As mentioned in the Devlog #12, you can find the patch notes for the demo update.
As usual for all demo updates, previous saves will not be usable with the new version of the game. Read through this changelog for more information about how to use your previous saves.
New features
Storage containers
Navigation tools and building pieces
Gameplay
World size has been modified to make gliding and sailing more enjoyable
Wind speed has been reduced to make gliding and sailing more enjoyable
Inventory space is now more limited
Dedicated and generalist storage containers have been added
Stacking stone heads is now easier
New construction pieces
Customizable wooden beams and stone columns
Customizable stretchable fabrics
Added beacons
Added Spyglass
Added Map table
Flying against the wind is now easier
Visible wind breeze across the island
Strong winds now push the players back
Visuals
Updrafts VFX
Butterflies and birds VFX
Veggies pickup
New corruption VFX
Audio
New cave atmospheric sounds
Sounds when inside buildings
Dynamic wind sounds
Dynamic rain sounds
New forest atmospheric sounds
Footsteps
Accessibility
Players and now toggle camera shake on and off
Bug-fixing
It's now clearer when an island is too heavy to be sailed
Small bug involving island rotation
Small bug involving windmills not working
Additionally, players can now access older versions of the game by going to Properties -> Betas -> Select the Beta you would like to opt into:
Bear in mind that those versions will no longer be supported and that you might encounter bugs, unbalanced and missing features as those older versions do not accurately represent the latest progress.
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
April Update - Devlog #12
April is here, yay! We couldn’t be happier to see a glimpse of Spring coming. Winter can feel is long in Canada. To celebrate the (almost) end of this season, here are some pictures of our beautiful city of Montréal under the snow! The second one is the view from one side of our office :)
Anyhoo, our road to Early Access in 2024 is still ON!
We are currently stepping in a new Milestone. This means we are wrapping up the previous one with a new build, and therefore… We will keep you updated on our Discord, of course! Stay alert and tell us in the comment what you are waiting for the most.
Finally, we posted twoTik Tok in the past week. We would really appreciate if you could support us there too!
Let’s start with Simon, our newest addition to the team because he is working on what everybody is waiting for: THE MULTIPLAYER! 😏
As you can see the other players are giant grey Tic Tacs. Should we keep it this way? How great will it be to play with a bunch of Tic Tacs on floating islands? More seriously, in this video, the multiplayer mode may look ‘’functional’’, but we have a long way to go before it is fully operational. We will keep you posted when it is available and testable!
We wanted to show you this very cool spyglass, the concept is made by Kenzie, 3D modeled by Mary-Jane and finally implemented by Max. How could you be a sailor without a super cool spyglass? If you watch carefully you can find a clue on a new very exciting feature Max is working on. ! Can you guess what it is? 🔎
Our talented concept artists keep amazing us with these new ideas for decoration. We are really eager to see how you’ll use them in your own house.
We showed you the Terrarium concept art in the previous devlog, you can now see the progression. The purpose of the terrarium is to grow different strains of fungi to aid in your research to find a cure to corruption. After crafting fungicides, antidotes, and cures on the research table, you can test them on the fungi grown in this terrarium. This will generatesamples that allow you to continue your research.
Anthony is focusing on storage containers, here is an example of flax storage. There will be generic storage options, but we wanted players to be able to use resource storage as a decoration element as well!
Calvin is still working on character customization options! He recently finished modelizing bodies. It is important to us to have various body shapes so players can identify to their ingame avatar.
After the cute Sheep, it’s time to animate the Pheasant! Nico had a little fun (more than that maybe) with the pheasant animation and made it a 10 hour loop…to ‘’Around the World’’. We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did 😂
Hot air columns are currently in the demo. At first, they were a placeholder, quickly made by Max when we didn’t have a VFX artist. Now we can improve them thanks to Jeremy!
Sounds are going to be a big part of our game. Nature has a specific, deep and layered soundscape and here Kyle worked on the sound of the rain changing while entering a room.
In the first part, he will play the Demo and then reveal informations about the future of Aloft 🤩
We'd love to chat and answer your questions.
