Interview: A Deep Dive Into the Art of Sky: Children of the Light with thatgamecompany

Most art books document a game's journey to launch. The Art of Sky: Gratitude to Nesting tells a different story, exploring what happens after release. Covering the first five years of Sky: Children of the Light's live service, the 245-page collection traces how the game's world continued to evolve through new seasons, collaborations, technical innovations, and, perhaps most importantly, the players who transformed Sky from a virtual space into a living community.

For thatgamecompany, documenting those years meant looking beyond finished artwork. The team revisited discarded concepts, production notes, whiteboard sketches, developer interviews, and behind-the-scenes stories spanning everything from the pandemic-inspired Season of Sanctuary to the ambitious AURORA concert experience. The result is both a retrospective of Sky's artistic evolution and a snapshot of how live-service development reshapes creative direction over time.

We spoke with Art Director Cecil Kim, Narrative Writer Jennie Kong, and Visual Development Lead Yui Tanabe about creating the new art book, evolving Sky's painterly aesthetic, collaborating across disciplines using Figma and the Beyond Engine, designing meaningful crossover events, and preserving five years of artistic experimentation for players and developers alike.

The original Sky art book focused on pre-release development, while The Art of Sky: Gratitude to Nesting covers the first five years after launch. How did that shift from documenting a game’s creation to documenting a living world change the way you approached this book?

Jennie Kong, Narrative Writer: When we began designing the first Sky art book in 2021, we had more than seven years of concept art and development stories to draw from. There was so much in the archive that it felt important to speak honestly about both the struggles and breakthroughs of making the game as a small team. That book became a creative blueprint for how Sky came to be– its concepts, characters, world-building, and all of the failed and successful iterations leading up to launch.

The second book covers the five years after launch, so the focus naturally shifted toward the players who helped make Sky a living world. Many players introduce themselves through the season when they first joined, and we wanted to honor those memories across the first twenty seasons. Every year we launch new season arcs for our community, but I am reminded and touched that they themselves bring their own stories and life into our game - from every hug, every flight or every joy or sad emotion faced together. So it’s with the players in mind that helped shape this new art book. 

Sky’s art style has continued evolving through seasons, events, collaborations, and community-driven moments since 2019. Looking back across those five years, what were some of the biggest visual or creative shifts you wanted the book to capture?

Yui Tanabe, Visual Development Lead: We have always viewed Sky as a living virtual theme park. With every passing season, we’ve made creative shifts to introduce new stories and mechanics. But looking back at the past years, we really wanted the book to capture how Sky evolved from a fun digital playground into an actual extension of our players' lives—a place for genuine human connection. Three key seasons highlight this visual and creative evolution: 

• Season of Sanctuary: This was the moment we deliberately broke away from our strict, solemn lore. Prompted by what the world needed during the pandemic lockdowns, we wanted to design a bright, breezy tropical vacation. The book captures this shift from ancient ruins to sunny, natural spaces, a visual design that cracked the fourth wall to offer comfort to our players in real life.
• Season of AURORA: This collaboration pushed our creative boundaries by merging a real-life artist's identity with Sky’s aesthetic. Visually and technically, we had to design a space capable of hosting unprecedented crowds. The book illustrates how we transformed the game's canvas to accommodate the scale, color, and spectacle of a massive virtual concert. 
• Season of Revival: As the name suggests, this season was about breathing new life into old spaces. We reimagined existing elements to expand our world’s lore while designing a cozy, evolving village. We wanted the Aviary to allow Sky to become a place for players to express themselves and connect. 

The journey continues. As Sky evolves, our community continues to inspire us to find new visual and creative ways to make this world a meaningful place to return to. 

Can you walk us through the production process for the art book itself? How did the team decide which concepts, illustrations, developer stories, seasonal materials, and unpublished artworks belonged in a 245-page collection? 

Jennie Kong: As the community has always been at the heart of Sky, it felt natural to tailor the content around what players would care about. Through this lens, Jenova encouraged us to focus on eight key seasons that changed the landscape technically, creatively, or socially. We also wanted to represent the other seasons and the player-focused events that return each year. 

It was important to interview the lead designers and artists behind each season, while also including perspectives from engineering, live ops, and community. Because every season began differently, we traced each one back to its original kernel and explored how studio and real-world changes shaped its development. Some chapters focus first on characters, emotional themes, or new technical features depending on how development began. Then we selected sketches, storyboards, and designs that best served this angle and highlighted what evolved, changed, or were discarded along the way. 

For example, Sanctuary speaks deeply about how COVID-19 impacted our choices and designs. Whereas, The Little Prince saw us struggle taking on our first adaptation. So we chose the illustrations, character work or environmental art that supported these behind the scenes stories. For seasons with shorter sections, we still wanted to dive into the core designs, memories and developer story. They meant just as much to us, so finding the right balance was essential. 

