Blog #7 | Two Man Army
Despite running on limited resources for the last two years, the founders of Paratope are steadfast in their efforts to deliver a next generation gaming experience while building a company from the ground up.
With the raging success of our Kickstarter campaign in 2021, we quickly expanded the team, and eagerly delivered the Alpha build to backers and fans.
Two years later, we were humbled with the fact that our technology wouldn't scale to a fully realized Beta so we had two options.
1# Sign a publishing or funding deal ASAP, at all costs, to maintain a large team, and rush through to a launch within a short timeframe.
or #2 stick it out with what we had between ourselves, as co-founders we covered all the required skills but had to face the reality of long development delays and self funding pains to get to the finish line.
Since 2023, Paratope has been funded by the founders after all crowdfunding funds were exhausted to pay staff, fulfill rewards, and cover the costs of software development.
We didn't back down, instead, we focused on what we do best; writing code, making art, and building a world.
The process hasn't been easy, but in this time we've honed our skills to new heights, and realized an even more robust version of Skyclimbers than we could have initially implemented.
To those who have followed along and are still with us, we thank you, the two man army known as Justin and Tejas will continue onward until this battle is over, but the journey is just beginning.
Blog #6 | A Test of Patience
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2024 has been a challenging year for the gaming market, but Paratope has remained steadfast in the goal of delivering an amazing product.
Despite the closure of dozens of studios within the gaming market, and countless other projects cancelled, Skyclimbers is closer to Beta than its ever been, but still not ready for the masses.
We’ve taken the step again to postpone release, this time all the way to 2026, erring on the side of caution moving forward as a lean team with limited resources.
That hasn’t affected development, quite the contrary, in fact we have implemented more features to date than any cycle since Alpha launch, and you can see the progress firsthand in our 2024 development update: https://bit.ly/3A32Csa
We believe content speaks for itself, and when Skyclimbers reaches its full potential customers won't be able to turn down the proposition of a game with such ambition, passion, and polish.
Thank you to our community, who has supported Paratope and the development of Skyclimbers for near a decade at this point, and we're excited to see where the future goes.
Sincerely,
Paratope Team
Blog #5 | Alpha to Beta
With Alpha still in progress, Early Access has been pushed to 2024…
Pushing Early Access to 2024 will allow us to release on multiple platforms simultaneously.
- Xbox is the first console to be released due to its similar nature to PC development
- Depending on how quickly console development goes we will attempt to release as many of them as possible along with PC
Fulfillment of USBs will continue through 2024, with a target deadline of Q1 to complete distribution.
- This will also be the deadline for producing proofs of the physical art book and Arraxos statues.
- More information about reward fulfillment can be found later in the newsletter
- Skycon is planned for the three-year anniversary of the Kickstarter in Q1 – 2024
The Beta will start mid to late 2024 with multiplayer and more polish than the Alpha.
- Alpha lays the foundation for Beta with core features and performance benchmarks
- Beta adds the final details and more depth to the game while polishing the experience
If you have questions or concerns about our roadmap, you can contact us directly at support@paratope.co via email.
- We are confident the game can reach Beta / Early Access in 2024 with a few Alpha patches remaining for 2023
- Release delays are never easy, though a delayed game with polish will always surpass a rushed product.
An update below on our partnership with Unity after their wave of policy changes have swept the gaming community…
Despite the controversy, none of the policy changes would affect Skyclimbers due to the older version of the Engine we use for our proprietary tools and systems…
Policy changes only apply to newer versions of the Unity base Engine
Check out this trailer showcasing high resolution characters and new engine features of the Alpha!
We are committed to developing Skyclimbers the RIGHT way, not the FAST way, and that means taking the time necessary to finish the Alpha requirements before moving into Beta.
Blog #4 | The Future of Cloud
In 2019, Google announced its cloud gaming service labeled Stadia, and took the gaming industry by surprise. While its original reception was mixed, one thing was certain; Stadia had the best overall experience for those with a solid internet connection when compared to other cloud gaming services.
