New Release Date
Hello everyone!
After an extensive closed beta-test, quality-assurance as well as the reevaluation of the development roadmap, we want to announce important news - Early Access launch of Stoneshard is being moved to February 6, 2020.
This decision was not easy to make. We wanted you to go explore the lands of Aldor as soon as possible. The current quality of the game at this milestone is up to our standards, however we couldn’t implement some of the important mechanics that we think are crucial to the first public build yet.
Even though the game in its current state is fun to play, we saw areas where we could make improvements in regards to replayability of ingame content, it ends too fast - we wanted to make the core loop more thorough and that’s what we are working on currently.
Right now in the beta there are three categories of enemies (not types), ten skill trees and fully developed first settlement called Osbrook, including its environment, contract system, two types of dungeons and lots of unique equipment.
With more time to improve our systems, February will introduce several new and updated features:
- The foundation for Caravan mechanics and several possible followers.
- Expansion of the map and an additional new settlement.
- Stoneshard: Prologue, updated and connected with the main game, providing players with proper tutorials to our systems and allowing you to get accustomed to the world of Stoneshard.
- Revisitable dungeons and contracts in earlier settlements.
- First real boss of the game that will test your build and character in glorious battle.
- Updated and polished gameplay mechanics - fully realised dual-wieldingand stealth.
- Additional unique encounters in the world, making exploration more interesting and rewarding.
- Additional skill trees, making playstyle and development of your character more personal
- Additional content - new equipment, enemies and more.
These important updates will allow us to expand upon them and provide much more smooth experience for world progression.
We want to deliver you almost all core features when it hits Early Access, so that we can continue to collect feedback and improve upon our vision with our community involved until full release.
It is in our best hopes that the extension to February 2020 will help us to provide you with an enjoyable experience with Stoneshard.
Thank you for your patience,
Ink Stains Games.
Devlog: Prologue Progress
Hello everyone!
In this devlog we’ll tell you what to expect from the updated Prologue which we plan to release this year.
Since the release of the Prologue in May 2018 almost every aspect of the game has changed so much, that the current Prologue will rather confuse newcomers than introduce them to the game. Therefore we decided to put an effort into updating its systems and mechanics so that they’ll better reflect the state of the main game.
It’s worth mentioning that the Prologue will remain free and will also be included in the main game, where it will serve as a tutorial and an introduction to the story. It means that you can complete it both as a standalone version as well as a part of the main game. Your actions in the Prologue will not have any effect on your main game so don’t worry about transferring progress. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you finish the Prologue beforehand, you’ll be able to skip it in the main game and go straight to creating your character.
The Prologue’s structure will remain almost exactly the same. You’ll still find yourself in a dungeon, escape, complete a tutorial floor and then fight your way through two procedurally generated floors to challenge the final boss. We’ve also introduced quite a number of changes to the tutorial. For instance - more visible and descriptive popups, explaining game’s mechanics. We hope that it will provide a better introduction to the game.
As for game systems and mechanics, everything is now up to date with the current build of the main game. Reworked UI, relevant stats and abilities, new health and injury system, more transparent display of hunger and thirst, better dungeon generation, destructible objects and enemies opening doors – it will all be included in the updated Prologue.
Content wise there are many noticeable changes, especially for those who didn’t take part in the closed beta test. Since the release of the original Prologue we’ve added a huge number of new equipment and also changed most of the old stuff, so you’ll see lots of new items. We’ve also changed starting enemies. Now instead of vampires you’ll fight against a cult of Proselytes, boasting fresh new enemy types and abilities. Other than that, all dialogues were rewritten to better accommodate story and setting changes.
And finally, the boss fight. It’s safe to say that it has been improved the most. First of all, the Cursed Chapel was completely remade in accordance with our increased quality standards. Second, we’ve added a few tweaks to the fight with the statues. For instance half the spells is tied to one statue, while the other is to the second one. Respectively, by destroying one of the statues, you’ll prevent the Archon from casting blood bolts and puddles or stop him from summoning and healing zombies.
