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Progress has been a bit slower over the last few weeks due to "life"... but Sky Trader is one step closer to an Early Access release! The most interesting recent change are the inclusion of "installable" parts. Now, you can swap out motors, generators, batteries, and more! Purchase new equipment from merchants or install rare items found throughout the world. Everything connects to everything else, so you will be able to install new switches and remotes to control your new toys. Go faster, fly higher, and generally be more awesome!

Keep the greasy side down,

Grimfox Jones

Hey future Sky Trader captains!

There have been some small but significant changes and upgrades this week, including setting up rotating engines for (sort of) vectored thrust. It all ties back into cockpit controls and displays through the new signals system, and I'm happy to report it works quite well! Having gimballed motors definitely adds some complexity to flying the starter airship, as well as improved maneuverability and usability.

I have also been working on physics, specifically getting everything to a state where it doesn't regularly "explode"... there have definitely been some challenges, with crates are barrels flying in random directions and airships dancing across fields, but things are looking much more stable with the latest configuration

.

Additionally, I've recorded a new trailer with a bit more actual gameplay content. Still lots to do and show, but progress is progressing!

Cheers,

Grimfox Jones

This week, I've been focused on getting the ship systems to communicate with each other. The big achievement is a switch that turns a light on and off! It's magic!

It might not look like much, but it’s the foundation for more complex system controls, some of which are already implemented. For example, the light is part of the electrical system, which slowly drains your ship's batteries. Other systems, such as electrical and internal combustion propulsion, generators, solar panels, fuel systems, and more are in the works.

In the Sky Trader world, airships use different systems depending on their intended missions. Your starting airship is a "Utility Skiff," designed for short-distance flights. It’s powered by electric motors with high-capacity batteries, sometimes connected to an auxiliary generator or solar panels. These systems are simple, reliable, and cheap. The skiff isn't fast, efficient, or comfortable, but it gets the job done for carrying small loads over short distances.

More updates are on the way in the coming weeks, including a demo of the cargo and trading system. I think (hope) if you are a fan of trading games you will really enjoy what I've put together for this.

If someone had told me it would take a full decade to figure out how to make this game, I may never have started. Honestly, at the beginning of 2023 I had all but given up. It didn't seem like anything was coming together the way I wanted it, and most of all I was frustrated that the game just wasn't fun to play.

After serious reflection, and looking all the way back to the original prototype (on Steam Greenlight, if any of you remember that), I realized I haven't been staying true to what I imagined Sky Trader to be so many years ago. What I really want, and I hope some of you do too, is an airship simulation. All the bells and whistles, everything modelled and simulated in gritty detail. Switches and buttons galore. Here is a short list of experiences that I feel are key for Sky Trader and may have been lost over the years:

• You will control your airship from an immersive first-person perspective, carefully weaving your way around mountains and between storms, searching for a trading outpost you've only heard rumors of.
  
• The airships you fly must have accurate physics to feel real. Buoyancy and aerodynamics are modelled as realistically as possible. Negotiate dangerous downdrafts and gusts of wind, while trimming your airship for efficient flight.
  
• If you like flipping switches and pushing buttons, Sky Trader is for you! Feel fully immersed with airship systems that are painstakingly simulated and modelled. Read technical manuals to improve your knowledge of ship systems! (just kidding... sort of)
  
• You will have to strategically plan your routes, making sure to bring enough fuel and supplies while carefully avoiding dangerous areas.
  
• Your decisions matter... if you damage your airship, it may be expensive and potentially dangerous. If you take a risk and it pays off, you will be rewarded!
  
• Turn your blood, sweat, and tears into hard earned cash and spend it on awesome upgrades! Make your journeys safer, easier and more profitable while enjoying the finer things in life. Buy new instruments, generators, engines, batteries, propellers, and even a brand new airship!

For all these things to come together, I started from scratch in 2023. Solid progress has been made so far, and things are looking promising for an early access release this year! The experience is actually fun immediately, bringing me back to the very first prototype so many years ago.

I would like to thank all of those who have followed this project for so many years. It's hard to think of how your lives may have changed since first finding this game a decade ago. Words cannot express how much I appreciate all of you.

In the coming weeks, I'll share some progress updates. For now, I'll leave you with a few images of Sky Trader through the years.

The original Sky Trader from Steam Greenlight, gondola view, circa 2015.


The "full production" Sky Trader after Greenlight, circa 2016.


A Sky Trader visual experiment in 2017. It looked weird.


Top-down Sky Trader, circa 2019. I was proud of the cows...


COVID Sky Trader, circa 2020. It was a strange time for all of us...


At some point, Sky Trader took place over a vast desert... I still fancy this one.

Sky Trader publisher pitch in 2023... getting closer!


NEW Sky Trader, 2024!

Hey Sky Trader fans,

Here is the latest news from the trenches of airship development!

Sky Trader has been through a fair number of changes over the last month, but the biggest one was setting up the camera to "follow" the mouse cursor. This allowed me to bring the camera in much closer while still maintaining the same visible area. It also makes the parallax effect of the 3d terrain really obvious (TL;DR - it looks cool). I haven't resolved how to make this work with the controller yet, but I have some ideas.

Most of the other improvements are less dramatic... just steady progress towards the launch. As the feature set is getting firmed up, I am focusing more and more on adding content. There will be lots of areas to explore, even in Early Access. Check out the videos below for more deets!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdXkC4IvYX4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaZPFvxiH4Q

Let me know what you think!

