Hi everyone! While the world is trying to get back to normal, we work for you! And today we’ve got something exciting to show you. We give you the September special.

Chemical arrows

You might remember Eileen’s chemical arrowheads from several issues ago. They proved themselves quite worthy: keep your distance, and you can poison a lot of enemies. Poison deals damage over time, so they’ll die one by one while trying to catch up with you.



Spiker animation

Thorns sound like roses, but their only desire is to kill everyone on sight. Just look at ‘em!



If the agility or long-range attacks are not your strongest suits, you’d probably want to avoid the Spikers. Even if your reflexes are quick, you’re likely to suffer damage.



Tutorials

Some new tutorial elements are there for you, in case you didn’t know how the double jump and dash work ¯ \ (ツ) / ¯



Vertical shot
While shooting upwards or downwards, or using other techniques, don’t forget that your enemy can go BOOM! As simple as that. Mighty effective.



Remember that you’re also vulnerable in the air. The Thorns can totally get you there. Nevertheless, the vertical shot is an excellent move if you know how to use it.

New visuals

And finally, some latest renovations. They look good but we doubt anyone would want to live here.
The lower level smeltery is your top choice if you failed to spend your vacation somewhere tropical.



Sewers are for those who love the thrills and humid air.



That’s all for today! Stay tuned!

Hello all!

Summer’s almost gone, but the living is still easy, fish are jumping, and the cotton is still high. Not so easy for us, though 😊 The team is full of energy and swarming with ideas!

Here are some new very cool features we introduced over the past month:


Two main goals here:

• To break through “weak” floors to enter secret areas
  
  
  
  
• To fly up straight, quite literally rise over the situation a.k.a. enemy forces, and come out victorious
  
  
  
  

There’s word on the street that strange objects are hidden all over the place in Ark’s secret stashes. Some say that these artifacts grand unbelievable power on their owners. Others insist that artifact cast a horrible curse on those who find them. But we have no way of knowing that for certain!




However intricate the humanity may be in creating different types of pathways, a ladder will always remain the simplest and the most reliable tool for vertical movement. Add just a bit of gloss and futuristic elements, and Bob’s your uncle!



We won’t lie to you, we have a soft spot for this location. There’s no other place that will smash and grind you this effectively.

We threw new effects, animations, backgrounds, and designs in all locations. Here’s a time-lapse that will show you how the Presses transformed over time.



There’s only one thing about them that never changes: the Presses do not forgive mistakes and will instantly kill you if you’re too slow. This time they were lucky, but who knows, how many takes they did to record this video?



That’s all for today! Take care! We’ll see you next time.

Hi everyone!

The heat of the summer is climbing, and it’s time to cool down, relax, and enjoy our latest development report while drinking a cool shake on a sandy beach. Doesn’t it sound like a perfect summer? We know it does! Anyhoo, the report is here! Let’s go.

It’s a version of Eileen’s common arrow tip. It poisons the enemy and deals damage over time. Enjoy a lovely green shade.




Ark is the city of the future, but you still needs some stairs to climb. We made them as classy and futuristic as we could (to the fullest extent possible with the stairs).



Nobody knows where the roots came from, but they’re literally all over the place: in vent shafts, on the walls, and in the doorways. They don’t seem that dangerous, but it isn’t easy to make your way through them! You might need something more powerful than the default special abilities of the main characters.



Oh, it’ll come in handy! Just the thing you need to get through harsh terrain and destroy hordes of monsters. We’re especially proud of the visual FX when receiving the ability.



You can’t just gain a super ability and not use it straight away. We don’t mind! On the contrary! Everyone is going to love the power strike and the piercing shot.



A chameleon isn’t just about changing colors and swallowing flies. A chameleon is a cruel monster that can kill a person with any part of its body, you name it.



That's all for today! We hope your shake was refreshing, just like our report. See you next time!

Hello everyone!

May is coming to an end. We’d like to give you our final spring report before the summer comes into power! Today we are sharing new arts, screenshots, animations, and a piece of lore. Let’s go!
For starters, here’s something that’s still being developed.

Pneumatic elevators
Unlike conventional elevators, pneumatic ones can carry people and goods over very long distances at a high speed. We use them to quickly move around ARK.