Third, the battle with the reborn Archon which used to be an optional secret, is now a mandatory second phase of the fight. The Archon himself was naturally changed as well, now possessing quite a few new abilities. You should be able to beat him by strategically exploiting his weaknesses. What are those? You’ll have to find out yourself.
That’s it for now. We’ll announce a date for the Prologue very soon, so stay tuned.
Until next time!
Remastered Prologue is Here!
Hello everyone!
Ink Stains Games here! We’d like to wish all of you Happy Holidays and to present you the long awaited update for the Prologue as a Christmas gift.
The original Prologue was published in May 2018. At the time it was more of a proof of concept, designed to demonstrate Kickstarter backers our vision of the future game. A lot of time has passed since then, most systems of the game have changed beyond recognition. And at some point the Prologue grew so outdated that updating it became a priority.
Now the Prologue is mechanically equal to the main game and we hope it will make it easier to wait for the February release
Stoneshard: Prologue
The list of changes is too expansive to be presented in detail – after all, this update includes a year and a half of hard work. The Prologue’s structure remains the same, but if we are to list the most important changes, here is what you should expect from this update:
- An improved tutorial with detailed advice on main game mechanics.
- Vampires were swapped with Proselytes – a new group of enemies with their own set of abilities.
- A reworked boss fight, which now consists of two consecutive phases instead of two parallel outcomes.
- A reworked health, injury and needs system. The old Prologue had it functioning based on RNG. Now it’s a transparent, deterministic process which you can assess at any time.
- More weapons, equipment and all kinds of items.
- Abilities from the closed beta are now available in the Prologue.
- Destructible environment. Press CTRL to attack environmental objects!
- Reworked Dual Wielding system.
- Lots of QoL improvements: better controls, more hotkeys, item comparison, inventory auto-sorting, pop-up hints and more. Though keep in mind that the game is designed primarily for mouse controls.
- Most of the game art was reworked.
- Dialogues and lore notes were rewritten to better clarify the opening events of the story. New voice-overs for the characters.
- Lots of changed and added mechanics (reworked Attributes, for instance).
- A reworked UI.
- Fullscreen support for 1366х768, 1440х900, 1600х900, 1680х1050, 1920х1080 and 1920х1200 resolutions.
- Added an event log.
- “Last Hope” and “At What Cost?” achievements were replaced by “The Bitter Beginning” and “Eternal Hunger” achievements. The rest of the achievements were updated to fit with the content changes.
- Enemies learned how to open doors.
It’s worth to remember that many of the planned mechanics are still missing. On February 6 the game is just being released for Early Access, during which we plan to continue developing it for another couple of years, gradually implementing our vision.
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Frequently asked questions
Where did the stealth and some other skill trees from the old Prologue go?
Stealth mode was temporarily removed from the game. It will return during Early Access after being reworked. Same for the unavailable skill trees.
Can I launch the game on Mac or Linux?
Unfortunately you can’t. For now we can’t say for certain when the game will be available for these platforms.
What happens if I’ve already got the achievements in the old Prologue?
Don’t worry, your progress remains. The achievements were changed, not removed, so you automatically get their changed versions.
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Merry Christmas and good luck finding your way out of the dungeon!
Press "W".
Yes, it's due to the engine's technical limitations. Since the game is turn-based, not animation-heavy and pixel-art, it doesn't seem too critical for us.
Yes, due to how the save system currently works, we can't save it after you read the books. Maybe we'll unlock skills automatically when in Archives to fix this for better usability.
Character customization isn't finished. We plan to introduce trait/perk system as well.
Well, that's what weapons do - they deal damage
All weapon skill trees are designed around a certain mechanic so they synergize well when used in the right sequence. Most utility and magic skills aren't yet in the game, so there'll be more possible builds in the future.
