Skycliffs has been released in Early Access a couple of days ago and first I would like to thank you all for the support! It is really great to read your feedback and to talk about the game! Today I'm glad to release a patch with a few fixes and also some new content. Let's start with the biggest addition!
Alternate gamemode
Having multi-height islands is a core aspect of Skycliffs since the goal of the project is to combine fast-paced dungeon-crawling and top-down platforming. However, I understand the platforming may not be everyone's cup of tea. If the jumping is not what interest you most but you still enjoy other aspects of Skycliffs like the fighting, the many items and synergies, the roguelike mechanics, or the secret quests, I've got you covered!
I am introducing an alternate gamemode that you can activate at the start of a run. It affects the generation to produce entirely flat islands! Obviously, this brings a whole new experience. Going to lower and higher grounds is a great way to dodge enemy attacks, but you cannot do that anymore if everything is flat. Also, some items become weaker as their effect is less likely to trigger while other become stronger. Overall, I feel this alternate gamemode offers a different experience that can be interesting in its own way. Please tell me which gamemode you personally prefer!
You can select the gamemode at the bottom of the menu where you choose your starting items.
A flat Lunar Ridge island.
Full changelog (v0.9.6a)
ADDED
Added a new alternate gamemode available at the start of runs: flat islands
Added 2 new achievements
CHANGED
Hybridobot nerf: now throws only one turret at once + turrets shoot a bit less bullets
FIXED
Fixed issue with meteorologist blessing and curse effects not applying properly
Fixed issue with holding down the shooting button. If the button is still pressed, the shooting will now automatically resume after being hit, reloading, dashing, smashing or falling into the void.
That's all for today's patch. I hope you will like it, and please keep sharing your feedback, whether it be bug reports, new content ideas, difficulty balance suggestions... This is great to talk with the community to improve the game further so I'm looking forward to read your thoughts!
See you next time!
Skycliffs is out in Early Access right now!
Hello everyone!
I’m very excited to announce that Skycliffs is now available in Early Access! You can grab the game right now (There is a 10% discount for launch week! And there is also a bundle with a 15% discount if you purchase the Soundtrack at the same time!) and start a new adventure through hazardous floating islands!
It has been a long journey to reach this milestone. Skycliffs is a bold and unique mix of fast-paced dungeon-crawling and top-down platforming, I hope you’ll like it as much as I enjoyed making it! It all started with me wondering: “why are most dungeon-crawlers so flat and gloomy?”. On the flip side, I absolutely loved the colorful environments of CrossCode and its unique take on top-down platforming. What if we had an Enter The Gungeon-like with some Crosscode-inspired visuals and mechanics, along with a more FTL-inspired roguelike structure? That’s how the project was born! 18+ months later, the game is finally available in Early Access… and I can now say I understand why many bullet hell developers keep their levels flat… Height introduces many challenges to keep things readable and to prevent player frustration. From procedural generation to pathfinding, the extra dimension coupled with a fixed top-down camera makes a lot of aspects more difficult to manage. I’m proud of how the game turned out to tackle these challenges, and I hope you will find it enjoyable in its own way!
Here is the content that is available right now in the Early Access version:
5 mains archipelagos [+ a few secret more…]
35+ enemies to fight + the final boss of the Skycliffs
80+ equipment items to get more powerful and 60+ items synergies
20+ weather events that will spice up your fights
10+ traps to avoid or lure enemies into
4 optional challenges
8 starting classes
160+ journal entries to unlock
How to share feedback and report bugs
While playing, you might encounter issues. Please report them by posting a new topic on the Steam forums (read the instructions here to know what to include in your message) and I’ll do my best to fix the bugs! You can also share your thoughts about the game and suggest improvements! I’ll be glad to discuss your ideas and implement them if they fit the creative vision I have for Skycliffs. I’d particularly appreciate feedback on the difficulty balance. I’ve been working on this game for so long it has become difficult for me to evaluate if something is too hard or too easy. So please tell me what you think!
What is next?
In short: fixing bugs and adding quality of life improvements. That will be my top priority in the next few weeks following the EA release. Once there are no more game-breaking issues, I will also be able to focus on adding new content (probably item synergies for starters since I think the game would benefit a lot from having more).
Of course, I will keep you updated and will post detailed patch notes and news here on Steam, so stay tuned!
Thanks for your interest in Skycliffs, and I hope you will have fun playing it 😉
See you next time,
Radiant Sloth
Skycliffs Early Access will be released on November 3rd!
Hello everyone!
I'm glad to announce that after 18+ months of solo development, Skycliffs will be released in Early Access very soon, on November 3rd!
Here is the content that will be available in the Early Access version of the game:
5 mains archipelagos [+ a few secret more...]
