Druidwalker is out on Steam NOW! It is the next peaceful game produced and published by Coldwild Games!

Get the game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2231060/Druidwalker/?utm_source=announcement_steam

Step into the role of a druid preparing the forest for winter. Delve into the heart of the mystical forest, explore its paths, and experience the beauty of nature. Druidwalker provides a peaceful roguelike adventure, where challenges offer opportunities for growth and reflection. Rest at the bonfire, rejuvenate, and continue your journey with renewed vigor. The game features traditional instrumental music, creating a peaceful and immersive experience.

Watch the trailer here: youtu.be/-7Ho_vyXo80
It's a short experience, but a lot of love went into creating this one, so I hope you'll decide to give it a try! :) The game has been created by a multinational team of developers located in Latvia and published by Coldwild Games.

Hope you have a great week ahead,
Elizabete from Coldwild Games

Attention all survivors! The Early Access release of Stories from the Outbreak is finally here!



Embark on a turn-based roguelike zombie RPG with a shorter scenario that immerses players in the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. With 11 unique characters, more than 15 enemies, and three expansive maps, the gameplay is challenging, and permadeath adds to the intensity.

Form a team of survivors, traverse the area maps in search of shelter and supplies, fight zombies, and decide the fate of your crew. The game explores the apocalyptic atmosphere through pixel art and characters that speak to each other, showing polarization in views. Will different opinions prevent them from reaching their goals?

The game is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Join the fight for survival and make your own story in a world overrun by the undead!

Get the game here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1968630/Stories_from_the_Outbreak?utm_source=steamnews27march

Thank you for supporting us in our journey. Join us in our discord server to share your experiences, give us feedback, and connect with others survivors.

Best regards,
Elizabete and the rest of the Coldwild Games team

We are announcing our new game - Stories from the Outbreak!

Stories from the Outbreak is a turn-based zombie RPG. Lead a group of survivors trying to escape a dying world.

Check out the Steam page : https://store.steampowered.com/app/1968630/Stories_from_the_Outbreak?utm_source=announcement_steam
And here is the trailer: https://youtu.be/LkVayy4U2Ag
To celebrate the occasion, all of our finished games are discounted. Enjoy!

Our next game, Lazy Galaxy 2, is launching now!

Lazy Galaxy 2 is an idle/clicker game with base-building and RTS elements. It stayed in early access for more than 6 months and on full release, you can experience these new features:
- mod support
- idle combat
- late-game upgrades and improvements
As well as other bug fixes/balancing and quality of life improvements.

Get the game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1477950/Lazy_Galaxy_2/?utm_source=steam&utm_campaign=release_day
And as we are celebrating the Full Release of Lazy Galaxy 2, we are announcing discounts for all of our games!



Thanks for playing our games and supporting us! Hope you'll enjoy Lazy Galaxy 2 as much as we do!

If youd like to learn more about the game or want to hang out with devs and other Coldwild Games community members, youre welcome to join us at: discord server.

Want to help us out? Consider spreading the word via Twitter, Reddit, etc. and leaving a review on Steam if you enjoyed the game!

Have a great rest of the week,
Elizabete and the rest of the Coldwild Games crew

Exciting news - The 2022 Lunar New Year Sale is starting now and runs until February 3rd. And we are participating too - some of our games have discounts!!! Grab them cheap while you can ;)



Click here to see what games of ours are on sale: https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/ColdwildGames/list/35132

Thanks for playing our games and supporting us!

Have a good weekend,
Elizabete and all of our Coldwild Games crew.

It is that time of the year again

WINTER SALE IS ON!



The last and the biggest of game sales this year is live! Winter Sale starts now and runs untilJanuary 5, 2022. If you havent finished your Christmas shopping this year, Steams Winter Sale could help you get that list checked. ;)

Have a fun 2 weeks!

Click here to see what games of ours are on sale: https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/ColdwildGames/list/35132

Hello, Coldwild Games players! The day has finally arrived our next game, Lunas Fishing Garden is here!



Grab a rod and get ready to unwind! Youll enjoy:

• Catching fish (obviously) using two different play styles
  
• Planting trees and other greenery the way you want to make the Garden shine!
  
• Chatting with the Gardens memorable inhabitantsjust try not to insult any geckos!
  
• Delightfully colorful and lively pixel art
  
• Cheerful, catchy, original music
  
• Easter eggs for our Merchant of the Skies players
  

On January 26, 2016, Coldwild Games has gained an official registered company status.



Today, we are celebrating 5 years of service. We got where we are thanks to all of you and we always welcome new players to our games. To celebrate the occasion, all of our games are discounted for a few days. Hopefully you'll be able to discover something new and try it out :)

Thanks for playing our games and here's hoping for many more years ahead of us.
Best,
Vladimir & Coldwild Games Crew

P.S. If you'd like to support us further, please consider wishlisting our next game, Luna's Fishing Garden:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1477790/Lunas_Fishing_Garden/

Hello Merchants! It is my pleasure to announce that our new patch with a new ship and production limits is live on all platforms (Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox)!

You can watch the detailed three minute video about me explaining the patch contents below:

[previewyoutube=YWrHCHYAF_Y;full][/previewyoutube]

But here's a quick summary if you'd rather read.

[h2]Turtle Ship[/h2]

• jack of all trades type of ship: decent storage, good max energy and energy use ratio, as well as 40 max crew and 6 addon slots
  
• can be purchased from wisemen in campaign mode. costs 10 golden eggs
  
• it's mostly a vanity ship and acts like a usual ship, but please take good care of it :)
  

Hello Merchants!

Today I wanted to give some info on upcoming patch update and announce our next game!

[h2]First, patch details: [/h2]

The patch is coming out on Dec 18, 2020. The main feature is going to be production limits: you will now be able to set how many items (tops) can be produced by separate buildings on every one of your islands. That will make the caravan system much more reliable and predictable. For example, you will be able to set bread production to 20 and limit flour production to 20, then caravan will be able to wait for 20 flour and there wont be a chance that your flour production overflows the storage and the bread wont be able to be produced. Hopefully this will solve a lot of the caravan/production related issues up to this point :)
Apart from that, expect one new ship, a flying turtle.

And, of course, a few bugfixes to the issues that were reported by you, our dear players.

[h2]Last, but not least[/h2]
We are happy to say that we are working on another peaceful game, called Lunas Fishing Garden!
Lunas Fishing Garden is a cozy fishing and building game.

Check it out / wishlist it here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1477790/Lunas_Fishing_Garden/

Catch more than 20 types of fish, each with their own behavior, trade in the resources to Luna, and use them to build a garden of your dreams, all taking place on an imaginary Pacific archipelago. Designed to be a relaxing experience, players can play at their own pace and experience the game how they like it.

Check out the trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHDHKwGB_s8

___
Thanks for reading and hope youll be able to enjoy the content update on Dec 18!

Cheers,
Vladimir

Those of you who followed Merchant of the Skies from the beginning know that the core of the game has been mostly made by 2 people. Modern day technologies made game creation very accessible, but it does not mean that it's an easy job. Thanks to your support, we've managed to bring this project to full release.

A few weeks ago, Yogscast announced a festival to highlight games made by smaller teams. We are happy to announce that Merchant of the Skies is part of the selection. During the festival, you'll be able to discover different, but ambitious, games that were made by small teams just like ours.

To celebrate this, Merchant is going to be on discount for the next 6 days. For those of you who did not get it yet - now might be a good time :)

Hope you enjoy the festival and, as usual, thanks for your support.
Best,
Helen & Vladimir

Hello Merchants!

