Sky - ThatGameCompany

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New project by thatgamecompany (Fl0w, Flower, Journey) announced by Jenova Chen today. They have an official Twitter with some more tease-y images.




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Saw this on FB earlier! So excited <3

[Chloe Frazer]

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Figured I'd make a thread for TGC's newest announced game, Sky! If you're not familiar with the company, they're the one's that made Journey, and if you're not familiar with that game, then get it and play it because it's pretty awesome.

Here's the teaser trailer for it:

YouTube Video

TGC have said that Sky is 'a game about giving'. I'm liking the sounds of this. On their FB page today they had a little Q&A thing, which I'll post here:

ThatGameCompany wrote:

Happy Tuesday! Over the past week we fielded some Qs about our next game, Sky, and want to share our responses with the wider community:

Q: Is Sky only going to be available for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV?
A: Sky will be launching first on iOS & tvOS with additional platforms as soon as we can. As a smaller studio, we want to focus on delivering the best experience for each platform rather than rushing multiple platforms at the same time.

Q: Why did you choose mobile/tablet as your initial platform, rather than console or PC?
A: After Journey, many fans asked for a multiplayer experience where they could easily play together with loved ones. Mobile is the most broadly accessible platform, and so we wanted to start there first with our next game experience.

Q: What does A Game About Giving mean? How does this relate to Sky?
A: Just as Journey touches upon themes of life and companionship, Sky is about generosity and compassion. We are looking to build a game that represents the best parts of our human nature, as a positive experience for you to share with your loved ones.

I really like the sounds of the game, they've always had such positive connotations to their games overall and they make me feel good, something I want to see more of in video games in general. I'm pleased to hear that they plan to move it to other platforms outside of Apple, as well. I have an iPad so I'll likely get this game for that first, but I definitely would prefer to play on PC or PS4 or something. <3


I'm quite excited for this game because I'm a huge fan of their work so far; Journey really affected me and inspired me, Flower is just so fun and lovely to play (who doesn't want to bring life back to desolate lands?), and flOw has some cool graphics for a simple little game.
(I also highly recommend ABZÛ, it was created by someone from TGC who split off and made their own studio, Giant Squid, iirc. It feels similar to Journey so if you like that game, give it a go!)

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Loved Fl0w, Flower, & Journey. Some of my favourite games. (Also loved Abzû). I am REALLY down that Sky is an iOS-specific release to start with, since I have nothing to play it on and not motivation to get some of those devices, so I really hope that it expands its availability outside of that soon.





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YouTube Video

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I love the look of it so far! <3 Very excited for this to come out and play it, it looks like it'll be a very fun and curious adventure <3

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So they just released a beta for this game, came out yesterday evening. I signed up for it (via their newsletter) and just downloaded it today at work on my iPad (probably one of the only things I'm happy to have an Apple product for ) and gave it a whirl. Hnnnnng there's a lot of stuff and my iPad battery died while playing so I'm itching to play more tonight!



I'll just recount my experience from the beginning! Will use spoiler tags when needed, such as when I'm talking about my personal experience and the story so far.


I'll start with the Touchscreen Controls:
First, you learn how to move the camera. Two fingers on the screen, swipe. Simple! And yet the camera is the one thing in the game that actually irritates me It very often focuses on the path ahead or a significant object instead of where I'm angling it. Sometimes it'll focus upwards when you're walking up a stairway, but I don't always want this kind of angle. I can stop and move the camera, but the second I start walking again it bounces back to where it wants to go instead. Cue frustration So far this is my only real gripe about the game that neeeeeds to be fixed somehow. In some cases it's really helpful when it moves on its own, such as when you're walking around a rock on a narrow ledge or something. But the other times, ehhhhhh.

Then you learn how to move your character, by swiping your finger in an upward motion from your character. They skip forward at varying speeds depending on the length or speed of the swipe. Simple enough! Although sometimes the speed doesn't seem uniform.

Next is chiming: You tap your character and they emit a chime, just like your character can in Journey. Holding down on your character makes a large and loud chime, or you can do rapid tapping and it'll give out, well, rapid chimes. It's a fun way to communicate with others and to interact with the world. One of the other cool results of chiming is that it'll pinpoint where other players are in your current area for a brief moment. For random players it'll have a little symbol, but for players you've befriended already, it'll show you their nickname, (which is whatever you give them, but it will have a randomly generated name for them right off the bat if you don't know them/don't want to be more specific) so if you wanna see if your friends are on and playing, just give a good chime to locate them.