It’s a pretty old technology, but it took us a while to make it safe for people to use. Nevertheless, the pneumatic network has existed for quite a while. Several Ark generations have can’t get around without it.



Hub gateway
The ginormous hub has a lot of separate rooms, connected by the gateway. Use it to get from one section to another.



In case of danger, the gateway can be used for isolating Hub sections. It’s fast, easy, and reliable.

Energy doors
The energy doors have a functionality similar to the Hub gateway, but they look completely different.
They’re ordinary doors that look like energy barriers, used just like ordinary doors. You can find them in all kinds of public places, but rest assured, you don’t want them at home.



The energy doors are used in warehouses and labs. They’re transparent, and yet they isolate rooms completely. The latest versions are also soundproof.

That’s all about the Ark’s high-tech lore. Let’s turn our attention to something truly spectacular now.

Creating monsters and interior elements
Let's take a look at the process of creation of ARK system terminal and Chameleon.
We begin the creation of the system terminal with a sketch in our design document. A sketch, along with a short description, goes to the artist, who comes up with a few concepts. After one of them gets approved, the artist continues working on it until the team reaches a final version. This is the version that the players will see.



When we created Chameleon, we used an almost identical approach. There’s just one peculiarity: it was the monster that needed animations. This was a painstaking but highly engaging process. We were to create a realistic animation, looking as naturally as possible in the game world (if a mutant monster can look natural at all).



What’s more natural than a Kamikaze explosion? Perhaps, your desire to run as far away and as fast as you can!



Speaking of which, don’t you think that the owner of the pincer is just too handsy? Although… who knows what this thing really is? Maybe, it’s just the correct amount of “handsy”.



And now to the summer! We’ll see you real soon.

Hi everybody!

We’ve spent a month working remotely, like almost everyone else in the world. We must say, this is an unusual experience! Thankfully, our pipelines are good enough to keep the development process going at full speed!
Today we give you a quick word about our latest developments. Let’s go!

Our enemies could drop valuable items, such as armor, rage charges, etc. We added a clot of biomaterial, which you will need to collect. It’s an important resource, exchangeable for other needful things: weapons, armor, and other goodies.



We introduce arrowheads for Eileen arrows, allowing you to fine-tune her tactics.



Meet the new NPC, the Storekeeper, who arrived at the Barracks. He’ll gladly trade fun stuff for the biomaterial you collect from dead monsters.



The young Chameleon’s animations betray his eager wish to prove himself in ARK.



And this is our remote office, 24/7! We thought you might be curious.



Take care of yourself. Stay healthy, stay safe, stay home.

Hi everyone!

Woah, has it been a whole month since our last post? It's gone by so fast!
It's time to review what we achieved! Are you excited? Let's go!

Spike Shooter is our biggest creation in more ways than one. He's hard to kill (and he's already nerfed, mind you!), but you just can't miss him!



We're happy to give you the first Lost in Sky's NPC ever: Ticola Nesla! The senior scientist around here, he has made hundreds of discoveries and inventions. He's one of the few survivors, who lived through the catastrophe in his lab. Who knows what other mysteries can be hidden in his safety locker!



We redesigned the City, and added new textures, posters, overhauled lighting, and parallax effects.





The representatives of the Kamikaze family have got new spine animations.



This one is ready to dive headfirst in battle: with the new animations, he looks more reckless in his bold attacks on the characters.



That's all for today! Stay home, and be safe!

Hi everybody!

We've been pretty busy over the last few weeks, and now we're excited to show you what we've done!

Monster animations

Fresh, smooth, well-polished: the new monster animations look familiar—and scary, and impressive, all at the same time!



Flying enemies
Let's do some shooting! A sword will do, too.



Training site
We added a couple of new simulators:

Monster holograms, an engineering marvel.



If holograms are too tough, special weakened species are at your service. There's nothing to be ashamed of, you're still in training... kind of.



Some good old-fashioned bloody fight to finish!

Hot-blooded young Headgrabber is eager to fight.



Here's what happens if you sneak up on an elite ARK fighter from behind.



That's it for today! We'll see you around, folks.

Hi, all!

