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Latest Updates from Our Project:
New Update for Alpha Phase 2!
about 1 year ago
– Thu, Mar 20, 2025 at 08:13:45 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
💌 Devlog #12: Endangered Fish Species, New Furniture and Social Features! 🐟🪑👩🏻🤝👩🏿
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Mar 18, 2025 at 08:09:04 PM
Hi Loftians, it has been an exciting month in Loftia and there’s been plenty happening behind the scenes! Some parts of Loftia are coming together quickly, while others take more time and care, just like growing a garden 🪴 But we know that’s all part of the process. Lately, we’ve been working hard to prepare for the next round of alpha playtesting, finalizing key features, polishing what’s already in the game, and of course, exploring new ideas to make Loftia feel even more like home. 🏡🥰
In this update, we are bringing you the latest progress made in the Hanging Gardens, our evolving social systems, and new ways to make Loftia feel even more like home. We have also got a special community spotlight, celebrating the amazing ways you can help us bring our cozy world to life!
So grab a cozy drink, settle in, and let’s jump into what’s new in Loftia! ☕
🌷 The Hanging Gardens Network is taking shape!
Level design has set the groundwork, defining paths, spaces, and how players move through the world. Now, we’re jumping into the game engine, testing those foundations firsthand, experiencing the world as players would, testing movement, navigation, and the feel of exploration. How does traversal feel? Do paths guide exploration naturally? Every step helps refine the experience.
But alas, it's impossible to build a floating island in a day. There is still a lot of work left to do before we even dive into features and activities. Right now, the focus is on shaping the world itself, fleshing out environments, adding natural landmarks, and making sure every space feels connected. With layouts in place, we start transforming grey-boxed spaces into fully realized landscapes. Placeholders are making way for detailed models, and every addition shapes how players engage with this district, whether it's a hidden path leading to a secret lookout, or a unique landmark that hints at the lore of the world. The placement of each rock, tree and river adds more depth and meaning to the district.
A sneaky peak of the forest 🌳
Building new infrastructure 👷🏻
As the Hanging Gardens continues to take shape, we are fine-tuning how visuals and mechanics work together. Terrain, structures, and set dressing do more than decorate the world - they also influence how players move, explore, and interact with the environment. The density of trees, buildings, and props affects movement and pacing, creating moments of openness and restriction. Every detail needs to look natural while also supporting the way players navigate and engage with the world. More updates will come soon, but for now, what other world-building elements would you love to see in this area? 👀
🌸 New Stations
Last time, we showed you the 2D concept art of our new stations. Well, now they are in 3D! We're so pleased with how these stations turned out, and are forever impressed by the magic of our 3D, tech and animations artists. Which station is your favorite?
Flower Mixer - A station that processes 2 different types of flowers into a new flower seed 🌸
Paint Maker - A station that produces paint 🎨
Seed Marker - A station that can make new seeds with any grown crops 🥕
Biofuel Station - A station that generates biofuel energy through consuming algae 🌱
Hydro Station - A station that generates hydro energy on rainy days 🌧️
🐟 New Fish!
A little while ago, we introduced Loftia’s fishing system, where instead of fishing for food or profit, you will be helping protect endangered species. Today, we have two exciting updates to share!
First, we're excited to reveal our first list of fish and aquatic species you can catch! We've spent many hours researching endangered species and carefully selecting fish that are a great fit for Loftia's ecosystems. Our goal was to ensure that every species included aligns with both real-world conservation efforts and the unique terrain for Loftia.
We'd love to expand the biodiversity of Loftia's lakes, rives and ponds - so if you have any ideas or species you'd love to see, let us know!
Which fish is your fave?
Next, we're also introducing a brand-new gameplay mechanic: Contribution Bins! These bins allow you to give back to the community, supporting Loftia's circular economy by ensuring resources are distributed across NPCs, stores and venues in different districts.
While these bins will eventually be found throughout Loftia, they'll first be introduced in the Hanging Gardens, where you can donate the fish you catch - along with the other request resources each day. And yes, by contributed fish to the bins, you'll actively help repopulate endangered species in Loftia! Every effort in Loftia contributes to a brighter, more sustainable world. We can't wait for you to try it out.
The first few concepts for our Fishing Contribution Bins – which one do you like the best?
🎨 DIY Paints - New UI!
