Hi everyone!

We'd also like to announce the end of support for Stoneshard: Prologue as a standalone title. Starting today, a free demo version with the same content is available on Stoneshard’s store page, still offering everyone a chance to try the game out before purchase.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/625960/Stoneshard/

Those of you who have already added Stoneshard: Prologue to their library can continue playing it, but it will no longer receive updates and will be removed from the Steam Store in the near future.

Take care!

Hi!

We’re delighted to take part in the Steam Game Festival (June 16 - June 22), which is already live now! Throughout the event we've brought demos for each of the 8 games we are currently working on.



All of them are in different genres, settings and styles. You will surely find something that piques your interest! All the content available for Steam Summer Festival is free, some demos are long, some allow infinite play. Here is a little sneak peek of every title available.




Voidtrain is a first-person action/survival game where you become a crew member of an interdimensional express. Build your own train, upgrade it, craft weapons and travel across different mysterious worlds full of outlandish creatures, Nazis and other dangers.

https://youtu.be/o0bIODWSX5Y

Voidtrain’s demo features a base loop of the game, where you’ll be able to travel between biomes on your train, gather resources to upgrade it and stop by interdimensional train depots filled with Nazis ought to be defeated.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1159690/Voidtrain/




Tunche is a charming, hand-drawn beat'em up hack and slash game with roguelike elements, co-op and a pinch of shaman witchcraft. Visit the amazonian jungle alone or together with your friends, choose one of the 5 unique characters and hack through hordes of enemies!

And if you like A Hat in Time, we got a big surprise for you — Hat Kid will be the 5th Playable Character in the game. Moreover, you’ll be able to test her in the demo!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/887450/Tunche/




Do you miss the golden era of Game Boy? Linked Mask is a 2D platformer that will make you reminiscent of the good old days, where a player has to overcome six towers, collect six masks containing elemental powers and ultimately conquer the Castle of the Primals. And there’s a chillingly cool soundtrack that will make your head bop as you traverse the deadly Towers!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1111590/Linked_Mask/




Plunge into a VHS-era cyberpunk world of Jack Move, an RPG featuring japanese style turn based battles and gorgeous Hi-Bit pixel art. Take on the role of Noa, a vigilante hacker who is thrust into a world of murder, kidnapping and dark research after her father goes missing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yOLVvhsJFw

There’s a brand new demo of Jack Move available that features a new slums area, a new dungeon and a whole bunch of new enemies for you to tangle with.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1099640/Jack_Move/




Black Book is a dark RPG Adventure based on Slavic mythology and featuring card-based combat. You will take on the role of Vasilisa, a young sorceress on a quest to revive her beloved one. In order to do so, she has to uncover all the 7 seals of Black Book — a demonic artefact, said to be powerful enough to grant any wish.

The demo features an essential part of the story — the First Day of Vasilisa becoming a witch. You’ll be able to test test the core game mechanics, battle regular demons and even test your strength in a fight against a boss.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1138660/Black_Book/




There Is No Light is a pixel-art action adventure in a dark post-apocalyptic setting, which tells a story of a protagonist fighting against a fallen underground civilization and its appalling religious rituals.

In this demo you’ll be able to explore a small part of the game world. Visit a village, the existence of which remained unknown for a long time. Find out how people live in the underground world ruled by the Church of the Great Hand. Find your own playstyle by combining 3 available weapon types, so that eventually you can fight a giant boss Behemoth that gets in your way to freedom.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1132980/There_Is_No_Light/




Tower Princess is a 3D roguelike action platformer where you'll have to beat a dungeon, defeat a dragon, rescue a princess/prince and manage a perfect date with them! There’s a wide variety of royalty members you can hit on — you’ll be able to find someone you like even if you’re not into humans.

The demo is a linear and brief sample of a run in one of the Castle's areas. It shows the visuals and the core gameplay of Tower Princess, but it's focused on the princess aid in combat, as without her help, you wouldn't stand a chance against the Evil Dragon. Are you ready to test yourself as a knight in shining armour?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1138650/Tower_Princess/




SuchArt is a painting sim game featuring you being such an amazing artist. Really you rock, your latest DNA test is very positive about it. Now please paint, sell and expose your art from your new studio aboard the Space City. And don’t forget — the only limit is the size of your brush (or a flamethrower).

SuchArt demo features a separate room (a virtual studio instead of a real one you’ll get in the full game) with a limited amount of tools and an introductory part of the story. However, you’ll be able to test the core game mechanics and take a couple of commissions from virtual clients, which is already fun!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1293180/SuchArt/

Greetings!

We'd like to thank all those who've been supporting us all this time. Our game is about to enter into the next stage, and we hope we can see it through together.
You can purchase the game here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/625960/Stoneshard/

You can learn about the development plan and see answers to the most frequently asked questions in the previous news post.

In short, it’s now required to complete the Prologue before playing in Adventure Mode, since it’s an important part of the story, serving as a tutorial to basic game mechanics. Because of that we’ve decided to make the Prologue’s difficulty curve less steep to better ease new players into the game and allow them to delve into the open world as soon as possible. The changes mostly affect the boss fight and some secondary mechanics. Other than that, the Prologue remains a formidable challenge to your tactical ability.