Finally, flying. This one is fairly difficult for me to grasp. You have to tap and hold above your character when they learn this ability and they'll lift up.... and then I believe you continue to slide your finger up for the character to fly forward?
There's times where you do this to perform tall jumps to secret areas. Other times you can jump from a ledge into the clouds and your character will automatically start soaring. It's a bit wonky controlling this sometimes, particularly in the first wide open area where (SPOILER) these giant sky manta rays will fly around in, as you can target them to fly alongside them and your camera will focus on them automatically when they near you, making it hard to look away and fly in the direction you actually want to fly in. In general, strafing right or left is fairly easy, but sometimes you do get some glitches and suddenly you'll be somersaulting through the air and unable to control your character I have a bit of trouble making my character raise altitude while flying but I'll get better at it as I play more, I hope!


Onto some Game Mechanics!
You can interact with other players and objects like candles by walking near them and tapping the symbol that appears above them. Super simple!

One of the most important actions to do is utilize your candle. Every time you light new candles you increase your 'candle gauge', which when full will give you a special candle that you gift to those you want to befriend. The more candles you gift them, the deeper your friendship gets. Eventually you can give them hugs, or hold hands, or even (as the symbol suggests, though I've not unlocked this with anyone yet) chat to them privately! It's extremely adorable.
You'll also use your candle to active some objects, aaand to bring light to other players. This is something I love doing. When you start the game, you're a black silhouette. As you come across other players, they can utilize their candle to give you light (you suddenly gain white hair, you now have eyes, your clothes are colored, etc) and vice versa. I absolutely love going to silhouetted players and giving them light.

One you get through the little tutorial, you'll enter the first hub for players. It's that lovely little spot and with some investigation you'll find these murals that allow you to alter your character! The hair, headpiece, cape, and pants are customizeable. You can unlock more as you gain new friends and deepen friendships.

Another thing that you'll unlock as you explore are emotes. There seems to be a huge variety of emotes!

When you start the game again after putting it aside for a bit, you'll find yourself in your own sort of.... idk, 'world', that shows you the players you've befriended and the areas you've visited, where you can go to any area you've already visited, but going back a level will reset progress from the ones after it.

I've found one spot in the game so far, a bench, that you can sit on and then actually chat to players in the vicinity through text.

These aspects, and the fact that you'll see several other players usually wandering around each area, makes this the most social ThatGameCompany game ever so far. Every player I've come across have either been extremely helpful and willing to give you a gift as soon as you help give them light or just off doing their own thing. It's clear that the game exemplifies compassion and helping others. Indeed, you sincerely want to help others and make friends and share this adventure. I can see myself chilling in a hub just to help new players out as the game progresses along.

Some of my experiences so far One player in particular befriended me, then led me to a spot I didn't know existed yet, and waited there for me while I tried to fly to them and hit a glitch which sent my character sailing into the clouds and back to the starting point of the area. And I chimed to see where they were, and managed to fly back to them, and they were still waiting. We both had to cooperate to activate this sky boat, which led us to a hidden little alcove where I learned a new emote. Then this player came to me, offered to hold hands, and then led me to another island in the clouds. (When you hold hands, the player who initiated it leads the way and controls where you go). It was such a pleasant experience

Another one, I progressed through a couple areas and was on the 3rd one when I came across a friend I had made earlier once more. We chimed at each other and worked about clearing a path to the next area. However my battery was almost dead at this point. I requested to hold hands for a bit and led us through a tunnel and to the next bit of the area, and when my battery hit 2% I had to let go of their hand, and then I stopped and gave a couple chimes to try and tell them goodbye. They gave one back just as my battery went out. ;___; I wish I could've continued on with them. </3

Already this game has me feeling feelings. HOW DARE IT.

And now a bit about the game as a whole and maybe story bits? It's very much in ThatGameCompany's style, but with more to it. A lot more social opportunities, you feel like this world is alive and mysterious and waiting to be explored. Like I mentioned earlier you actively want to help others and the whole experience is just so far very pleasant and compassionate. I like that helping others is rewarded and encouraged, and necessary!

The visuals look similar to their previous games, which I love.

