Above you can see the updated version of Black Skylands's Early Access Roadmap. Let's delve into the details of our plans for the following months.
đşď¸ WHY HAS THE ROADMAP CHANGED?
We have expanded the project during the early access development and adapted it to your feedback. Currently, we are happy with the amount of different aspects and mechanics the game has. But we reached the point from where all future changes need to solidify the foundation of the game. In short, we want to take bigger steps, taking more time to revisit and polish mechanics that lie within the core of Black Skylands. Combat, progression, storytelling and late game are the areas that we want to focus on the most. That said, we made a decision: concentrate on improving the gameplay loop and disperse new content additions.
đ CONTENT UPDATES
According to the new version of the roadmap, 2 major content additions are planned for 2022. The ETAs are May for Update â3 and September for Update â4.
Update â3 will feature Raids that are meant to make the late game phase more exciting and rewarding for captains who decide to stick around after finishing the main storyline and improve their skills, vessels and gear;
The contents of Update â4 are to be determined.
âď¸ BETTER COMBAT
Both aerial and ground combat will get a lot of our attention in the near future.
We are planning on making aerial skyship battles much more exciting by deepening the mechanics as well as amending the enemy behavior and user interactions;
Fighting on the ground is going to become more tactical and diverse. Also, the enemy AI is going to be improved for the bad guys to pose a bigger challenge;
đŞ IMPROVED PROGRESSION SYSTEM
This feature needs to grow into something more distinct and centralized. We want you to have a constant feeling of progression. UI, the elements of progression and the ways of obtaining upgrades/power-ups are to be tweaked. Yes, we have been adding treasures and artifacts but we would like to dig deeper and inter-connect the aspects of the progression system.
đ REWORKING THE STORYLINE
Our team wants more cohesion between the narrative and gameplay. The dialogues will be rewritten, charactersâadded more depth to and the opening sequenceâchanged. Oh yes, the story ending will be added too.
đ ACHIEVEMENTS
To the achievement hunters: yes, you can rest assured.
The ETA for the launch of the completed game is Q1 2023. We hope that this version will be the best Black Skylands we can possibly create. With your help, of course! Please, do not hesitate to give us feedback, share ideas...and join our future playtests! Oh, we haven't mentioned them yet? Yes, we are going to organize a handful of closed tests to check how our mechanics work. Follow us on Steam, socials, Discord and Reddit (links below) to keep abreast with the news about the playtests.
Yours truly,
⢠⢠â˘
Join our community to share feedback and chat with other captains:
An update for the early access version of Black Skylands has been released
The list of changes:
- CONTROLS -
- Removed an option which allowed using old controls for skyship cannons; - Removed unused control maps for the old cannons control system for controllers.
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Please, update your game.
Happy Valentine's Day, captains!
Happy Valentine's Day, captains!
Take your special ones to heaven!
Yours truly,
Black Skylands is 30% off! | Steam Lunar New Year Sale
Black Skylands is featured on the Steam Lunar New Year Sale with a -30% discount!
An update for the early access version of Black Skylands has been released
The list of changes:
- BUG FIXES -
- Fixed a problem with save data from previous versions of the game. Data containing an enemy assault on a non-existent island could cause errors; - Fixed coal not being dropped from meteorites unless an ability is installed on the player's skyship.
An update for the early access version of Black Skylands has been released
The list of changes:
- BALANCE -
- Increased Kraken's loot - Increased the chance of the skyship boarding event occurring - Ron has upgraded Eva's Power Shield. Now it deflects enemy projectiles and blocks melee attacks - Now different skyships have different capacity of installed abilities - Energy no longer drops from meteorites unless abilities are installed on the skyship
- UI -
- Capsules spent on fast travel is now shown on the capsule panel now - The skyship ability icon is now displayed on the skyship ability slot selection panel
- SOUND -
- Added sounds to various cutscenes
- BUG FIXES -
- It is no longer possible to dig out treasure while holding an item - Fixed a bug when a player who jumped off the skyship with a box in their hands and dropped it clipped through that box. In that case, the box couldnât be hooked anymore - Fixed: resource icons no longer flicker when the main character is under a tree - Fixed: some artifacts on the Fathership were not highlighted during interaction - Fixed a bug where a quest item wouldn't despawn after the "Lost scientist" quest is completed - Fixed an issue where custom gamepad control settings were reset - Fixed a puzzle in Sickle Archipelago - Fixed the Annihilator malfunctioning after teleportation - Fixed incorrect display of the skyship's energy bar when using the boost - Fixed incorrect reassignment of ship abilities to another slots - Fixed a bug where the skyship ability slot selection window wouldnât close after changing the skyship
- MISCELLANEOUS -
- Taking the helm immediately after requesting evacuation from Luma is not available anymore
Please, update your game.
Black Skylands is now available in Early Access!
âGreetings, captains!
âď¸âď¸ Black Skylands is now available for purchase!
Weâre excited about the fact that this day is finally here! Our first ship has sailed on a challenging but exciting journey full of adventures. Thereâs still a lot of work ahead of us: we want to make the game even betterâand weâll do so with your help, friends!
We did our best to enter the early access phase with the most high-quality product possible. The build thatâs currently out is drastically different from the version of the game you played this spring during our open playtesting, and even more different from last yearâs demo version. Letâs talk about the major additions and changes we've made to the game.
1. Plot changes and little Eva
We decided to redo the prologue so that the player would get a better sense of the events that start off Evaâs adventures. In the prologue, the player takes on a role of an 11-year-old Eva, and gets to know the cast of characters.
2. Slow down time
You can now build a laboratory and use it to invent a way to slow down time.
3. Mod boxes
Mod boxes can only be opened at a special station on the Fathership. This is one of the things that motivates the player to keep coming coming back to their home base. Thatâs where you can gather resources youâve grown, plant seeds, process ore, and open boxes with cool rewards inside.
4. Upgrades for saving population
We wanted to give you an interesting reward for saving islands. Freeing an island from invaders now increases the saved population stat. Upon saving populations, players earn useful upgrades for their ship and character.
5. Recurring island invasions
We wanted to add a mechanic that would occasionally bring the player back to islands they had already conquered. This brought us to the idea of repeating invasions on liberated locations. To keep it from being annoying, this wonât happen often, but it does flesh out the gameplay with additional objectives.
6. Herbs for medkits
You can now gather herbs for medkits. Spawn points are placed manually and have a certain chance of appearing when an island loads (for example, 30%). Herbs are gathered when you interact with them. Interacting takes the same amount of time as using a medkit. The herb disappears once it is gathered, and the player gains a medkit.
7. Limited character respawns
We got a lot of feedback about the player being essentially immortal, since Luma the moth just brings the player back to the ship when they die. We decided to add Luma energy which is used up when the player dies or the playerâs ship is destroyed. To refill the energy gauge, the player has to sleep in a bed. Saving populations can increase your maximum energy.
8. The Swarm zone
This zone is very different from the rest. We wanted to create an area that would surprise the player and change the rules of the game a little. There are no fueling stations here, no day/night cycle, and the map is unavailable. The islands are randomly generated each time you load your save. This is where you will finally encounter the Swarm. Fighting these creatures is quite different from fighting, for example, Kain's Falcons. Thereâs no way to plan your journey to this zone, but you will need to prepare for it thoroughly.
Weâd like to thank everyone who has supported us during the development process, especially those who participated in our open playtestâyour feedback was incredibly helpful for us, We hope our community will stay by our side as we continue the journey forward!
