You can now play Desert Skies with your favourite controller! Let us know how your model of controller works and what you think of our default bindings. We already know we need to add some aim assist! We have a new input system to support controllers, with some UI changes and control changes, so let us know if you have any issues.

This update is the first of some bigger behind the scenes changes. The launcher is gone and there's now an in-game menu with new graphics and keybinding settings. Lower end PCs get significantly better performance, especially with the Very Low graphics setting, but even high end PCs should notice gains as well. Please let us know if you experience any graphics problems.

Finally, Desert Skies will be having a Halloween event! Stay tuned in the coming days for more details and the event's launch!

This update adds a new location with a new wobblehead and some new pieces to the story. We've also added lighting to the game with torches and lanterns, added some paintings to decorate your airship with, and added a way to respawn without losing your items.

This update has been a slow one while we’ve been experimenting for our next major update, now we're full speed ahead again. Check out our roadmap for details on the changes to come!

This secret facility in the desert was built to study the creatures by an enigmatic inventor and scientist. Above ground they've been experimenting with airships. Below ground....

In this location you will find loot, story elements, a schematic for something new to build, and a new wobblehead!



You can craft a torch at the workbench and a lantern at the blacksmith. Equip them to light up the area around you. They will come in handy because caves are now quite dark!
You can also find a lamp in your build menu for lighting up your airship.
With working lights we're one step closer to having a day and night cycle!



We've added a new type of decoration for your airship to be found in the world - paintings! These paintings will show up in some locations and can be collected to place on your airship. The paintings are real pieces from famous artists of the Western era.



Sick of collecting your coffin? A bed can now be built on your airship to replace the sleeping bag. With a bed you'll keep all your items after dying! To go with your bed you can also build a bedside table for decorations and a little bit of storage.
You need to find the schematic for the bed in the new location before you can build it.

• When respawning on a sleeping bag you'll keep a hammer and 2 pieces of wood in your inventory, so that you can survive even if you lose your coffin.
  
• You can now choose between 4 different crosshairs from the in-game settings menu, including some larger ones. We'll add more options in the future.
  
• We've lowered the mountain at the Old Coot's place so you no longer get stuck on it.
  
• Fixed bug where dropping items in a stack then picking one up could make the others disappear.

This big update brings a new location, a new NPC with quests to complete and a cool reward, a new danger in the gold cave, a series of collectables, a water barrel and water tank for storing water on your airship, carrying water in buckets, new buildable furniture, and fixes and tweaks!

Follow the winding path up to the clifftops where a crazy Old Coot has built himself a cabin safe from the Seekers below. While doing some chores for the Old Coot you will explore the clifftops, journey through the looming arches to find the pond hidden amongst the buttes, and look for the cave which houses a mysterious surprise.



With the Old Coot we introduce quests to Desert Skies! He has a series of four quests for you to complete and something extra special for your airship as a reward. Let us know what you think, do you want to see more quests on your journey?



What is a wobblehead? It's a cool little figurine for decorating your airship, and when you take off its head wobbles! There are 13 to collect, one hidden in each location after the start.

We have been extra devious in hiding the wobbleheads and they don't get highlighted as you enter a location, so you're going to have to keep your eyes peeled and search high and low to find them (hint hint).



With 13 wobbleheads you'll need somewhere to place them! We've added two new types of tables, a new type of shelf, and a wall mounted cabinet to your building menu.



You can now build a Water Barrel and a Water Tank on your airship. The barrel holds 3 canteens worth of water, while the tank holds 7! You'll need a way to fill them up, so you can now equip the bucket. Be careful though, if you sprint, jump, fall or unequip the bucket then you'll spill its precious water. Carefully carry it back to your airship!



Despite it's eeriness the gold cave has always been a safe location, until now! The danger doesn't come from the Seeker however... Tread carefully and keep your ears pricked!

We've made a number of fixes and tweaks based on feedback. Thank you for getting in touch!

• We've changed the hit detection on the Seeker's heart shard, it should be more accurate for all players now.
  