The day is today! Merchant of the Skies is launching on Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Xbox. You can get the game on eShop and Microsoft Store now. To celebrate this, we are publishing the promised content update which involves a small, but relevant bit of lore that we wanted to include into the game.

[h2]Please welcome the musical battle with Octo MC![/h2]

During your time in Fieri archipelago campaign, you will be able to encounter the statues of Griette. Issue a challenge and see what happens next!



Apart from being a part of the world lore, this minigame will help you progress in the early/mid-game if you are stuck.

[h2]Detailed patch notes:[/h2]

Gameplay:
Added an octopus minigame! Challenge the ancient octopus to a musical battle and get rewarded if you win or pay the price if you lose. To summon Octo MC, go to any statue of Griette in campaign and issue a challenge there. You don't need to make a new game for that.

[h3]UI, UX[/h3]

• Navigation map can be scrolled further to the right / left
  
• Autosaving will happen once per 5 minutes now, should reduce the wait times
  

• Toast panel cancelled on any button press
  
• When you are using right joystick to hover across the map, you can see the info about visited islands if you center camera on them
  

• Item purchase tooltip @ wisemen fixed
  
• Fixed the possible negative balance if you had weekly summary display turned off
  
• Fixed another small memory leak, game should be more stable now
  
• Fish tooltip fixed (mentions water rather than apples now)
  
• Unowned mansion island won't recharge you anymore (need to buy it to use it)
  
• Removed dark bar glitch from some UI tooltips (occured on some resolutions before)
  

Hello Merchants!

Just wanted to tell you that starting today, Nintendo Switch version is available for pre-order starting now.

[You can pre-order the game here], depending on your region.



The final release date for console versions, together with Steam content update is set to July 30, 9:00am PST.
As a reminder, the upcoming content update is going to add a character that we wanted to include into the game, together with a small minigame that would make your progression a bit easier in the mid-game. This is paired with a few QoL enhancements and minor bugfixes.

However, having tested the game on both Xbox and Nintendo Switch, I realized that I want to do one more update after this. When you try to establish a caravan system currently, its hard to keep track and avoid overproduction of one resource, except if you are extremely careful. I want to deal with that by adding production limits to the buildings (i.e. lumberjack would not cut more than 40 wood). Expect a production limit patch (probably with a few other changes!) closer to the end of 2020.

Best,
Vladimir

Hello Merchants!

We wanted to announce two big things today
1) Merchant of the Skies is getting a content update.
2) Merchant of the Skies is coming to Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Xbox.

Both of these go live on July 30.

As you may know, I have hinted on working on console ports for some time. Today this all becomes official. The update is going to feature a creature that we wanted to add. Speaking from the gameplay perspective, its not a huge addition and rather a story gimmick which makes campaign a bit richer.



You won't need to start a new game to find this creature. We are also going to add a bunch of quality of life adjustments, more on that in actual patch notes on release :) Both of the console ports are going to get this latest version of the game. You can pre-purchase the games here in order to download them before launch:

Microsoft Store (available now)
Nintendo eShop (available on July 21).

The content update and console releases are going to be available to play on July 30. Happy trading!

Best,
Vladimir

Hey!

Just wanted to give a brief update of Coldwild Games:

[previewyoutube=vpDlQalqT94;full][/previewyoutube]

* the summer content update is still in the making
* expect an announcement on July 15th
* I decided that I want to do at least one more update afterwards, talking about this. Thanks for everyones forum feedback!
* Mailing list! I am going to be sending out the cool games / books / movies that I have experienced every month, feel free to join here: http://eepurl.com/cYW9x1

Cheers!
Vladimir

Hey Merchants,

Just wanted to say that we are still alive and kicking :) This month is spent working on the next update and initiating work on console ports.

You can see more here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tIFjX42PLA

Best,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants!

Thanks to a random youtube comment, I think I figured out the source of crashes that troubled some of you. I'm pushing a patch that should prevent a big part of game crashes on some computers. Thanks to everyone who let me know and I hope you keep enjoying the game.

I'm back to my vacation, will answer all the inquiries after May 18.

Cheers,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants! Thanks for playing the game and for submitting your feedback! It has became clear that caravan system is not sufficiently good enough for some of you, and I wanted to fix that.

Caravan System enhancements:
1) Can look at ship inventory from caravan navigation menu
2) 4 new caravan actions
3) Caravan action limit increased to 15 (from 6). Go crazy, but not too crazy.

The new actions offer a bit more depth to caravan system planning. I think this screenshot summarizes it well:

• You can now order caravan to buy items (and wait for this) until it has the specified item amount in the storage
  
• Same goes for loading. Just wait for any possible item at the island
  
• You can unload any specific island on the islands
  
• You can also avoid waiting for selling all of the goods in one point. Useful if you have a lot of goods and want to do chain-selling without asking caravan to wait.
  

• Fixed a bug with music / ambient sound playback. Fixed it, sound should play better. The bug with option reopening now disappeared for sure.
  
• Fixed a bug when caravans would sell apples with lower cost
  
• Fixed a bug when you could get a drago seed during sandbox mode
  

• Thai Language support
  
• Various translation improvements (mostly German translation adjustments, let me know how it feels now)
  

Hey Merchants!

Thanks for your support and bugreports so far. I wanted to push an update that deals with some of the sound/music issues, as well as typos. Changelog:

[h2]Adjustments[/h2]

• Reduced barrel size in UI by 2x to prevent it taking too much space on screen
  
• Fretta fuel consumption per second increased to 1 from 0.1, max fuel to 1000. It is still intended to be a ship for idling on the map, just hopefully won't be as OP as fuel will be quite expensive to maintain. Old
• ships will stay the way they used to be, but new purchases will be adjusted. Thanks to everyone who reported it.
  
• Translation adjustments
  

* various typo fixes (thanks to everyone who keeps reporting them)
* resource descriptions are properly shown in island information (when you have a quest there)
* readjusted music / sound setting values; sliders now actually represent sound change more accurately (you might need to retune them)
* sound won't jump up when you open settings screen
* the music will actually start playing right away now if you tune it from 0% to any new value (rather than wait for a new scene)

Hello Merchants! We're happy to say that thanks to our fans and players, now supports simplified Chinese language. Hope you enjoy the game! If you find any mistakes in the translation - please let us know and we'll fix them as soon as possible.

Hey Merchants!

By popular request, we've worked this whole day to remove screen resolution restrictions and add widescreen support.



Not gonna lie, the game looks pretty cool, but I might be the biased side here.


The giants feel a bit lonelier though
We've also pushed some typo fixes and language adjustments, thanks to everyone who point these out. Thank you for supporting the game so far and we're really working hard on bringing further quality of life adjustments and minor bugfixes. If you find something else - do let us know on Steam forums and please share your widescreen screenshots, I'd love to see how the game looks on your monitors!

Best,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants!

Thanks for your support during the game launch, it means a lot to both me and Helen. Over these two days, some issues that were not noticeable as much during early access became more clear. One of them is how the bankrupcy works and overall need of more guidance on that matter. This hotfix tries to make it more clear.

[h2]Bank adjustments[/h2]

Here's how the bankrupcy process worked (and still works): first time you run out of money, you get a message telling you about it and asks to repay that sum, otherwise you lose the game. If the money have not been repaid to the bank and you lose again, the game is lost permanently. If you keep repaying your loans - then you keep getting second chances, even if you go bankrupt again. The #1 problem with this is it was not obvious enough + if this happened in the beginning, it was a bit of a struggle to find a bank on the map.

