Skyfear News

Work on Skyfear has been quietly but smoothly continuing in 2026. I plan on releasing the next update in March and this update will bring some small yet significant changes to Skyfear that I believe improve the game's main draw and make it more engaging.



[h2]Coming in the Spring Update[/h2]

• Main Menu changes. The game will present you with the Main Menu first instead of dropping you into the Lairworld. This has been requested for quite some time and I finally came up with a logic design for how to impliment this that I was happy with. Lairworld will now be entered through the Main Menu, and you can just enter and exit as you like, but the Main Menu will now be served first which a majority of new players are going to be more pleased with.
  
• In-game updates menu. There will now be a place in-game to view all the documents and things related to Skyfear such as these blog posts. This was halfway already a thing in the game but the UX has been redesigned to be more user friendly.
  
• Gameplay changes. After a lot of consideration, I felt like Magic and Health and Ability frags were near unlimited and perhaps lead to stagnant gameplay. I've reduced the automatic regeneration for all of these things by a significant amount, and buffed the pickup orbs quite a bit, plus making their placement in the arenas more meaningful. This has lead to playing with a lot more decision-making during battle, players now having to be smart about managing their Magic usage, and the game feels richer this way. Will have to be dialed in but I think this is good for the game.
  

View the commit log for more details: https://playskyfear.com/docs/commits

All of this will go through the experimental branch first, so keep an eye on the commit log for when that goes up.

[h2]In progress[/h2]
These are things that I've also been working on, but can't say definitively when they'll be ready:

• Dragon re-do. In order to deliver some proper good dragon animation, I've got to basically re-make the rig and probably also re-do the retopologized game model. This is going to take some time to get right, but will be worth it.
  
• Tutorial game mode, for players of all experience levels to both learn how the game works but also practice it and experiment as much as they want.
  
• Lighting and camera composition improvements. While I believe I've made some nice looking environments and effects, I think the game's camera work doesn't always let that shine. Possible that improvements make it into the Spring Update but we'll see!
  
• New content. I've got a list put together of new magic types, perks, abilities, maps, game modes, and cosmetics. Ultimately everything written above this is more of a priority, but I have a goal to significantly increase Skyfear's in-game content in 2026 so I'll be starting to select and finish the things on that list.
  
• A PVE game mode has been designed. Single player & co-op. Will talk more about this later in 2026!
  

Thanks for reading, thanks for playing, see you in the arenas soon!
- telekrex, developer

It's time for Skyfear's final update of 2025! This update completes a long list of smaller things that I believe brings the game to a good state, where I can now fully focus on some major new things.

[h2]Highlights of this update:[/h2]

• 4V4! All game modes (except for Duel) have been increased from 6 players to 8, making battles 4V4. After extensive testing and discussion, it seemed that this improves the game's pacing. Battles should now be slightly more intense!
  
• Free-look! Replaces the old "shoulder cam". Press and hold G to orbit the camera around you and see more of the battle.
  
• Freeplay mode! A new game mode that's empty. Use it for free roaming the arenas, practicing moves, or just enjoying the prehistoric atmospheres.
  
• Some new visual/particle effects! Dragons now burst when killed, emitting streaming projectiles of whatever magic they had equipped. Smoke trails have also been added to bolt attacks.
  
• New skybox in the Lairworld.
  
• Added more geysers in the Lairworld.
  
• Adjusted mixing and volume of several of the game's "harsh" sounds.
  
• Several tweaks to game mode score limits and modifiers to accommodate the new 4V4.
  
• Spore icons will now hide when in the Main Menu.
  
• Press "N" to manually hide all spore icons.
  
• Some balance tweaks to all abilities.
  
• Some small UX tweaks.
  
• Various camera behavior adjustments.
  
• Several updates to the How to Play content.
  
• Several small bug fixes.
  