• We've improved the feature where holding down the interact button keeps harvesting/shooting/etc, you won't have that issue where it harvests/shoots an extra time anymore.
  
• Dropping an item on your sleeping bag, or anything else aboard the airship, no longer stops your flight.
  
• When you continue a game you always start descending now, so that you don't fly over a location before you have time to stop.
  
• Fixed the always locked doors in the showdown location.
  
• We've added more loot to the showdown location.

This update overhauls the Seeker with a lot of changes!

Our goal was to make hiding from the Seeker as it hunts you a more engaging cat-and-mouse experience, and to make combat with the Seeker more difficult (once you have the weaponry necessary to defeat it).

Check out our post in our Steam forum with full details of what has changed, and please let us know what you think of the Seeker now!

We will tweak the Seeker further based on feedback in the next few patches, and in the longer term we have additional changes planned including different types of Seekers with new combat abilities.

This was a long patch focused on upgrading our enemy code for the Seeker and future enemies. Now we're going to work on a number of smaller and more frequent updates with new content, new gameplay and bug fixes.

- As part of the Seeker changes you now have a stamina bar limiting your sprinting when the Seeker has spawned. When there's no Seeker you still have unlimited sprinting.
- Overhauled the showdown location.
- Hard Mode - items are no longer highlighted when entering location.
- Temporarily removed fullscreen/resolution/vsync settings from in-game menu as they have been causing issues for some players. We will return these settings ASAP once we figure out what wasn't working properly.
- Press F11 to hide/show the HUD (for taking screenshots).
- You can now hold down the interact key (default left mouse) instead of needing to keep pressing it (useful for harvesting and shooting).
- Fixed labels on left/right movement keys in Input tab in launcher.
- You can jump over the hedge in the restaurant location now.
- Fixed Seeker spawn points in upgraded locations from previous patch.
- Fixed bug that resulted in too many cactus fruits spawning in locations.
- Fixed bug that allowed decorations to spawn in containers at locations - decorations should only appear as items within a location.
- Fixed music setting not turning music off when selected.

We finished some new cosmetic options for your airship and couldn't wait for the next patch to include them, so here they are!

In your build menu you'll find two new types of airship building blocks: lattices and leaves. These platforms, walls and ramps add a touch of class to your airship and brighten it up with more light and a bit of colour.



You'll also see a new option on the build menu for furniture. We're starting you off with two types of table and a shelf, the beginning of the options we'll be adding in coming patches.

What use are tables and shelves without something to put on them? Hidden in a few locations you can now find two new decorations - a ship in a bottle and a stuffed parrot.

For this update we have overhauled many existing locations to make them bigger and more interesting, with more story elements!

Here's a sneak peak at one changed location:





In changing the layout of these locations we have created different arrangements of obstacles. This lays the groundwork for our next patch, which will improve the Seeker experience.

We want to make fighting the Seeker (once you can kill it) more challenging, through improving the Seeker's AI and making use of the new location layouts.

In doing so we don't want to make it harder for new players in the early game though, instead we're aiming for a more exciting cat-and-mouse experience as you try to avoid the Seeker while looting the location.

After the big content update of this patch we also want to work on a lot of smaller improvements such as loot rebalancing, new things to craft, something new to harvest with a new tool, some new things in the desert between locations, and more NPCs.

More bug fixes! We're now turning our attention back to new content for the next patch, unless any critical issues pop up of course.

• We have rewritten the deconstruction system to be much more robust, this should eliminate any remaining issues with deconstructing platforms.
  
• The airship no longer takes off automatically when you input fuel.
  
• We've attempted another fix for the rotated camera issue that happens randomly to some people sometimes when they die and respawn.
  
• The Seeker will no longer chase you into Hermit Oasis.
  
• Dropping items while flying on the airship no longer stops its movement.
  
• Fixed sky turning black if you die inside cave and respawn.
  
• Seeker corpse no longer blocks movement so you can't get trapped by it.
  
• Fixed blacksmith sound not being positional.
  
