u/LadyofStabberfly

I HAVE LESS THAN 10 MINUTES UNTIL GEYSER, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE R I G H T NOW

>!Ohmahgah, this was sooooo cool. The sketched style was a really great touch and keeping the overall color beige instead of plain white was a good call. Especially since a lot of artists prefer to use solid color background like beige for the initial sketch. And, this might just be a me thing, but when everything gets colored I thoroughly like how the colors are leaning a bit more towards the muted side rather than being super saturated and loud. I think it helps show the melancholic emotion of this story, though the quest environment is beautiful the colors definitely portray the tragedy that is also within Van Gogh’s life, and thus in the season. Idk, I just really like colors :)!<

>!And now we’re all Van Gogh’s unpaid courier.!<

Oreo needs a cowboy hat

Here’s my two cents: I believe the entire point of having these entrance areas for each realm, and in any game in general, is to set the tone for the area you’re about to explore, and if I were a new player going through Forest for the first time again I wouldn’t expect it to be dark and rainy, I’d expect a Prairie-type woodland area.

From a design perspective, I think first impressions of a new area matter and set up player expectations for what they’re about to experience. Forest helps to introduce the gameplay mechanic of being extinguished, preserving and losing winged light, and even one of Sky’s “enemies” by having a few crabs in that small cave. And having the darker, slightly blue-tinted setting in the beginning helps set up for the dark, rainy, windy, almost cold, and moodier feeling that I think Forest is meant to have — Sky is an intentionally emotional game and things like this matter in reaching that intention.

The new lighting/atmospheric change isn’t bad by itself, but for Forest I don’t think it makes sense for it to look like that. The changes make Forest seem more inviting, warm, and welcoming, like another Prairie, but when I think of Forest those aren’t words that come to mind. And Forest not being like Prairie or even Triumph isn’t a bad thing; Forest is supposed to be its own unique experience, all the realms are.

Just like you wouldn’t make the entrances to Wasteland or Eden brighter and more welcoming because it doesn’t match the overall tone for the rest of the area, the same can be said about Forest. And sure, I have other reasons why I prefer the original design over the new one, I like not going blind, but the main one is that it just doesn’t make sense to me from a design perspective. It doesn’t provide the same emotional tone that the rest of the realm does — as a game that is very emotional, environment design is especially important and shouldn’t be changed for the sake of changing it — and I don’t think it sets the same expectation for what Forest is as the original did.

I’ve been playing since mid-Performance and never once have I seen or heard about anyone saying they wanted the entrance to Forest to be brighter, so this change makes even less sense to me and feels like less of a necessity than it already is. Again though, the design by itself isn’t bad, I just don’t think it makes sense for Forest. I think the original concept had the right idea. And speaking as someone who’s an artist and does design and conceptual art, your design can very well be great and good but if it doesn’t achieve what you’re going for then it isn’t going to land as well, you have to consider everything when making entire environments and not just a small section of it.

And perhaps this part is a bit more nit-picky or me thinking too hard about things, but I’m just getting my thoughts out…What is the point of having a campfire and lights around if the area has been made super bright? The area looks warm instead of the colder look it had before, so why campfire if you already made the area look warm? I’ll rampage if they take my Forest campfire, though. But I digress.

Thoughts? Opinions? Do you think the new design is better, why or why not? Do you just not care at all and like to watch the chaos unfold once more? If you don’t care, what do you think of the idea of having a woodland sort of area being added, like if the end of Forest temple had denser forest and thicker, taller grass, and some little creatures? My curiosity eagerly awaits your responses. Stay classy, my raging dudes.

I say as I chug 20+ height spells to get max height (I’m shorter than I was before)

Am I the only one who puts pillows under sleeping skids? They require pillows, tout de suite!

Nothing in all of Sky frightens me more than a moth

Note to all my fellow stalkers people watchers: they can see us (in hindsight, this probably should've been obvious to me)

Anyone else who has the drone, is your outfit shrine still yelling at you even though you've already equipped/used it?

I found this a lot funnier than I should have.

I clapped for them when they died.