Just last month, Google announced the official shutdown of all Stadia cloud gaming services during a companywide restructuring to meet current macro-economic conditions.
The aftermath of this news has left many game publishers and platform providers scrambling for a long-term solution that will sustain a cloud gaming audience without running department research budgets dry, while also keeping gamers compelled to use their services.
From our perspective, cloud has always offered a new avenue for gamers to access premium quality games without the need for expensive hardware which needs to be upgraded as the years go by.
We still plan to pursue the cloud market, so that Skyclimbers can make its way into the hands of more players, however we would be ignorant not to recognize the serious limitations that come along with cloud gaming infrastructure.
For one thing, cloud gaming services are expensive to host, significantly more expensive than traditional server costs per session. For example, let's say you purchase a game on the storefront and continue to play that game for months if not years on end without purchasing new game titles from that cloud provider.
Each time you launch that game and join a session, there are significant bandwidth and server power usage costs associated with that session, and you aren't paying anything extra the longer the session goes on.
Platform providers have two options, either charge the users a monthly fee OR subsidize the added costs in the hopes that users trickle down into a traditional gaming ecosystem from the same company.
Two major companies are actually performing both strategies simultaneously…
GeForce NOW, a cloud gaming subscription service that lets players rent out a high-end PC for gaming sessions up to 8 hours in length, is powered by NVDIA which is the largest GPU manufacturer in the world. By strictly capping play time to specific session lengths, they are able to reduce the total cost a single player can have on their servers, while also introducing them to the GeForce ecosystem in hopes they one day purchase a full PC powered by an NVDIA GPU.
Microsoft has a similar strategy with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which not only bundles tons of games for a fixed subscription price, but also enables players to stream games to their phone from that same rotating library. This incentivizes players to make use of the cloud gaming feature intermittently while prioritizing long play sessions on their PC or Xbox through the wide selection of games from the service.
Neither of these companies are making a bet that most gamers will move to cloud platforms anytime soon, and one might ask what would the current state of cloud gaming be if Google had never announced the Stadia platform?
All considered, the benefits of cloud gaming are still significant, and if the cost / pricing models can be tuned in favor of platform providers, perhaps one day it will indeed replace our beloved consoles and PCs. Until that day comes, it will likely remain a niche market for those unable to access premium content elsewhere, or as a feeder program for more established means of gaming for long periods of time.
We at Paratope are still committed to cloud gaming and are looking forward to releasing Skyclimbers on GeForce now and are exploring options to partner with other major cloud platform providers to reach new audiences.
Blog #3 | Mid-Year Development Update
We're halfway through 2022 and beginning to pick up speed with our development roadmap for Skyclimbers.
The first priority after releasing the Alpha was stability, cross platform hardware support, and quality of life updates. These updates made-up releases 1.0.1 to 1.0.7 which were all considered minor patches. Version 1.0.8 is our first major content update.
1.0.8 will introduce our first new set of features based on the player cooking system.
This ranges from new spawned resources in the world algorithm for each biome, to a new set of player inputs when using a cooking station. In addition to adding new content, this update will introduce a fundamental overhaul to performance at the world generation level that should provide significant frame rate boosts across the board.
Lastly, we have implemented new quality of life enhancements such as a task list quest system, renewed UI popups, and improved resource depletion. After this release, we can focus more on adding new content such as Sentius, classes, and the remaining input mode for city management.
Looking forward into the second half of the year, we will return to the more frequent minor patch schedule along with monthly major updates.
Leading up to our major annual event Skycon and Steam Next Fest, the team will be working hard to add as much content as possible while also maintaining the performance and cross platform stability that has been achieved.
As a brief overview, Q3 will aim to extend biome generation to add robust cities, many new Sentius, AI villagers, and another iteration of our UI and player management systems.
Q4 will introduce character creation systems, along with more robust character progression and class systems.
The Drakonian Dynasty will remain the sole focus on the player side of 2022, so that we can fully realize the Dynasty architecture, biomes, Sentius, classes, and soundscapes that make each continent feel distinct. In the background, our concept and design department will continue to work on the Foryoku and Rokkuhito Dynasties so that we can quickly switch over to those content pipelines next year.
