This past month looked a little different for Skymill Studios. A big deadline at our second jobs meant less time than usual for Kindred Fates, but this isn’t what you should expect to see month to month and won’t be a frequent occurrence. Even so, we’re excited to share the progress we made on Kindred Fates and give it a closer look than we typically would!
Progress
Last month we consolidated the code for held items, consumables, cooking, and powerups in Ether Run. This makes it easier to mix and match effects and status conditions to make items in the editor. One of our first points of focus was migrating all of our old items and food to this new system.
As we reviewed these items, we noticed that their effects had become increasingly unique over time. Because of this, we made a new system for organizing these effects and made sure they all meshed seamlessly with the existing processes in other parts of the game that need to access held items and their effects.
We added some new items to the game that have been planned for a very long time but until this month only existed as concepts! These include:
Security Blanket: Raises the user’s Physical and Special Defense stats by 1.35x and makes them immune to Fear effects, as long as the Kinfolk holding it can still evolve.
This item doesn’t raise the holder’s stat by several stages; rather, it literally multiplies whatever their current defense stats are by 1.35. A player can hold this item and buff themself further with stage changes. We plan on having an NPC give this item as a gift at the end of a side mission.
Vampire Fang: The holder gains 1.3x health from any ability that transfers health from one character to another.
We plan on this being found as a pickup item somewhere in our Sanguine Forest environment.
Memento: The user retains their stat changes for 50% longer.
This item is something of a double-edged sword. While your buffs last longer, any debuffs that affect you will last longer as well. Memento will likely be found as a pickup item in the mountainous Omenoks region.
Steel Bracer: The user is immune to staggering and stunning effects.
This item’s effect is pretty straightforward. While any Kinfolk would certainly benefit from its effect, it can be especially useful in the hands of Kinfolk like Mechid who are already immune to having their stats changed by their opponents.
Spiked Collar: If the holder is hit by at least three melee attacks in quick succession, the attacker loses a significant fraction of their Maximum Health.
We’re still playing with the percentage on this one, but expect it to be a little larger than Poison or Burn damage, but still comparable.
We plan to continue adding new items like this for the next month, so we look forward to sharing more in our next newsletter. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your ideas for other items you think would be fun to have added to the game!
We’re starting to spin up art for some character models and animations. Most recently we made adjustments to Bright_Horn’s eyes to give them more depth when viewed from different angles. We’ve also mapped most of the expressions from their animation reference sheet onto the model so they can show different emotions, and started working on their idle and idle rare animations!
One last thing we’d like to share with you this month is a concept art piece for a Grand Chime. You may recognize it from the Grand Chime arena in the Combat Arena Beta. During your journey, you’ll find these massive structures dotting the horizon and towering over the landscape. As as summoner you can attune with these chimes to strengthen your abilities as a summoner, granting you boons and allowing you to bond with more powerful Kinfolk.
Community
In case you don't know, we post weekly on Bluesky! Here's what we've posted since our last newsletter:
Kainite Wallpaper: https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3lz3jvz32722y
Nighttime Trio: https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3lzofrc3adc2x
Spooky Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3m26h2y4d7s2b
LEXICON
The full lexicon can be found here.
Editor: (aka Unity Editor) The program developers use to make changes to the game. Developers can test their work here before their changes are added to a build.
Ether Run: The new wave survival mode included in the Combat Arena Beta.
NPC: A non-player character.
Overworld: The playable area in the open world exploration part of the game.
Summoner: The people in Hinterlock who can summon Kinfolk.
Thanks for stopping by! We’ll see you for our next newsletter on November 7th!