JJ

Hey Sky Trader Fans,

Well, what can I say... it's hard to excuse disappearing for over a year. A lot has happened for me both professionally and personally, and I finally seem to have ended up where I started. It has been a great regret of mine that I was never able to deliver the game I promised you so long ago... so without further ado I present...

Sky Trader 2019



My vision for Sky Trader has been forced to evolve with the dissolving of our original team. I have taken over all art responsibilities, and as such I have moved to a new art style for the game. I loved Nick's work on the original game, but it wasn't something I was able to reproduce on my own very effectively... that said, I am really happy with the way the new game looks and I hope you will enjoy it too.

I've also made several significant changes to the gameplay... most notably the switch to a top-down view. There were several factors that went into this, and I'll write an update detailing them in the next few weeks, but it has actually turned out to be a lot more fun to play than the original!

As far as timelines go, I won't make you any promises... development is progressing quite quickly right now, and I'll be sure to post regular updates as things unfold.

To those of you reading this, thank you so much for sticking it out! I'll post more updates about this new direction over the next few weeks, but feel free to fire off any questions in the meantime!

Best Wishes,

JJ

Hey Sky Trader Fans!

December has been a rough month... we recently submitted Sky Trader to Valve for pre-release review, and it unfortunately didn't pass.

The fine folks at Valve discovered a critical bug in our final build. We hadn't found it because it wasn't present in our editor, but it happens every time in the executable. The bug was related to our inventory system and it actually causes a hard crash where the application abruptly terminates.

We worked on it for about a few days, but because of the nature of the bug we weren't able to effectively determine the exact cause. Pulling out a large portion of the inventory code fixed the issue, but unfortunately a trading game without an inventory system isn't very fun!

We had to choose between continuing to diagnose a very tricky issue and stepping back and rebuilding the inventory system from the ground up to make it more robust. After some deliberation, we chose the latter. The system we are building out is much better than the old one in a lot of ways, but there is quite a bit of work remaining before it has feature parity with the old system.

As such, our planned December release is at risk. I am pretty sure the Steam Store crew takes some time off at Christmas (this was the case in the past, not sure if it still is), so even if we did finish next week it might not get reviewed.

I wish I had better news for you... the development of Sky Trader has been full of ups and downs, and I really appreciate all of you who have stuck it out with us! We will do our best to keep you updated as we work through this.

Happy Holidays,

JJ

Hey Sky Trader Fans!

December has been a rough month... we recently submitted Sky Trader to Valve for pre-release review, and it unfortunately didn't pass.

The fine folks at Valve discovered a critical bug in our final build. We hadn't found it because it wasn't present in our editor, but it happens every time in the executable. The bug was related to our inventory system and it actually causes a hard crash where the application abruptly terminates.

We worked on it for about a few days, but because of the nature of the bug we weren't able to effectively determine the exact cause. Pulling out a large portion of the inventory code fixed the issue, but unfortunately a trading game without an inventory system isn't very fun!

We had to choose between continuing to diagnose a very tricky issue and stepping back and rebuilding the inventory system from the ground up to make it more robust. After some deliberation, we chose the latter. The system we are building out is much better than the old one in a lot of ways, but there is quite a bit of work remaining before it has feature parity with the old system.

As such, our planned December release is at risk. I am pretty sure the Steam Store crew takes some time off at Christmas (this was the case in the past, not sure if it still is), so even if we did finish next week it might not get reviewed.

I wish I had better news for you... the development of Sky Trader has been full of ups and downs, and I really appreciate all of you who have stuck it out with us! We will do our best to keep you updated as we work through this.

Happy Holidays,

JJ

Blame the pirates!

November is drawing to a close... where is this glorious game we have promised?

Unfortunately, we are running a bit long in getting everything wrapped up. We thought that our November estimate was a good one, but there are still some serious issues that make the game pretty unplayable.

I personally apologize for missing this release date. We have a plan for post-release that should keep us on track for regular (every 2 weeks) releases moving forward, but getting a release candidate ready to go has been harder than I anticipated.

You guys have been with us from the start, and we appreciate you all a great deal! Thank you so much for your patience and good will, it's what keeps us going. We intend to have Sky Trader ready to go in early December, hopefully in the first two weeks, but we will keep you updated.

As a condolence, we would like to offer free Steam keys to the first 25 people to email us (skytrader-promo@feudant.com). If the demand is huge, I may extend that to more keys... we will see how it goes.

Best Wishes,

JJ

Blame the pirates!

November is drawing to a close... where is this glorious game we have promised?

Unfortunately, we are running a bit long in getting everything wrapped up. We thought that our November estimate was a good one, but there are still some serious issues that make the game pretty unplayable.

I personally apologize for missing this release date. We have a plan for post-release that should keep us on track for regular (every 2 weeks) releases moving forward, but getting a release candidate ready to go has been harder than I anticipated.

You guys have been with us from the start, and we appreciate you all a great deal! Thank you so much for your patience and good will, it's what keeps us going. We intend to have Sky Trader ready to go in early December, hopefully in the first two weeks, but we will keep you updated.

As a condolence, we would like to offer free Steam keys to the first 25 people to email us (skytrader-promo@feudant.com). If the demand is huge, I may extend that to more keys... we will see how it goes.

Best Wishes,

JJ