Greetings Adventurers!
The Season of Flight continues, but this update brings plenty of new additions to the game. Read on to learn about the features, events, improvements, and of course bug fixes in this patch.
The Season of Flight continues, but this update brings plenty of new additions to the game. Read on to learn about the features, events, improvements, and of course bug fixes in this patch.
Days of Giving Double Heart Event
For many of us, we’re entering a time of the year where we pause to show gratitude for others. As a way to say thank you, and to make it easier to share those sentiments with friends, Days of Giving returns for one week to double the gifts players send to each other. The event begins at approximately 00:00am Tuesday Nov. 23rd and continues until approximately 11:59pm on Monday November 29 (all times PST, UTC-8). All Hearts and Light Gifts sent while the event is active will be doubled for the recipient.
Please note:
For many of us, we’re entering a time of the year where we pause to show gratitude for others. As a way to say thank you, and to make it easier to share those sentiments with friends, Days of Giving returns for one week to double the gifts players send to each other. The event begins at approximately 00:00am Tuesday Nov. 23rd and continues until approximately 11:59pm on Monday November 29 (all times PST, UTC-8). All Hearts and Light Gifts sent while the event is active will be doubled for the recipient.
Please note:
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The unique features of this event require it to be manually enabled, which means it can take a short period of time to take effect for all players across the game servers. This means that the start and end may be a little earlier or later than automatic reset times. We appreciate your understanding!
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Doubling applies only to gifts that are sent or given while the event is active. For example, if a Heart is sent before Days of Giving begins and a player waits to accept it until after it starts, the gift will remain a single Heart.
Days of Feast Celebrations Return!
Prepare for a gathering of Sky kids and friendly spirits to celebrate the start of another year! From 00:00 am December 20, 2021 until 11:59 pm January 9, 2022 (all times PST, UTC-8) the Secret Level in Vault will throw its doors open to all players. Party with friends amidst the festive decor, and take advantage of ample space to practice your favorite skating and hockey moves. Meanwhile in Home, a familiar guide from the Season of Belonging will return as a visitor, and the space will be transformed into its wintery glory right as the forecast calls for a snowstorm.
Each phase of Days of Feast will bring something new to experience. Snowfall begins with the event and lasts for six days, then builds up into a blizzard from December 26. On January 1, the skies finally clear again into bright sunshine for the rest of the event. And of course, there will be fireworks to celebrate the start of a new year! Fireworks will appear in Home for five minutes at the start of every hour beginning at 03:00 am PST December 31st (midnight January 1st for Tonga, the earliest new year), and they end at 04:00 am January 1, 2022 (midnight January 1st for Howland Island, the latest new year).
Light will fall from the sky to collect during the first and third phases of Home’s weather changes, and during the second phase you can gather near the fire inside a freshly built snow hut to collect up to a certain amount of Light each day. (There are also new permanent Social Light areas in four other levels—see below for more details!) The ball spell returns in a snowy form, too, ready to use for any winter games you might imagine.
In addition to all the ice skating and new Social Light locations, event spirits in Home and the Secret Level will offer options for new and returning items themed for the event. As always, trial spells give players the chance to “try on” event cosmetics and IAP for free.
Prepare for a gathering of Sky kids and friendly spirits to celebrate the start of another year! From 00:00 am December 20, 2021 until 11:59 pm January 9, 2022 (all times PST, UTC-8) the Secret Level in Vault will throw its doors open to all players. Party with friends amidst the festive decor, and take advantage of ample space to practice your favorite skating and hockey moves. Meanwhile in Home, a familiar guide from the Season of Belonging will return as a visitor, and the space will be transformed into its wintery glory right as the forecast calls for a snowstorm.
Each phase of Days of Feast will bring something new to experience. Snowfall begins with the event and lasts for six days, then builds up into a blizzard from December 26. On January 1, the skies finally clear again into bright sunshine for the rest of the event. And of course, there will be fireworks to celebrate the start of a new year! Fireworks will appear in Home for five minutes at the start of every hour beginning at 03:00 am PST December 31st (midnight January 1st for Tonga, the earliest new year), and they end at 04:00 am January 1, 2022 (midnight January 1st for Howland Island, the latest new year).