See commit log for full details: https://playskyfear.com/docs/commits

[h2]Sandbox Mode TBD[/h2]
In October and November I teased a "Sandbox" mode, which actually was going to be part of Freeplay mode. Recently I made the decision to hit pause on this, since I felt the design and implementation was rushed I wouldn't have been happy with releasing it. Instead, Freeplay mode stays, but its just Freeplay, no editing tools. I also must admit this is astray from Skyfear's current priorities, so Sandbox features will have to come at a later date.

[h2]What to look for in 2026[/h2]
Dragon updates, new maps, new magic types, and oh, the game needs a tutorial, doesn't it? 2026 will have larger updates most likely. We've been discussing ideas in the Discord server. Have a look in there if that interests you.

See roadmap for full details: https://playskyfear.com/docs/roadmap

Thank you for playing Skyfear. I hope you all have a fun Holiday Season, and see you in the new year!
- telekrex, developer

After 8 months of Early Access, I’ve learned a lot. And after recently taking a break, I’d like to regroup and establish what’s happening next and how it’s getting there.

Skyfear has always been envisioned as a game that you can pick up 15+ years from now, and it can still deliver, no matter how many players are online. It’s got a backbone that can stand on its own completely locally, but has additionally the ability to host online sessions. This fundemental approach is why I say that Skyfear isn’t going away any time soon. Think like Portal 2. That’s the idea.


The primary goal is to bring Skyfear out of Early Access in 2026, and to a state of completion. Maintenance, development, content, and community things will still continue, but when I talk about completion, I’m talking about a stable codebase and design that doesn’t need much further change. The plus side of this is the potential for expansion in how and where the game is played – competitions, events, cafes, handheld, custom content, etc., all of which I am very much open to exploring. An official “1.0” launch would bring the game a decent visibility boost.

The major things I want to take care of leading up to launch are:

• Fixing the dragon animation. I know, I know, it’s rough. I’ve got a plan to re-do the rig and re-do the animation better, and give the character model some improvement as well.
  
• In-game community resources. I’ve noticed Skyfear’s audience is fragmented between platforms, locations, and times, and centralizing information on the Skyfear website isn’t exactly a solution for all. So things like roadmaps, blog posts, etc. will need to have a home in the game itself somewhere. I want to design this considerately though, and avoid this ːsteamfacepalmː
  
• Content. 7 maps is not enough, is it? I’ve got about ~12 more in development, but in Early Access content vs features is a difficult thing to balance. I’ve been considering putting some kind of voting system in place, which would coincide with the community resources mentioned above. Please leave a comment somewhere if you have any opinion on this!
  

Read the full current roadmap here.


Here's what's coming in the next nearest update, probably dropping in December:

• Sandbox mode lets you play without any combat rules and you can spawn in items from the Skyfear world for any purpose. This is very experimental and could end up going in a few different directions.
  
• Free-look is replacing the shoulder cam with the ability to move the camera around. It will let you see more of what’s going on during a battle.
  
• 8 player battles. All game modes will be moving from 3v3/6 players to 4v4/8players. This has been tested extensively and a lot of conclusions were that it paces better than 6. Feedback on this is welcome.
  
• Further stability & fixes.
  

We will host a Skyfear Online Hangout 4 times per year, during each of Steam’s seasonal sales events, and in order to give everyone time, the events will last for at least 2 days straight. The first will be on December 20 and 21 of 2025 – while the game is on sale. What will this event consist of? It’s mostly just a dedicated chosen time for everyone to be online together and play some battles and discuss gaming. But here are some things we will test out this time:

• Live streams?
  
• Behind the scenes / sneak peaks
  
• Free keys giveaways
  
• Competitive sessions if that’s something of interest
  
• Show and tell (Avatars, Artwork, etc.)
  
• I will be online and playing the whole weekend
  

Since this is the first event in a new format, it will be test-like. Expect succeeding events to improve!


(Varying degrees of progress, some rough, some further along)



I want to make a few comments about our studio and then leave ya alone to enjoy your games :)

Protoria Studios is a very small team, like tiny. We are doing fine, and the plan is to keep things going. New projects have been started and I’m very excited about them (don’t worry, Skyfear is still my #1). Going forward, we’ll release not just games, but software too. And in this world increasingly filled with services and subscriptions, all hosted online, I would very much like to anchor Protoria Studios as a development house building locally powered things. Things that run on your device, and things that leave your personal data and your precious time and energy alone. We are in the business of making computers fun to use. Oh, and we will be fully embracing the Steam hardware family as we expand support to more ecosystems than Windows.

