Seven Days of Sky

During the summer of 2020, Thatgamecompany posted a "Seven Days of Sky" series on social media to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the game's global release. These images take us through the early development of the game and how the game grew from its infancy to what it is today.

(Some of these images come from Tom Zhao Website so credits to Tom!)

Isle of Dawn

"Join us for "7 Days of Sky," as we celebrate our first anniversary with a peek into the development and history of #thatskygame. Each day this week, we'll share the concept art that shaped Sky's kingdoms — starting with Isle of Dawn!"

🎨 "Isle of Dawn has been one of the most iterated levels. How should you start the game has been discussed and updated until the very last moment of the development."

🎨 "One of the earliest concepts of Isle of Dawn! The Dawn Elder was a vulture lived in a ruined temple."

🎨 "At one point we imagined Isle of Dawn to be the transition from the real world into the world of Sky."

🎨 "Here is the Isle of Dawn Elder as a gate keeper, who informs you about the history and sends you off into the kingdom."

🎨 "We knew that the transition from Dawn into Prairie is an important threshold, and tried many different ways to show a world beyond clouds."

🎨 "Narrowing down the color scheme and the general layout of the level. These were the iterations just before the latest!"

Daylight Prairie

🎨 "Soaring through a blue sky & puffy clouds has always been the inspiration for this game. In the beginning we imagined that the Sky would begin on an island, to take off into the clouds. The idea of an island got carried into the Isle of Dawn."

🎨 "We experimented a lot on the look, feel, & story ⁠— from an all-cloud world, to a chain of islands, to an island full of mechanical gimmicks. In one iteration we made a boulder, which found its way into the current Prairie Butterfly Fields."

🎨 "In this phase, we studied the biome and types of grass and rocks that exist in high altitudes, which pretty much set the basis on our grass and cliff material colors."

🎨 "We explored architectures and tested many ideas to find a good sense of civilization that could be fun to discover and explore."

🎨 "Here's us imagining what kind of town could have existed in the world of Sky. The basic layout you see in Prairie Village was formed during this phase of development. You can also see the original cave of the butterfly keeper here!"

🎨 "To make Sky more open and to allow for more gameplay even after completing the game, we made the levels into multiple sub-levels and explored small pockets of interesting spaces that could be fun for players to discover spirits."

🎨 "One of the pockets for the sub-level ended up making a base for the current Butterfly Fields. We wanted to make sure that you can see the connecting levels; Prairie Cave, Prairie Village, and Prairie Nest."

Hidden Forest

🎨 "Earlier in Hidden Forest's development we knew we wanted a level about rain, but we weren't quite sure where in the flow this belonged initially."

🎨 "A concept of a forest made of clouds. There was a giant gate beneath the 'Day' level to enter this area."

🎨 "Slowly establishing the flow within the rain level. Transitions from soft rain to heavier rain, and then to warm sun."

🎨 "The Elder in this level used to be a little scary. Forest was more of a foggy maze then, and this elder was seducing and trapping you."

🎨 "Eventually, the level became more about the development of technology and a consequence."

🎨 "Same as Daylight Prairie, Hidden Forest was also made into multiple sub-levels. Each level had a different taste of rainy mood."

Valley of Triumph

🎨 "From the beginning, we knew that 'Sunset' (Valley of Triumph) would be a climax of the game. We tried to capture the magic sunset hour with rich colors from the earliest phases of this project."

🎨 "We wanted this level to have the fastest flight, with the most exciting and richest visuals. Because we wanted the altitude to follow our emotional curve, we made the decision to make this take place on a high mountains."

🎨 "Because we wanted on the most exciting things to happen in this level, we still have many cool ideas that we still haven't managed to realize in the game. Look forward to our future updates!"

🎨 "Golden Valley is like a downtown of the Sky kingdom. People built a huge city on top of this mountain, using boats to move between places."

🎨 "Many different ideas for the type of architectures you see in this area."

