Skystead Ranch News

[h2]Cupid's Carnival is Here![/h2][p]It's the season of love, and love is in the air in Skystead Ranch! Or at least love letters are in the air. Cupid's Carnival will run from the 9th of February to the 16th every year. It's a little late this year, but no less vibrant! As we are late this year, we are extending the event to run until the 19th of February for this year only![/p][p]Play during Valentine's Week to see your Skystead beautifully decorated with gifts, bears, and balloons![/p][p][/p][p]Cupid's Carnival is an in-game event we run in all our games, so make sure to check out our other titles here to play along![/p][p]Although a little lighter in features compared to our previous annual Skystead events, we do hope to expand on Cupid's Carnival in the future, so watch this space and check back each year to see how it's evolved![/p][p][/p][h2]Beach Island Update pt.1[/h2][p]Once again, we want to express our thanks to our amazing Kickstarter backers who got us over the line for the Beach Island stretch goal! This new update wouldn't be here without your support! [/p][p]Hot Sand, Cool Water and Blue Skies are coming! Surely to attract a whole new variety of Skylets along with it![/p][p][/p][p]This is only Part 1 of the Beach Island update, which we are splitting into two large updates. We still have a ways to go to get the entire Beach Island ship-shape (if you pardon the pun), but with half of the update ready, we'd rather make it live for you to enjoy whilst we work on the rest, instead of it sitting dormant in the game files.[/p][p][/p][p]This Part 1 of the update brings two new Biomes and five new Skylets![/p][p][/p][h3]New Biomes[/h3][p]Unlock and purchase the Lift Upgrade for your island, and you will notice the Keepers stocking two new spells![/p]

• [p]Sand - A golden, warm flooring that can be mixed with other biomes to make beaches, deserts and more! Be warned, the sand is too dry to plant grass (just like the Rock terraforming spell), so you'll need to get creative if you want a variety of biomes.[/p]
• [p]Deep Water - Deeper, bluer and maybe even wetter than the regular Water Spell. Dig deeper into your Skystead to create a whole new watery ecosystem for your Skylet friends![/p][p][/p]

[h3]New Skylets[/h3][p]The beach island will eventually provide you with ten new Skylets to discover. For now, here are the first five that are ready to go![/p][p][/p][p]Introducing Hopper, Newt, Ribbett, Doc and Xotti![/p][p]All five need one or both of the new biomes to appear, so start experimenting with your island layouts and see who you can befriend first![/p][p][/p][h3]What's in Part 2?[/h3][p]This is only a taster of what's coming for the Beach Island update. [/p][p]Most important is a new island! Get ready with that Lift Upgrade, as you'll be needing it to travel to the new island when it floats by! We're aware that, right now, with the two new terraforming spells, space will be a bit tight to attract all the Skylets, so a new island is a must-have that is coming soon![/p][p]Secondly, the remaining five Skylets for the beach island are still being prepped to be released into the wild. That will bring the total new Skylets for the Beach Island up to ten! More water-based and dry sandy Skylets are just around the corner.[/p][p][/p][p]We're excited to finally deliver the Beach Island update, as it means we'll be ready to focus on other finishing touches, like the House access and Skylet Plushes, to get ready for the highly anticipated console releases![/p][p][/p][h2]More Updates![/h2][p]Not a part of the Beach Island update, but still worthy of a mention, is that we have fixed some big problems! [/p][p][/p][h3]Sleeping Skylets Look so Cute![/h3][p]We can't believe we missed this issue on release, especially since Jack put in so much work to make all of the Skylets have unique sleeping animations. [/p][p]The Skylets finally curl up to sleep instead of just closing their eyes where they stand! Here are some adorable examples, but have a look for yourself in-game to see how your favourite Skylet settles down for some much-needed shut-eye![/p][p][/p][h3]Cooking Fixes![/h3][p]Thank you for all of your reports to help narrow down the variety of cooking issues we had. All of the cooking recipes should now work as intended, looking at you Sky Fruit! The Sky Fruit no longer flies away from the kitchen appliances when placed, which means you can actually use it to prep a variety of meals as it was intended. [/p][p][/p][p]Put on your apron and give cooking a whirl to see what new recipes you can whip up![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Skystead Ranch V1.3.8 Patch Notes [/h2][h3]New Features [/h3]