To address this, a few adjustments have been introduced.

First one. If you owe money and did not find the bank yet, the bank is still marked on the map. Even if you have not visited it.



The debt is also more clearly indicated in the bank descriptor window.


Reworded bankrupcy screen to tell you in clearer terms that you are going to lose the game if you dont pay back

New message Vs old message

Debt is not going to grow over time now, should make it a bit more manageable. Loan repayment got a bit of an overhaul too:



[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

• bugfix: if you tried to visit Turtlewise while it was moving, you'd get a blackscreen
  
• bugfix: switch green and red in fuel consumption comparison coloring (lower fuel consumption is actually better)
  
• various typos fixes (thanks to everyone who keeps reporting them, we do fix them)
  
• Post Office won't be offering Letter Delivery quests if you quest log is full
  

Thanks for your support so far! We are overwhelmed and want to show our gratitude, thank you personally and hang out online a bit. On April 18, 15:00 GMT (In six hours after the moment this event has become visible), Helen from Coldwild Games is going to be streaming Merchant of the Skies live while both of us answer your chat questions.

You are welcome to join us and find our more about the game or just hang out together!

The game graduated early access on Friday, April 17. You can read the full release log here:
https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/1040070/view/3336547284123646630
Cheers and we hope to see you there!

Hey! Just noticed that wisemen say that giants are in the South-East. I'm _very_ sorry, they are actually in the southwest. Hotfixed it just now and uploaded the new version. Thanks for everyone who pointed it out!

Hello Merchants!

The day we've been waiting for has finally come! Today we are fully releasing Merchant of the Skies! We haven't published any game updates for the game for quite some time. This is because we were working on a Campaign mode, which contains all previous objectives together with a new ultimate goal. We wanted to deliver the Campaign mode without separating it into pieces, so that our players can have a full experience of the game, as we wanted it to be.



In final version of Merchant of the Skies, you will be able to find out a more about Fieri and its inhabitants. You will come across new islands, events, and creatures as well. During the campaign mode, you will be meeting different characters and helping them out. We have updated some resources and added the new ones. There are also numerous QoL fixes. Overall we have polished the game further and made some balance changes in the gameplay.

Here's the full changelog:

[h2]New Features[/h2]

• Campaign mode overhaul. Campaign mode now inclues >15 new missions and new characters. The overall length to complete the campaign should now be 6-8 hours.
  
• New mechanic: water.
  • Lakes are generated on the map. You can store water on ships (based on your storage size).
    
  • New building: water tower. Build it on plant-based islands (apples, wheat, spices, tea). You need to bring water to it, with your own ship or with the help of caravans. The water is taken daily. While water tower is there, the island output is increased by 50% * (tower level)
    
  
  
• Improved save backup system creates up to four save file copies (every 15 minutes); should make save file recovery easier if things actually crash
  
• Added special object and letter pages to the quest book, mostly used in campaigns
  
• Added resource index in the quest book, should help out with figuring out the resource icons
  
• Added ambient sounds on some of the islands
  

• Have to actually give water to the Giant Fish now [PLEASE START THE FISH GOD PLAYTHROUGHS ANEW if you were playing this mode, I'm sorry]
  
• Can now donate goods at a trade guild (an alternative to requested feature to jettison items from your cargo)
  
• Autocharger module now also reduces fuel price by 25%
  
• Post office will always give letter delivery tasks (unless you always have one) - should help you out at the early game
  
• The central district guilds won't be giving you the quests targeting other districts while you have a small ship
  
• Max simultaneous quest amount upped to 4 (from 3)
  
• Improved ship purchase window
  
• Renamed spices into rainbow flowers
  
• Crew / Ship Storage will now reopen automatically if you had them active while you closed the bottom info menu and then reopened it again
  
• Slightly altered the trade guild / bazaar sprites
  
• Game mode adjustments:
  • campaign mode fully reworked and is based on the plot now
    
  • lighthouse restoration won't have access to caravans (until lighthouse is actually restored)
    
  • all other modes get access to caravans right from the start, as it used to be
    
  
  
• Mansion Builder: changed camera movement a bit (both with gamepad and mouse)
  
• Changed storage container tooltip positioning (should not hover outside the screen now)
  
• Swapped ship 5 and ship 8 sprites
  

• Various translation adjustments / improvements (keep reporting them, thank you!)
  
• "Not Visited Yet" panel in island info at map view won't be covered by pending quests anymore
  
• Fixed game mode description not fitting in properly in some cases
  
• Fixed captain's hat sprite order position
  
• Fixed captain's walking coordinates on some island
  
• Fixed oven bread production description
  
• Taxation display during trading is no longer faded out
  
• Fix the bug when produced items did not seem to stack occasionally (on player-owned islands); autosorting goods every day now
  
• Fix the bug when lightning catcher / crane would gather _all_ resource points at the map at the same time
  
• Fixed flipped brick and gem images
  

Hey Merchants!

One day is left until Merchant of the Skies is released. To celebrate this, we have published the new Gameplay Trailer:

[previewyoutube=vauZ0KRyjSM;full][/previewyoutube]

Expect an extended plot and a vastly improved campaign mode! You are going to encounter new missions and meet some cool new characters. All of this with the ultimate goal to complete one final objective!

The game is going live tomorrow, on April 17, 16:00 GMT. Well see you there!

Hey Merchants!

As April draws near, it is time to announce our full release date. Check our the trailer below:

https://youtu.be/g0Nv3UrrLXg

In short, heres what you can expect on full release:

• Reworked campaign mode which adds one ultimate objective
  
• Apart from the global objectives, you are going to meet new characters with their own tasks for you. Completing them will net handsome rewards and get you closer towards that one final goal
  
• A new building that you can build on some of your isles
  
• Rebalancing / Bugfixes / UX and Quality of life adjustments
  

Hello Merchants! It's time for a new dev diary post!

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind there is not enough gigantic creatures in the archipelago? Addressing this serious problem, we've decided to bring one more creature. This time, you will even be able to see it in its small baby form (its a chicken, lol). We are sure that you are going to like the eggs which she will lay!



History and plot keep developing, we have added some interesting information about Griette, and how is she related to Fieri, and you will also be able to find more about Sam. Who is Sam, you might ask. Well you will eventually find that out ;D

[h2]Important notice about saves:[/h2]

We've come to the decision to wipe the campaign saves on release (mid april, not going to happen right away). The finished campaign saves and sandbox saves won't be touched. This is happening because campaign is going to see MAJOR adjustments and additions, so we don't want you to miss them half-way. If you have any concerns or questions regarding this - please drop us an email at contact[at]coldwild[dot]com.

Cheers,
Helen

Hello Merchants!
Today I will give you a few glimpses of new stuff we were working on last week.

Throughout early access time, we have received a lot of positive feedback about Majestic Carrot. Because a lot of of you enjoyed its musical minigame, we are going to add some new events where you will be able to use your Duduk once again! (But, please, don't forget about Carrot, it gets really sad if you dont come to sing together!)



Many of you have already met Griette, in a statue form. We hope you really got her personality. She is going to be one of the key personalities in Fiery history. Expect to See more of Griette in full release!



We are getting a lot of new stuff, you can easily get confused with that. If you will feel it is happening to you, try to reach Wisemen, those pals know a lot of things!

Expect the final release in the mid/late April and stay tuned for new development progress info!
Cheers,
Helen

Hello Merchants!

Starting from today, the game price is going up. We are doing this in order to be able to have a final release launch with a discount (we can't increase the price and go on discount right away). If you are on the fence about getting the game at the new price - I can 100% understand this and I think you should wait until final release. Merchant of the Skies might not be worth the increased price at the current step, but I'm 100% sure that it's going to be worth its price on final release.

