Airborne Empire Demo Stream
The developer will livestream the new Airborne Empire demo!
Airborne Empire News
Next Fest Demo Live Now!
Lots of things have happened in the past few months and we’re happy to present the result today @everyone :
The first ever demo for Airborne Empire is now live on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2438680/Airborne_Empire/
The demo features the first biome you will encounter in the game: The Aeyrie. You'll meet our new characters, explore a brand new world, and battle our devious new pirate enemies. We hope it really gives you the sense of Open World RPG meets City Builder as you wander the vast green hills and take on many side quests.
Please keep in mind that the demo will only be available for a limited time before the game is launching into Early Access later this year.
We also have a brand new trailer for the game:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We hope you enjoy the demo and would love to hear your feedback!
The first ever demo for Airborne Empire is now live on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2438680/Airborne_Empire/
The demo features the first biome you will encounter in the game: The Aeyrie. You'll meet our new characters, explore a brand new world, and battle our devious new pirate enemies. We hope it really gives you the sense of Open World RPG meets City Builder as you wander the vast green hills and take on many side quests.
Please keep in mind that the demo will only be available for a limited time before the game is launching into Early Access later this year.
We also have a brand new trailer for the game:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We hope you enjoy the demo and would love to hear your feedback!
'Did I make too big of a game?' Lead designer of sky-high city builder Airborne Empire on wanting to build a 'Skyrim or a Breath of the Wild'-sized world
Building a city in the sky in 2020's Airborne Kingdom was a mostly chill experience—while you were in a constant war with gravity as you attempted to expand your city while keeping it aloft and balanced, there were no traditional enemies to fight. It was also a relatively short game that could be fully completed in about 10 hours...
Read more.
Open-World City Builder RPG
Been a while since a devlog, but that doesn't mean that we've stopped working -- far from it! In fact, I've been so focused on actually making the game, it's been hard to justify spending the time to write a post! But approaching the end of the year feels like a good checkpoint to catch everyone up.
It's hard to summarize all the new things... so let's see...
These last few months has really seen the gameplay in Airborne Empire evolve drastically. The combat gameplay loop feels Very Good, testament to Zach and all the time he's put into tuning the basic Defense Tower, Cannon, and Hangar mechanics. Fred has also added a lot of functionality around workers repairing buildings and putting out fires. And my UI has finally caught up, allowing for better visibility into what you need to prioritize when your city is getting bombarded.
At the same time, we've added a ton more content! Amanda and the art team have created an entirely new biome -- an arid desert that evokes some elements from Airborne Kingdom while keeping this game's unique style. She's also gone back to our first biome and reworked the colors to keep the warm, cozy feel, but add vibrance to both land and sea. Even more ruins, treasures, and hidden secrets have been added.
And all the while Dante and our portrait artist Luke have been populating the increasingly huge landscape with character portraits and lots of quests. Our new portraits show off so much more personality, and I'm excited to showcase all the flair in our dialogue too!
Altogether, this has made the true character of the game finally emerge. It doesn't quite feel like anything you've played before. You're more than flying over a landscape, you're discovering a world; you're daring fate and finding adventure; you're defeating enemies in myriad ways by making distinct upgrade choices.
What we have here is truly an Open World City Builder RPG!
It's pretty special... and I'm excited to share it with you next year!
It's hard to summarize all the new things... so let's see...
These last few months has really seen the gameplay in Airborne Empire evolve drastically. The combat gameplay loop feels Very Good, testament to Zach and all the time he's put into tuning the basic Defense Tower, Cannon, and Hangar mechanics. Fred has also added a lot of functionality around workers repairing buildings and putting out fires. And my UI has finally caught up, allowing for better visibility into what you need to prioritize when your city is getting bombarded.
At the same time, we've added a ton more content! Amanda and the art team have created an entirely new biome -- an arid desert that evokes some elements from Airborne Kingdom while keeping this game's unique style. She's also gone back to our first biome and reworked the colors to keep the warm, cozy feel, but add vibrance to both land and sea. Even more ruins, treasures, and hidden secrets have been added.
And all the while Dante and our portrait artist Luke have been populating the increasingly huge landscape with character portraits and lots of quests. Our new portraits show off so much more personality, and I'm excited to showcase all the flair in our dialogue too!
Altogether, this has made the true character of the game finally emerge. It doesn't quite feel like anything you've played before. You're more than flying over a landscape, you're discovering a world; you're daring fate and finding adventure; you're defeating enemies in myriad ways by making distinct upgrade choices.
What we have here is truly an Open World City Builder RPG!
It's pretty special... and I'm excited to share it with you next year!
Devlog: Back from Montreal!
No updates in the last couple of weeks, huh? Well we were busy! We all met up in lovely Montreal, Fred's homeland.
At least once a year, all our full-time dev-team members get together and work from the same space. Unfortunately BJ couldn't join us this time, but our part-time QA fella AJ tagged along instead, since the drive wasn't too far for him!
Here's all of us at work in Fred's living room:
What did we do? Well, plenty of playing the game! Up until now, Zach has been the main player on the team, but as more features come online, the more of us want to get our hands on it. We made some crucial balance changes, but mostly... we had fun with the game!
Maybe this doesn't make sense to those not in game-dev, but the game isn't always fun to play -- and usually, not right-away, immediately after many features come online. And yet, this one is! I'm sure it helps that we're building a sequel, on top of features that are already enjoyable. But even the new stuff -- the exploration, the massive world, the dialogue, and the combat -- all feel cohesive already! Kudos to Zach for all his playtime and design efforts: we have something good right now!
Fred got lots of insights into both what to change in the current features and why he should change them. We also discussed the features currently not implemented, like the Attack Hangar ability, and where those might be useful.
Amanda and I also finally sat down and played with the world colors -- which involved changing a lot of our textures and materials and also tweaking the visual environments at various times of day.
Here's a look at the latest; definitely not 100% final, but closer to what we want. Oh, and included in that screenshot is the new build bar I've now designed implemented in the game too!
Hope that's enough of a catch-up for now, to those eager for development updates. I'll get back to regular weekly ones next week!
At least once a year, all our full-time dev-team members get together and work from the same space. Unfortunately BJ couldn't join us this time, but our part-time QA fella AJ tagged along instead, since the drive wasn't too far for him!
Here's all of us at work in Fred's living room:
What did we do? Well, plenty of playing the game! Up until now, Zach has been the main player on the team, but as more features come online, the more of us want to get our hands on it. We made some crucial balance changes, but mostly... we had fun with the game!
Maybe this doesn't make sense to those not in game-dev, but the game isn't always fun to play -- and usually, not right-away, immediately after many features come online. And yet, this one is! I'm sure it helps that we're building a sequel, on top of features that are already enjoyable. But even the new stuff -- the exploration, the massive world, the dialogue, and the combat -- all feel cohesive already! Kudos to Zach for all his playtime and design efforts: we have something good right now!
Fred got lots of insights into both what to change in the current features and why he should change them. We also discussed the features currently not implemented, like the Attack Hangar ability, and where those might be useful.
Amanda and I also finally sat down and played with the world colors -- which involved changing a lot of our textures and materials and also tweaking the visual environments at various times of day.
Here's a look at the latest; definitely not 100% final, but closer to what we want. Oh, and included in that screenshot is the new build bar I've now designed implemented in the game too!
Hope that's enough of a catch-up for now, to those eager for development updates. I'll get back to regular weekly ones next week!