🎨 "Golden Valley consisted of both rich and poor communities, centered around the theater. They all enjoyed the race that went through the entire city."

Golden Wasteland

Today we explore Golden Wasteland, Sky's fifth realm.

🎨 "Earlier in the prototype, Golden Wasteland was called 'Dusk,' and it was going to be a place with modern factories."

🎨 "For a while Dusk was not touched, but then we revisited the level after coming up with the ancestor stories ⁠— this was going to be a place where Sky's ancestors built a giant ark to survive the apocalypse."

🎨 "This was the time when we thought that the fall of civilization was related to the war they had against creatures. The current tone of Dusk was established around this time of development."

"Basic flow of the level was pretty much set at this point. A big down moment after the glorious 'Sunset' (Valley of Triumph)."

🎨 "After the structure of the level was established, we iterated on the story of Wasteland's Elder. Originally, it was a story about a soldier who lost everything, regaining hope after encountering Sky children."

🎨 "At one point the Elder was half corrupted by the darkness. The light of Sky children awakens them, and then they sacrifice themself to the Dark Creatures to save you and let you move on."

🎨 "Here's an earlier concept of the Dark Dragon, AKA the 'krill.' We knew we wanted something scary in the game very early."

🎨 "We have many, many more ideas and inspirations for this level that we still haven't been able to realize yet in Sky. Stay tuned for more Wasteland updates!"

Vault of Knowledge

Tune in for 7 Days of Sky concept art, as we delve into the history and development of #thatskygame's world. Today we explore Vault of Knowledge, Sky's final normal realm.

🎨 "From the moment we decided to use time of day as a theme, we knew night time would be a special level to wrap up the emotional story curve."

🎨 "In the earlier phase of development, we made a modern city for the 'Night' level (Vault of Knowledge). Soaring over clouds and diving into a glowing city was very magical."

🎨 "As the ancestors' story developed, Vault became significant to Sky's history. One iteration, its Elder architected a boat to try to survive an apocalypse. Their role shifted to oracle who explains your destiny and shows a way to the storm."

🎨 "One of the ideas for Hidden Forest was that it was a sacred place where they stored precious sources of light. This idea eventually influenced the design of 'Night' (Vault of Knowledge), which was inspired by libraries and planetariums."

🎨 "There are many interesting props we designed for the area. Lots of valuable information was stored with the hope that it would be used by the future generations."

🎨 "Not only was this area filled with manmade structures, we also wanted to transition the level into a more magical, dreamier space. So we made it transform into a more organically magical space as you progressively move higher."

🎨 "Finally, at the top of this tower you encounter the Elder. When we first developed the ancestor story, we knew all Elders would gather here and show you one last piece of info to prepare you for the ultimate mission to fulfill in the storm."

Final Day

Each day this week, we've shared the concept art that shaped #thatskygame's history and kingdoms — and for the final day of our "7 Days of Sky" series, we delve into the design behind Elders, Creatures, and Characters.
💭 Did you have a favorite concept art we shared this week?

Elders

🎨 "In the beginning, there was a monkey protecting a treasure in a maze. There was also a bull blocking your way, which then turned into a sleeping lion in a castle. These animal-themed, cursed characters became like bosses for each level."

🎨 "The animal-themed bosses gradually became more humanoid. In one iteration they were each missing parts of their bodies (arm, heart, head, etc). They slowly turned into what we know today as the Elders."

Creatures

🎨 "We've always wanted creatures in the world of Sky. It has been really fun exploring and imagining creatures above clouds."

🎨 "Eventually we decided on aquatic theme, as we liked the graceful motions of creatures in the water."

Characters

🎨 "We explored so many options of characters! So many that we can't even fit all the ideas on this image…"

🎨 "In the end, the character became a child with a mask and cape. There are a lot of reasons why the Sky children look the way they do today. Look forward to our future events for more insights behind the design of every element in the world of Sky!"