If you want to take one more sneak peek into what are we working on for the final release, here's our monthly report:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efzxsvLmkDA

Thanks to everyone who's supporting us and expect a final release in April 2020! Stay tuned for our weekly updates telling more about planned features and quests.
Cheers,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants!
Time for a new dev diary post!

We've spent this week on adding more quests and characters, one of them with the following guy below! Meet Yvo, master at the ship workshop, you will definitely meet him in the skies of Fieri archipelago.



Hope you like him, since he is a pretty good guy. But dont think that he'll be alone out there there, oh no. Yvo joins a cast of other characters that you will meet after the game fully launches :)

We also plan to add a couple of new unique islands, work on them has already started. On a side note: dont forget to check your book of quests after release, there are going to be a few more pages!

Some well known islands, which you have already visited on your travels are going to obtain new meanings, stories and related quests. You will be surprised to see Mysterious Hands in a different state compared to how you used to seeing them.

[h2]Price increase warning[/h2]
The price of the game is going to increase on March 2nd. It is going to cost 33% more to what it does now (based on your region). We have to do it this way if we want to run a discount on release. So if you want to become an early adopter at lower game price - you can still do it for a couple of days. Remember the rule of all the merchants? Buy low, sell high!(oh, pls, no, dont re-sell our game, its illegal)

Stay tuned for new development progress info!
Cheers,
Helen.

Hey Merchants!

We are preparing for final release and I wanted to update you on what we are working on.



[h2]Summary[/h2]

Right from the start, when we began working on Merchant of the Skies, we knew that we wanted to focus on the story. The final update is going to have exactly that: a big amount of quests that significantly improves the campaign mode and makes it longer/more enjoyable to play.

As far as the development goes, right now we have 4 new quests (one of them involves Wisemen displayed right there!) and multiple UI/UX adjustments. We still want to add at least 12 more, one more endgame goal (not spoiling it!) and some cool systems like sending and receiving mail + interactive display of characters.

We're also keeping track on UI/UX change requests and will try to accomodate at least some of them. We're pretty much set on what we want to see in the final release, but we're still keeping our eyes open on anything that you might suggest. (Who knows what happens after release?)



[h2]Planned Price Increase[/h2]

The price of the game is also going to increase in March, a month before release. This is done so that we can launch a launch discount due to Steam rules. The final game is going to cost 33% more to what it does now (based on your region). I still firmly believe in rewarding early access adapters with reduced price and if I ever want to make another early access game, this is going to work the same way. Thanks to everyone who supported us during Early Access. :) You can still do it in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned for more news and screenshots before the final release.
Cheers,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants!

1.5.0 patch is live!
Happy 2020! To celebrate, we're rolling out the patch one week earlier than planned. This time we are adding 3 new ships, some sandbox settings + some extra QoL improvements and bugfixes.



Changelog
We've added 3 new ships, each can be found in new games in different zones:

• Orembai - Extremely Fast Speed, high fuel consumtpion ships
  
• Fretta - Ship with low fuel consumption and fast speed, good for waiting/idling on the map and fast-forwarding
  
• Atakebune - slow ship with lots of cargo space
  

• starting ship
  
• starting amount of gold
  
• maintenance multiplier (if you want to make game harder)
  
• prices change at trade posts over time setting
  
• fast-forward does not consume fuel setting
  

• fixed a bug when no mid-level shipyards appeared, at least one more shipwright is guaranteed to be found at central zone
  
• fixed a bug when caravan items would not sell properly at bazaar
  
• added crash-backup system: game makes save file backups every 5 minutes (so if your game crashes and save is corrupt - you will get the prompt asking if you want to restore your old save)
  
• 13 new mansion tiles: 6 stair building tiles + 9 planer tiles with small plants
  
• removed exploit that allowed selling/buying same items to level up tradepost
  
• mansion can recharge your ship now
  
• harvest tea / spices thumbnails fixed
  
• unused ships info display fixed (actually shows used ship amount)
  
• main objective panel will show the tutorial steps
  
• tutorial slightly reworked to prepare for "real" campaign, visuals improved improved
  
• UI: increased appearing text speed (in tutorial or building menu)
  
• UI: various typo fixes
  
• UI: gameplay setting screen rework with proper checkboxes
  
• UI/UX: Fixed island scrolling option added in gameplay settings
  
• Gameplay: tradepost prices are no longer fluctuating every month (this messes up caravan routes and is not very intuintive); can still be enabled in sandbox settings
  
• Bugfix: fixed a bug where you could visit islands while towing (and then get back to the same map position)
  
• Mansion builder: Adjusted the width / bounding boxes of some arches and doors, can place them closer to each other now
  

Hey Merchants!

Patch 1.4.0 introduces an important late-game feature: mansion building. We've added it so that you can have more freedom in planning your own habitat and make a part of the world truly your own :)



How it works

• You can find and purchase mansion isle on the map (only in newly-generated games, sorry!)
  
• Mansion building consists of multiple layers. Start with mansion walls / structure, then add details to it gradually. There are exactly 200 different blocks to choose from.
  
• You can expand your mansion island territory for gold
  
• You can store your goods at the mansion. Caravans can unload their goods at the mansion, but they can not take it. This is intended to be used as a final destination for resources used in mansion building.
  

Hey Merchants!

To celebrate the autumn sale, we've put Merchant of the Skies on 20% discount.

Since Steam is rolling out the Award Nominations, please consider nominating our game for Labor of Love award. The game is still very much in active development: we've been working on it daily since July and plan to keep it that way until at least March 2020. Getting nominated would mean extra visibility opportunities for us, possibly enabling to work on the game even longer.

In any case, thanks for your support so far and we hope you have happy holidays ahead and do enjoy the winter.

Cheers,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants!

I've noticed that 1.3.1 patch on Friday opened up some issues with resource icon and map generation. I've made sure this is addressed today by pushing a small update 1.3.2:

• Resource icons are fixed (in some cases, they were not displayed / displayed wrongly)
  
• If you started a new world on Friday/Saturday, you had one island that you could not visit. This is fixed now
  
• Map island clicking issue on some resolutions fixed
  

Hey Merchants!

The 1.3.0 update is here! We did our best to improve the caravan/map navigation experience and enhance gameplay settings.



Here's a video summary of what's new:
[previewyoutube=BHMKOvFFT_o;full][/previewyoutube]


On a side note, we are looking for more German and Spanish community translators - if you like the game and are interested in helping out with making it available in your language, come join our discord.

