Journey developer's peaceful MMO Sky: Children Of The Light is coming to PC
Breezy flying and friendly faces
Thatgamecompany, the widely admired studio behind Flower and Journey, are bringing their peaceful MMO Sky: Children Of The Light to PC. The game’s all about flying through endless fluffy clouds, exploring ancient ruins, and befriending wordless strangers throughout the chill open world. There’s no release window yet, but check out its gorgeous new trailer below.
That probably looked familiar to those of you who’ve played Journey, and that’s because Sky elaborates on all of Thatgamecompany’s prior work. You play as a child of light (sadly not that one) and you chase a series of shining monuments that are almost always visible in the distance, playfully gliding, sliding, and maybe crying along the way.
One of the most effective parts of Journey was the quiet multiplayer elements. As you flew and ran around the desert, you’d sometimes come across other players who you could share the adventure with; only communicating through musical chimes and spamming the jump button to catch their attention. Those ambient bits of multiplayer are thoughtfully expanded in Sky, with flocks of cloaked players flying through the world, rather than just one. Everything still feels very gentle and thoughtful, though: there’s no voice chat, you can only communicate with others after sharing gifts, and you can even hold hands - letting someone else guide you.
Unlike other MMOs, there aren’t many solid goals here. Sky is more about the tranquil moments with others, followed by the sublime, hair-raising spectacles of nature that you'd expect in the studio's previous glide em' ups. All about the feels rather than the numbers, but this time it goes on for a lot longer. The monetisation isn’t too egregious either. There are paid seasonal passes for exclusive cosmetics (hairstyles, cloaks, emotes) and you can buy cosmetics through microtransactions as well. Unlocking cosmetics with the in-game currency is an option, though it obviously takes a lot longer.
No release window yet for Sky: Children Of The Light, but it’ll be a free download on Steam when it does launch. The game's also available on mobile, Switch, and Playstations.