• [p]Sleep! - Skylets play a falling sleep animation when they are supposed to. Previously, they just stood still and had sleeping "ZZZs" appear on their head. It is VERY cute.[/p]
• [p]New Sand Spell - A promised feature to come with the Beach Island update. This new Biome-creating spell lets you paint the floor with fine sand. Will you use it to make a dessert zone, a beach zone or just a sand pit for your Skylets to enjoy?[/p]
• [p]New Deep Water Spell - The second promised biome that is planned for the Beach Island update! This deep-water biome will attract exotic Skylets you can expect to see in a deep saltwater ocean.[/p]
• [p]5 New Skylets[/p]
  • [p]Newt - A shy salamander.[/p]
  • [p]Ribbett - A frog Skylet designed by one of our top-tier Kickstarter backers [/p]
  • [p]Hopper - The one-legged Savanah Skylet.[/p]
  • [p]Doc - The cutest baby octopus around.[/p]
  • [p]Xotti - A mystical water-bending Axolotl.[/p]
• [p]Voices lines for Yolk and Fang Skylets - Long overdue, but these voice lines should be a welcome addition to these event Skylets.[/p]
• [p]Cupid's Carnival Event - Love is in the air, literally… the air is filled with love letters! This seasonal event runs from 9th February to 16th February each year and adds a variety of Valentine's themed decorations to the island! Sadly, we haven't had the resources to add a new Sky Pier addition or mini game, but we hope to add to the event next year.[/p]

[h3] Bug Fixes and Misc [/h3]

• [p]Fixed Cooking! Several cooking recipes wouldn't cook correctly if you placed the ingredients in the wrong order. Everything should be working fine now. 🤞[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where, if you had 6 or more biomes in a zone, the corresponding billboard would have overflowing UI.[/p]
• [p]Removed the "Meal" tag from the Junk Food item. This was to resolve a conflict of it being Grumble's favourite food (who doesn't like meals), but it also adds to the joke of the item.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Spore's favourite food from a bugged Cheese item that you couldn't obtain to the Cheese item you can buy from the shop.[/p]
• [p]Changed Brie's favourite food to Nom Cream Dream, since its previous favourite contained meat (which it dislikes).[/p]
• [p]Sky Fruit now works with tables, cooking buildings and bins![/p]

[p][/p][h2]Skystead Ranch V1.3.10 Patch Notes [/h2][h3]Bug Fixes and Misc [/h3]

• [p]Fixed Shark Fury Grill recipe, incorrectly creating Fish Dinners[/p]
• [p]Fixed egg-based cooking recipes[/p]
• [p]Changed Fang's Favourite food to Fruit Jam to avoid a conflict where their favourite food contains a tag that they dislike.[/p]

[p]Skystead Ranch is in the Steam Winter Sale![/p][p][/p][p]Get Skystead Ranch for yourself or a friend this Christmas with a discount! ☃️[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]The sale ends on January 5th, so don't miss out! Stay Toastie![/p]

