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Verdant Skies June Development Update

By Development

No summer vacation for us!

With no May update you may have thought we were taking the summer off. Nothing could be further from the truth! While many are out enjoying the summer sun, we’ve been hard at work creating content for Verdant Skies.

New Recipes, Award, and UI Art

Lizzy (@Pixilizi_Art) has been hard at work putting polish on much of the UI. She added some new vibrant colors to the old recipe icons, and created some new award icons that you may see popping up in the newly redesigned Achievements panel.

We are still considering some different approaches for the new panels. Here are mock ups showing off a couple of the possibilities we are exploring. Works still in progress!

The Science of Sound Design

The audio team for Verdant Skies presented the game at the Science Museum of Minnesota! Troy (@YellowChord) and Topher (@PhantomFreq) were asked to participate in an event called “Social Science: The Science of Pixar” and brought Verdant Skies to show attendees how sound can impact games and animation. They brought a variety of sound effects including footsteps, wood cracking, champagne bottles popping, and farts to demonstrate the effects that sound design can have on the play experience. It was easy to make switches in real time due to the software we’re using for Verdant Skies. Wwise is an audio middleware program that allows audio professionals to make detailed changes to the sound while reducing the work for the developer. Players were wowed not only by the sound and music, but the gorgeous hand-drawn art, diversity of characters, and spear fishing.

New Character!

Along with revisions to some of the events for our already announced characters, Beth (@BethKorth) finished the first few relationship events for our newest character.

Meet Skye Miller

Despite being paid by Planetary Pioneers, Skye takes seriously her ethical responsibility to produce an unbiased narrative of the colonization of Viridis Primus. Her desire for an honest representation sometimes puts her at odds with Jade who would prefer a more positive spin on the colony’s progress.

Programmer’s Corner

There’s tons of changes to report, as always! Over the last couple months, Andy (@kortham) has implemented dozens of changes. The most interesting change is that we now have cave fishing! He also improved controller support, and upgraded the AI for the NPCs so that they have more realistic wandering. To address a problem with NPC pathing, he made it so that the NPCs now favor walking on the paths, and the player will be unable to block the roads by constructing items.

New Icons!

By Development

We’ve been working on updating our player UI. Check out these new icons Lizzy made!

AllTools

These are just some of the basic tool icons you will see in the game. We plan on having upgrade options as play progresses. Each tool will become more powerful as you upgrade it.


She also made the correspondence icons for when you receive communications.

AllTools


Last but not least, romance indicators! As your fellow inhabitants fall for you, their level of attraction will be tracked with these gorgeous hearts.

 

Thanks for following our progress!

Character Customization in Progress

By Development

This week we’ve been working on player appearance customization. Lizzy’s been hard at work creating clothing, hairstyles and facial features. Andy has successfully implemented skin tone selection and clothing color changes.

Crafting options will play a role in which clothing items are initially available, but the player will be able to select their apparel from a limited selection right away.

Meanwhile, Beth continues to work on the game map design. The general layout of the settlement is finished, though it will need some finessing before it is finalized.

To New Beginnings…

By Development

Greetings pioneers! The team here at Verdant Skies couldn’t be happier to share a peek into our new world with you. Please check out our announcement video and take in the lush landscapes of Viridis Primus. Leave your life behind and begin anew on this beautifully painted, hand-crafted planet.



Here are some of the core features you have to look forward to:

  • Life simulation game similar to old favorites like Harvest Moon.
  • True-to-life storytelling and dialog with complex and real characters.
  • An accessible and open dating system.
  • Character customization.
  • Plant hybridization.
  • Lots of upgrades to unlock.

Since we want to offer the best experience possible, we have not currently set a release date. Check back here for updates and a chance to participate in our closed beta sometime later this year.