A: Charley: Favorite thing I’ve worked on that I can talk about is Sky: The Two Embers! It’s been such a joy to be a part of bringing the world of Sky to life in a more traditional narrative format. It’s definitely not the funniest thing I’ve worked on though. If we’re talking Sky Seasons, my favorite has 100% been Season of Moomin. As for my favorite spirit/character, I have a particular fondness for the Vault of Knowledge Elder—and I’m not sure about their favorite ice cream lol. My favorite is matcha flavored ice cream, so maybe that? Something calming and reflective. And for Season of Moomin, I feel particularly connected to Moominpappa. I find him to be very relatable.
A: Julian: The favorite thing I have worked on is Season of Moments. I have a particular interest in photography and being able to design a camera feature and a whole season around it was definitely a dream come true. Plus, seeing all the amazing pictures that Sky kids around the world take of the Realms always fills my heart with joy. There are many spirits in our world that make the list of “favorites” for me, but I guess the Nesting Quest Giver is one I would love to have some good conversations with over a Pistachio ice cream cone.
A: Charley: There were! We did our best to make it as interactive as possible—but we were operating under constraints we couldn’t budge from. This is, in fact, a big part of why we designed the parallel Void Quests—to give players a degree of “parallel interactivity” that, we hoped, would help inform or enhance their experience in Moominvalley.
A: Charley: Yes! Personally, I would love to see Sky become (in addition to the expansive, rich world that it already is) a place where we can visit the settings from our favorite childhood stories. I don’t think I can actually talk specifics here, because we have some hopeful collaborations that we’re currently working on securing. But I have my favorites that I’m pushing for!
A: Julian: There are many classic series that we all love and that would fit very well with our world and tonal sensitivities, so I am sure some of our designers will be exploring that in the future. As for me, currently I am focusing more on our own stories and what the world of Sky and its lore can offer to our players.
A: Charley: Nothing is for certain at this point—but if everything works out, yes.
A: Julian: Sadly, it is difficult for us to answer questions about future seasons or eventual collabs. What I can say is that we work very hard so that anything that comes into the world of Sky aligns with our world, values, and ideals. If any new collab comes in the future, it will most likely be something we are excited to share with all Sky kids and to integrate in our world.
A: Charley: I’m not privy to the hard numbers here, but I know our growth was pretty explosive during COVID—as was the case for many games during that time. I believe our growth has slowed somewhat since then, but I think this is to be expected. Many of the decisions that we’ve made during my time working at TGC have been for the long-term health and longevity of the game. We’re hoping to be around for a long time!
A: Julian: Although I am unaware of the numbers, I think during those times many of us found comfort and community in digital worlds and friendships. Sky was definitely that comfort place for many of us and for many new players that discovered the game at that time. Our priority right now has been in trying to maintain the world of Sky so that it is a safe space for everyone, veterans and new players alike.
A: Charley: I know this is something that a lot of the designers have been pushing for internally. I’m not sure what the ultimate plans are on this front, as it’s a bit outside of my department. But know that we pay strong attention to player feedback—and many of the improvements that players have asked for are already on the schedule for implementation.
A: Julian: QoL and improvement of our core gameplay has been a very strong point of focus in our conversations and efforts. Games are an iterative process and especially with live games, it is important to be self aware and understand that sometimes we need to go back to systems we introduced in the game and tweak them in order to improve how they work and the effect they have on our players, but this takes time and effort to get right. I can confidently say that we have very passionate people working on this front, and hopefully we can meet your expectations with future improvements.
A: Charley: Good question! If a player has not finished the Season of Shattering quests, the Shard Memories happen in a linear pattern. If the player has finished the quests, the Memory seen is random.
A: Julian: Is a secret
. I guess we’ll never know.A: Charley: While my work doesn’t affect the grind directly, I know lots of people internally who are deeply passionate about reducing the grind and smoothing out that part of the player experience. I can’t speak to any specific plans—but the situation is something that the devs are aware of. We’re doing our best to move the needle on it.
A: Julian: We are constantly designing and improving our systems and having deep conversations about core features of our game and how things could be improved. As always with game development, things take time and many iterations, but we hope soon we can reach solutions everyone is happy with.
A1: Charley: Thank you so much! We worked really hard to make sure that the collaboration (and especially the transition from Sky to Moominvalley) felt natural and smooth. As for the process, it depends on a lot of factors. In the long view, anyone at the company is welcome to propose a potential collaboration—which means that we have, at times in the past, had long lists of potential collaborations to possibly pursue. Leadership will often ask for feedback from the devs on which collaborations we’d be most excited to work on, which also plays a big role. But really, I think the biggest factor (in determining which IPs to pitch a collaboration with) is the personal passion of the TGC folks involved. I know that with Moomin, for example, myself and a lead producer’s passion for the collaboration played a big part in why TGC pursued the IP as hard as we did. The main criteria was mostly “it just felt right”. For me, I loved how dreamlike Moominvalley felt. How wholesome it was, while also seamlessly blending seriousness with silliness. It aligned really well with Sky, and the narrative tone that we strive to set.