In addition to making sure the game is performant and full of content, we have many platforms to consider for porting such as Stadia, Switch, and next gen consoles.
Our first priority beyond the PC Steam ecosystem is the Steam Deck, followed by Google Stadia, Switch, and Xbox. You can expect to hear more detailed information about dedicated Alpha clients for those platforms later this year. PlayStation, Mobile, and Linux / Mac OS platforms will receive greater attention in 2023.
At a high level, our goal for 2022 is to complete the fundamentals of single player within the Drakonian Dynasty, and pilot our first Alpha programs on new platforms. This will lay an invaluable foundation for what is to come next year.
Looking beyond 2022 into 2023, our focus will shift as we translate all of the mechanics and features from Drakonia to Yukos and Rokkuton while also ramping up our marketing efforts leading to the Early Access release. In addition to adding new Dynasty content, we plan to begin the rollout of multiplayer features starting with basic p2p co-op and eventually dedicated servers / community hosted server support.
None of this would be possible without our crowdfunding supporters and Alpha testers, to which we say thank you for the continued feedback and support.
See you all in game, and have a great 2022!
Blog #2 | Skyclimbers Release Update
Steam Next Fest
We are excited to announce that Skyclimbers will be featured in the Steam Next Fest in October of 2022. This means anyone on Steam can try the game for free during the event.
This event will also be accompanied by our annual Skycon digital event, where the team at Paratope gets a chance to show off new products, gameplay, and behind the scenes footage.
In addition, there will be many chances to win permanent keys during the event for those interested in the closed Alpha / Beta period.
All crowdfunding supporters from 2021 will receive an Alpha key when the event begins which will carry through to Early Access!
This means all crowdfunding supporters will have access to a Steam key by the end of this year to participate in the closed Alpha and Beta testing rounds.
Steam keys can be redeemed on PC, Steam Deck, or streaming services like GeForce Now.
Roadmap Update
After releasing our Alpha to thousands of supporters, we have taken a step back to look at our release timelines.
The Skyclimbers Early Access release date will be pushed back to the second half of 2023.
This decision was difficult to make, but has been made in our players' best interest. The additional time will allow us to add more features, Dynasties, and cross platform support.
We still plan to release our first Alpha client on a second platform by Q4 of this year, with Stadia as the first priority followed by Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation.
You can continue to track our progress on the public roadmap: https://trello.com/b/mnBvnast/sc-public-roadmap
If you have any questions or concerns about this announcement, send us an email at support@paratope.co or chat with us on Discord! https://discord.com/invite/skyclimbers
"A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."
– Shigeru Miyamoto.
Blog #1 | Cross-Platform Development
From the very beginning, we decided that targeting as many platforms as possible would provide long term success for Skyclimbers.
That included emerging platforms such as cloud gaming, which has been pioneered by companies such as Google and Microsoft. In particular Google Stadia came to the forefront as a valuable platform with a true “Library in the Clouds” business model, and one of the largest companies in the world behind it.
To support platforms like Stadia, Steam Deck, Switch,
and next generation consoles, we needed a versatile engine and an adaptive design philosophy. This led us to choose Unity as a baseline to build what would become our Ion Engine today. Technologies such as Unity’s Scriptable Render Pipeline, and the Vulkan graphics would mean greater support for mobile/Switch, Linux/Stadia, and low end Windows PC architecture.
Since the release of our Alpha on Steam,
we have had over 1,000 participants and had the opportunity to test on dozens of hardware profiles. This has been an eye opening experience, despite our best efforts to cover all performance profiles proof to release. We have dedicated resources to building benchmark systems in our offices of varying degrees, in addition to gathering groups of dedicated testers in order to cover as many test cases as possible.
Ultimately, we need more time than initially projected to cover all hardware profiles on Steam
ranging from high end discrete GPUs and dedicated CPUs from AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA all the way down to APUs such as those found in the Steam Deck. This will have an effect on our Stadia release timeline, and therefore we have to push Alpha testing duration into a TBA state, as to not mislead our community.