Map/Buildings:

• Added two new biomes
  
• Two new resource-producing islands added: spice / tea islands
  
• Two new buildable buildings added: spice / tea gatherer
  
• Windmill now also produces dyes out of spices
  
• Replaced sawmill sprite
  
• Replaced ship workshop sprite
  
• Non-central island biomes with shipwrights are guaranteed to have houses now
  
• EXPERIMENTAL: basic resource island are biome-independent now (can occur in red / lightblue / yellow biomes more frequently)
  

• Caravan ship will stay at the tradepost _until_ it sells all its items
  
• Caravans can now sell items at bazaars (all sorts of items, price is reduced but the chance to sell them is at 100%)
  
• Can click on any caravan ships on the map (in any mode) to adjust its routes
  
• Hotkey to add a new caravan point
  
• Improved gamepad controls on caravan route creation (island selection now focuses the map properly + b button now cancels island selection)
  
• Can pick caravan island targets from price panel
  
• Can pick caravan island targets from quicknav panel
  
• Can add caravan right from the map if you have spare unused ships in caravan office. See "new caravan" button on the bottom menu
  

• Letter delivery quests will attempt to pick the same biome
  
• Reduced storm event hitbox on the map
  
• Reduced letter quest exp reward from 120 to 60
  
• Remapped fast-forward button gamepad hotkey on the map to LB + RB (to be held at the same time)
  

• Quicknav panel added on the map: find important islands quickly
  
• Visit island button increased by 1.5x times. Is now static (stays under the island)
  
• Week summary panel remade
  
• By request, has clickable pause button on the bottom right menu
  
• Mouse pan to scroll the island view (just hold the left mouse button and try moving your mouse around)
  
• Can now hold spacebar to keep focusing on your ship, rather than pressing it once (you can also go back to ship by pressing Q key)
  
• Esc/ gamepad B button closes setting window
  
• Can now sort price panel by clicking on the resources
  
• Distance value added to price panel, can sort islands by distance left
  
• Can click on caravan panel cities to navigate to them (if caravan is selected - the caravan places a point there; otherwise your ship navigates there if you do it in the navigation view)
  
• Message above the island on map window when storage is full (every new day)
  
• Message above the island on map window when new stock arrives to trading post (every new day)
  
• Made the warning message a bit more explicit in a specific case: when you buy a new ship and _have_ to sell the old one if your caravan office is full
  
• Map camera will focus on the ship when you tow it back
  
• Improved island selection with mouse a bit (island info will not disappear in some edge cases)
  
• City name written at the bottom panel in the island view
  
• Added "focus on the ship" button on minimap (and the tooltip for it)
  

• Now shows the amount of ships stationed in caravan office
  
• Now shows the bank debt/investment
  
• Lighthouse shows its upgrade costs if not yet fully completed
  
• Shows resources produced by buildings
  
• Shows building upgrade costs on your own island (can be turned off in settings)
  
• Shows fuel price of recharge posts
  

• capped frame rate removal
  
• disable custom mouse cursor
  

• disable weekly summary
  
• skip docking animations
  
• mouse wheel sensitivity
  
• island scrolling speed
  
• disable showing building upgrade costs in island info panel
  

• Tea island: can gather tea with baskets
  
• Added missing scythes module (can now gather wheat / spices manually)
  
• Island resoruce gain effects are actually going to be displayed above map islands (and not move with a camera like before)
  
• Reduced red biome inn y coordinate by 1 (so that captain does not look afloat when visiting it)
  
• Adjusted red biome trade guild waypoints (so that captain can't walk beyond the island)
  
• If you rapidly press "E" when the map loads, you are no longer taken to giant island
  
• Fixed leaves particle spawn points in house sprite
  

Hey Merchants,

Thank you for the feedback about the latest patch! In this small update, I wanted to address some issues:

• map scrolling improvement: the map also scrolls when you positiong the cursor on the side of the screen (even outside of the map itself; used to work only inside the actual map)
  
• caravan view bugfix: white line (as in ship movement) won't be drawn when you click on the map during caravan route plotting
  
• caravan line fix: some navigation lines were not being drawn properly on the map
  
• smoother map closing animation @ caravan office (keeps the maps-x position so it closes less awkwardly)
  

Hey Merchants! Thanks to your feedback, we were able to identify critical map related things that need improvement.

Here are some changes that I've pushed today:

• Use arrow keys to scroll map (but not move ship); ship movement kept as wasd if this is what you want instead of mouse
  
• Fixed infinite mode objective display in main menu
  
• Pan map by holding left mouse button
  
• No longer need to have full crew inside to demolish building
  
• Camera no longer focuses on ship when you leftclick and ship starts moving (you can still press space to focus on it)
  
• Ship route is shown on the map to make it possible to see where the ship is moving
  
• Arrow points out where your ship is on the map if you scroll the camera too far
  
• spyglass now expands view range as intended
  
• German language translation fixed (bread is produced from flour (Mehl), not from Wheat as described before)
  
• Added missing flour line
  

Hey Merchants!

The huge 1.2 update is finally here! New combined campaign mode, much bigger map and module rework are all included in the base version of the game!



Here's a short video of me talking about it awkwardly while trying to play the game on a new map:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQXLc14jcC4

In case you are more into reading, here's the full changelog below!

Bigger Map:

• map is now at least 2x bigger; infinite (sandbox) mode allows to create 7 times bigger map than before
  
• map has random events/resource collection points appearing. There are 4 different occurable events now, we might add for more if you like them
  

• Different architecture and background (update screenshots btw)
  
• Different quests from "normal" guild, takes mostly tier-2 resources
  
• Can only get advanced ships there now
  
• Has no refueling posts, harder to reach / travel through from the start
  

• Wheat island added, can be encountered in red biome
  
• Two new buildings: wheat farm that gathers wheat, windmill that processes wheat into flour
  
• Bread is baked in the ovens from the flour (rather than straight from the wheat now)
  

• Modules are no longer removed after they break
  
• Rather, you need to fix them by collecting scrap in the map view
  
• Six new ship modules added
  

• 2 new ships added (faster, lower costs; perfect for small-scale caravans)
  
• Starter island has a shipwright now (with the two new ships)
  
• Ship rebalancing: increased amount of modules; increased prices; reduced fuel capacities. At the current stage it felt like you can buy the biggest ship and forget about refueling altogether, we wanted to change that. You will still be way better off with larger ships, but you'll still need to refuel now and then.
  

• Added game goal page in quest log
  
• current quests for this island are now shown in island info panel
  
• Objective indicator points towards the current quest target on the map
  
• Island info scrolling works with middle mouse button even when map is not hovered over it
  
• House sprite reworked (will be prettier now)
  
• Y(gamepad) / T(keyboard) button should properly close the bottom right travel menu
  
• Moved island name to quick navigation panel from ship panel (to open space for more modules)
  
• Space button / RT gamepad button will return focus on your ship in now-bigger map window
  
• Add scrollable functionality at price comparison table (and make clicking on an island actually go there)
  
• Improved Island info scrolling on map view
  

Hey Merchants!

September 26th is here and it's time for a new patch. We've spent these two weeks on focusing on improving what we already have and adding Russian localization.



Here's the full change list:

• Prettier buying / selling / resources acquired effects, extra particles when gathering resources
  
  
• UX improvements, some storage/inventory windows have "move all" button that is context-dependant (i.e. sell all items @ trade post, store everything you can in storage)
  
• Improved caravan menu / route display on map (made it prettier and also increased performance significantly)
  
• Clicking on the outside of most windows closes them now
  
• Right clicking on most of the (non-critical) windows closes them now
  
• Addition of two new achievements (Built Lighthouse; Supply the Inns)
  
• Russian language support / translations
  
• Humans won't always have a hat now :)
  
• The amount of trade post items depend on trade post level (the more you spend at a trade post, the more item quantity are restored every week)
  
• Captain follows the camera now
  
  
• Fixed bug with building demolition that prevented the demolition of all other buildings
  
• Different map icon depending on ship owned
  
• Walking humans when you bring them to your base (VERY EXPERIMENTAL, PLEASE REPORT ISSUES AT DISCORD)
  
• Island view is scrollable with mouse wheel now
  
• Writing building level on building descriptors @ map
  
• Stone max stack increased to 16 from 10
  
• Added caravan ship maintenance costs to caravan costs (in addition to fuel costs); caravan fuel costs reduced by 2 times
  
• New Victory Screen
  
  
• Some hotkeys / gamepad button redrawing
  
• More island names
  
• Separate button for profile / progress deletion in main menu
  
• Scrollable island details window at the navigation screen
  

Hey Merchants!

