Joel Burgess
@joelburgess.bsky.social
1.7K followers 560 following 130 posts
Studio Head at Soft Rains Priors: Capy games, Watch Dogs Legion, Fallouts 3/4/76, TES: Skyrim, Oblivion, Aeon Flux, Bloodrayne 2, technically Grandma’s Boy
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BTW If you enjoyed my thread about working with immersive simulation systems yesterday, you might enjoy this deep dive that was posted recently. Jules goes deep into the tech craft that underpins it.
We've got another video for you today from the technical side of things! ⚙

Watch our Tech Director, @julesfern.gay, give a talk about the tech behind the fungi growth & destruction in Ambrosia Sky, powered by @sidefx.bsky.social. ✨

www.youtube.com/watch?v=89qL...
Volumetric destruction with Hand-Made Charm in Ambrosia Sky | Soft Rains | Equinox 2025
YouTube video by Houdini
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Joel Burgess
Hi #Portfolioday ! I'm Vash, a concept artist and comic illustrator, with a healthy obsession for ttrpgs, scifi and weird fantasy!

vashtaylor.squarespace.com
A comic page picked out in blues and reds. Its dark and foreboding. A girl sits by a campfire. She begins to cry concept art for ambrosia sky - Dalia lays gerald to rest. The musician Tamino, painted in blocky, muted colours three witches stand around a cauldron, a noxious mist surrounds them. They're dressed in ornate clothing. The forest around them bares the grim evidence of their passing.
New feature request:

After the 10th time I open an item, mark it unread, and close it, begin prompting me with a big "Are you ACTUALLY ready to read and reply to this, or should we just keep it unread?" confirmation prompt.

Feel free to make the UI string progressively exasperated with me.
Reposted by Joel Burgess
✨Ambrosia Sky: Act One arrives on November 10th, 2025! ✨

Watch the latest gameplay trailer from #IGNFanFest and learn about your upcoming role as a Scarab: a space-faring scientist discovering an alien ecosystem and laying the dead to rest. 👩‍🔬💀

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehLr...
Ambrosia Sky - Official Gameplay Overview Trailer | IGN Fall Fan Fest 2025
YouTube video by IGN
www.youtube.com
This is what I love about games like this. Working with simulation/systems is itself chaotic play & close to my heart.

Anyway, y'all know what to do: if you're into what we're doing, try the demo, spread the word and wishlist at your storefront of choice!
store.steampowered.com/app/3580160/...
Ambrosia Sky on Steam
You left. Now they’re dead. Ambrosia Sky: Act One is an immersive sim about exploring an asteroid colony devastated by a mysterious contamination. Survive and harvest strains of aggressive alien fungi...
store.steampowered.com
So THAT is what my trigger does; prompt dormant electro-fungi to sprout when a player traipses into the area

That sets off a chain reaction of secondary and tertiary effects, including the drop in gravity.

The end result is an entirely playable, simulated "cinematic" moment.
Electrical sim in Ambrosia Sky has three states: Powered, unpowered, and "overloaded" - which is caused where electric fungi touches and feeds on power.

Overloaded power basically scrambles whatever it touches. Lights flicker, doors jam... and gravity generators fail.
As before, I COULD just disable the generator in the trigger script.

But we also simulate electrical systems, so the "right way" is to short out the gravity control's POWER source.

Enter the main character of this story: electrical fungus.
But... I'm not just setting gravity to zero; Gravity is part of our world sim. So the "right way" to do this is to disable the nearby gravity generator.

So... how does one disable a gravity generator?

I am SO glad you asked.
Okay, so: at the end of the opening level, there's a room where gravity goes wonky.

Superficially, this is a pretty traditional scripted moment kind of thing. I've got a trigger near a doorway that fires off an event.

Voila. Traditional. Typical. (Boring.)
With our new demo running during Steam Next Fest, I'm seeing more players discover Ambrosia Sky's immersive sim sensibilities.

I thought it might be fun to share a pair of moment from the demo that illustrates this, through the lens of how I do my work as a level designer.
Reposted by Joel Burgess
✨ Scarab tested, Deck (unofficially) approved! ✨

If you've got a Steam Deck or any of those other nifty handheld PCs, you can play the NEW & IMPROVED Ambrosia Sky demo on them! Right now!

We're working on official compatibility, so please play the demo and share your feedback. 💛
🔴 Going live in ~10 minutes
Join us on Twitch for a developer Q&A! 🙋

Next Tuesday (October 7) at 3pm ET, join @joelburgess.bsky.social, @astroscout.ca, and Sofy as they answer your questions and play through our latest demo build.

Catch the stream at: twitch.tv/softrainsgames
Come by the Twitch stream next week!

We'll be showing the latest updates to Ambrosia Sky and taking questions about the game - or dogs, or whatever you're curious to hear me ramble about in front of my webcam.
Join us on Twitch for a developer Q&A! 🙋

Next Tuesday (October 7) at 3pm ET, join @joelburgess.bsky.social, @astroscout.ca, and Sofy as they answer your questions and play through our latest demo build.

Catch the stream at: twitch.tv/softrainsgames
Feature request:

When the editor has fully updated and loaded my workspace, please play carnival music in my headphones at full blast until I alt-tab out of whatever email/DM/thread/etc grabbed my attention in the meantime.
not fair, reading the definitive answer which in retrospect is definitely included in the source material
That’s some good metadata
Where am I?

(I'd say wrong answers only, but I'll be genuinely impressed if somebody comes through with a right answer)
Reposted by Joel Burgess
Boss: You get that new batch of screenshots for the game?
Me: Yep, got 'em right here!
Boss: You have done a great job and didn't veer from my instructions in a silly/humorous fashion at all. I'm proud of you.
Me: 😌
Reposted by Joel Burgess
Hey, here's that new video!

I had the privilege of sitting down with @kaittremblay.bsky.social, narrative director for Soft Rains, about Ambrosia Sky!

We explore death positivity, consent, and more in a fascinating chat about a fascinating game.

Let me know what you think!

youtu.be/iJrHtAnyHx4
Proud to share more of the work that folks are putting into Ambrosia Sky with this story trailer.
"It's up to you now, Dalia... so make it mean something."

With an outpost in crisis and with her loved ones missing, Dalia returns to the distant station that she once called home. 🪐

Adapt to survive. Cleanse the contamination. Escape the crisis.

Watch our new trailer here: youtu.be/IBts7GmEIBs
Ambrosia Sky 🪐 | Story Trailer
YouTube video by Soft Rains Games
youtu.be
The Easter (egg) Bunny showed up today