Light will fall from the sky to collect during the first and third phases of Home’s weather changes, and during the second phase you can gather near the fire inside a freshly built snow hut to collect up to a certain amount of Light each day. (There are also new permanent Social Light areas in four other levels—see below for more details!) The ball spell returns in a snowy form, too, ready to use for any winter games you might imagine.
In addition to all the ice skating and new Social Light locations, event spirits in Home and the Secret Level will offer options for new and returning items themed for the event. As always, trial spells give players the chance to “try on” event cosmetics and IAP for free.
Items available for in-game currency are:
- Ode to Joy music sheet: 10 Candles
- Winter Feast Pillow: 10 Candles
- Winter Feast Scarf: 50 Candles
- Winter Feast Hat: 20 Hearts
- Ball: 2 for 5 Candles from the Sleepy Traveling Merchant boat (or, 5 for 2 Candles in the Secret Level)
In-app purchases to choose from are:
- Snowflake Hair Accessory: $1.99 (all prices USD)
- Winter Ancestor Cape: $9.99
- Winter Feast Snow Globe: $9.99
Items first available during Days of Feast from past years will also be available again for players who wish to focus on those. These can be found by speaking with spirits in the Secret Area:
- Feast Cape (65 Candles), Necktie (15 Hearts), Feast Table (150 Candles)
- Feast Hat, aka Days of Feast Pack ($6.99, includes 25 Candles), Days of Feast Horns ($14.99), Snowflake Cape ($14.99)
We hope Days of Feast will be a chance for players to gather with Sky friends, no matter how close or far they may be, as we celebrate the time we’ve spent together and look forward to the year ahead!
New Feature: Gifting In-App Purchases to Friends
We have always wanted Sky to encourage kindness and generosity, but it has still been incredibly moving to hear from players who wanted ways to gift in-app purchases to their friends. Thanks to your feedback and suggestions, in this patch we’re introducing a feature that allows a player to directly purchase and gift IAP to their friends. Here are the basics on how it works:
IAPs that are available in the game can be purchased for another player directly from their friendship menu after you’ve been friends with them for at least three days. To gift an IAP, stand next to your friend in-game, open their friendship menu, and scroll up to the second friendship tier (this tier requires one Ascended Candle to unlock). IAP gifting is a new node next to the fist bump interaction. Select this node to view available IAP that can be purchased for this player, then select the item you want to gift. A confirmation menu will ask you to verify whether you wish to buy this item for someone. This can be considered a direct purchase on behalf of your friend; unlike Adventure Pack Gift Passes, for example, you cannot buy IAPs in the shop and “save them up” in advance to give to friends later, and unlike Hearts, you cannot send them through a star in the Friendship Constellation for friends to receive later.
IAP gifting can be done across platforms, with an exception:
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Players on iOS and Android cannot gift IAP candle packs or bundles that include candles to players on a Switch (however, players on Switch can gift those items to players on iOS and Android)
For more details, please refer to our blog post: bit.ly/SkyIAPGifting
As with all interactions in Sky, a player always has the option to decline a gift before it is purchased and given, and while we are happy to bring this long-requested feature to players, we also encourage folks to be sure they trust those to whom they may gift IAP. Please note that IAP gifting can be disabled by turning off permissions for in-app purchases in the system settings for the device being used.
Sky Keyboard: A Virtual Keyboard Option for Switch
Although there are plenty of ways to communicate with other players in Sky without using chat, we want to make sure that players can use the chat function smoothly no matter what platform they play on. For Switch players, this update introduces Sky Keyboard, a new feature that allows players to scan a QR code linked to a mobile browser that’s used for sending chat messages. Each session you create for Sky Keyboard uses an OTP (one-time password) so that once the QR code is scanned, only the person who scans it will be able to use it.
To access the Sky Keyboard:
Although there are plenty of ways to communicate with other players in Sky without using chat, we want to make sure that players can use the chat function smoothly no matter what platform they play on. For Switch players, this update introduces Sky Keyboard, a new feature that allows players to scan a QR code linked to a mobile browser that’s used for sending chat messages. Each session you create for Sky Keyboard uses an OTP (one-time password) so that once the QR code is scanned, only the person who scans it will be able to use it.
