[i]Hey, everyone! Momo here. You might’ve noticed the game’s demo is not available for the time being. This year I am putting my all into making this game the best it could possibly be, so please look forward to future updates. Hopefully, you will soon get to see a more fresh vision for COMPLEX SKY! For now, I will let my dear protege SkAI handle some of these devlogs, so hopefully you get to have some fun while I am building away! See you soon. — Momosundeass P.S. SkAI might be a little excited about this, so just let her rant a little, if you will. Take it away![/i] [h3]Hey, everyone! SkAI here. Let’s talk architecture![/h3] Some of you were wondering if it was possible to build sky cities in real life, so let’s look into that for this issue of our new series! [img]https://i.imgur.com/3wpTXIj.png[/img][i]Could those blocky plants also be real? Pretty please?[/i] My logs say that humans have been dreaming of the skies since ancient times. You managed to master flight, after all. But how can one sustain a whole sky city? [img]https://i.imgur.com/2pGB8OC.png[/img][i]Imagine the view![/i] Man-made floating islands could solve so many issues! You’d have so much extra land which would help with overpopulation, everything could be made more green, or maybe even use the energy of the Sun. But this might also introduce many concerns, like safety, or lack of soil and breathable air, or transportation of goods… So let’s take a look at some possible solutions! [img]https://i.imgur.com/bciDV0b.png[/img] So… how do you actually get daily cloud shipments without leaving for the stratosphere? And more importantly, stay up there? Believe it or not, the clouds are not actually that high up. That makes the traditional ways of space transportation pretty ineffective or too costly for our goals. Launching a rocket would be too wasteful and sort of pointless, while building a space elevator is just too pricey… But there is another way! In fact, humans have been using this method for ages! [img]https://i.imgur.com/9rO4XPF.png[/img][i]I could totally live there, so why don’t humans like the idea?[/i] This one’s pretty close, but it seems too impractical to carry many people… But wait! Wasn’t there something similar humans used a long time ago? [img]https://i.imgur.com/eqLA8CV.png[/img][i]Humanity’s past… and future?![/i] Blimps! These plump pals can carry humans and large shipments to sky cities with relative ease. Smaller blimps or balloons can even be used as relay points for communication, sort of like sky satellites, or used to collect the Sun's energy! This strategy isn’t without its downsides, as helium used for balloons is getting pretty scarce… But there’s actually tons of helium just outside Earth, so it could be harvested from asteroids or even the Moon! Something similar happens in COMPLEX SKY: as you go up, new minerals are generated on floating landmasses, letting you harvest them there and then! The same materials could actually be used for the foundation of our sky city: a buoyant balloon platform built with light-but-sturdy reinforcement materials, such as graphene. Another curious concept is something called a Dark Sky Station. While this type of platform is meant to float at an altitude between the skies and the outer orbit—mostly for cargo deliveries to space—it could perhaps act as a foundation for a cloud-altitude city. This curious star shape is made out of five reinforced elongated balloons. [img]https://i.imgur.com/DmR1UcJ.png[/img][i]Looking sort of Y2K, don’t you think?[/i] However, there might be some more futuristic-but-doable options, such as using anti-gravity for lift. In fact, that’s what I’m doing for the roads and cars in COMPLEX SKY! [img]https://i.imgur.com/qo277LH.gif[/img][i]Could we also use anti-gravity lifters to stay in the air?..[/i] [img]https://i.imgur.com/G01rqsm.png[/img] But what about plant life? Worry not, humans! If there’s one thing we have in common, it’s the affinity for plants. Who doesn’t like a cloud park? Some types of plants don’t need a lot of soil to grow, so just covering some areas with a thin layer of dirt could do the trick and provide much-needed greenery! Not unlike the Floating Land blocks in COMPLEX SKY, now that I think about it… But there is a more interesting concept we could explore: arcology! No, not “archeology”. What’s arcology, you ask? The word “arcology” is a mix of two words: architecture and ecology, but what it usually means are extra-tall self-sufficient skyscrapers. Those are like a small city unto itself: they’re self-sustainable, you can grow crops, dispose of waste, there is probably a mall and a gym, you get the idea. Obviously, to be self-sustainable, one would need to repurpose a lot of solar energy, grow food, and maybe do even cooler stuff with plants, such as repurposing oxygen. That’s where the “ecology” part comes in! [img]https://i.imgur.com/sulaDJA.png[/img][i]Now you don’t have to go outside to walk your dog! I think…[/i] Looks familiar, doesn’t it? In fact, the concept of “Arcology” has been one of the main ideas behind COMPLEX SKY from the very beginning! In COMPLEX SKY, there are lots of ways for you to embellish your tallest skyscrapers with plants. You can do something that looks quite similar to the picture above, but you can also put those plants on the sides of buildings, or even upside-down! How space-efficient! [img]https://i.imgur.com/gANXsRW.png[/img] As you can see, each of these futuristic ideas are a part of how COMPLEX SKY came to be! Of course, it’s not the only inspiration, and there are various architectural bits and bobs that can be traced back from the game’s design. Who knows, maybe we will discuss those ideas in my future Blueprints entries!.. So what did we all learn today? I think most of these technologies turned out to be doable on their own, at least in theory, but getting everything to click together and doing that on such a large scale might be juuust out of reach yet. Good thing you have me to show you the ropes as I figured it all out already in COMPLEX SKY! Hope you liked our little detour and enjoyed this brief bite of futuristic architecture. 2024 is going to be a big year for COMPLEX SKY, so make sure you’re following our Twitter and have the game wishlisted to keep an eye out on these updates and other exciting news!! And if you wish to discuss even more outlandish concepts with fellow architects of the future, hop on over to our Discord server! See you on cloud nine! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1549600/Complex_SKY/ [url=https://discord.gg/UHcKvmwe][img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39886669/6d0f8ec5e14baf8f7ca07ae0e29a3d9c51f11bc7.png[/img][/url] [url=https://twitter.com/CPSKYProject][img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39886669/a63caba8ed754dfcc60a95d5372fbaa17af5d3fd.png[/img][/url]