35+ enemies to fight + the final boss of the Skycliffs
80+ equipment items to get more powerful and 60+ items synergies
20+ weather events that will spice up your fights
10+ traps to avoid or lure enemies into
4 optional challenges
8 starting classes
160+ journal entries to unlock
I'm looking forward to sharing all of this with you and getting your feedback! Reaching Early Access is a huge milestone for this project! It is important for me to listen to players opinions to polish the difficulty balance and address potential frustrating issues and annoying bugs. Please do not hesitate to post suggestions and topics either on the Steam forums or on the Skycliffs subreddit! It helps me a lot and I will be glad to chat with you about the game!
See you soon on the 3rd of November for the release! ;)
Skycliffs is part of Dreamhack Beyond Indie Showcase!
Hello everyone!
I'm glad to announce that Skycliffs is part of the Dreamhack Beyond Indie Showcase! The events is live today and lasts until October 23rd!
You can head to the sales page to discover plenty of indie games and demos. I hope you will give Skycliffs demo a try and I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback!
Next Fest Livestream on October, Saturday 8th!
Hello everyone!
This week, Skycliffs demo is part of Steam Next Fest! For this special occasion, there will be a second livestream on October, Saturday 8th, 4 PM CEST.
I will play some runs of the demo, and also be present in the chat. I will be glad to answer questions and talk about the game!
See you soon for the livestream!
Next Fest Livestream on October, Friday 7th!
Hello everyone!
This week, Skycliffs demo is part of Steam Next Fest! For this special occasion, there will be a first livestream on October, Friday 7th, 4 PM CEST.
I will play some runs of the demo, and also be present in the chat. I will be glad to answer questions and talk about the game!
See you soon for the livestream!
Skycliffs Demo will be part of October Steam Next Fest!
Hello everyone,
I'm glad to announce that Skycliffs Demo will be part of the upcoming Steam Next Fest. The event starts on October 3rd, this is very soon! I'm looking forward to have you playing the demo and sharing your feedback on the game!
I wrote a tiny FAQ for this occasion, so here it is!
When is the Steam Next Fest? The event takes place from October 3rd to 10th.
Will the Demo be updated before the Steam Next Fest? Yes! The Nest Fest Demo v0.9.4 is already available with all the content I intended for this event, but I'm working on v0.9.4a and will upload the patch before the start of the event. This will fix some issues and improve performances, as well as add some visual enhancements to the game. I hope you'll like it!
Where can I share feedback on the game? First of all, thanks for considering to share feedback, this helps me a lot to improve the game! To report bugs, suggest improvements, discuss things, there are a few possible places:
Will the Demo be still available after the Steam Next Fest? Yes! The Demo will stay up at least until the Early Access release in November.
See you soon during the festival!
DevLog #30 – Steam Next Fest and more meta progression
Hello everyone!
Skycliffs will be part of Steam Next Fest starting October 3rd! I’m glad to have my demo in this event and I can’t wait to read all your feedback to make more improvements before the Early Access release in November! For this special occasion, the version 0.9.4 of the demo is now available! This latest patch adds 36 new item synergies and fixes many bugs!
More meta progression
I’m trying to keep the meta progression mechanics in Skycliffs quite simple. I want to emphasize the roguelike aspect more than the roguelite. That’s why most gameplay elements are available from the very first run.
When you win or loose a run, you earn tokens that you can use to unlock classes. These allow to start a run with different items. More details in the last devlog here since I reworked the system recently.
I decided to add an extra layer to the meta progression. First, let’s explain why. I plan to add more items during the Early Access phase and I’d like to reuse more enemy mechanics to the player’s advantage. Currently, there is for instance an item that summons tricked gifts, just like the Jokelf enemy does. I’d like to do this also with enemies from later (and secret) zones. But it doesn’t feel right that you can get these items right away when you never fought these enemies in the first place. Or that you can have items summoning lightning strikes when you never saw the lightning storm weather event or completed the weather study challenge.
That’s why I’m introducing some meta progression on the items. Not much. The game currently has 85 items and 50 of them remain available from the get-go. For the remaining 35, they unlock at the end of runs depending on various conditions. Some unlock because you killed a particular enemy, or because you encountered a particular weather event or got hurt by a particular trap. Here is the popup that appears to inform about the unlock:
A new item joins future runs!
I hope you will like this change. It allows me to design even crazier items to unlock for players who explore every part of the Skycliffs.
NB: the items meta progression system will only be part of the full game. In the demo, all 85 current items remain unlocked from the start. Also, the demo will not receive any more new content after the Steam Next Fest, but I will continue to patch bugs and make QoL improvements until the Early Access release.
To end this devlog, I’d like to mention that I created a subreddit for Skycliffs. Please feel free to join and post bug reports, suggestions, discussions, etc. I’m looking forward to have you in the community!
Also, the store page for the original soundtrack is now live! The album contains 15 tracks and will be available for sale at the Early Access release.
DevLog #29 – Better classes for your next journey!
Hello everyone!
I’m releasing today v0.9.3a of Skycliffs Demo! To read the full patchnote, you can head here. But let’s review the main changes together!