Cecil Kim, Art Director: Narrowing down what to include in the art book was one of the biggest challenges, simply because we had created so much artwork over the years. We saw the art book as an opportunity to shine a light on the art team's creative journey. Not just the pieces that made it into the final game, but also the ideas, explorations, and experiments along the way. 

We wanted to take readers backstage, where whiteboard sketches and Post-it notes are scattered everywhere, and give them a glimpse into our creative process. Rather than

presenting only the polished final artwork, we included concepts from every stage of development to show how each season evolved and how much fun we had bringing those worlds to life. 

Every season had artists who took creative ownership and poured their hearts into its development. We all championed the seasons we were most passionate about, and that enthusiasm is reflected throughout the book. One of my favorite parts of putting the art book together was collecting interviews from the artists. Hearing them talk about their own work and the stories behind it was incredibly rewarding. Many of those stories were new to me because, during development, we were all so focused on simply getting the work done. 

What about for the game? How has that evolved over the years and which specific programs does the team use in their pipeline? 

Cecil Kim: In terms of software, I would say Figma has been a game changer. It has made collaboration across the studio incredibly easy and seamless. Every season begins with pitches in Figma, followed by gameplay blueprints, and eventually 2D concept art, storyboards, and inspirational reference images. It becomes a living workspace where the entire creative process is documented in one place. 

Over time, each Figma board grows into a visual record of a season's development, from the earliest ideas to the final direction. Sometimes I look back at these boards and see them as works of art in their own right. They capture not only the artwork itself, but also the conversations, iterations, and creative thinking that brought each season to life. 

For 3D production, we continue to use Maya alongside our in-house engine, which has evolved significantly over the past five years. Originally called BlueSkyThinking, it has since grown into what is now known as the Beyond Engine. 

The Beyond Engine has become an incredible tool for achieving Sky's distinctive visual style quickly and efficiently. It allows artists to rapidly sculpt terrain, establish lighting, and iterate on environments early in development, making it much easier to explore ideas while maintaining the artistic quality and atmosphere that define the game. 

Sky has collaborated with IP such as The Little Prince and AURORA, but those collaborations feel very different from the more typical pop-culture crossover model used in many live games. How do you decide whether an external creative partner can truly fit within Sky’s emotional and visual language? 

Jennie Kong: The Sky team has always had a very strict process for deciding whether an IP or collaboration makes sense at all. We are often the first to say “no” because we are so protective of our community, and the overall experience. The Little Prince and AURORA did not feel like typical crossovers because we never approached them that way.

Both seasons have dedicated chapters in the book, so I do not want to spoil too much. The Little Prince was our tenth adventure season and launched alongside Sky on Nintendo Switch. The Little Prince had also been one of our early inspirations for Sky, with its themes of childhood innocence, adult corrosion, love, responsibility, and loss. We approached the season through those emotional meeting points between their book and our world. AURORA had been part of our family since before launch, singing both Sky's opening hymn and closing song. After The Little Prince, Jenova wanted to explore how her lyrics, vivid imagery, and voice could bring thousands of players together at once. With the shared focus and feeling of being connected at one of her concerts. The book goes much deeper into that season, and I am very curious to hear what the readers think. 

Cecil Kim: When we choose an IP to collaborate with, we first look for shared values and a core message that naturally align with Sky. We're not simply looking for well-known brands, we're looking for stories that complement the emotional experience we want to create. 

The Little Prince was one of the original inspirations for Sky, with its timeless themes of love, relationships, childlike innocence, and loss. Likewise, AURORA's music embodies vulnerability, hope, and environmental awareness, making the collaboration feel like a natural fit rather than just an IP partnership. 

When adapting collaborations or special events into Sky, how do the narrative, visual development, and art direction teams work together to make something feel recognizable to fans of that IP while still belonging naturally inside Sky’s world? 

Yui Tanabe: First and foremost, we are incredibly selective about our collaborations. We only consider a partnership when we find a deep, core alignment with Sky’s values, which naturally helps the IP resonate within our world. Our first collaboration is a perfect example: The Little Prince was actually a major influence during the original development of Sky. Because its spirit already lived inside our game, our narrative and art teams simply had to trace and highlight those shared threads, making the connection feel entirely natural. 

Another thing that makes our studio’s process unique is that we never proceed with a collaboration unless someone in the team is genuinely passionate about it. We always ensure there is someone on the development team who has a deep, personal emotional connection to the IP. That person becomes a vital anchor for our narrative, visual development, and art direction teams, sharing their deep knowledge so we can go beyond surface-level research. This shared passion allows our teams to collaboratively translate the IP's unique aesthetic and storytelling into Sky's signature painterly style, making the final experience feel both deeply emotional and authentic to both worlds. 

