How a toxic world inspired Forever Skies, a first-person sci-fi survival game

A state-of-the-art airship hovers above a vast toxic dust cloud, shrouding an ecologically devastated Earth. That’s what most people notice when they see Forever Skies for the first time. And while this creates an interesting and unique premise to explore, it’s one that was inspired by rather somber real-world circumstances.

Read on to learn about the inspiration behind this first-person post-apocalyptic survival game, coming to PS5 this year.

While our team is from around the world, a significant portion of us are based in Poland. For decades now, our country has been notorious for its poor air quality, particularly during the winter months. Iconic Polish cities such as Krakow or Wroclaw are frequently ranked alongside massive megacities like Beijing, Delhi, or Lahore. But these are massive metropolises with 10 or even 20+ million people living in them. Cracow or Wroclaw don’t even exceed 700,000 people and yet we regularly get public warning announcements to stay indoors because of the current air pollution levels.

Some studies even suggest that to breathe clean, unpolluted air, people would need to go 100 meters above the cities. And so the first spark of inspiration that kicked off our entire world design was found.

We envisioned a scenario where humanity confronts an irreversible ecological catastrophe of its own making by erecting towering highrises above the toxic dust clouds as a last-ditch effort to survive. But all this did was delay the inevitable societal collapse. Decades later, a select group of humans who fled into orbit dispatch a research team back to Earth to rediscover the world, marking the beginning of the story in Forever Skies.

At your side will be a high-tech airship that you can pilot, upgrade, and fully customize. In a world where the ground is no longer safe, this floating base will become your home, lifeline, and greatest tool for survival.

You will need to scavenge for supplies and resources, use science to research new tools and equipment, and eventually descend below the toxic dust to pursue your research mission. But nature has mutated and evolved immensely under these harsh conditions and is no longer hospitable to humans.

We do not overly push an ecological message in our game because the setting does it on its own. The consequences of humanity’s actions are shown to you and now you must survive in this environment. And that is something we always wanted to do. To not preach, but simply show and give people the space to think about this crucial topic.Forever Skies makes its console debut exclusively on PlayStation 5 in 2024 and will let you play in single-player or up to 4-player co-op. Thanks so much for reading.