- Moved Castle to the front of the arena list
- Updated Leaderboard description
- Fixed an issue where Leaderboard menu could not be closed
- Removed some filming stuff
Skyfear
Quick fix, Build 170
New Arena, Leaderboards, and More | June 2025
New Arena: Castle
[p]The first new entry into the arena list brings a massive twisty pile-up of coral rock out from under a shallow ocean. [img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/34794331/ef869a5335e21498a4ecd7e5d4ca5bc23f61731a.jpg"][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/34794331/816173abb7ee500e8dfcc65a024c30b190b21dd3.png"][TAG-10]This was one of roughly 13 new arenas that were half-made prior to launch. Any and all feedback on Castle is welcome, as that will greatly help me understand the aspects of Skyfear's environments that make battling fun, and help me decide which arenas to pursue next and what they'll need to have.[/p][p][/p]Leaderboards
[p]Want to see where you stack up against others in your region? Every hour, your stats are combined to calculate a skill score, and the list is posted in-game so you and your friends can see. This feature will be highly subject to change for now, as I expect it will raise questions and ideas for ways to improve it or features to tie into it. Feedback on this feature is extra welcome.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/34794331/2b62bcc5742824787dbe6565344d01102be87dfe.png"][TAG-20][/p]Cosmetics
[p]12 new cosmetics; 8 new scales, including a new kind of scales with shimmery effects, and 4 new spines. A lot more new cosmetics are in the works, coming in future updates.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/34794331/ff294f6dcaae22f4a9b91de5d6384dc485276d60.png"][/p][p][/p]Other new things
- [p]Server browser suggestions - the server browser will now generate game setup suggestions in the form of a server listing. Simply click to join and the game will automatically set up the hosting for you. This is intended to reduce friction getting into games, and intented to go hand-in-hand with bots in multiplayer, which is coming later.[/p]
- [p]Frost and Acid improved/buffed[/p]
- [p]Fixed some issues with Velocity perk[/p]
- [p]Made progress in the game's sound mixing, more to come[/p]
- [p]Store page got an update[/p]
- [p]Various tiny fixes[/p]
Forward
[p]A couple weeks ago I did a poll in Discord asking what you are interested in for future updates, and here's the results:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/34794331/124a137b895e3c86fe8a74366f943a07dd806034.png"] [/p][p]So, well, I'll adjust course accordingly. New magic types are in the works, but will need plenty of testing. Two big things also in the works are animation/dragon updates, and getting bots working in multiplayer. There's also quite a few bugs that need my attention. If you would like to participate in polls like this, please consider joining the Discord.[/p][p][/p][p]Hope everyone is having a safe summer, & hope you enjoy this update.[/p][p]See you in there![/p] First Look at June Update & Community Hangout
Upcoming June Update
[p]Skyfear's June update will drop around the time of the Steam Summer Sale. Featuring a new battle arena, an all-new leaderboards feature, improved mutliplayer server browsing experience, lots of new cosmetics, and many tweaks and fixes. Here's a first look:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/34794331/2b62bcc5742824787dbe6565344d01102be87dfe.png"][TAG-10][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/34794331/ef869a5335e21498a4ecd7e5d4ca5bc23f61731a.jpg"][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/34794331/ff294f6dcaae22f4a9b91de5d6384dc485276d60.png"][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/34794331/59e06b9c76d88b4527f178c849bcfb00b6558248.png"][/p]Community Hangout
[p]We'll be hosting our first Monthly Community Hangout on Friday, June 27th! From Noon to 4PM EST, join us on discord for playing multiplayer, having discussions, live streaming, and I'll be giving away free copies of the game![/p][p][/p]Support & Following
[p]If you've been enjoying Skyfear so far, please consider leaving a review! This helps a lot. Want to follow the discussion in more places? We also have a reddit and an instagram.[/p] Launch Fixes, Monthly Updates | May 2025 (Build 264)
Let's try this again
An Intel CPU related issue has caused a very noticable chunk of players not being able to run the game, and unfortunately this has impacted initial growth on launch and the player count in total right now. This issue has now been fixed. It may need further feedback in the future, but for now I've established a tiny application that ensures the game runs in an environment that has all the required variables.
If this issue had impacted you and resulted in a refund, or not playing the game, I'd love for you to give it another shot, and the game's been put on the same discount it had at launch.
If you had implimented the manual solution I shared around and the game works, but you had this problem initially, you won't have to do that again and neither will other players.
I've also made the source code for this fix public to allow anyone to verify it's safety and suggest improvements. https://github.com/Protoria-Studios/skyfear-launch-script
What else is new in this update?