A1: Julian: I can’t speak for anyone else, but in my opinion, one of the things that make TGC feel unique, is that all of us have a strong understanding of what our values as a company are. When the conversations of possible IP Collaborations come forward, it makes the process of selection easier. We try our best to make sure that everything in our world is genuine and fits with our values and tone. A weird combination of wholesome, silly, and artistic.
A2: Charley: This is a big one! For me, I’m constantly focused on narrative immersion. That’s my north star. So many of the things I push for are to improve the narrative immersion of the game—to make players feel like they are in the world, relaxing with friends or going on an adventure, instead of optimizing a gameplay loop (aka, the grind). There are a lot of specifics I can’t talk about—but one of the big ways I hope to do this is with the game content surrounding Sky: The Two Embers.
A2: Julian: Absolutely! I feel every dev has their own dreams and desires of what they want to place in the game, but we are all united by the feeling of wanting to create a unique world where Sky kids can feel safe, have fun, explore touching stories, and make friendships that last a lifetime. As for me, I would love to see the world of Sky becoming more alive and dynamic, as well as exploring our already existing systems and seeing how we can improve them.
A3: Charley: The process is different from season to season—sometimes, it boils down to which items we think are the coolest / cutest / most interesting. But more often than that, the question is really: what is a strong memento for this season? We want the ultimate item to make you think about the emotions and story and experience you just had. Whatever item we choose, we hope it exemplifies the Season more than any of the others. It's meant to be the "souvenir" of the Season. This boils down to feel, and is often the subject of heated debate during the Season development process.
A3: Julian: It depends on many factors, but we always try to make sure it is both a very unique and memorable item, without being too overpowered or that it locks a feature for players that can’t buy a Season Pass.
A4: Charley: Okay, I had no idea this was a thing and just ran down a rabbit hole about it lol. First I pulled the most knowledgeable person I know in the company into a call about it (Samantha Cruse). She had no idea, but told me the story about how that level got made (which is a whole saga in-and-of-itself). The level was made by Travis Stringer, who I just pulled into another meeting and asked him about it (as he was getting ready to log off for the weekend. Thanks Travis!). He’s having trouble remembering clearly, as it was many years ago—but basically, he thinks that, back then, we needed to have a tiny piece of “terrain”, or dry land, in order for the level to actually be a level. As in, in the level editor, the whole thing wouldn’t actually work (you’d get an error when you tried to bake it) if there wasn’t any terrain. So the reason there’s a small white island is probably because it was necessary, from a technical standpoint, for the whole planet to exist at all. Hope that answers your question!
A3: Julian: In my head canon it is Oreo’s private island.
A: Charley: I wasn’t around for Sky’s beginning, and I’ve heard that a lot of things changed during the early development process—but to my understanding the plan was always to create a multiplayer experience. As for the second half of your question, I don’t believe we have any plans to make another single player game, at least at this time. While making something of a more limited scope would be really fun, so much of what TGC does well surrounds the way we facilitate multiplayer experiences. I don’t see us deviating from that anytime soon.
A: Charley: Eyes on the horizon! I can’t go into detail here—but expanding the lore and history of Sky has been a big part of my role since joining the company back in 2022. We have a lot of things planned for the next few years, and especially in 2025.
A: Julian: Absolutely more lore is coming in 2025! We have some very important projects coming this year, and although I can’t go into specifics, I am sure we will explore some important questions that maybe (just maybe) give Sky kids a better understanding of the world they are exploring and its history!
A: Charley: Agh, I wish I could answer this question directly! I’m sorry! There are some classic properties that I’d really love to partner with—but I can’t talk about them while we’re actively putting pitches together. But I can bring one up, since it’s public domain: I think the Hundred Acre Wood would be a wonderful place to bring to Sky someday! Also, I agree—Dr. Seuss would be a fantastic fit for Sky. I’ll pass that along
A: Julian: Glad you are enjoying some of the QoL updates! That makes my heart happy!
Regarding your questions, omg there are many things I would love to see in the world of Sky as a player. As a kid I was obsessed with a series of books about gnomes and their magical adventures (sadly I can’t recall the name right now!). I don’t think it will ever be part of Sky, but hey I can always use a chibi mask and roleplay that I am a little gnome going on adventures right?
A: Charley: I’m not aware of any plans to implement this—but I also wouldn’t be, since I’m focused on narrative. But I think this is a fantastic idea, and seems (to me at least) like it should be a relatively easy fix! I’ll pass the idea along.
A: Julian: Also outside of my field, but we can definitely pass this feedback to the graphics engineering team!