Cecil Kim: We look deeply into the core message of each IP and build the gameplay around that central theme. Visually, we respect the authenticity of the original designs and their cultural

background, so we go through a careful, iterative process of refining even the smallest details without compromising the creator's original intent. 

For example, when designing the Fox from The Little Prince, we explored many alternative iterations that were arguably more visually appealing. However, we ultimately chose to recreate the fox as faithfully as possible to the original illustration. We understood that generations of readers have formed a deep emotional connection to that simple drawing in the book, and preserving that familiarity was more important than creating a more modern or stylized interpretation. 

The book covers adventure seasons, world expansions, collaborations, and community events. Were there any particular seasons or events that surprised you when revisiting the concept art, production notes, or visual experiments behind them?

Jennie Kong: I would say every season surprised us, haha. At first, I felt this heavy burden to document every last concept, choice, design, and change. But after the third or fourth interview session, I realized it was more important not to over-steer the conversation, and instead follow the emotions and memories that naturally bubbled up. Some of the most heartfelt stories were about ideas that were discarded, or designs that came second to the final version. Even if they could not all be captured in the book, it was incredibly moving to hear those memories. 

There were plenty of surprises: how challenging designing Prophecy was per trial, how seasons like AURORA and Abyss began as relatively straightforward projects before growing dramatically in scope (a huge risk at the time). Or how many event cosmetic designs are ultimately set aside. Hearing all of that made me want to honor the developers themselves, rather than document every last production detail. Framing each chapter around the spirit of the work they put into it became the most invigorating and important part of writing the book for me. 

Yui Tanabe: What surprised me most was simply the sheer volume of work we’ve accumulated over the years. Seeing all of these milestones gathered in one place—each one fueled by the drive to make Sky a better place for our players—was incredibly moving. While I’ve been close to all of these projects, the process of sorting, filtering, and compiling years of art into a single book really drove home just how much we’ve accomplished. Looking at the countless iterations of even the smallest details made me realize, all over again, how deeply passionate and consistent our team is. 

I was also amazed by how vastly different some of our initial concept art looks compared to what we actually released. It’s a wonderful reminder of our iterative process, which is constantly testing, refining, and adapting to ensure that whatever we deliver is in its absolute best form within our timeline and resources. 

Sky’s community has become a major part of the game’s identity, and the new book includes a chapter celebrating annual events and Sky Anniversaries. How do player rituals, community gatherings, and shared memories influence the way the team thinks about art direction for a live social world? 

Jennie Kong: I think player rituals and shared memories are a huge part of how we understand Sky as a living world. We may create the spaces and multiplayer props, but it is the community gathering within them, enjoying them together, and creating traditions that give those events meaning. 

For the art direction of accessories and cosmetics, this gives us a clearer sense of what players want to see more of in recurring events like Love or Bloom. And while it is not covered in this volume, it also encouraged us to create more ambitious events such as Alice’s Wonderland Cafe or The Little Prince Encore. Our physical Sky Assemblies throughout the year bring players’ stories and friendships to a whole new level, and it is always so rewarding to hear their thoughts when we meet them. 

Every copy of the book includes a STAR chip that unlocks an in-game book accessory and additional content, letting players explore concept art and hear audio reflections from artists in seasonal spaces. How did you approach connecting a physical art book with an interactive in-game experience, and what did you want that bridge between print and play to feel like? 

Jennie Kong: Going all the way back to the Journey art book and its use of AR, Jenova has always loved the idea of thatgamecompany products being both visually beautiful and interactive. In the first Sky art book, readers could place the digital book prop in-game to revisit parts of the world’s design history, including wireframes and early environmental layouts. For this volume, we wanted to take that idea a step further. Our lead artist Yui and concept artist Ash, guide players through how the eight featured seasons were approached artistically, bringing some of the book’s behind-the-scenes anecdotes to life in a more personal and interactive way. It’s a really fun feature, which I hope brings smiles to our players. 

Yui Tanabe: We have always wanted to close the distance between our development team and our players. We hope that everyone who visits Sky realizes that the creators behind this world are human beings who want to build a meaningful connection with them. 

By bridging a physical art book with an in-game experience via the STAR chip, we wanted to create a transition that feels like bringing a piece of the magic home, and then carrying it back into the game. Holding the physical book in your hands while unlocking these interactive elements in-game makes the world feel more tangible. The audio commentaries were recorded with the hope that they feel one step closer to talking to you directly, sharing the human stories, challenges, and dreams that went into crafting the moments you love.

thatgamecompany, Developers of Sky: Children of the Light and Creators of The Art of Sky