Sailing above the rusting, ruined skyscrapers of Earth in a customizable airship base is a fascinating idea, which is why the survival game "Forever Skies" had a very popular demo at Steam Next Fest in October. According to developer Far From Home, more than 80,000 players went on a quest to build futuristic airships, gather resources, build equipment, and fish for giant mutated moths in the clouds of toxic dust that blanket the planet.

If you were hoping to dive deeper into that devastated world this year, you may have to wait a little longer; Forever Skies was originally slated for an early access release by the end of 2022, but Far From Home announced today that the release date has been The company announced today that the release date has been pushed back to early 2023.

Not because people didn't like the demo, but the opposite. Players "provided a great deal of positive and constructive feedback," the developer said (opens in new tab), noting that 83% of players rated the demo 8/10 or better." We have now decided to accept much of this feedback and expand the scope of the game to launch in Early Access."

Far From Home outlined some of the plans for the expanded game, including a portion of the world under the eerie and dangerous toxic dust that can be seen in the newly released screenshots. Initially, this portion of the game was planned to be added after the early access release, but "from feedback and questions about what happens under the dust, we knew that we really should have the basic under the dust part ready from the start."

There are also plans to add more variations of skyscraper locations and a damage and repair system for airships that was intentionally left out of the demo." The toxic ravaged earth should be a major threat to both players and airships, but we decided to leave it out of the demo altogether because it still needs work on what we've just developed. And many players pointed out that this was an important element they wanted."

Airship customization will be added even before the Early Access launch, and Far From Home even released a new preview video, briefly showing a few different configurations for your blimpy base.

While the postponement is disappointing, on the plus side, it appears that the Early Access release will include more content than originally planned, so players will be able to experience more of the game once it is released. In the meantime, Far From Home has made the Forever Skies demo available again (with some improvements), so those who missed it the first time around may want to take a look now.