Classes and meta progression improvements
Skycliffs has a very simple meta progression system (I want the game to be more roguelike than roguelite). Similarly to games like Faster Than Light or Spelunky, all items and special quests can appear from the get-go. The meta aspect only consists of a class system where you can start runs with various presets. However, I was not entirely happy with two points of this system:
Some classes had a set of starting items which did not have a significant impact on the way to play the game. So these ended up feeling pretty much the same.
Tokens earnings to unlock classes were linked to getting achievements. I think this was not entirely satisfying.
So, to address that, here is what changed!
Upon completing a run or dying, you earn tokens depending on how far you got into the Skycliffs. In the full game, a standard victory will give 25 tokens. In the demo, you can only visit the first two zones so I boosted the token earning so that it is easier to unlock classes and explore the game content available. Also, the stats screen at the end of a run now displays the number of tokens that you gained.
You got Tokens!
I removed some existing classes to focus on 6 presets. I chose better items / improved existing items so that each class feels significantly different to play from the others. One focuses for instance on the smash, another turns your dash move into a powerful attack or relies on drone minions to assist you. Also, the Mentalist class introduces a new mechanic: taking control of the enemies so that they attack their peers! I hope you will have fun with these various play styles!
The 6 main starting classes to unlock and have fun with!
I added 2 more special classes to unlock. These also cost Tokens at each use.
The Random class allows to start a run with a random set of items.
The Customized class allows to start a run with a set of 3 items you choose! This class is locked in the demo, but it will be available in the full game at Early Access release.
Random and customized special classes!
Defeat the boss in various ways
Previously, only bullets could hurt the final boss. With the different starting classes that you can play, I felt I needed to change that. So now all types of attack can affect the boss! Whether it is a smash, a dash, allying enemies, having drone minions… All builds are viable until the end!
Better tooltip for the forge
I improved the tooltip that displays when upgrading an item in the forge tab of stores. Now, the description is only present once and the changes are highlighted with a different color. It looks much clearer!
Better tooltips for the forge!
Other changes under the hood
In the meantime, I finished to polish the later zones of the game for the upcoming Early Access release. I also did some cleaning and optimization to improve the game performances.
What is next?
Skycliffs Demo will be part of Steam Next Fest starting October 3rd! So I’m finalizing things (and fixing bugs). I plan to update the demo with a lot of new synergies right before the event. Also, I’m working on updating the Steam page with new screenshots and a new trailer so stay tuned for that 😉
See you next time!
DevLog #28 – Items now auto equip!
Hello everyone!
I’m glad to release today v0.9.3 of Skycliffs demo! Full patch note is available here. It contains a few tweaks and bug fixes, but mostly some significant improvements to the equipment system. Let’s dive into the details!
How it was working before
So, previously there was an inventory tab in the menu where you could see all the items you have. Items you bought would go into your inventory and you would have to manually equip them in the status tab. What happened is that most players did not notice buying was not enough and a second step was required. So they ended up having lots of unequipped items in their inventory…
Now, let’s explain why I implemented such a seemingly complex system in the first place. The reason lies in locked slots. If you did not have a free slot to equip an item you just bought, you could keep the item in your inventory and clear a few more islands to get enough money to later on unlock the slot and equip the item.
Seeing how players were interacting with the demo made me reassess this choice. In most other games of the same genre, you buy items and then you see the effects, you don’t have to manually activate something. So I realized it makes sense for Skycliffs to operate the same way. It feels way more intuitive. But then, what about the locked slots? What happens if you buy an item but have no free slots? That’s where I had to make some new design choices!
New equipment system!
I decided to rework the inventory by removing this duality of equipped / non equipped. You either own an item, in which case it is equipped, or you do not own it. This means the instant you buy an item, it is auto equipped in a free slot. There is no more manual step to take. This comes with a few more decisions:
There are no more locked slots. All item slots are available from the get-go. There is still a limited number of them though (I want to force players to make choices). If you have all of them equipped, you cannot take any more item and you will not be able to buy from shops anymore. This also means I removed the system upgrade for equipment slot capacity.
I doubled the number of slots. Yes, you can now have up to 20 items at the same time in a run! You probably won’t fill them all in the demo, but it will happen in the full game. I want builds to become crazy!
New status menu with now 20 equipment slots!
Besides shops, there are a few other ways where you can get items. It can be a challenge reward or a rare loot from an enemy. These do not auto equip. They instead trigger a popup where you can decide if you want to equip them or ignore and recycle them (which gives you some money).
You got a new item! What will you choose?
I also reworked the animation to notify the trigger of a synergy. It now happens in-game. You can then of course open the status menu and hover the icons to read the details of that synergy.
Oww! A synergy triggered!
Shops do not have a sell tab anymore. Inventory tab in the menu also no longer exists.
I hope all of this make the system simpler and clearer. Tell me in the comments what you think about these changes!
What is next?
Next, I’m going to work on improving the starting class system and introducing more gameplay variety with as always more items and synergies. This will probably be the focus of the next major patch for the demo.
Simultaneously, I’m progressively polishing all the other zones of the game to prepare for the Early Access release. Besides, I implemented a new challenge and secret quest for one of the later areas.