We're happy to announce that the new caravan update is live now! The main thing it brings into the game is the caravan system.

The caravan system allows you to automate routes to transport goods between your bases, sell or buy them at trade posts and unload them at the inns to complete new objective.

The caravans are purchasable at a new building, caravan office, that you can build at the base.


The inns, you ask?



Together with the caravans, we are adding a new game mode, "supply the inns." Inns, a new buildings, will be generated in towns (only on new playthroughs). You can bring bread and apple juice to them and they resell it further (for a hefty price!). if you keep bringing the bread and juice, they will be selling those over the next days. If you keep the supply steady, the loyalty factor with them will increase and you'll be getting bigger payouts.

The goal of the new game mode is to keep the inns happy by constantly supplying bread and juice. If you choose to supply 2 inns, it can probably be done manually. However, if you go for 3 or more, you'll need the automation system.



This game objective should be quite long and require a good amount of planning and patience, so we wish you luck and are eager to hear your feedback from it.

Languages
Finally, with the help of our amazing volunteers, we were able to translate the game into French and German. The translations run in experimental mode, so expect some possible mistakes, but we'll be hotfixing them ASAP if something comes up.

We're also increasing the price a bit to reflect more content the game has to offer now. Thanks to all who supported us! If you hurry - you can get the game for the old price at Humble store. We'll also try to arrange one discount closer to November to give you one more chance to grab the game at an old price.

As usual, we welcome all sorts of criticism and feedback, so if you encounter any bugs or have improvement suggestions - let us know. The next patch will focus on quality of life changes and graphical adjustments. Afterwards we'll focus on bringing you the bigger map.

Happy playing!

Patch Summary
New Game Mode:
Supply The Inns - bring bread / apple juice. If you select 2 inns - you might complete it without caravans, but if you go for more - you'll definitely need the help of other ships.

New buildings:

• Inn - spawns in some cities (only in new games); bring it bread and apple juice so it can resell it over the days; as long as you keep supplies going - you get increased amounts of money.
  
• Caravan Office - Buildable building, 2000 gold, 20 bricks, 20 lumber. Used as a ship hangar and allows you to plot caravan paths.
  

• German (thanks to Jovan, Somnium)
  
• French (thank to Moetel, KSS)
  

• Can now sell ships for 40% / purchase the new ones from the money back.
  

• Fast-Forward button now "eats" fuel (at 4x rate, but it equals to what you'd be consuming as if you were travelling); this was needed for better balancing/late-game
  
• Added automatic save backup in case something goes wrong (hopefully it won't, but we'll be able to try and restore your old save in case things went wrong)
  
• Max stack of wheat is up to 160 from 80; trade posts will have more of it. Expect this to go back to before when we actually introduce a way to grow wheat.
  

• Settings screen won't show under fast-forward button anymore
  
• Tab key won't open bottom menu anymore (to prevent conflicts with steam overlay); it was mostly used for gamepads anyway, but the new button is "T" if you were using it to navigate with keyboard for some reason
  
• If you were trying to sell resources for exactly the amount of money trade post had, it would reject you.
  

Hey Merchants!

As September 12 draws near, here's what the upcoming update entails. First of all, the long anticipated caravan/automation system. As we developed Merchant of the Skies, I always thought that it's going to be quite a late addition into the game, but since so many of you have been asking for it - we've decided to give it a go now :) Here's a brief look on how it is going to look:


Still work in progress, but you can see how it works

The patch is going to introduce a new building, caravan office.



As soon as it is built, the new ships you purchase can be stored in it and used to haul cargo.



You'll be able to plot routes to trade posts and back to your base. You can buy, sell, load and unload goods into your caravans, enabling basic resource trade and transportation between different islands.



With that, we're adding a new goal / game mode, "Supply the inns." A new building, inn, is randomly introduced in some islands. It consumes bread and apple juice daily. You need to make sure all of the inns receive their supplies and keep feeding their customers (you also get paid for that!).



We're also working on bringing French and German localisations into the game, will let you know once they go live.

Apart from that, I wanted to thank you for the amazing feedback we've been receiving. The new feature will increase the depth of the game, so we feel this is right to increase the asking price a bit. The new price is going to be 9.99 EUR or regional equivalent. It will be in effect on Sep 12.

Hey! Got some news about autostacking issues and finally found the reason. Patched it just now.

Brief list of changes:

• autostacking appears to be working as intended, won't go above the limit
  
• fixed the bug when bazaar demand would not go down every new week
  
• extended / fixed some translation line UI
  

Hey merchants!



This update, we've focused on rebalancing and adding depth to the game. Also, to get something out of the way: we were finally allowed to introduce cards into Merchant of the Skies :) The foil badge is pretty epic.

We are also starting to look for community translations: there's a special website to do the translation in a straightforward manner, but please join our discord to discuss this further if you want to help ( you don't have to do the whole translation, it's a simple interface with entry fields vs original text in english; every bit helps).

Anyway, here goes the actual patch notes:

New features:
> week indicators (I - VI numbers under calendar), after week 4, trade post prices are refreshed (either by 1 index up or 1 index down, never changes too much)


> average price which you've paid for the item at trading posts is saved now
> trade posts have limited amount of money; money is refreshed on trade post "resupply day"; the more you trade with a tradepost, the more money it has on refresh days.


> selling items with a profit on trade posts gives you exp
> demand bar at the bazaars: if you sell the items too much, the min/max value for which you can sell is lowered

> bazaar demand goes up a bit by every week (so if you stop selling an item, it will go back to normal after a few weeks). Alternatively, selling multiple different items makes sure the demand is balanced.
> price index based on zoning (each trade post resource has the "origin" point on the map, the further trade posts are from that point, the higher the price). This should allow for improved trade routes / deeper planning and less exploits. You don't see the zones in-game, at least yet. Just letting you know how the pricing works now.

Tweaks and changes:
> Spyglass is now unique (can't install multiple spyglasses on one ship)
> Modules transfer on ship purchase
> level bar added in skill menu
> After you close the container, the items are optimized/autoarranged (you won't be getting rock stacks of 2,3,5 amounts spread out through different slots)
> Holding ctrl on keyboard hides the "Visit" button on the map
> Quest log rework
> Changed how quest indicator looks on the map

Community translations! There's a website with simple inputs that allows to run community translations. If you want to help translate the game to your language - join the discord and find out more.

Now, actual rebalancing numbers:
Bread base cost: 12 -> 35
Glass: 100->50
Glass Bottle: 40->30
Gear: 90->70
Medicine: 100 -> 150
Apple Juice: 80->120

Island prices:
* Apple Island 100->500
* Forest Island 200->425
* Gem Island 1000->4250
* Iron Island 500->1050
* Stone Island 350->600

Buildings:
Oven: wood/stone requirements up to 15 from 5
Forge: brick/iron requirements up to 15 and 9 from 5 and 3
Alchemist: brick / lumber requirements up to 8 from 5

Gem Mine Base gold cost 700 -> 1000
Reduced module costs for iron pickaxes, axes, baskets by 2 times

After this update we're going to fully concentrate on caravans/automation. But as usual - if you encounter any bugs or issues - let us know asap. QoL suggestions are also appreciated. Cheers and keep the feedback coming!
Best,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants,



During the launch week it has become clear that the quests feel repetitive and not rewarding enough. In this update, we are addressing this. Expect it to be a start, not a final state. But it should set the direction where we want to go :)

Quest system improvements

• Tourism quests added to houses
  
  
• Item fetch quests become progressively harder (and progressively more rewarding) as you gain reputation with the trade guils
  
• Item fetch quests can ask you deliver items to other islands (before that they ask you to deliver stuff to the same island only)
  
• Shipwright lumber delivery quests (take them at the shipwrights) - reputation decreases ship prices.
  

