Lost Skies News

Welcome to Skywatch 25!

Lost Skies development has been packed with the usual exciting antics. Let’s take a look at what we have been up to!

Unite Conference

Some of our team attended the Unite conference, where we demoed Lost Skies to other developers! We had tons of new players test the game, and the response was overwhelmingly positive but also gave us clear pointers for which areas of the game to improve.

Attendees loved the freedom of movement, visual direction, shipbuilding mechanics, and boss fights. The feedback aligns with what we’ve seen in the Open Dev community, and our lead designer, Luke, has already started implementing adjustments to streamline the onboarding experience (FTUE) based on this feedback.

Character Customisation & Animation

Our character team has been hard at work expanding the customisation options! Jon has explored the distinct cultures of Lost Skies, adding unique hairstyles and face paints for deeper cultural connections. Meanwhile Klaudia has worked on some presets for head type, skin tone, hairstyle, eye colours and eyebrows.



Danny’s latest tests include a full-face rig, setting the stage for emotes down the line. 😎

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World Building

Our overarching focus this milestone remains on world-building. The team has crafted additional ambient VFX, like floating leaves in forests and dust in plains, bringing even more life to Lost Skies.

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With our new item rarity system, items now visually indicate their tier (common, uncommon, rare) through color-coded VFX. We’re iterating on these elements for natural integration into the world, which you’ll see more of soon.

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Some of you may have seen some of this content already but Andy has been working some tech art magic into the environments too.

Here we can see the player and large boulder flattening the grass as they move through it. Look closely and you can see an area of higher turbulence around the atlas lifter on the rock’s base.

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Respawning Mechanics & Underside Biome

Our latest system tackles world resets and item respawns. To prevent players from running out of resources, Tamas has implemented resource respawning every 10 minutes on the tutorial islands and every 2 hours in all other areas. This means no more being stuck in the first area without resources.

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Here you can see Tony’s implementation of the new sub-biome - underside - that will support unique resources and a new creature!

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Bosses & Herald Development

Our art team continues iterating on new Herald variants. Our latest “shark herald” design is in whitebox stage, showing unique movement and attack patterns. These variants will present new combat challenges and AI behaviour.


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Ark Computer

The Ark Computer continues to evolve! Vlad and Ellen have updated visuals for the tech tree with UI adjustments to improve usability.

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Vlad also began work on a dialogue system for the Ark Computer, a key feature for narrative delivery across Lost Skies.

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John also continues his work on the Ark, which is a massive task he’s breaking into smaller bits. Check out these cool trim sheets for the Ark that John created! Arks will be present on many different islands and will be closely tied into player progression.


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Buffs, Debuffs & Health Systems

Matt has been busy with a unified buff/debuff system. This includes elemental effects like burning and wet, with damage-over-time (DOT) effects based on debuff stacks. This system extends to ships, adding a new layer to combat.

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Alongside this, Matt has added bandages to extend combat longevity. These consumable items provide a health boost over time, though healing stops if you sprint, grapple, or dodge.

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Mark’s latest sound effects add even more immersion. He's integrated indoor/outdoor audio occlusion, meaning ambient sounds like wind will quiet when indoors. This is planned to work with your skyship too!

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Wildlife SFX, combat music, footsteps, and impact sounds have all received quality-of-life improvements to enhance realism. Plus, we’ve tweaked sound transitions for a smoother experience.

Data Pads

Data Pads are here. These are objects that can be placed in the 'Island Creator' by the creator to provide players with custom lore, hints, or guidance. Jon finalized the concept art, and Mark has begun implementing the feature.





Here are Jon’s new concepts for ship core attachments, which are part of the larger progression loop.



To enhance the shipbuilding experience, Tony has improved the building system with dynamic stamps, stackable objects, and responsive icons that reflect your customisation. These updates make shipbuilding smoother but come with a heap of work, praise Tony!

We can’t wait to see your creations.

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We have put together an attack squad to handle the game combat made up of people from programming, VFX & design. They have been working on the cave bug encounters, as part of this we’re introducing a new ranged cave bug with acid projectiles that can break grapple lines.

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You can also expect dynamic, physics-driven reactions when it comes to drones, Tom has been hard at work making it so they adjust their position when hit. These additions make combat feel much more dynamic and provide a more responsive combat experience which we can add to various mobs throughout Lost Skies.

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Check out that goo projectile! Its shape, size and colour can be easily tweaked, and for now we're planning to use this VFX for cave bug and manta attacks.

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That wraps up Skywatch 25! Thank you for your continued support and feedback. As always, join us on Discord to chat with the team and follow us on social media for sneak peeks and more!

Cheers!

Adam

REBROADCAST: This is Lost Skies, a cooperative survival adventure for 1–6 players set amongst the clouds, in a vast sky of floating islands. Find and craft ancient technology, build your own skyship, brave ferocious storms, and battle giant threats that await beyond the horizon.

Welcome to Skywatch 24! 👀

We’ve got a lot of exciting updates this month, with the team making strides in everything from character customisations to worldbuilding.

Let’s go! 🚀



Our 3D artist, Ed, has been busy crafting new character heads for more personalization. We’re testing custom skin textures with 4 male and 4 female heads. Additionally, you’ll be able to pick from a variety of face paints and hairstyles to truly make your character unique.