To access the Sky Keyboard:
- Press the (-) button to display the chat window in the game
- Press the ZR button to create and display a QR code on the screen
- Scan the QR code with the camera on your mobile device. This will take you to the Sky Keyboard website on your mobile browser
- Use your mobile device to type your message as normal! You can use text and emoji, and a button at the bottom of the mobile screen allows you to choose between light and dark mode
- To disconnect your mobile device from the current chat session, press the ZR button again while the in-game chat keyboard is open
A few things to note:
- If your game is accepting Sky Keyboard input, the game screen on the Switch displays a mobile phone icon on the top right of your screen that says "Unlink."
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Sky Keyboard cannot be used to report players or to enter/update players’ nicknames. You’ll still need to use the Switch keyboard controls for those. If a player tries to use Sky Keyboard to enter a nickname or fill out a report, the text will appear over their avatar’s head as normal chat text.
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Sky Keyboard has the same character limit as regular in-game chat, 140 bytes. However, this limit also applies to message boats and message candles, which ordinarily have a limit of 256 bytes, so if you write messages for boats or candles, please keep this limit in mind (we hope to resolve this difference in an upcoming patch).
More Social Light Areas
In this patch we’re including four new permanent locations for Social Light, so that players can continue to enjoy the game in their preferred style without having to stick to the same candle run routes. Each location provides up to a certain amount of Light per day, and all locations (including Sanctuary Geyser) have been tuned to give equal amounts of Light so that Sky kids can more freely choose to visit their preferred location.
Players can gather ‘round a fire in a new spot of Prairie Cave or in the Wasteland Graveyard. The hot spring in Valley of Triumph’s Dreams Village has been tweaked slightly, trading out candles for more emitted Light that falls gently to the water, and for players who enjoy meeting the Grandma spirit, she periodically holds a timed event at the Ancestor’s table of Belonging in the elevated clearing of Hidden Forest.
In this patch we’re including four new permanent locations for Social Light, so that players can continue to enjoy the game in their preferred style without having to stick to the same candle run routes. Each location provides up to a certain amount of Light per day, and all locations (including Sanctuary Geyser) have been tuned to give equal amounts of Light so that Sky kids can more freely choose to visit their preferred location.
Players can gather ‘round a fire in a new spot of Prairie Cave or in the Wasteland Graveyard. The hot spring in Valley of Triumph’s Dreams Village has been tweaked slightly, trading out candles for more emitted Light that falls gently to the water, and for players who enjoy meeting the Grandma spirit, she periodically holds a timed event at the Ancestor’s table of Belonging in the elevated clearing of Hidden Forest.
Music Sheet Updates
We’ve continued to work on improvements for instruments, and this patch brings some small but helpful (we hope!) changes to make it easier to find the music sheet you want. Music sheets that were originally released in Seasons now display with the corresponding seasonal symbol so that sheets will be easier to tell apart, and music sheet constellation icons have been streamlined from six to three. They’ll also display from left to right in the order they were released, starting with music sheets from the level constellations.
We’ve continued to work on improvements for instruments, and this patch brings some small but helpful (we hope!) changes to make it easier to find the music sheet you want. Music sheets that were originally released in Seasons now display with the corresponding seasonal symbol so that sheets will be easier to tell apart, and music sheet constellation icons have been streamlined from six to three. They’ll also display from left to right in the order they were released, starting with music sheets from the level constellations.
Shared Spaces Improvements
We’re excited to share a number of improvements to Shared Spaces! A new Shared Space has been added to the seasonal area, and a clear-all button is available in edit mode to remove everything and start from scratch. Placeable items are now sorted by how much “weight” they use in a Shared Space, listed from left to right. A bar displays underneath the list to indicate how full a Space is before no further items can be placed, and the minimum number of items to place before saving has been lowered from 3 placeables to 2.
We’re working on more features for future updates and look forward to hearing your feedback as we continue to add improvements!