• Spyglass (increases your view range in navigation view and allows you to see the buildings on unvisited islands)
  
• Sturdy pickaxes (mine all resources as lesser wear)
  
• Magic Sails (move 25% faster, stacks with stronger sails)
  
• Autocharger - charges your ship automatically when you visit port (and actually takes the money for that, so be careful; luxury item)
  

• When you buy a new ship, it has 50% charge now (no more sudden bankrupcies!)
  
• Bottom ship panel status is saved across screens and game restarts
  
• Moved reputation panel to the right (will no longer interrupt picking new quest / interacting with the building)
  
• Carrot will show reputation growth even when you don't gain levels (you could increase reward levels before if you participated in minigame)
  
• Carrot will now talk to you in the interaction menu (we're experimenting)
  
• Changed resolution of main objective goal mark in map ui
  
• Whenever you hire crew at a house, the people will march towards your ship
  
• Bumped the gold game objective numbers (increased each roughly by 2 times)
  
• Can only have one lumberjack / apple gatherer on an island from now on
  
• More city names as suggested
  
• "When is the next update" panel so you can be informed. Expect bi-weekly content updates (unless something huge is planned). Also hotfixes will be released ASAP and don't match this schedule.
  

• Bazaar no longer "eats" surplus items that it has no slots for
  
• Bazaar will correctly display stack price on multiple stacks of the same item
  
• Visual look of ship upgrade menu changes: now module buttons won't go over borders when upgrading bigger ship
  

Hey!

Remember I told you there won't be a patch until Aug 9? Well I think I was wrong.

Here's the bugfix list for today:

• Capped the frame rate (should prevent from GPU overheating / using max possible power).
  
• Bottom menu is turning off correctly on Y (gamepad) / TAB press in map navigation scene
  
• After completing lighthouse objective, option to upgrade will not show
  
• Made horizontal scrolling with keyboard keys smoother
  
• Fixed the bug which would sell repeated stacks of items at the bazaar for zero
  
• Nerfed the bazaar max price (min remains the same); you all are right, it is too strong right now. Treat it as a temporary solution for further rebalancing.
  
• Victory window will no longer reopen multiple times if you are traing at the bazaar
  
• Fixed the rare issue when quests would point to a broken locations without trade guild / become impossible to complete
  
• Added some city name variations (thanks Moetel and Lukalot, if anyone has any name prefix (Sea, South, Land) or postfix (-shire,- ham, -etc) suggestions - post them under this thread).
  

Hey Merchants!

Due to some good feedback, I'm introducing the patch 1.0.4, "too big to fail":

Two major changes:
1) You can continue after finishing the game. Just go back to the same game from the menu. If you don't want to continue the old game, just pick "no" when it asks you to continue the game and then "yes" when it asks if you want to start the game anew.

2) If you go bankrupt, the bank will bail you out:
2.1) If you have enough money in the bank, those are taken, you owe nothing
2.2) If you don't have enough money in the bank, the bank loans you the money, but you need to pay it back. If you don't pay it back and go bankrupt again - the game is lost permanently.

I think this should solve two major ux issues:
sudden loss and expectations to continue the game after clearing the main goal :)

Minor bugfix:
- one day will actually pass now (after you trade in Bazaar and return to map)

Hope you enjoy it.
Best,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants!

Thanks to your feedback, I am able to improve the game :) Patch 1.0.3 is live. First of all, feature adjustments:

• fast-forward button on map screen
  

• significant bazaar buff: minimum price is set to a base price of the item (up from zero), chance to sell it is 95%. Max price is 3x actual price of the item. The sale chance in that case still remains the same as before, 5%.
  

• crafting bug fixed (resoruces will now be used properly). This would also probably lengthen the playthrough time :)
  
• sails don't stack, can only install one
  
• enable opengl rendering on windows (in case the game shows blank screen or crashes, go to steam library -> find merchant of the skies -> properties -> set launch options -> write "-force-glcore" without quotes -> run the game through steam)
  
• ui changes to allow for different resolutions
  
• balancing: significantly increased gem island price (2500 from 1000) because as it is now, it breaks even _very_ fast
  
• right click to mark items in ship storage display (from bottom left menu) works properly now
  
• fix biggest ship storage so it does not overlap tax panel
  
• increased island name variety a bit
  
• increase the island storage upgrade levels by 2
  
• improved bazaar purchase visual effect
  
• bugfix: you could only check out other island info (by hovering mouse) only when your ship was on top of another island already
  

Hey guys!



One of the common things that was mentioned over these days have been the lack of in-game means to remember necessary items. To start addressing this, today's patch introduces the item marking system. You can simply right click / press Y button on gamepad to set the item as "marked" and to remember. The system is going to be enhanced a bit later (i.e. to mark all resources needed to build the building automatically when you press some button).

The changes are live. Here's the full changelist for today:
> marking items with right click / Y button on gamepad
> tutorial can now be replayed
> ui: visit button will now be shown higher when ship info panel is open on navigation screen
> replaced building sound
> balance: base apple price down by 20%; apple gatherer base building price up from 2 wood -> 5 wood; 100 gold -> 150 gold
> ui/ux: won't be able to navigate to confirm/cancel buttons on resource containers anymore (use X/B buttons to accept or cancel trade)
> fixed icon problem with oven
> minor graphical bugfixes
> typo fixes
> version number on front page (should be 1.02 now!)

I know a lot of you have posted some feedback over these two days and I want you to be sure that everything is noted. I can't fix everything at once, but I'm trying to do the changes gradually so hopefully the game becomes better with every patch :) Keep these comments coming.

Cheers!
Vladimir

Hey Merchants!

Thanks for your support during the release! Your bug reports and ux requests make a difference, so today I wanted to address some of these in patch 1, which went live just now.

Changes:

• UX: ctrl/shift stacking (ctrl = x100, shift = x10). Now you don't have to press those pesky Z and V keys (note that they still work).
  
• Cursor is not locked in windowed mode and resolution changes does not break it
  
• Map generation / naming overlaps: isle names reduced in size a bit. Map generation algorithm changed slightly so islands won't have overlapping names anymore. Thanks Lukalot
  
• Scouting the island for resources is made a bit more clear: the tip / request for needing the right tools is not shown (because it is irrelevant for first visit)
  
• Don't wear off same modules on resource gathering
  
• reduce turtledove spawn rate a bit
  
• Shovel module icon is no longer missing
  
• Under the hood performance improvements for navigation screen
  
• Typo fixes
  

We are happy to launch our game, Merchant of the Skies in early access!

In this game, you'll be able to explore the world, have a few mystical encounters and establish your own trading company. In its current state, the game has about 8-10 hours of gameplay which we hope you'll enjoy.

This is our best game so far and our second early access title. We are 100% confident that we'll be able to bring it towards the successful full release together with you.

You can get it here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1040070/Merchant_of_the_Skies/

To celebrate it, we are setting the discount on Lazy Galaxy, Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story and Frequent Flyer. Grab them cheap while you can!

Jump into our discord channel if you have any questions or just want to hang out with us.
Best,
Vladimir & Helen, Coldwild Games team

Hello Merchants!