The story is very vague so far. For example, the way you learn emotes seems to be from happening upon these ancient glowing stones which then reveals a sort of ghostly figure, whom does a specific action, which you can then copy as the ghost fades away and that's how you learn new emotes.
There's a clear indication of shrines and some buildings/towers that are crumbling, so you get the sense that these were the people that lived here?

Giant sky manta rays are cool

When you see glowing symbols on the walls, you can do a loud chime to reveal more symbols, ala Journey and Abzu. So far they've been very vague as murals, not like the clear storytelling of Journey. I feel like this is more lighthearted... so far, anyways.

There's these cool skyboats that you can ride in sometimes.

There's a lot of little cutscenes so far as well. But I struggle to make real sense of some except that these large figures in some visions seem to give you new abilities. Again, similar to Journey, you activate these by sitting down in front of these stones, which treats you to said cutscene and a new ability.


I think that's all I have for now. I played the game off and on at work so I was admittedly distracted a couple times (and plus, y'know, working but weekends are so slow and I'm allowed to use the internet and stuff while there!)

So far, I really like it. There's some glitches and things they need to work on, but what they have now is pretty good. I love how each new game they come out with is expanding on previous games/concepts and making it more. There's a lot of reminiscence of Journey in this game, but it's all good bits imo. And then they just expanded on it all and made so much more.
I highly recommend giving it a shot if you have an Phone or iPad (I think it works with phones!). It's free to download! Although I'm not sure if you had to sign up before the beta started or not? Hopefully not.

Anyhow WORD WALL

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Okay I think I've got flying figured out now. You kinda have to swoop down and then up to gain some altitude, but to actually rise up, you need to press and hold the air above your character, which takes energy (you have a bar that shows you your current energy level). Once you get the hang of it, it's not bad! But it's still not very smooth. Which is probably a combination of the controls and sometimes encountering a glitch.
However if you fly gameplay mechanic while holding hands with another player/friend, you can fly as long as you like because your energy won't run out, as it's constantly being replenished.

There's a weird glitch of black pixels that appear in the center of really bright lights. Will try and post a pic shortly.

They initially started this game with micro transactions, however they weren't actually charging for it, it was all free (it listed prices but people figured out pretty fast that they weren't able to charge for that stuff on a beta or something). I never 'bought' anything myself, since it's not necessary.
I'm part of the FB group for the beta testing and have been reading a lot of posts from the group, and already TGC is taking note of some of the things being said. The micro transactions are currently disabled as of this evening; not sure what their next step is, if they'll rethink the way it works, etc.

Basically, the micro transactions enabled you to buy... these special 'gift' candles that you give to other players. Gifting players with these candles benefits them more than you, which I think is cool, it encourages you to give more out of kindness rather than wanting something back. Anyhow some people were concerned about tying money into this gifting.

More on what the gifts themselves do.
Idk if I need a separate spoiler tag for this but whatevs, here you go
So more specifically, the player gifted a candle receives a heart, which they can use to 'buy' accessories to customize their character, such as hair, cape, etc. This is a fun thing to do, I love customizing my character and there's more than I thought here!


Anyhow the camera is still horrendous half the time but I'm more used to it now. I need to make a post in their FB group about this stuff.
I just completed all the levels available today. There's 6 of them, and when you reach the beginning of the 7th, there's a wall blocking your path and telling you the rest is under construction.

But there's quite a lot of stuff to do in these first 6 levels! A lot of tucked away secrets that I'm slowly discovering. It's all very cool.
Still unsure about the story though. You can guess that maybe you're the descendants of whatever race built these places, but it's hard to tell completely. Location/story spoilers? I do love that it's once more shown with the visuals of the locations and you're (currently) left with your own mind to deduce what has happened.
Some areas have large skeletons, one looks like a battle zone in a dark dusty sky (totally didn't expect it), there's strange creatures at one point that will attack you if they see you (similar to the guardian things in Journey but more terrifying ), a rainy forest in the sky (entering this area is gorgeous <3), a coliseum and a racetrack, etc. It gives the impression that this is an entire kingdom/country you're wandering through. It doesn't look like it'd be a very large adventure but don't be fooled! There's sooooo much to see even with just the 6 levels in the beta. People have deduced that their might be 16 levels in total, if the portals in your 'home' are to be believed, buuuuut who knows what the final game will have?

Anyways I'm still enjoying it and need to play more