We’re excited to share a number of improvements to Shared Spaces! A new Shared Space has been added to the seasonal area, and a clear-all button is available in edit mode to remove everything and start from scratch. Placeable items are now sorted by how much “weight” they use in a Shared Space, listed from left to right. A bar displays underneath the list to indicate how full a Space is before no further items can be placed, and the minimum number of items to place before saving has been lowered from 3 placeables to 2.
We’re working on more features for future updates and look forward to hearing your feedback as we continue to add improvements!
Adventure Pass Preorders Will Be Discontinued
We appreciate everyone who has used the preorder feature for Adventure Passes and Adventure Packs to share with friends. Unfortunately, due to changes to update procedures and scheduling, once Season of Flight concludes we will no longer be able to offer Adventure Pass preorders for future seasons. Here’s how Adventure Passes will be affected by this change:
We appreciate everyone who has used the preorder feature for Adventure Passes and Adventure Packs to share with friends. Unfortunately, due to changes to update procedures and scheduling, once Season of Flight concludes we will no longer be able to offer Adventure Pass preorders for future seasons. Here’s how Adventure Passes will be affected by this change:
- Passes can be purchased only after a Season begins. Their prices remain the same.
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The former preorder bonus will now be applied to all Passes, and we’ve expanded this to include Passes a player receives as a gift. This means that all purchased and gifted Adventure Passes will come with a total of 30 Seasonal Candles.
- For the next Season that begins in early 2022, there will not be an in-game countdown for the start of the Season since that function was connected to the preorder feature. However, we’re working on restoring the countdown in future updates. In the meantime, be sure to keep an eye on our social media channels for announcements about the next Season!
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and as always, we appreciate our players’ understanding and remain just as excited to bring you our next Season once the new year is underway!
Season Ends Soon
The Season of Flight is in its final month and concludes at 11:59pm on Sunday December 19, 2021 (PST, UTC-8)! The fourth seasonal quest is currently available, and the fifth and final quest becomes available on Monday Nov. 29th. If you haven’t already rescued the four seasonal spirits, be sure to visit them in the new seasonal area above the entrance of Hidden Forest and use seasonal candles to unlock the cosmetics and emote expression upgrades they offer in their Friendship Trees.
Daylight Saving Time Reminder
Daylight Saving Time in California ended on Sunday, November 7th. Time documentation has changed from PDT (UTC-7) to PST (UTC-8). If your region did not participate in the Daylight Saving Time change on November 7th, the daily reset in your time zone is now one hour later.
The Season of Flight is in its final month and concludes at 11:59pm on Sunday December 19, 2021 (PST, UTC-8)! The fourth seasonal quest is currently available, and the fifth and final quest becomes available on Monday Nov. 29th. If you haven’t already rescued the four seasonal spirits, be sure to visit them in the new seasonal area above the entrance of Hidden Forest and use seasonal candles to unlock the cosmetics and emote expression upgrades they offer in their Friendship Trees.
Daylight Saving Time Reminder
Daylight Saving Time in California ended on Sunday, November 7th. Time documentation has changed from PDT (UTC-7) to PST (UTC-8). If your region did not participate in the Daylight Saving Time change on November 7th, the daily reset in your time zone is now one hour later.
Improvements and bug fixes in this update include:
Season of Flight
- Enabled flight mode changes at the constellation gate entrance to the Wind Paths
- Resolution for players disconnecting when at a distance from each other in the Wind Paths
- Fixed handhold breaks when entering Wind Paths from several other levels
- Players led into the Wind Paths area no longer spawn in the wrong location
- Various improvements to seasonal and seasonal emote quests
- Updates to seasonal area candle locations
- Player can no longer move during the first seasonal quest cutscene
- Ensured skip button displays when replaying seasonal quest cutscenes
- Audio and visual polish
Instruments
- Music sheets are now labeled with the symbols of the seasons they appeared in, and are listed in the order of the season they came with. The order of the first several music sheets has been adjusted to fit this layout. Constellation designs for the music sheet icons were simplified from six variations to three.