Since the early access launch is approaching, I'm going to describe what are you going to get on July 30th. Here's a brief summary of the current state of the game:



Right now the game is split into separate missions, each has a different goal. Rebuilding the lighthouse is the longest mission that is also started by default, requiring you to rebuild the ancient lighthouse building from the ruins. It will mainly focus on establishing resource production chains which could take 5-10 hours.

Next, the Fish God feeding mode that just asks you to grow tons of apples :) Can be very short (400 apples, ~30 minutes) to very long (10k apples, ~4 hours, requiring you to build _lots_ of apple productions and delivering it all to the fish).

The money goal is self-explanatory, you can set it to be from 2000 (veeery fast) to 20k gold which would require you to become a bit more savvy with money / establish advanced production.

However, the final version is going to look like this:


The goals are going to be mixed and interwined in one map playthrough. Each goal will unlock something / affect all other goals and ensure you progress more smoothly. It's also going to be connected by plot which we are not going to spoil yet :)

The final game might be a slightly different experience with more content, but we're confident that you'll get at least 8-10 hours of fun from the current game. See you tomorrow, on July 30th at 5PM GMT launch, accompanied by a stream on the store page, courtesy of Rocknight Studios.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!
Best,
Vladimir

Hello Merchants! First of all, we've updated the steam page and made a new trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lRVkJWQY9Y

Second, we wanted to give a glimpse into how early-game trading works. The global map is split into islands, some of these are city type islands. Most of the cities have trade posts: buildings that will let you buy and sell basic resources.

Here's the price table: it shows the list of towns and goods that can be bought there. The trade posts in the game only allow for basic level items to be traded, more advanced item sale require bazaar visit. Advanced item acquisition can only be done on your own base via the means of production.



As you start the game, the map is unexplored and you don't know what's out there. Another thing is that you can't evaluate the prices properly without seing and comparing them to other towns, so the initial version of the table is flawed, the unconfirmed price levels will be shown with question mark in trade posts. Here's an example:


In this picture, you can see the price mini-table on the right. While the prices for the stone is figured out correctly, you still can't be sure whether the price for the wood and wheat is accurate. You can only deduct that you have seen it higher and lower in some places, hence the question sign because your perception of the price can change. The expensive wheat might not seem as expensive anymore after you visit a city with higher wheat price than here.


You have to visit other towns to figure out the pricing, at least comparatively. When you visit the towns, their prices and info is added to the table and you can compare the costs more accurately and plan the trade routes accordingly.



Hopefully this gives a better insight on how trade works in the game. Let me know what you think and if you have any questions :) See you at the game release in 5 days, July 30th 5PM GMT!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIuwy4cL4sM
As you know, you'll have to travel quite a lot in Merchant of the Skies. On your travels, you'll get to encounter different sorts of islands. One of those is going to have this. Nothing out of ordinary, just a singing carrot.

Appease it by playing the notes properly and get your hands on its gifts!

Hello Merchants!

The launch date is approaching, so I want to give more updates on what to expect in the initial version. Since I've covered the goal structure here, I wanted to introduce another goal into the line-up: this goal is going to be selected by default and actually involves rebuilding an ancient lighthouse used for airship navigation. Woo!



Rebuilding a lighthouse is done in 5 different stages. Stages one and two, you can simply gather resources if you don't want to expand your base.



Here's how the first two steps look like:

For stage one, you need sand and wood.


For stage two, you need rocks.

But afterwards, you'll need to purchase your own islands to establish brick, glass, lumber and gear production. Here's one of the built resource chains for glass production:



After that is done, you can safely upgrade the lighthouse further.

Stage three looks trickier, it needs both lumber and bricks. Lumber is produced by cutting wood at the lumber mill while bricks are produced from stone and sand in the oven.


Stage four requires bricks and glass. The bricks (ideally) you already have, but to get the glass, you will need to establish the sand digging and build a forge


Finally, the last stage requires tier 3 production of gears (iron -> ingots -> gears). You'll also need to buy dyes and gems (those can also be mined, but good luck finding them).

Congratulations, you've built a lighthouse! Overall, this goal playthrough takes 5-7 hours of trading, building, exploring and establishing logistics.

As usual, if you have any questions - feel free to comment here or join our discord channel. See you at the launch!

Hello Merchants!

As the game early access launch is nearing, I think it's a good time to give a glimpse how trade and resource gathering in Merchant of the Skies works.

First of all, you start the game small. Really small. A boat and a few gold coins is all you have.



So how do you start? You fly around and search for valuable resources. Normally, your ship requires special tools (modules) to gather specific resource types. But whenever you discover a new island with natural resources, you can scout it to gather what you can. All you need is time.



You can also do quests: either bring basic resources or deliver letters, both give OKish amount of gold.


Taking on a quest

Of course, don't forget about the actual trade :) You'll need to buy low and sell high in order to survive. After you've revealed most of the map, it becomes quite a lucrative thing to do.



As you accumulate more money, you can purchase resource producing islands:



And then build buildings on them:


This starts the automatic production: as the in-game calendar runs, your warehouses keep stockpiling gathered resources. You can either sell them or invest into building advanced production chains:



The advanced production buildings create second and third tier resources that are used for quests and further base building, so you can't easily trade them in at the trade posts.

That's when bazaar comes into play (pun probably intended):


Bazaar is a special island where you can sell even the most advanced resources. There's a catch though: you are not guaranteed to sell them as you set your own prices. There are also a limited amount of visitors per day.



In the end, you might end up not selling anything. But that's usually not the case! Just trade wisely and don't be too greedy and you'll succeed. :)



Thanks for reading and make sure to follow the page for more in-game updates. Do you think this system will be enough for the trade mechanics? Let us know what you think!

Best,
Vladimir

Hey! As you might have noticed, we did a full page overhaul :) In addition to that, we've made a new trailer that shows the essence of the game much better.

With that, we also felt the need to postpone the early access launch for two months. Here's why:

https://youtu.be/_kFgsqW_YP4

We have the core gameplay, but we want to polish the game a bit more before early access launch. We enjoy both working on it and playing it, so we want to give much more content at early access launch. The new release date is July 30, it is set in stone and won't be delayed. We'll keep you updated.

If you want to keep a closer eye on development, join our discord channel.

Hello Merchants!

Just wanted to give you an update on what I've been working on: this week has been spent on setting up the game objectives and working on the game map.

Here's how the normal game of Merchant of the Skies can go:



1) When you start a new game, you can pick an objective that you want to reach. This is going to be your winning condition. You can choose "no objectives" too for the infinite mode, but I like it when there are global goals. These will give you a purpose and alter your gameplay strategies over the gaming sessions. The goals vary by length which you can often customize (right now the estimates shall be about 20 / 40 / 60 / 90 minutes) - these estimates should give you an idea of how long the game can take. Of course it mostly depends on how you play the game, there is no hard limit as we want the game to feel relaxing :)



Afterwards, the game map is being generated with multiple points of interests and (depending on the goals) different islands. In the beginning, you don't know what these islands contain so you have to visit them. After your first visit, you'll get full information about the island (as shown on screenshot). This will help you navigate the map better and improve your trade route planning further on.

If you have any questions - feel free to ask them here or join our discord channel!

Coldwild Games is Happy to announce our new game, Merchant of the Skies! Become a captain of an airship, traverse the world of floating islands, trade, get rich, build your own settlement and establish your own trade empire!



Merchant of the Skies is a trading / base-building game with RPG elements. It's going to be released in Early Access on May 30, 2019. Find more info on the Steam page here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1040070/Merchant_of_the_Skies/