- Photosensitivity option added: turn on to reduce some of the game's harsh flashing effects
- Material spawns in Lairworld will now be in groups sometimes, more fun to collect
- Post processing adjustments
- Improvements to avatar camera
- Changes to gameplay camera positioning
- Improved Shroud and Magpoint effects
- Improved debris particles on bolt impacts
- Tweaks to bolt impact decal behavior
- Fixed some out of bounds exploits
- Fixed hitmarker position
- Made adjustments to make FOV shifts more predictable and cleaner looking
- Cleaned up some of the general options
- Move text chat to top right
- Adjusted reticle position/size
See full list of changes on the commit log.
Monthly update format
For the first couple months I was playing it by ear and learning what works. With that experience, I'm now going to make updates follow a process to be more consistent and have a smoother delivery. I'd like to deliver at least 1 update every month, most months. Some updates may be focused on 1-2 major features, a chunk of content, or sometimes more maintenance related. A few months out of a year updates may be skipped in favor of keeping on working, or simply for occasions/holidays/breaks. I've updated the roadmap to reflect this new approach and to show you what's in the pipeline right now. The commit log has an updated format as well.
Low player count & community hangouts
Skyfear has not yet reached a number of players that concurrently are able to fill up games. I'm doing everything I can to improve this, which starts with fixing the Intel issue that caused a lot of players to bounce. If you enjoy playing this game, I strongly encourage you to share it with your friends and your favorite content creators.
Once a month in our Discord server there will be community events where we all go online at the same time and play together, do live streams, and do giveaways. So there's ways to play some multiplayer there, and to get the game for free, or gift it to your friends!
What's next?
Leaderboards are very far along and going to be tested soon. As well as new maps, new cosmetics... And I will confirm since a lot of players have mentioned the stiff animation, the dragon rig and animation will be getting a do-over in the coming months.
Want more updates?
I post most frequently in Discord, where I share more current development notes and some behind the scenes stuff. We also have a cozy and friendly community growing there, so if that interests you, come join!
Build 263 (Small update)
- Adjusted hard FOV limits
- Slight increase to FOV 'burst' when sprinting
- Hitting pterosaurs now gives you a hitmarker
- Increased pterosaur's attack range
- Adjusted diving speed curve
- Top speed when flying increased
- Dragon diving pose slightly tweaked
- Dragon will now tuck in its wings when firing, to avoid wings blocking your view
- Hitboxes for player updated to better apply to current model, plus made slightly larger
- Nametag pickup radius increased
- Nametags made slightly larger
- Updated Steam tags
- Fixed an issue where selecting None on customizations didn't remove lower jaw horns
- Adjusted reticle position to be more accurate at more distances
- Ability descriptions lengthened to explain them better
- Blood Sight time increased slightly
- Cloak time increased slightly
- Few small audio fixes
- Added dithering to moss shader
- Fixed(?) spore vegetation spawning on mushrooms
- Adjust more spores positions
See full commit log here.
April Update & Official Roadmap
What's new in this update?
This update is focused on improving the experience for new users and addressing a number of early issues found in player feedback. Over 100+ tasks/changes were completed, and the highlights include the following:
- Added keybinding options
- Improvements to server browser network status, player count
- Set region filter to ALL by default, for now
- Adjusted player count function used in server browser to be more lenient
- Added Force Respawn button (press K) for players stuck on geometry
- Several stats fixed and made more accurate
- Increased Material earned from pterosaurs
- Re-implimented Material pickups. "Gems" will be randomly spawned in the Lairworld (Lairworld only, not arenas) to be picked up for bonus Material
- Slightly slowed and evened out spore earnings per level as they go up
- Reduced the cost of fusion bolts by half
- How to Play menu can now be accessed from the Pause/Lobby menu
- Added PLAYSKYFEAR.COM menu, a place to view Roadmap, Commits, FAQ, and more, without leaving the game
- Fixed an issue where pressing F on a spore multiple times before the reward screen appears would repeatedly subtract the Material cost
- Fixed more Spore positions, some of them were inside walls
- Fixed Unnatural pro not ignoring collision damage, works now
- Added Team Name to HUD, near the score and timer. Text will collapse if game mode does not use teams.
- Added full 3 DOF control to Avatar customization camera, plus a light to light up the player model to more accurately see the colors and such
- Decreased sway/increased speed on customization camera control
- Increased the lighting on Chasm, so you can see player skins better
- Increased size and visibility of the roar effect
- Added option for seeing speed value on HUD
- Added option for Health/Magic values on HUD
- Added extra visibility elements to server “Join” button
- Improved positioning and color/visbility of Basic Controls widget
- Fixed some of Wintertide’s spawn locations being way too far out
- Expanded the range of sensitivity settings
- Increased visibility of single (isolated) buttons, and added parenthesis around keybindings if applicable
- Increased delay for showing the options on the Post Game menu, and forced input to null until that appears. This prevents user from accidentally skipping the Post Game menu entirely by accident because they were trying to jump or fly.
