A developer at Bossa Studios recently explained whereLost Skies’ separate island creation suite came from.Lost Skiesis now available on PC through Steam Early Access, following a brief demo period during the Steam Next Fest in February. While theLost Skiesdemo was only playable for a limited time as part of Steam Next Fest, players could try out an element of the game since December. Uniquely,Lost Skies: Island Creatoris a free-to-play creation suite that allows players to craft and shape their own environments to explore. From planting forest obstacles to inserting enemy turrets, players can sample what the full version ofLost Skieshas to offer and post their creations to an online database for others to enjoy.
Game Rant recently interviewed Luke Williams, the Lead Designer at Bossa Studios, who explained how the idea forLost Skies: Island Creatorcame about. He said that this was acarryover fromWorld’s Adrift, where the development team originally planned to have procedurally generated islands along with a few hand-crafted ones for players to navigate. Williams noted that the resulting influx of user-generated content eventually caused Bossa Studios to decide that procedurally generated islands weren’t needed after all.
Lost Skies’ Island Creator Expands on World’s Adrift
Williams pointed out that his team wanted to expand on the island creator forLost Skies, addingmore gameplay and puzzlesto the previous framework. He says that there have been many creative island ideas uploaded to Steam Workshop daily, with the development team sometimes being baffled at how players manage to create the landscapes they do with the asset packs the game provides. Williams says:
“After building the dev tools to create islands, we thought it’d be a fun idea to just release it for free on Steam.”
Now, players will be able to enjoy the islands they and others have made inLost Skiesas they explore its cloudy heights, and the community-driven approach to the game’s floating islands doubles as a way to ensure there are always fresh discoveries to be made.
Lost Skies' Early Access Plans
Luke Williams says that Bossa Studios will be monitoring player feedback to improve things duringthe game’s Early Access period, and that will likely include refining the standaloneIsland Creatorto give players more options for customizing their own explorable islands. Williams revealed some of the team’s current plans for Early Access:
“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’ll keep 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.”
So far, the developers behindLost Skiesare impressed with what the community has put together with the new tools, and the team’s responsiveness to feedback is a promising sign for the game’s future.