- Improved guitar and ukulele animations
- Other people playing instruments can no longer be heard while in editing mode for a Shared Space
General Fixes and Improvements
- [Android] Resolution for issues causing app to not respond and other crash fixes
- [iOS] Lines no longer appear around currency icons
- [Switch] Fixes for handhold breaking at transitions
- [Switch] Fixes for crashing while unlocking final spell nodes in Lively Navigator and Light Whisperer Friendship Trees
- [Switch] Seasonal hairstyle no longer clips through avatar’s head when moving
- [Switch] Fix for players whose spell inventory has exceeded the visible limit, preventing the use of some items such as colored trail spells
- Fixes and improvements to the piggyback interaction
- Fixes for handhold breaks when transitioning between levels or areas
- Fixes for a bug splitting up players after watching the Golden Wasteland Elder cutscene
- Improvements for meditation circles not working properly in Trials
- Fixed issues with several missing permanent Winged Light buffs
- Added a few more candles to the Assembly Treehouse area
- At the end of a Season, leftover purchased Seasonal Candles will convert to regular Candles that can be used on any platform, not just the platform they were originally purchased on
- Made the tabs in the emote menu easier to select when tapping on them
- Placeable objects cannot obstruct meditation area of a Shared Space
- Players are no longer able to fly outside of a Shared Space when a prompt is displaying
- Fixed a bug preventing a player from reopening the Shared Spaces prop menu on touchscreen devices
- Fixed a Season of the Little Prince bug that prevented the Asteroid Jacket cape from working while sitting at a table
- Fixed the boundaries of time and space clouds in the Secret Area to prevent Sky kids from falling through the map
- Smoothed over the bumps in the clouds around the Secret Area
- The stars could not understand how mere humble, rough-hewn woodwork should overpower their radiant magnificence. We acquiesced to the grand order of the Universe, and thus items like tables are no longer able to bypass constellation gates
- Improved usability and animation of swing and seesaw
- Return Shrine now gives hint text to tell players which level they will return to
- Priority for a friend’s name tag text lowered a bit so that it’s easier to interact with other objects
- On days when the sapling is part of a daily quest, it is now a little larger and in bloom
- She was a cloned skater girl, I said see you later girl (Only one young skater now appears at the end of the first Dreams seasonal quest in the Valley of Triumph’s Dreams Village)
- Updates to appearances of other characters that appear in later parts of Eye of Eden
- The Days of Mischief Vortex is no longer looming ominously in the Secret Area
- Various fixes for masks making avatars’ eyes look tired or “sad” and hollow. Please note that these fixes resulted in the eyes of the chibi mask being slightly larger than before, and further adjustments are being worked on for a future update to bring the mask back to as close to its original appearance as possible.
- Fixed visual distortion affecting the appearance of the floating ruins during Isle of Dawn intro
- Tweaked volume and beginning sound effects in the credits
- Removed hint from the beginning of the credits
- Promoted the continued preservation of historic Sky ancestor cave art for future generations by fixing a bug that caused clouds to cover areas inside the Prophecy Cave
- Fixed some murals that were floating or clipping in Isle of Dawn
- For Sky kids that like to take in the details of the world, improved visual textures for brick, stone, cliffs, and ice
- Small tweaks to improve scaling of props and capes when worn by tall avatars
- Placed props no longer appear to remain on avatar's back when wearing the Asteroid cape
- Added some extra particles to Level 4 juggle emote because Sky kids deserve shiny, sparkly things
- Hid interaction icons that appear above other players while main player is in a cutscene
- When tapping on an item already unlocked in a spirit's constellation tree, players should no longer see animation of currency icons moving to that node as if they were unlocking it again
- We know that the persistent red dots in the emote menu tabs blinking at you incessantly forever and ever and ever and ever no matter what you did to try to make it just somehow go away was one of Sky kids’ most favorite bugs, so we regret to inform the community that this bug has been fixed. Please forgive us if fixing it has caused irreparable disappointment.
- Translation improvements
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Background music fades based on activity state in the game (AFK), not movement
Crash fixes for entrance to Forest from Wind Paths, and other cases
As always, we look forward to hearing your feedback, and encourage you to join us in that discussion on our official Discord server at discord.gg/thatskygame!