As we are deep into our current beta tests, I want to address an important change regarding the compatibility of your current Early Access saves with our upcoming update, which will, among many other things, add co-op. We know this news might come as a disappointment, but we want to be transparent and honest with you as soon as possible.
OLD SAVES WILL BECOME INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE NEXT 1.7.0 UPDATE
Up until now, we’ve worked extremely hard to ensure that each update we released kept your save games compatible. Each time, it’s been a challenge, but we’ve managed to make it work. We’ve always prioritized this, knowing just how much time and effort many of you have invested in your airship builds. We approached this new update with the same intention - to preserve your saves. However, after months of testing, redesigning, and QA, we’ve come to the glaring conclusion that, no matter how hard we try, the next update has evolved the game so much - both in terms of new features and changes to core systems - that old saves will no longer be compatible. So, with the next 1.7.0 update coming in a few weeks, we will have to ask everyone to start the game from a fresh save.
EXISTING SAVES ARE CREATING TOO MANY CONFLICTS
While it’s easy for us to simply say this is how things are, we think, if you ask any of our current beta testers, they’ll likely tell you the same thing: the way you progress now is vastly different from how it was before. Tools that you previously had to find in the world are now given to you at the start. Key airship expansion moments tied to the story progress have been reshuffled. Several mechanics have been tweaked, removed, or replaced with new ones.
The list goes on. Each of these changes creates its own set of logical conflicts between how the game is now and the near-infinite possibilities of where your old save might have been, dating all the way back to June 2023. Essentially, it has become nearly impossible for us to account for every "before and after" state a save could be in to ensure compatibility once the new gameloop is added.
COULD WE HAVE DONE THINGS DIFFERENTLY?
Could we have handled this differently? Yes, of course. One option would have been to leave the game as it is. If we had decided that continuing to support existing saves was the top priority, we would have ultimately concluded that we couldn’t move forward with many of these exciting and much-needed changes. But these changes were directly driven by feedback from you, our community, and have been made with the sole purpose of improving the overall gameplay experience - for both single-player and co-op play.
Maybe if we were a team in the 100’s we could have brute-forced these issues and fixed the slew of problems that would have cropped up after the update went live. But we are 20 developers on this game, the idea of releasing an update that we know would cause both you and us more frustration than enjoyment is just an awful idea.
PART OF WHAT EARLY ACCESS IS FOR
Why we opted for Early Access in the first place was always so that the game could evolve with the help of you, our players. But with that development choice came the risk that a hard reset might be necessary. We understand that this is far from ideal, and we’re extremely sorry that it has come to this. Please believe me when I say that everyone on our team did everything possible to avoid this situation for as long as we could while still improving the game. We explored fixes and workarounds right up until this week, before finally deciding that we had no other option but to accept the situation. So, we wanted to inform you as soon as we knew with 100% certainty that this is now our only choice. We also wanted to share this information with any new players who might be picking up the game now or during the upcoming Steam Autumn Sale.
A SMALL TOKEN OF THANKS
As a gesture of thanks for your understanding and to properly honor the airships you’ve built in Early Access, we will be creating a special poster and in-game artifact to commemorate your past journeys. These will be added in a future update after co-op, and we hope they will serve as a special reminder of your past adventures and contributions to the game’s development as you dive back in to experience the next - and final - evolution of the game.
Since we only agreed this week for certain that you'll need to start fresh saves, these items are still just ideas on paper so we don't have anything to show. But rest assured we'll be making this something special for all of you.
THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU
We deeply appreciate all the support we’ve received as we continue to refine and evolve Forever Skies. The feedback we’ve gotten from the beta has been extremely positive, and when we asked many of you if you’re okay with needing to restart your progress, there was a near-unanimous consensus that you understand why and are happy to do so, given how much has changed. Feedback like this is invaluable to us, as it shows that our community understands the complexities of game development and are behind us. We know we're not the first game ever to hit this speed bump and we know others in the future will have the same. But what was important to us was hearing your thoughts and reassurance on this.
We can’t wait to share this new update with you in the next few weeks. We’re still doing tests, but as mentioned previously, we plan to have this update in your hands by the end of the year.
Thank you again, and we’ll see you in our reimagined skies soon.
- Wojtek