- Reworked and rebalanced meteor and spore related sounds
- Added and improved vegetation that appears in place of claimed spores, and explained this better in the spores Help page
- Added a progress % value next to spores stats, and reworded to align better with the widget elements that occur during delivery
- Improved position and phrasing on post match return to warm-up timer
- Fixed rocks spawning in air
- Added shoulder cam to Basics widget
- Camera shake from roaring now uses camera shake intensity setting
- Slightly increased bleed xp earnings from certain actions
- Killer's emblem added to death screen
- Death screen slightly neatened up
- Added UI elements to the server browser directing players towards Create A Server/Discord
- Added Geysers page to Help
- Added more combat tips
- Updated a couple of outdated arena artworks
See the commit log for full list of changes.
Keybindings Notes
Keybindings were a popularly requested feature, and thus have been added in this update. This includes gamepad controls, even though this game does not fully support gamepad. More complete gamepad support is something I would like to have, although stats currently indicidate nearly everyone is on mouse & keyboard. I would simply like to point out that changing keybindings on the gamepad side of things is prone to unexpected issues, due to there just not being enough testing and feedback on that, so just be aware of that. Please keep sending me feedback!
What's Next? Roadmap!
Here is the official roadmap, which is going to be a regularly updated document highlighting the most likely things for the game to realize, separated by planned versus in progress. This document is subject to frequent changes as the game's issues evolve.
About updates - it's going to be normal for several smaller updates with minor fixes to come between major updates. Depending on the severity of an issue, it may be addressed in a small update on the sooner side, or later tossed into a major update. This is why the commit log nicely compliments the roadmap. The commit log will show you what's been done, as it happens (updated once or twice a month), so that you can see what's coming in the updates before they drop.
The focus of the next major update is going to be content, dragon/gameplay, and after the last two updates, there's a lot of UX/UI that needs housekeeping. There is also that Intel CPU hardware name issue, which has unfortunately probably impacted the player count to date. I have a potential fix in the works but testing it will be a unique challenge.
Keep the feedback coming, and keep the arenas alight!
1 Month of Skyfear - Stats, Creators, and What's Next
Stats
- Players have entered the arenas from 32 different countries!
- Over 2,000 battles have been fought and completed!
I'm working on adding more stats to the analytics software.
Content Showcase
I have to shout out all the creators having fun with Skyfear thus far. Please go check out their videos and give them some love!
What's Next?
- I'm currently finishing an update for release this week or next, that will include keybinding options + a bunch of improvements to the "new player" experience.
- Weekly community events + giveaways will be hosted in our Discord server!
- A roadmap & improvements to development documentation in progress.
- Leaderboards & free-play mode coming soon.
Follow News
Please consider following Protoria Studios/Skyfear on the following platforms:
YouTube
Thanks for playing,
- telekrex (developer)
B261
- GP added to online stat string construction
- Regolith ambient sound slightly mixed better
- Wintertide waterfalls sound lowered slightly
- Crown network relevancy range increased & added more Force Net Update events
- Several spores underground have had their positions fixed
- Walking in air bug fixed
- Magpoint’s description improved
- Pterosaurs will now be silent and freeze when menus are open
- Fixed scale of images in Spores How To screen
- Increased single player earnings multiplier from 79% to 90%
- Increased custom ruleset earnings multiplier from 29% to 59%
See full commit log here.
Keybindings are underway. Functionally it's a working feature, but there's quite a bit of UI/UX related things that need to be fleshed out & tested. Should be within the next 1-2 updates.
Early Feedback
A couple of highlights:
- Multiplayer seems empty, because player count is quite low. This is not a bug. Anything to help spread the word about this game could resolve this issue organically!
- Keybindings are the most common request right now. While I can't guarantee it'll be in the first updates, it is one of, if not the most, high priority feature to work on.
Also, in the Discord community we've been discussing potential community events such as online group sessions or tournaments, stuff like that. Which could help grow player count. If that interests you, please join!
Thank you for playing my game, and thank you for bearing with the buggyness.
- telekrex
developer
B260, first fixes
- Several console print statements removed; more to go
- Eden's mysterious sky-leaves rendering glitch fixed
- Fixed/renamed a few buttons with out of date terms
- Storm's lightning brightness reduced slightly
- Storm's rain particles reduced slightly
- Volume and frequency of pterosaur screams reduced
- Slightly decreased overal global post processing contrast
- Melee animation getting stuck fixed
- Melee range increased from 600cm to 900cm
- Melee damage fixed; uses full 500 damage now instead of a radial falloff
- Forced check if rolling when Take flight or Land is called, only continue if not rolling
- Removed forced velocity addition in the Z direction when meleeing
- Increased FOV option range from 80-100 to 70-140
- Added option to bots setup: Chatty on/off, enables or disables bots chatting