In Devlog #10, we first introduced the DIY Paints system, where you can turn flowers into organic paints to recolor furniture, clothing, and more! If you missed it, check it out here 🎨✨
Now that the Paint Maker station is all set up, we’ve been refining the UI to make customization smoother, clearer, and more intuitive. One key update is the color preview square, which helps players better visualize how a shade will look before applying it. We also plan on adding a Favorite Colors system in the future, marked with a heart icon, so that you can quickly access you most-used shades without scrolling through long lists. We're still prototyping and testing these UI features, so let us know if you have any thoughts and suggestions!
So cozy 💻
New Furniture Update! 🌿🎣🍄
Calling all interior design enthusiasts, cozy space curators and decor lovers! We love how much you love making your Loftia home truly yours, so we've been busy crafting brand-new furniture sets in themes we think you'll absolutely adore.
To start, we have three new sets inspired by the Hanging Gardens:
Bamboo Set 🎋 - Perfect if you're looking to add a little zen to your home
Coastal Set 🐚 - For those who enjoy the sea breeze and echoes of the ocean
Woodlands Set 🍄 - Bringing a touch of whimsical woodland magic to your spaces
We're now in the process of turning these 2D concepts into 3D, and can't wait to show you how they look in the game! These aren't all the furniture sets we're adding of course, and we would love to have your ideas and suggestions on what kind of themes we should do next. Art deco, minimalism, retro, victorian, coquette? Let us know!
Bamboo Set 🎋
Coastal Set 🐚
Woodlands Set 🍄
👩🏻🤝👩🏿 Social features
Social features are one of our biggest priorities, as after all, Loftia is an MMO! Some of our biggest inspirations have been Club Penguin, MapleStory, Roblox, and Discord (yes, social media apps have been just as inspiring as classic MMOs).
But getting social systems feel right is a challenge. As Loftia draws inspiration from very different genres, like traditional MMOs and web games to farming sims, so we have been designing social features that blend the best of these inspirations while adding Loftia's own flavor into the pot.
A good metaphor we often use when designing social features is "players should feel like kids in a playground." When you meet a new kid at the playground, you don't send them a formal letter of friendship or an invitation to form a group. You just start playing, running around, and having fun. We really want social interactions in Loftia to feel just as natural, without too many barriers or unnecessary steps.
That is where 👋 Player Interactions come in!
Connecting with others in Loftia should feel natural and easy! Whether you're making new friends, teaming up for adventures, or trading items, our player interaction system is here to help!
Right now, we’re still discussing how players will interact with each other, including how you’ll select another player to bring up the menu. The ideas we’re sharing here are just early concepts, and we’ll be refining them as we go!
3 visual options for highlighting your player target! Which one do you like?
How it might work:
👣 Walk up to a player – If you're close enough, they’ll highlight so you know you can interact!
🎛 Open the interaction menu – Press the right input to bring up your options.
📌 Choose what to do – Select from a range of actions to interact with others.
Interaction options (for now!)
🌟 Standard actions – Add a friend, invite to a party, or send a trade request.
⏳ Pending actions – If you’ve already sent a request (like a friend request), it’ll show as pending.
⚠️ Negative actions – Need to remove a friend or leave a party? These options appear in red and may ask for confirmation.
Since this system is still in development, it will evolve as we refine the design. We want it to feel intuitive, fun, and easy to use, so let us know what kind of interactions you’d love to see!
👥 Friend list
Loftia is an MMO, of course we love making friends! And to make it easier to keep up with them, we’re rolling out the first iteration of Friends List UI updates to get things ready for the next round of Alpha.
Our current Friends List was missing some key features to make it truly functional, so we’re taking the first step toward improving it!
A sneak peek at our current Friends List UI, still in the works!
✨ What’s New?
A refreshed UI layout to make managing friends easier
Basic functionalities like adding friends, accepting invites, and removing friends
While this update lays the groundwork, we’ll be refining and expanding on it in future iterations. Let us know what you think!
💬 Local Chat
Local Chat is one of the most important social features in an MMO, so we wanted to spend some time exploring innovative ways we can make our chatting system even more immersive. With our latest Local Chat updates, conversations not only feel more engaging, but we've also added ways for you to easily join in on the conversations happening near you (perfect for those who love to know all the tea)! ☕👀
🗣️ Conversations now feel more natural
Messages will only show up from people actually near you, so no more endless global chat spam. Whether you’re hanging out in a cozy corner or running into someone new, chatting now feels more like, well, chatting.