Ellen’s mockups for character creation are also shaping up, featuring body presets linked to the in-game cultures in Lost Skies. You’ll be able to customise your ancestry, skin complexion, and more, giving your character deeper connections to the world of Lost Skies.





Ellen didn’t stop at character creation. This sprint, she’s been working with Design on finalising the user experience flow on the server select screens. We’re currently leaning toward an image-based button layout, making navigation more visually intuitive. This is also where you'll be able to customise your server rules and world to your liking.

[h3]Option 1 - Tabs[/h3]

[h3]Option 2 - Image based buttons[/h3]

Region 2 🍂

Region 2 is all about those autumnal tones and ancient ruins with lots of grapple opportunities. We think you will love it!

We held a 1-day internal game jam to create new Region 2 islands and play around with the current version of Island Creator. The jam was a great opportunity for fresh perspectives, with some of our newer team members using Island Creator for the first time.

Klaudia has already been hard at work creating new ruins based on feedback. Let us know on Discord what other ruins or features you’d love to see for Region 2!



Tom also experimented with raytraced global illumination for previewing lighting in the Island Creator, giving caves and overhangs a more accurate look when using Island Creator. DLSS upscaling was added to ensure smoother performance during previews. Expect more gear and tools to be available in the Island Creator toolbar soon! 🤓

Puzzles! 🧩

Tom has also implemented the ‘Object Hole’ puzzle that many of you might remember from earlier Skywatch posts. It challenges you to correctly place spheres and cubes into a receiver. We love making puzzles!

In this video you can see much of the new stuff Tom has been working on including ray tracing and puzzles.

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Speaking of puzzles, check out these concepts for the new ‘Data Strand’ puzzle Jon did recently.



And here it is 3D modelled by Ross!

Map Table

One of the biggest features we’ve been working on for Milestone 11 is the map table.

It will serve as a hub for navigation and progression tracking, while also giving you a nice spot for hanging out and planning adventures with your friends. We’re currently working on the interface to optimise the player experience and discussing what data can be tracked at the table. The map table will become an essential part of your ship. 🗺️

Concept Art

[h3]The Ark[/h3]

More Ark concepts from Jon! Here you can see survival pods, more Ark interiors, and dynamic doors that signal their state through visual cues. Each new design ties deeply into the lore and functionality of the Ark as a core part of the game’s progression system.



[h3]Weapons[/h3]

Jon has been hard at work creating concepts for lower-tier rifles, shotguns, pistols, and revolvers, all rooted in Saborian tech. We can’t wait to see these weapons in your hands!



[h3]Data Bank[/h3]

Here is the updated concept for data banks that hold data disks vital for your progression via Ark computer trees.

Skybox and SFX

Klaudia has made significant updates to our skybox, adding stunning new vistas for you to discover. In the distance, you might start spotting some mysterious landmarks.



Mark has been working on some excellent new sound effects, including the satisfying rolling of rocks and more ambient SFX to deepen the atmosphere of the world.

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‘World-building’

The main theme for milestone 11 has been ‘World-building’, Matt has been collaborating with the design team to define island difficulty across the world. The plan is for difficulty to scale based on your distance from the starting area.

Higher-level AI and rarer resources will appear the further you venture, providing a steady progression challenge. To counter the difficulty curve, you will need higher level weapons which can be crafted with the resources you gather in the harder zones. Allowing you to tackle harder mobs! 🦑

Ship Building

Tony continues to push forward with shipbuilding systems. Ship weight now uses dynamic part weights, you’ll see your ship's weight in the diagnostics screen.

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Scaffolding has been refined to exclude inner ship areas, making navigation easier, and individual materials can now be assigned to ship panels for more customisation options.



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We’ve also updated shipbuilding with new sails, decorative panels, and flight instruments.



Eventually, we’re looking to replace the current flight HUD with these new immersive instruments!

Combat

Our combat systems are evolving courtesy of John and Kenny! The Art team has finalised the model for the Tank Drone, the largest deadly drone you’ll face on the islands. They also upgraded an earlier machine gun design to make sure you’re well-equipped for a Herald battle.

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Herald

Herald development continues! Kenny has started working on a new Herald shape!



Kev has been working on the tech for multiple Heralds spawning in the world, using the voronoi grid system shared in previous updates. Meanwhile, Ian and Andy have been refining the VFX for Herald orbs and experimenting with a new silhouette for this intimidating boss.

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That wraps up Skywatch 24! As always, thank you for your continued support and feedback. We’ve got so much more in the pipeline, and we can’t wait to share it all with you in the next update.

In the meantime remember you can join our amazing community over on Discord and follow us on socials for behind the scene sneak peeks into the Lost Skies development.

Cheers!

Adam

REBROADCAST: This is Lost Skies, a cooperative survival adventure for 1–6 players set amongst the clouds, in a vast sky of floating islands. Find and craft ancient technology, build your own skyship, brave ferocious storms, and battle giant threats that await beyond the horizon.

REBROADCAST: This is Lost Skies, a cooperative survival adventure for 1–6 players set amongst the clouds, in a vast sky of floating islands. Find and craft ancient technology, build your own skyship, brave ferocious storms, and battle giant threats that await beyond the horizon.