• Fixed crates on train platform that could trap you if you jumped in between them.

This patch adds more in-game settings and fixes a number of issues. We're still working through more fixes and tweaks from feedback, as well as working on the loot and Seeker balancing. We have also improved the logging we capture for the Feedback form to help us identify and resolve some of the bugs that have been tricky to replicate.

These new settings are available in the settings menu. The screen settings will override your resolution/window choice made in the launcher. We will remove the launcher entirely once we have moved all settings into the game menu.

• Screen mode (exclusive fullscreen, borderless fullscreen, window)
  
• Resolution and refresh rate
  
• Vertical sync (exclusive fullscreen only)
  
• Mouse sensitivity

• When you land in the desert the Seeker now follows the same noise system as in locations.
  
• Pressing escape now closes the current menu.
  
• Players who were unable to deconstruct their platforms on saved airships should be able to do so now (if not please send feedback).
  
• Nails are easier to see in locations.
  
• Fixed bug where canteens and revolvers placed in containers would lose their water/bullets on save/load.
  
• Fixed bug where non-stop jumping would prevent Seeker from hearing your movement noise.
  
• Fixed another bug that could have your airship slide along the ground or fly off without you.

Early Access 1.6 brings TWO new locations, including our first oasis, and a surprise - our first NPC!

This oasis is home to a friendly hermit who would love some company. Drink the water, eat fresh fish, and enjoy some peace and quiet. You can take a break and work on your airship without fear of the Seeker hunting you.

No reservation is required at this fine dining establishment since the critchers ran everyone out of town. Come along and see what was left behind, just make sure your don't end up on the menu!

We've hidden the Seeker noise bar, as we felt it removed the tension of not knowing how close you were to the seeker's arrival. It's still the same system behind the scenes with the noise you making bringing the Seeker ever closer, now you just won't know how close it is until the rumble begins.

We're going to spend some time focusing on bugs and quality of life improvements, including rebalancing loot and Seeker difficulty. We've got a list of issues and suggestions from the feedback you all have sent in that we're going to work through, thank you so much!

Today's update overhauls the Seeker spawn system, we think it's a lot more engaging now!

When you approach a location a noise bar will now appear on the left under the fuel bar. This represents how aware the Seeker is that prey (you) is running around the desert. The noise you make while exploring a location will be sensed by the Seeker and the bar will increase until it fills up and the Seeker arrives!

The new system will give you some control over whether and when the Seeker will arrive at a location. Play around and you'll figure out the rules - one hint we'll give you is that your footsteps are only sensed when on the sand.

We don't want the new system to take away the surprise and panic of the Seeker's arrival though, so we've added a few new noise-making elements. Watch out for random patches of gravel while you explore, and be aware that the worn wooden doors of the West can sometimes open with a bang!

This is a brand new system and it's going to need some balancing. Please let us know whether you think some things add too much noise to the bar - or too little. Once we've got a good balance we'll soon start adding other noise-making elements to the locations to keep you on your toes while you explore.

We've received quite a few feedbacks requesting this so we got it in this patch. You can deconstruct platforms and descenders so long as they're not supporting other structures or work stations.

• We added more anvils to the early game and a bit more obvious (I don't know why the blacksmith took his anvil to the outhouse!). We're thinking about how we can ensure people don't miss those key early game items without having other players end up with 4 anvils in their inventory.
  
• Fixed a rare save game bug where if you saved at the right (wrong?) moment the game wouldn't load.
  
• Fixed the issue where if you killed the Seeker shortly before the showdown location then it wouldn't spawn there and so the doors wouldn't open, trapping you inside.
  
• Crafting stations now show if they will produce more than one item (eg "Craft 5 Nails").

The next patch will bring our first oasis location, and with it a cool surprise. At an oasis you'll be able to take a break without fear of the Seeker arriving to chase you away.

We've been overwhelmed by the amount of feedback sent to us, thank you! Be assured that we read it all and add so many items to our todo list based on it. We'll reply as we can over the coming days.