, for example.

Creativity is also core to our game experience. In the context of construction, we feel the islands provide construction limitations to the players. To balance this and allow you to be as creative as you’d like, we have made the construction system in a very sandboxy way. Players will be able to build all over their islands with smaller building pieces, to create the structure they want to make.

[h2]Power and Automation[/h2]
In the previous devlog, we talked about crafting machines and resource transformation. All integral parts of the building/survival game genre. But maneuvering those machines can be rather time consuming. So you know, why not automate it?

Using the cutting edge technology of Wind Power, players will be able to hook windmills and wind turbines to their crafting machine and automatically transform those resources into sweet-sweet high-tier materials.


You can build power-generating structures near your crafting machines and simply link them together to automate the work.


The windmills and turbines aren’t modeled yet, but you can see our awesome concept art for them below. Players will have several models to choose from, to suit their aesthetic.

[h2]Building system[/h2]

Another important part of any building/survival game is… building things! Starting next week, we’ll get on producing 3D assets for the building parts, but the construction system is already implemented in our game build.

We take pride in having a great UI and better UX. We constantly strive to improve both and make the game as easy to pick up as possible and hopefully, you’ll never want to put it down ;) As you can see below, the building management screen is implemented and we can actually build things!


And for the building pieces, we have the whole package: turf roofs, walls, floors, windows and doors! You can see the roof and doors down here, but for more kickass concepts, join the discord using the link down below!


[h2]What’s next?[/h2]
Next week, we’re welcoming a new 3D artist to start working on all the many building parts you will be having fun with! We are also hard at work on combat and monsters. The design is well on its way and we already have concepts for our first monster. Of course, you will have more information in the next devlog.

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

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