💭 Speech Bubbles make it easy to follow along
Instead of scrolling through chat logs, you can just look up and see what’s being said in real-time. Which also means, chat bubble skins in the future!!
👂🏼 Gossip Indicators
Now this one is an innovative new feature that we're super proud of. In most open-world MMOs, it's always a bit difficult to know where all the action is happening. With our added FOMO, we've always wanted an easier way to participate in social activities in conversations happening around us. Sometimes you just NEED to know what’s going on!
That's why we've invented Gossip Indicators! These little prompts will guide you to nearby conversations, so you’re never out of the loop. We hope this will encourage even more social interactions and chatting in the game, making our cozy world more lively and immersive to explore.
Gossip Indicators now stay tidy, mapping to a neat circle instead of popping up everywhere or overlapping!
🐾 NPCs might just jump into the conversation too!
Our Loftian residents aren’t just there for decoration, they’ve got things to say! Whether it’s a fun little icebreaker or a random thought, they’ll be chiming in now and then to keep things lively. So don’t be surprised if an NPC casually asks, “What’s the best scavenging spot you’ve found?” in the middle of your chat!
So next time you're wandering through Loftia, keep an eye out for floating speech bubbles, follow the gossip trail, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll stumble into the best conversation of the day 😉
A glimpse of our Local Chat UI!! Yes, you can customize your own chat bubble color!
📩 Private message
We’ve talked about Local Chat, great for chatting with those nearby. But what if your friend is off exploring another district? Here comes Private Messages!
We’re working on this feature to let you DM friends no matter where they are, whether it’s to plan a scavenging trip, share a cool discovery, or just send a quick “Hey, what are you up to?”. It’s a simple but essential tool, and we're now designing the UI to make the experience super smooth and immersive.
Private Chats won't be a part of our next round of Alpha playtests as we're still working on implementing this feature and designing the UI, but keep an eye out for this in the near future!
The next widget on our UI to-do list!
🏡 Guest Permissions
With the Neighborhood feature in full swing, visiting friends’ homes is becoming a bigger part of life in Loftia! But just like in real life, not every guest should have free rein to move your furniture, take your crops, or, well… redecorate your place without asking... 🫣
To keep Loftia a respectful and welcoming world, we’re working on Guest Permissions, a feature that will let you decide who can do what in your home.
What we’re exploring so far:
🔒 Privacy Settings – Choose who can step inside: Best Friends, Friends, Party Members, or open it up to everyone.
🌱 Guest Actions – Decide if visitors can water your plants, use crafting stations, or collect energy.
🛋 Decorating Access – Maybe Best Friends could help you decorate? (If you trust them enough!)
These ideas are still in the early stages, and we’re actively refining them as we go! We want home visits in Loftia to feel fun, social, and respectful.
Early look at our Guest Permission UI
While these social features may seem like the basics, we know they’re the backbone of any great MMO. We want Loftia to be a place where friendships naturally form, and that starts with solid, intuitive social systems.
Since we’re still in Alpha, our focus is on getting the foundation right before expanding into even more creative ways for you to connect. If you have any social ideas you would like us to consider, please comment below!
🌟 Community Spotlights
Loftians, you never fail to make this world feel extra warm and welcoming! 💛
Kindness Exchange
Last month, we saw an outpouring of kindness during our Kindness Exchange, where heartfelt messages and creative gifts were shared between community members. Reading through all your thoughtful words truly made our day! 🥹
Study Café Sessions
We also hosted two Study Café sessions, where everyone gathered to chill, focus, and and get things done together. What started as cozy study sessions even turned into mini art showcases, thanks to our 2D artist, Noel-Tien, who spontaneously live-streamed their drawing process. Who knew studying could come with a front-row seat to an art demo? 🎨
Loftia Karaoke! 🎤 Over the weekend last week we also hosted our first Loftia Karaoke session! From the classics to trending bops, we had so much fun with everyone who joined in - the session lasted for more than 4 hours! We'd love to have more of these karaoke events in the future.
The Loftia community is what makes this world so special, and we love seeing you all come together in such creative and wholesome ways. If you haven’t yet, hop into our Discord and experience these moments with us! 💫
And that’s a wrap! As always, we would love to hear your thoughts! What are you most excited about? What would you love to see next?