Don't forget to join our Discord so you can follow the devlopment of the game 💪
Cheers travelers 💫
March Update - Devlog #11
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!
So, what’s new?
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 :
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!
Now, what are we working on?
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:
Concept Art - Kenzie
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!
3D art - Mary Jane
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.
Character customisation - Calvin
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!
Animal animations - Emma
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:
VFX - Jeremy
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.
Sound Design - Kyle
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!
What’s next?
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 💫
Patch notes 0.1.31b
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!
New features
Photo Mode added
Gameplay
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
3D assets
New Guardian monster models
New Character model
Campfire, Fireplace and Cooking Plates
Doors and Windows
Added millstone
New terrain textures
Animations
New Guardian Animations
New Character Animations
Audio
Added volume sliders
Added a lot of new sounds
UI & UX
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
VFX
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
The base building update - Devlog #10
Hey there travelers, settle down and listen,
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.
New demo update
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.
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.
Photo contest
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!
What has changed since last time?
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.
Private playtest
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!
Friends of Aloft
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!
What’s next?
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!
Real Civil engineer plays Aloft!
Hello everyone!
The famous engineer-youtuber Real Civil Engineer is playing Aloft! Take some time to discover our new features and the demo update as it goes live!
What if Raft was set in the sky? Aloft is an incredible fun survival game where you can engineer islands into huge floating bases! Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/16... and thanks to the devs for sponsoring the video!
Aloft is a sandbox survival game where you must survive on islands floating around an eternal hurricane at the center of the map. Build your base and sail the winds to discover new islands and find new resources, technologies, and equipment upgrades, while fighting back fungi corruption.
Learn more about your origins as you uncover secrets from the ruins of a civilization long gone, and find the answers to their demise by reaching the highest altitudes and braving the challenges of the hurricane.
Creative Sail Crafting You have ultimate freedom when the time comes to craft and build sails for your island. The height and width of masts can be adjusted, the sails, rotated and expanded, and custom sails allow you to move anchor points around and inflate/deflate the cloth, letting you craft any decoration your mind can imagine. The sails you craft are then used to navigate your island around the map, navigating the wind currents and jet streams to move faster.
A life in the clouds Craft buildings to protect you from the harsh wind, or that let the wind pass through, build bridges and zip lines to move quickly across your archipelago of floating islands, farm crops and raise animals by gathering water from passing clouds, erect windmills that will automate your machines, and gaze at the beautiful scenery. Jump off and fly freely using your glider, dancing with birds and clouds alike. Cleanse Corruption Some islands are corrupted by a dangerous force of nature in the form of a fungi infection. Dangerous and colorful mushrooms grow on top of the contaminated flora, and animals are victim to the corruption. Learn how to develop treatments for the various forms of the fungi, and cleanse the corruption from the islands. By healing and freeing the ecosystem, get access to new animal companions, livestock, crops, and resources.
Brave the Hurricane The giant hurricane in the middle of the map hides the answers to your past and future in its eye. Rock fragments, lightning strikes, toxic spores and freezing temperatures make the journey through it difficult. If that was not enough, the bellows of ancients leviathans can be heard through the storm.
Wind Automation Build windmills to harness the power of the wind and automate machines across your island. Optimize your windmill placement and hunt the best winds to power your production. Create automated oars to move your island, machines to craft advanced resources or even traps to protect your islands against enemies.
Island editor Create your own island in the Island editor. Save it to appear in your game or export it to share your creation within a friend's game!
8-player co-op Jump into an adventure with up to 7 other friends, and conquer the skies together. Chain off attacks while fighting as a group, take on a meaningful role in your day-to-day activities, and help your team sail and find new discoveries while exploring.
#realcivilengineer #engineering #aloft
The winter update - Devlog #9
Hey there travelers, settle down and listen,
Hello everyone! We are so happy to see you again!
Winter settles comfortably in Montreal and you can feel that the holidays are around the corner. The streets are lit up, cheerful music is playing and the Christmas markets are in place, along with the city's ice rinks! This is the perfect season to stay cozy near a warm fireplace right? This is exactly what we did the last couple of weeks so we don’t really have anything to share…
Just kidding! We have SO many news for you!
