SKY OF TIDES SCI-FI NARRATIVE RPG GETS NEW DEMO & LAUNCH WINDOW

Gamescom Attendees Can Play the Game at Courage Cologne, on Indie Arena or Meet with Lofty Sky Devs in ESDigital Games Booth

GAMESCOM: COLOGNE, GERMANY– MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2024 — Indie publisher ESDigital Games and Toronto-based film and game production studio Lofty Sky Entertainment, have announced a Q1 2025 launch window for Sky of Tides. A new downloadable demo for the Sci-Fi Narrative Adventure-RPG is available on Steam in conjunction with today’s announcement.

Set in numen9, a technologically advanced universe on the brink of war, Sky of Tides explores the aftermath of a great calamity that fractured the planet, floated the oceans into the sky, and split the land into nine separate planetoids. Players follow Rin D’Lorah, a teenage girl who must venture across the least hospitable regions of numen9 in search of her missing father, joined by a runaway rebel and a robot with his humor parameters set to high. Along her journey, Rin encounters a diverse cast of characters that present choices that will shape both Rin and numen9’s future, as she discovers her power to heal the broken planet and its people.

The development team wanted to create a fresh approach with Sky of Tides’ RPG elements, letting the story and tone influence the gameplay. Unlike most conventional RPGs that encourage min-maxing of character attributes, Sky of Tides rewards balance. There are 32 scenarios to explore, but for a limited time players who achieve parity will be rewarded with the complimentary exclusive unlocking of the Sky of Tides: Alta animated series, from within the game. The five-episode companion series tells the story from the perspective of Alta Gildeon, another compelling female protagonist, and her twin brother Kyrll.

“We’re storytellers first, and so it was important to us that the game mechanics emerge organically from the main character’s goals,” says Judith Chang, creative director at Lotty Sky. “It’s a broken world that’s divided and out of balance. The standard min-maxing of stats didn’t seem to fit here, so we’re trying something different. Players still make their own choices, and there are 32 possible outcomes in the end, but the game rewards balance because that’s really what the world and the story needs from Rin.”

Press and consumers attending Gamescom this week will be able to check out all-new gameplay for Sky of Tides at the Indie Arena booth in Hall 10 (2nd level, Space 10, Wednesday, August 21 through Sunday, August 26. The game will also be part of this year’s Courage Cologne event at devcom Developer Night on Tuesday, August 20 (tickets). Press attending Gamescom are encouraged to meet with the developers on the ESDigital booth in the Galaktus bizhub (Hall 4.1, booth D-011).

A new demo with updated gameplay is now available. GDC 2024 “Best in Play” nominated, Sky of Tides is slated for release in Q1, 2025 for PC via Steam and the Epic Game Store, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One and X/S consoles and the Nintendo Switch next year. Wishlist or download the free demo with updated gameplay on Steam. For more information, please visit https://esdigital.games/.