💌 Devlog #11: New Outfits, New NPC, New Updates!! 👗🐠🎉
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Feb 10, 2025 at 07:11:14 PM
Hi Loftians! Happy New Year!! 🥳🎉 We hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and had time to dive into some of their fave games!
The past 3 months have been a crazy busy time for us, with the rollout of our Alpha playtests with our Alpha backers, and heaps of development work going on behind the scenes to make sure that everything was running smoothly. We're so happy with how the playtests turned out, and we're even more excited for the next round to come! Fortunately our team also managed to get some well-deserved break time over the holiday period, and we're now back in full-blown dev mode. This year is going to be HUGE, with some super exciting milestones, and we can't wait to bring you along for the ride.
Before we dive into our new devlog, we wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has wishlisted Loftia on Steam already! We now have over 70,000 wishlists!! This is such an amazing achievement, and we can't wait to grow this number and get Loftia in front of even more players around the world. So if you haven't yet, please wishlist Loftia and share our Steam page with your friends!
🔓 New district unlocked!
In our earliest concept for Loftia's level design, we envisioned a vibrant world made up of four districts: Loftia City, Hanging Gardens, Salvage District, and Tech District. Over the past few months, we've been focusing on designing Loftia City, the first place you'll set foot in when you arrive in Loftia. There, you'll be welcomed by Pebble, Hazel, Amani, and many other NPCs who will show you around the city, from shops and restaurants to entertainment venues.
But now, we’re super excited to start exploring the next district – the Hanging Gardens! This floating island is known for its rich natural environment, and its abundance of rivers, gardens, forests, caves and other natural features.
One of our first concept sketches for this district!
Every district in Loftia begins as an idea – a mood, a feeling, a vision. But bringing that vision to life is more than just placing buildings and landscapes. Level design is about shaping the player's experience, and we consider many factors like where players can go, how players get there, what they encounter along the way, and how those interactions feel.
Designing the Hanging Gardens has been an iterative journey, much like many other aspects of game development. It's been a process filled with research, discussions, and constant refinement. We've debated everything—from how to structure pathways to whether certain landmarks should exist at all. Even a small tweak to the ground’s height can completely transform the gameplay experience. At the same time, we strive to ensure the environment is visually stunning, which makes level design a delicate balance between form and function.
Here’s a look at one of our design boards - filled with key themes and features that we want to showcase in this district. This helps us define the district's identity and helps direct our level design.
Game design's sacred sticky notes
What's next?
With the core structure of Hanging Gardens taking shape, we're now diving into the finer details. Some of our current ideas include:
🎋 A bamboo forest where you can grow and harvest bamboo
🎣 An aquatic floating village where you can learn how to fish
🌱 Community gardens where you can farm with friends
🌑 A dark forest filled with mysterious creatures and hidden pathways
But there’s still plenty of space to shape this world! What other landmarks, buildings, foliage, or features would you love to see in this area? Let us know, we’d love to hear your ideas. 💡
Early concept art of the dark forest, what wild vegetation you'd like to see in it? 👀
🚡 Meet Cliff! - Now our airtram operator has a name!
A while ago, we asked you to help us name our airtram operator, and we received over 1,000 amazing responses! Thank you so much for all your suggestions and we love them all! But after much thought, we finally locked in one name that fits him perfectly... Cliff!
Check our latest reel on Instagram and see how he looks in-game! We also added some animations to bring him to life 👀
Who is Cliff?
Cliff is in charge of Loftia's airtram stations and will help you travel around the sky islands! He's also an expert on gliders and all things aerodynamic.
When designing this character, we pictured him as someone super reliable and a little strict, but genuinely passionate about protecting others from harm. He takes his role seriously, often going the extra mile to make sure everyone’s equipment is in check and they’re aware of potential dangers. If you’re ever unsure about the best gliding techniques or need safety advice, Cliff is your go-to guy.
After weeks of development, Cliff has made the leap from concept to 3D model and he’s now officially in-game! We’ve just added animations so he can move, but his model is still a work in progress. Next up? Eye movement, blinking, and more subtle details to really bring him to life.
He's alivveee! (almost)
We're further developing this story and character now, so what other personality traits do you think he might have? Many of you agree that Cliff would crack some mad dad jokes, and we agree!