We’ve been working hard to polish the Lost in Sky game universe based on your feedback. You can see the most obvious overhauls in our Developers’ Diary posts: the redesigned characters in cut scenes, new monster concepts, recolored locations.
It’s obvious that there’s a completely different way to show the Lost in Sky world. We can make it richer and deeper by adding more detail.

Today we want to show you the new concept art for the scenes we’re working on. Their atmosphere and mood are completely different, and you will feel it in every location you visit.


This level begins with the Headquarters. The external appearance is solemn and concise, with distinctive military flavor, dominated by light colors.




The city is divided into several very different districts.

Enclosed urban area
A corridor-type location, almost without windows. It features excessive artificial lighting, mainly in neon shades. The place is filled with screens showing bright videos.



Elite apartments
The uptown is the elite district. The architecture is concise and laconic, featuring huge spaces with hi-end furniture, home appliances, and decorations. The lighting is moderate. The information pollution level is kept at its minimum. This district hardly sustained any damage during the monster attack.



Lower class apartments
The downtown wasn’t as lucky: there’s destruction and dead bodies everywhere. Apartments are small and tense, and extremely minimalistic.



Barracks

The military premises with bare walls. No unnecessary or brightly colored items. Everything is designed strictly by the book. The discipline and order are in the absolutes. These are special technical facilities for research and development.

Presses
This is the industrial area with furnaces, smelter, and conveyor belt. The place is full of heaps of scrap metal and broken automatic manipulators. Tipped tanks with spilled hot metal create additional obstacles on your way.



This is just a small portion of our new concepts. We will continue with the new outlook on the Lost in Sky world and ARK. Share your opinions: tell us what you liked in particular and what you’d change. Your feedback is the fuel that drives us!

Hi all!

The Lost in Sky team remembers the past year by the incredible show cases where players gave us a lot of useful feedback. We carefully evaluated and considered all the feedback we received and decided to go a completely different way with the game.

As you may have noticed on our social networks (by the way, sign up if you haven’t!), we’re constantly drawing, coloring, animating, and implementing many new monsters in the game. Why? It turns out, we don’t have enough different easy and intermediate enemies! We were overly fixated on bosses (but they’re good, aren’t they? Nothing was in vain) and forgot about the population of minor enemies.

The task isn’t as simple as it seems. It requires a comprehensive solution. For starters, we came up with a system for creating new monsters. All names, terms, and paragraphs you’ll see below are drafts and placeholders.

Firstly, we introduce a Family, which consists of up to ~4 species, for instance:

• Larva
  
• Tadpole
  
• Youngling
  
• Mature

Each Family will have a specific game mechanics (shooting, poisonous, flying, ground families, etc). The players can see how the Family members progress along the game: each next monster will be more dangerous than the previous. The older a family member, the more developed their unique family feature, the more difficult it is to defeat.

And now it's time to proceed to the color concept arts. Remember: appearance, name, and features are subject to change.

Spider Family


Die-Hard Family


Gas-Blower Family


Chameleons


Here’s an animation of the Mature representative of the Spike-Shooting Family for dessert.



The year 2020 is going to be highly productive. Stay tuned and good luck to all of you!

Hi everybody!

Today we shall give you a brief review of the things we’ve done over the past couple of weeks.

Boss Tree
So far, you’ve seen the Boss Tree attack the characters in every possible way. It’s time we restored justice. Here are the fresh and crispy death effects of one of his eyes, followed by… let’s call them “consequences”.



Locations

Sometimes, the screen overflows with monsters, visual effects, and all kind of events. We completely overhauled the wall geometry on all levels, as well as the camera angle and perspective.
Because of the new contrasting volume and view depth, the visual effects and characters are now clearly visible.





Active space
Consequently, we tried our best at concealing all minor and unnecessary elements. They won’t be a distraction anymore.
Let’s take enemies, for example. Now the players can see only highlighted monsters and focus only on a current situation, without getting distracted by something outside the scene (building, room, etc).





New monsters
The ARK fauna has become even more diverse with the new tentacled creatures and spiders.
So far, they’re on the concept art stage, but it won’t be long till they appear in the game!





That’s all for today. We’ll see you soon!