Thank you for reading,
telekrex, lead developer.

A small update addressing a variety of things.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Steam invites now work
• Graphics and resolution settings should now work for all users. If you don't see any changes, try toggling the screen mode to something else, then back again. This should refresh the engine. Weird quirk of UE4.21.
  
• Graphics settings will now update when you select "Use recommended".
  
• Fixed various issues with the game's reading of the current screen resolution.
  
• Improved handling of bolt spawns
  
• Fixed some issues with roar audio/location
  
• Fixed pyrite rock spawn location inconsistency
  
• Routine maintenance & updated various online service modules.
  
• Cleaned up old/broken leaderboard entries.
  
• Code of Conduct updated; just neater wording and widget.
  
• Removed no longer needed debug prints.
  
• Fixed (fingers crossed) bots getting stuck on the back wall of Chasm.
  
• Fixed various visible lava mesh placement issues on Lairworld.
  
• Fixed various parts of Lairworld, Castle, and Regolith that didn't react to material sounds or deal collision damage.
  
• Various performance improvements to Castle and Lairworld.
  

[h2]Changes/Improvements[/h2]

• Slightly reduced time-to-explode on pyrite.
  
• Made several UI animations a bit snappier.
  
• Added more sound to Countdown animation.
  
• Magic pickup value reduced to 25 from 35, Health pickup value increased from 50 to 75.
  
• Re-implimented some camera shake that was attached to footsteps (it’s extremely subtle).
  

[h2]Performance[/h2]

• Removed some unused plugins and editor content from packaging, game may launch faster now.
  
• Improved map loading time by ~2 secs.
  
• Added LODs to waterfall particles.
  
• Added LODs and crunched polys on several procedurally spawned assets; foliage, meteor frags, etc.
  
• Disabled atmospheric fog material permutations required for shaders - since we’re not using this (materials require less to compile then)
  
• Slightly improved cost of rendering Magic and Health pickup particle effects
  
• Reduced LOD 0 polys on terrain pieces in Castle from over 900k to 39k. Massive chunk of render time there.
  

[h2]New feature: Looking for players[/h2]
I'm doing everything I can to give players the tools they need to enjoy this game with a low population. Press M in the server browser, or when in a battle, and Skyfear will send an anonymous message (via bot) to the Skyfear Discord server, saying that someone is online and looking to play. Your games can easily be found in the browser then. I've intentionally made this anonymous and usable without a Discord account because I know there are plenty of players who don't use Discord. However, those who are there will see these alerts and I hope this encourages response and connection. This is, however, experimental and we'll see how it goes.

See full Commit log here. See full Roadmap here.

Build 288 (October update build) was accidentally shipped with existing save data included (used in testing). I believe anyone that has ran Build 288 may have had their save overwritten by Steam's update.

On October 4th I updated a new build that does not include any save data folders or files, as Skyfear.exe is supposed to generate those if they don't exist. Build 289 checks your save data for this DNA (Profile ID): S+2025.9.29+NORTHAMERICA+Mega-Voyager-71DCC88+monstermonster+DDDB48BB4B6F60DFD847D7A0F99B3FD9 (which is the test save) and if found, will ignore loading it. Which should result in the following:

If you have the test data, you should be prompted to create a new save.
If you have no data at all, you should be prompted to create a new save.
If you have data in your Steam cloud, your game should load normally.
If you haven't updated yet or haven't played since before October 1st, your game should load normally on the latest Build 289.

Apologies for any issues or confusion this has caused. Procedures have been updated to make sure this doesn't happen again.

If you DO have issues with the game, of any kind, please share with me via Steam discussions or Discord, as I certainly want to keep improving this game!

In any case, hope everyone is enjoying the latest updates!