These are some of the sarcastic, punny jokes y'all have suggested on Instagram (we love these so much!!):
"I heard people dislike puns. Maybe because they didn't get the pun-chline, or find it a pun-ishment."
"Let's hope the airtram station won't jam, we wouldn't want that cliff-hanger".
"Rock-bottom or cliff-top, I'll be right here."
"Hi, I'm Cliff. Drop over sometime."
🎉Bonus Time!
Here's some snippets from our next NPC! Who do you think they are, and what do they do? 👀
Who could this be? 👀
👗 New player clothing!
We love player customization, so we're adding even more clothing styles to Loftia! We've received hundreds of different style suggestions on our last IG reel - thank you all for your wonderful ideas! Since then we've brought a couple of these to life, with more to come soon.
These are some of the clothing concepts we've designed for the Hanging Gardens! Not all these will be modelled and implemented straight away, and we'll be choosing various pieces and outfits to bring to life. However, we hope that in the future we'll be able to have all of these in the game! In the meantime, let us know which of these outfits you like the most 👀
🍃🏡 Homestead – Which outfit would you wear for a peaceful day on the farms? 🌼💛
✨🧚♀️ Woodlands theme with whimsical wings and a sprinkle of magic. Which one are you drawn to? ✨
🌙💤 Cute and comfy Pajamas. Perfect for lounging. Which set are you snuggling up in? ☁️💫
🎣 Fishing mini-game
We've shown you what fishing spots look like and the philosophy behind fishing in Loftia. But the question remains, what's the fishing mini-game like?
Well we're excited to finally show you a snippet of our first prototype! We're added a UI-based mini-game, and it's all about timing. Spot the fish in the water time your moves just right to hit the green zones on the ring, and reel in your catch! If you miss the green zones, the fish will slip away.
Let us know your thoughts! Still very much a work in progress 🐠
🦾 Player progression
In life, small actions add up, shaping who you eventually become. Similarly in Loftia, the effort you put into your favorite activities will contribute to your progression, making the world feel more alive and truly yours. The more you do, the more capable you become, and it's not just about being able to upgrade tools or build a bigger house, but it's about seeing yourself grow with every action you take.
In Alpha, you'll be able to progress through three different proficiencies, levelling up from Level 1 to Level 4:
🌱 Farming
🔧 Crafting
🔨 Salvaging
How does the progression work?
You'll get experience points when doing various activities like planting, harvesting, crafting, and more - with each activity giving you different amounts of experience.
Once you gain enough XP, your level will increase for that proficiency. But reaching new levels isn’t just for show, you'll also unlock perks that will make your gameplay more efficient and rewarding. You might also unlock new items, locations, and perhaps even NPCs!
We're currently working on the UI design for player progression! Let us know what you think.
Here’s a sneak peek at someperks you might unlock:
🌾 20% chance to get double harvests – Because who doesn’t love an extra batch of carrots?
🔩 40% chance of getting one ingredient back when crafting - A little extra efficiency goes a long way. Waste not, want not!
📦 40% chance of instantly destroying a resource node when salvaging - Less time chipping away, more time grabbing the good stuff.
We’re excited to see how you grow your skills in Loftia, and how these systems shape the way you experience the world. Our proficiency system and perks are still in development, and we’re actively refining them based on what feels fun, rewarding, and balanced. As we continue designing, we’ll be expanding progression with new levels, more rewards, and perhaps additional ways to specialize in different activities. So what kind of progression systems do you enjoy in games?
🌱 Community
On the community side, we've been hosting more events on Discord! We recently just hosted our Loftia Meme competition, and absolutely cracked up with all your entries!! Here are the winners of the event, along with some of our team favorites!
Be sure to join our Discord, to participate in more community events coming soon and hang out with us and other Loftians! We have some fun ones planned for this month 🥳
💼 Recruitment
Recently we've also opened a new position for the team:
Narrative Designer: As our Narrative Designer, you’ll help shape the world and storytelling of Loftia. This role will involve writing and implementing storylines, characters, dialogue, quest content, and more, contributing to a rich and immersive world for players to explore.
Requirements: At least 2 years of experience as a Narrative Designer or Open World Writer on a released game that showcases your worldbuilding and storytelling skills.
Please click on the link above to read more about the role, including responsibilities, requirements and how to apply!
And that’s our update! Thank you for being here and growing with us. In the next devlog, we'll be bringing another big Loftia update – Social Features! Can't wait to share it with you all!
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