In 2017, indie publisher and developer Bossa Games releasedWorlds Adrift, an MMO sandbox game that allowed players to explore a series of floating islands in a ruined futuristic world. While it was ultimately discontinued in 2019, Bossa Games decided to retool the core elements ofWorlds Adriftto makeLost Skies, a single-player survival game that recently launched in Early Access on Steam. A few months ago, players could try out a demo ofLost Skiesas part of Steam Next Fest, and a free-to-play Island Creator has been available since December.
Game Rant recently spoke to Luke Williams, the Lead Designer at Bossa Games, to discuss howLost Skiesevolved fromWorlds Apartand the shift from theMMO format of the latterto a single-player survival/exploration approach. He also describes how the standalone Island Creator suite came to be, as well as Bossa Games’ plans forLost Skies’ Early Access Steam release and beyond.This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Lost Skies Rises From Worlds Adrift
Q:Lost Skiesis a spiritual successor toWorlds Adrift. Can you talk a little bit about the relationship between the two projects?
A:At the heart of the two projects was always that sense of wonder and exploration as you set out in any direction on a skyship built by you and your friends.
We knew the core exploration mechanic was compelling, and a major pillar ofLost Skieswas expanding on that.
Narratively, the games take place in the same universe, though we split the timeline at around the point where the catastrophe ends the world. SinceLost Skiesis amore focused co-op PvE experience, we were able to lean much more into the story and allow players to unravel the mystery of what happened to the world.Worlds Adrift’s story could only be pieced together with fragments of notes.
Lost Skiesis still heavily physics-driven and features a grappling hook and other familiar yet refined mechanics fromWorlds Adrift.
Q: What would you say is the biggest lesson taken fromWorlds AdriftforLost Skies?
A:MMOs are hard [laughs]. Going intoLost Skies, one of our main priorities was that the game didn’t have any “always online” components. We were determined that in the worst-case scenario players could still enjoy and experience the world we have built.
Q:Lost Skiesfocuses on survival and exploration. What made you decide on this new direction?
A:It wasn’t a drastically different direction.Lost Skieswill feel quite familiar to anyone who’s playedWorlds Adrift. But without hostile players, we had to lean heavily into PvE and provide a dangerous world through AI enemies and bosses.
We also wanted story and narrative to help drive the experience and focused on more involved progression mechanics that reward exploration and experimentation, such as tech tree and upgrade/enhancement loops.
Lost Skies' Future Plans
Q: Could you talk a little bit about the process behind developing these survival and exploration features?
A:Most of our survival and exploration moments occur on the many islands scattered across the sky, so we knew we had to make them much more involved.
Our floating islands are designed both by Bossa and our community in the standalone free toolLost Skies: Island Creator. It features various puzzles and gameplay components, essentially allowing for creators to design giant dungeons, where you need to unlock doors or defeat tricky combat encounters to gain access to treasure rooms or key progression items.
Q: What are your short-term plans for Early Access?
A:There is the obvious performance optimization and bug fixing that will take priority; suddenly having so many different hardware setups running the game helps bring those issues to the surface.
While reactive polish will be the first priority, we have a lot of features and content waiting in the wings, from new ship parts and tech tree unlocks to new islands, bosses, and gameplay systems. We’re excited to see what areas of the game really resonate with the community. We’llkeep an eye on player feedback, as we have done with our OpenDev community over the past two years, and prioritize the most impactful updates that make theirLost Skiesexperience the best it can be.
Q: What are you hoping to see as you move through Early Access? Any long-term plans?
A:We’ll be launching with a roadmap that will communicate our major goals throughout EA, with some room to adapt and shift priorities as needed.
Ultimately, it’s all about expanding the world and content of the game, with a healthy dose of balance adjustments and bug fixes.
Q: What would you say is the overall theme ofLost Skies’ story?
A:Uncovering the mystery that led to the end of the world, and the players' role in that.
The player has an AI guide that goes by the name ASA, who helps you discover and adapt the technology scattered across the ruins of the old world and piece together the story of its collapse.
Q: Could you talk a little bit about implementing the island and ship-making suites in the game? What was that process like?
A:The islands go through an import process from theIsland Creator, which allows creators to set up nav meshes and the various sub-biomes, such as caves and forests. This determines what AI, materials, and loot drops spawn in these areas.
The shipbuilding system is inspired by 3D modeling programs, but with specific constraints that allow us to make them fully physics-enabled while giving players as much creative freedom as possible. That’s where the big challenge lies with these types of systems. One of the core pillars ofLost Skiesis “Your ship is your home,” so we had to make sure your ship really felt like yours as you build it up and expand it over the course of your adventure.
Q:Lost Skieshas a separate Island Creator. How did the idea for this come about?
A:It originated fromWorlds Adrift. We had planned tohave procedural islands make up the world, with a few handcrafted ones sprinkled in.
After building the dev tools to create islands, we thought it’d be a fun idea to just release it for free on Steam. We didn’t anticipate what happened next, as we suddenly got an influx of dozens (and later hundreds!) of incredible islands made by the community. It eventually led us to not need procedural islands at all, as there were more than enough handcrafted ones to populate the entire world with.
WithLost Skies,we wanted to expand on this, and it’s what led us to add much more gameplay and puzzle elements to the new version ofIsland Creator. There are a ton of really amazing islands uploaded to Steam Workshop on a regular basis, that we update our world map with. In some cases, it takes our dev team a while to figure out how the creators even managed to achieve some things with the asset packs we provided — it’s definitely very rewarding and exciting to see.
Q: A demo forLost Skieswas previously available as part of Steam Next Fest. From that demo, what has been the most valuable piece of feedback?
A:We’re three years into development now, and you never truly know how players will react to your game once it’s out in the open. To have been in the top 20games of Steam Next Festreally gave us the confidence that we might have something on our hands that resonates with people.
The most valuable feedback was from the players who were clocking 20-30 hours in just the demo that contained four islands (the EA version will have a significantly expanded world). They really loved the shipbuilding and experimentation that came with it, so we moved up some deeper systems in that area in time for Early Access to give them even more to sink their teeth into.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
A:I’d like to give a shoutout to our Open Development community - some of them have had access to the game now for almost three years and have watched it grow alongside the developers and helped steer the experience into what it is today. And to all those formerWorlds Adriftplayers who remained so passionate about this world and setting. We wouldn’t be where we are without them.
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