Sky: Kids of Light – Test, Adventure, Nintendo Switch

In 2012, California studio Thatcom released its masterpiece Journey. The quiet and powerful adventure made the end of the Sony-sponsored game trilogy with Flow, Flower and Journey. The BSN title quickly set a sales record, was shipped to the PS4 three years later, and landed in the epic game store in 2019. But financially the project brought IndiStudio to the brink of destruction. As development time was considerably longer, salaries had to be halved, employees had to be sent on leave or laid off – Founder and Creative Director Senova Sen provided surprisingly open information about these processes in early 2013.

To avoid such imbalances in the future, Jutney injected more than ten million euros in cash after completion. 2 4.2 million came from Benchmark Capital, a venture capital investment company. Today’s heavyweights are known for continuing to invest in upcoming technology companies including eBay, Uber and Instagram. In addition, Apple’s next flagship game Sky: Light is easy to imagine that kids will spend on something (but no statistics reported) – after all, the title was presented mainly at the Apple conference and appeared exclusively on iOS sites in summer 2019. The Android version I tested continued in April 2020 and the game recently Released for a console switch.

First: Sky: Kinder des Lichts relies more on the shared experience than Journey, and its quiet co-op experience has inspired many gamers. In the game world there are always other Litchkinder with you, you can send invitations to friendly players, in addition there are sections in the game world that are only open to teams. Nevertheless, you can confidently play Sky as a single player title – most worlds are accessible (already very smooth) communication is not mandatory. As for the game, the title continues almost unhindered from the reduced, basically loose principle of its predecessor spirit …

With a light foot, dressed creature, I walk into a virtual landscape that gives the word “soft mountains” a whole new dimension: Other story adventures after the journey only tried to emulate the elegance of that camper’s world design, Sky: Kinder des Liches shows how to do it. I was constantly amazed that the sand deserts, small grass islands and semi-ruined castles were so elegant and beautiful. Like its predecessors, there are no fights with enemies, no specific switch puzzles, no weapons or challenging skill passes. Instead, wandering into the game world becomes game content – you can look around, implement some simple steps, and browse the hills in a frenzy of colors by interacting vaguely with other players here and there. You’ve been flying lately! Floating with the brief magic scarf on the Journey was an even more extended jumping mechanism, a charged dress full of light on the sky now allowing you to stay in the air longer. In addition, the “land sections” are often connected by real airfoils: my figure automatically spreads its wings as it jumps into the clouds and sinks into the air.