With over 20 million downloads on mobile and a recent release on Nintendo Switch, ThatGameCompany's Sky: Children of the Light is set for a flood of new players. Much like its previous game, Journey, Sky: Children of the Light is a multiplayer exploration game about wordless communication. Players take on the role of silent winged children, soaring through an airborne kingdom, searching for lost spirits, and returning life to the world. But they aren't doing it alone. They're bound to run into plenty of other players exploring Sky's world and they can help each other along the way. Making friends is crucial to getting the full experience.

Every meeting was fleeting in Journey. There's no way to communicate besides movement and no way to find the other player after a session. But in Sky: Children of the Light, ThatGameCompany gives players more tools to interact. They can gesture with emotes, such as pointing or waving, chat on benches, leave written notes, and send friend requests.

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How to Play With Friends in Sky: Children of the Light

While the game can be played single-player, playing with friends is extremely useful. They can help you find hidden spirits, give you access to multiplayer-only sections, and buff your flight energy. Once two players are friends, they can hop into the other's sessions whenever they're online. But as important as making friends is, the game is slightly unclear on how the process works.

sky children of light

When first exploring, other players will appear as translucent silhouettes. If one player gets close to another, they can press Y to give each other light, revealing their actual appearance. They can press Y again to offer a candle. If the other player accepts, they both become friends. From there, each player will be prompted to give the other a nickname, which is what will appear in the friends list.

The process to add friends met out of the game is different. In the pause menu, there's an "invite" icon. For Switch players, they can invite anyone who's already on their Nintendo online friend list. But ThatGameCompany promised cross-play, and sending friend requests to mobile players is a bit more involved.

To send an invite to mobile players, the game will generate a QR code. The player then needs to screencap that QR code and send the image to the other player's mobile device. Once the recipient scans it, they are automatically added to the friends list.

A player can check their friend list by looking at the "Friend Constellation" on the home map. They can join someone else's session by choosing the "follow" icon, which looks like a person following a dotted line. They'll automatically appear on the same map their friend is exploring.

The friending process could be a bit more intuitive, but the payoff for learning it is worth any momentary frustration. That being said, ThatGameCompany could be more direct explaining this system earlier in a future update.

Sky: Children of the Light is available for Google Play, iOS, and Nintendo Switch.

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