This might be one of the longest posts I’ve written about Sky, but this specific issue is a real problem that many people face, and it’s disrespectful of a company like TGC not to have addressed it sooner.
But here’s the thing: Over time, Sky has “improved” in terms of quality of life—that’s undeniable—but… did it really have to take so long to fix something that could have been addressed in just a few updates? I know that game development is complex—that’s a fact—but come on, the fact that TGC didn’t bother with certain accessibility options is bizarre. Like: from 2019 to 2021, there was no option to change the game’s sound—a simple feature that’s been around since games from the 1990s doesn’t exist in Sky. I know, Sky is meant to be an experiential game, but at the same time, it’s a game you’ll play over and over again every day, and you'll probably want to mute the game SFX or the music, whether you like it or not; Sky is technically a game as a service since it’s constantly receiving updates and season passes.
Many games in the same genre (game as a service) have accessibility options, such as changing certain colors to help people with color blindness, adjusting in-game brightness—since many people complain about excessive brightness—and customizing graphics to the player’s preference—a basic feature found in almost every game today. In fact, from 2019 until the 2024 update (0.27.5), we never had a separate option for graphics quality and FPS; it was only in the last 5 years (or a few months ago with the Steam Early Access version) that we received this type of update.
Besides, of course, the fact that farming candles in the game is time-consuming and unrewarding—even though it improved in 2021—it remains tedious and a nightmare for new players.
Why am I saying all this?
After the controversy surrounding Hidden Forest and Daylight Prairie, I took a closer look at just how limited the game is when it comes to adjusting graphics quality or changing settings that bother players—whether it’s brightness or saturation levels. It’s crucial for a game-as-a-service title to offer these options; otherwise, players will abandon the game because they’re frustrated by this lack of customization. TGC should have paid attention to these details and prioritized visual comfort, rather than launching multiple events and cosmetics. In my opinion, the game needs to get the basics right to make players feel comfortable with it before focusing on other ways to monetize the game.
If all this bothers you, why don’t you just stop playing?
Simple: because I really like the game. If all this really bothered me, I would have stopped playing a long time ago, but I stuck with it and kept playing for many years because I really like the game’s concept. Unfortunately, though, these details make the game become tedious the longer you play.
This isn’t an attack on the game or the company, but rather a request from a player who genuinely loves the game, hoping it will improve to ensure its longevity.
I put together a draft of what an accessibility option might look like and what it would include. Of course, there would be more features, but space is limited, so I focused on the most essential ones for players
Anyway, even though this post won’t change the game’s quality in any way, I just wanted to share my current thoughts on Sky and how the game really needs to improve in terms of accessibility.