Progress
We’re thrilled to say the engine upgrade has crossed the finish line! Everything in the Combat Arena Beta now runs on the upgraded engine, the opening of the story plays start to finish, and our QA team has been testing builds since late September. There are still some bugs left from upgrading, but we've been working through those steadily. Next up is the rest of the new content and remaining map areas for Early Access.
We recently had a meeting to discuss the scope of Early Access. This was the first of several meetings, so we don't have all the details yet. We've decided the broad strokes of what Early Access will include: a handful of new Kinfolk, some more missions, and some more world to explore (we’re holding off on giving number estimates here so far because we aren't 100% sure yet!). We'll give you more details on specifics and timelines as we review this more. We're making sure not to add too much scope to Early Access so we can get it out to you as soon as possible, but at the same time we need to make sure it's a strong release.
Our ECS code is now tidier and more performant. Every piece has a clear, labeled place in the order the game runs, which makes the code far easier to read and leaves more processing power for the game itself. New features and fixes come together faster as a result. Thanks to the performance improvements, it’s possible to spawn a hundred Mechids to fight in the overworld while maintaining 160-200 FPS on medium graphics settings!
We’ve stepped up our NPCs’ intelligence during combat! When they couldn’t get a clear shot they used to stand still and wait, and those caught on terrain could get stuck. Now they move until they can see you, work their way around obstacles when pinned, and eventually give up, head home and heal if a fight goes nowhere (bosses never give up, of course). Fights flow much better as a result.
One of our boss's barrage attacks used to be one-off prototype code. It’s now a reusable barrage shape: orbs that hover before launching, plus spread shots and cones that mark the ground before they land. Future bosses and abilities can mix these patterns through settings instead of new code, and we’re excited to see how far we can take boss fights from here.
We hunted down the brief freezes that could interrupt exploring. Saving, NPC pathfinding updates, and startup prep for combat now run in the background, and NPCs and environmental props spawn in gradually instead of all at once. Exploring, especially into new areas, is noticeably smoother.
On the quality of life side, you can now hold an input to fast-forward through all cutscenes. You can also save anywhere, except during scripted story moments and the few seconds after a fight; the game autosaves as soon as the moment ends.
Community
In case you don't know, we post weekly on Bluesky! Here's what we've posted in the last month:
Happy Halloween! https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3myya6rqyl22a
Summoning Before and After https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3mygolzh23c2k
Level 100 Human https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3mxvb2m2pe22u
Nyazen Tail Animation Glitch https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3mxdcq535ws2l
Funny Bugs from the engine update https://bsky.app/profile/skymillstudios.bsky.social/post/3mwrocim4ek2i
LeXICON
The full lexicon can be found here.
Build: A playable version of the game. We create new builds multiple times per week to test new changes.
Cutscene: A non-interactive video sequence that occurs between segments of gameplay and depicts part of the story.
ECS: Entity Component System. A system in Unity that handles entities and behavior in the code.
NPC: A non-player character.
Overworld: The playable area in the open world exploration part of the game.
Pathfinding: The code that tells an NPC how to get from one place to another.
QA: Quality assurance. The people who test the game and report bugs.
Thanks for stopping by! We’ll see you for our next newsletter on November 20th. (One week early due to the holidays.) Happy Halloween to those who celebrate!