[p]Thank you so much for your support and patience with our game development! We're back strong with a brand new in-game event to get you back into the swing of Skystead Ranch, which includes new decorations, new buildable items, a new spooky Skylet, and even a brand-new mini-game![/p][p]As the new Halloween Ferry pulls up to the Event Pier on your Ranch, all of the spectral wisps escape from their containers onboard! It's your task to find them and bring them back to the ferry. Doing so will reward you with brand new Haunted Harvest items to build on your island! There's only one problem: the wisps can't be seen fully with the naked eye, so pull out your camera and get snapping photos to make them stick to you![/p][p]Building the new Haunted Harvest items may even attract a new, rare skylet to your ranch for Spook to befriend. 
[/p][p][/p][p]This Haunted Harvest Event will normally run alongside the events in our our games, with a start date of the 11th of October and ending on the 31st of October - however, since we are a little bit late this year, we have extended this event to run until the 7th of November, giving you an extra week of Halloween to find and unlock all the new items![/p][p][/p][h2]Why no Updates since April?[/h2][p]To be fully transparent, our Indie Games Studio ran into some big financial issues that we didn't foresee. As a direct result of this, we very sadly had to downsize our dev team. Part of this downsizing meant losing Laura, our amazing 3D artist who made most of the assets for Skystead Ranch. The joy she brought to the office is missed, along with the efficient production of new assets and art for Skystead Ranch.[/p][p]With no publishers or other new large financial backers, we ultimately decided to take a break from developing Skystead Ranch in order to focus on other projects to increase the revenue streams for our studio. We have developed a sequel to our most popular game Coloring Pixels, Coloring Voxels, which is now fully released and helping get us back on our feet.[/p][p]With this tied away, our studio is gradually getting back to a stable position, and we once again have time and resources to direct towards you and Skystead Ranch! So thank you once again for your patience. We're back and here to provide the best Ranching experience possible![/p][p][/p][h2]The Future[/h2][p]As of this month, the team is finally back to making progress with Skystead Ranch, starting with the Halloween update today. We're catching up and filling in the gaps for Skystead Ranch.
[/p][p][/p][p]We will be running at a slightly slower pace than we were at the start of the year due to being a smaller team, but we already have about most of the decorations needed for the Beach Island update, along with most, if not all, of the aquatic and sandy Skylets that will come with that beach update.[/p][p][/p][h2]Patch Notes v.1.2.7[/h2][h3]New Features[/h3]

• [p]Halloween “Haunted Harvest” Update! – Assuming you have the Seasonal Effects setting enabled (which is default), you will be greeted with the biggest atmosphere shift we have yet to take with Skystead Ranch. Enjoy new decorations, atmospheric settings, and the main menu. The best way to enjoy the event is to build the Event Pier, which will cause the Haunted Harvest Ferry to dock at your Skystead! Capture Wisps with your camera and take them to the boat to unlock four more buildables. Try placing these buildables to attract the new Fang Skylet![/p]
  • [p]New Haunted Harvest decorations[/p]
  • [p]Fang Skylet (including accompanying achievement)[/p]
  • [p]Four new buildable items to unlock[/p]

[h3]Bug Fixes and Misc[/h3]

• [p]Updated Paterons on the credits page with new members[/p]
• [p]Removed the Roadmap screen. This was way out of date anyway. Don’t worry, the things listed are not forgotten and are on our Trello boards for us to work through.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where buildable objects with an animation tied to them would animate when you try and destroy them.[/p]

[p]Skystead Ranch is in the Steam Summer Sale![/p][p][/p][p]Get Skystead Ranch for yourself or a friend this Autumn with a discount! 😎☀️[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]The sale ends on October 6th, so don't miss out! Stay Toastie![/p]

[p]8 Years of ToastieLabs,
Almost an entire year of Skystead Ranch!

We are celebrating another amazing year at ToastieLabs and we want to offer a huge thank you to all of you for playing our games! We are running a ToastieLabs sale all week with all our available games, DLC and Soundtrack at a 20% discount or more! From now until Monday, 18th August at 6 PM BST, everything is on sale! Now is the perfect chance to pick up that DLC you always wanted or to finish your ToastieLabs collection!

Head over to the Steam Store pages now so you don't miss out! [dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink] [/p][h2]Wishlist Coloring Voxels![/h2][p]The long-awaited sequel to Coloring Pixels is coming soon! Taking your favourite coloring game from 2D Pixels to 3D Voxels! Experience color-by-numbers like never before in our evolution of the Coloring genre! [/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p]