First, since the last update, our team has grown considerably. We are fortunate to welcome 5 new members :
We also try to share regularly about various topics, without any particular agenda, so stay in touch :)
It goes without saying that our Discord stays the best way to communicate directly with us. It’s always such a pleasure to exchange with you all. We answer every question, suggestion, comment… and show exclusive content.
Last October, Megamigs took place in Montreal and we were lucky enough to be among the participants. It was so good to chat with the different actors of our community from all over the world. Many players enjoyed our demo and the feedbacks were very encouraging. This experience was very positive and reminded us how much we appreciate physical events.
We’re amazed that more than 270 videos have been made on Youtube about Aloft. Big names continue to be added to this list with Meatwagon22 creating a series of 7 videos about our game, go take a look!
Cooking
In the last devlog, we discussed farming and all the great produce you could get out of it. There’s more to come regarding farming, but that will be for a future devlog, as there is still a lot of design work to be done before we can announce anything. In the meantime, we decided to get busy with the logical successor of the farming system: the cooking system!
Our designers have built a very flexible system that allows players to combine many different food items in order to make all sorts of meals, no matter what combination you input! Of course, that amused the fans on our Discord server to no end, as they are really looking forward to break our system.
In short, you need a heat source, either a campfire or a fireplace, and a cooking plate. By interacting with the cooking plate, you can input three ingredients, which will slowly cook over time. If you feed the fire with coal and if you actively cook the meal, it will go even faster! But watch out, you might end up with a burnt meal, which is never very appetizing.
The ingredients you use actually determine what kind of meal you’ll get (provided it’s not burnt). Is it a soup, a skewer, a stew or a salad? Who knows! You will need to try it to discover it!
New character model
One comment that came back many times was that our player character model had a bow & arrow on his back, but that we didn’t have a bow & arrow! Well, that’s because our model was a placeholder while we hired the perfect 3D character artist. Calvin is now part of the team (see 1st paragraph) and he worked on an amazing character model over the last month and a half.
The character and its outfit is inspired by maritime cultures and sailor clothes. As you have seen on oursocial media over the past few weeks, we have a lot of character customization options in our pipeline, but we decided to make a single character for now. It will be of course a lot of work to create all of those options, we will let you know whenever it’s ready to show!
New character animations
Emma, our new rigging and animation artist has also been hard at work making the animations for both our new player character, but also for the guard monster! Fighting him is much better now that there’s proper animations and its falling animation is very funny to look at.
Working on animations is a lengthy and complex process, so the animations you see above are not final. We will keep working on them until they are perfect. Of course, there will be much more animations to keep everything lively and varied.
Doors & Windows
Sometimes, in the development cycle, we have to cut some things short to make sure we reach our objectives. That means that some things are left for later, like at the end of our milestones, when we try to wrap everything up and do all the things we didn’t have time to do before. A good example for this are doors and windows! The assets themselves were done a while ago, along with the last wave of construction pieces (like the doorframes…).
Well those assets are now implemented! You can have a door in your house! It doesn’t change much, but it’s one more building piece that our players can play with. And hey, now they swing like a saloon door, which is pretty funny to us.
Survival system
The last thing to mention here is the upgrade of our survival system. Up to now, people had health points and stamina galore, monsters were hitting like wet noodles and globally there was little challenge in the game. Now, there’s a lot of new things to consider during your playthroughs.
First of all, stamina and health have been greatly reduced, which means you now have to manage those resources with greater care than usual. Additionally, eating food and meals now gives you additional bonuses that will make survival easier and more efficient.
Furthermore, now there is a more cohesive approach to our survival system, with stamina, resources and health being resources to trade with each other, emphasizing the “survival” aspect of Aloft. We will keep tweaking and working on it to make the experience better and better for our players.
What’s next?
2023 is around the corner. New year, new Aloft : An updated demo will be available soon and we can't wait for you to try it! Everything you see in this devlog will be in it!
Also, we are looking for volunteers for a private playtest from December 16th to 19th. The participation survey is on our Discord and, if you see it soon enough, there might still be a way to get in! If you want to be sure to get in during the next playtest, join our Discord server using the link below!