The Prologue can be completed as part of the main game as well as separately. If you completed the Prologue after the December update and before you purchased the main game, you will be able to skip it and start playing in Adventure Mode right away.

• New localizations: Simplified Chinese, German, and Polish
  
• Added a checkpoint before the boss fight
  
• Increased food drop rates
  
• Hunger and thirst gains are reduced
  
• New jewelry and helmets!
  
• Rebalanced geomancy
  
• Boss fight: the statues are now less resistant to slashing and piercing types of damage
  
• Boss fight: Reborn Archon’s health, damage, and life drain are reduced by 10-20%
  
• Various small fixes and improvements!

Hello everyone!

As a reminder, it’s just 3 days until the Early Access release! That’s why we’d like to answer some of the most frequently asked questions as well as tell you about the current status of the game, what will happen during the EA, and our plans for the future.

Early Access is just the beginning of the long way, which we are yet to walk with your support. There are still lots of mechanics and content to be added. We’ll need approximately 2 years to implement everything we’ve planned.

Let’s start with the most important part - the current content. Right now the basic gameplay cycle is pretty much in place. Combat, dungeon crawling, health system, character development, and economy are all functional.

To fully explore all the content with one character, you’ll need around 7-10 hours, which is roughly translated into gaining 8-10 experience levels.

Currently in-game content includes:

• Two settlements - Osbrook and Mannshire
  
• Two types of dungeons
  
• Three enemy factions: brigands, the undead, proselytes
  
• 16 types of contracts
  
• 200+ items and 100+ abilities
  
• Hunting
  
• Health system
  
• Economy

Unfortunately we couldn’t implement everything we had planned by February 6, so some of the content (new boss, a couple of new skill trees, expanded dialogues and so on) will be added with the first update – Trollslayer, which will be released in March. This february will mostly be spent on fixing reported bugs and adjusting balance.

For now, let us introduce our roadmap:


Keep in mind that new content and features are not limited to things listed in the roadmap, they only represent high priority targets. The listed dates are an approximation and may be subject to change in the future versions of the roadmap. We may also add or remove features at our discretion.

• Supporter pack. It will be available on release for $10 and will include OST along with two unique starting items (they don’t offer major gameplay advantage). In the future the pack will be expanded with, among other things, a digital manual and an artbook. These items are granted automatically to every purchaser of the Supporter pack, there will be no need to buy them separately.
  
• The Prologue. It will be included in the main game, so you won’t have to download and play the Prologue as a separate game. It also doesn’t matter how you complete it or what items, experience, character build, etc. you acquire there -- these things are part of the story of a separate character. If you’ve already finished the Prologue, you’ll be able to start playing in an open world right away.
  
• Permadeath. Even though the game is balanced around permadeath mechanic, enabling it is purely optional, and you’ll be able to turn it off when starting a new game. If you play without permadeath, you can resume your game from the latest save.
  
• Save system. It’s only possible to save the game in taverns. To save your progress, you need to find a tavern, rent a room, and sleep for any amount of time. Unfortunately the game’s engine doesn’t allow saving anywhere and anytime when the game is this expansive.
  
• Progress wipes. Large updates which add new mechanics will likely lead to save file incompatibility. However, if you want to continue playing as a character from a previous version, you can rollback to the previous version of the game via Steam game options.
  
• Languages. English, Russian, Chinese, German and semi-official fanmade Polish will be available on release. We also plan to add the following languages soon: Spanish, French, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese. The work on them will begin soon after the EA release. In the future we also plan to add Korean and Japanese localizations.
  
• Multiplayer and co-op. They are not planned, the game is an exclusively single-player experience.
  
• Achievements and trading cards. They are planned, but not for the nearest future.
  
• The main story is not yet available. For now there is only a sandbox mode, where you can travel between the settlements, fulfill contracts, and explore dungeons. We want to finish the game mechanics and content first before we add the main story as a single large expansion, which will arrive right before the game leaves the Early Access.
  
• Full keyboard and gamepad support. At the moment the controls are designed for the mouse, but we plan to improve keyboard controls in the future and add gamepad support.
  
• Mac and Linux. The game will be available for Linux on release. Mac OS support will be added later, the date is TBA.
  
• GOG release. It’s planned, but not for the first few months.

If you still have questions, you can ask them in the comments below. That’s it for now.

Thank you for your support and see you on February 6!

Hello everyone!

We’re here to remind you only 7 days left until Stoneshard launches in Early Access on the 6th of February! For those of you still wondering, the price tag will be $15 for the US / 15€ for the EU.

To celebrate this, we’ve just released our launch trailer. Check it out!



In the coming week prepare for more news and updates, including our Early Access FAQ, development roadmap and other interesting things.

Cheers!

Hello everyone!

This devlog is dedicated to a variety of small tweaks and improvements, which have accumulated over the last few weeks.


Casual cooking is the best way to ease your mind after slaughtering the whole bunch of bandits.

Ever since the old Prologue, many players have been complaining that there are no uses for raw meat. In fact, we do have a fairly complex cooking and ingredient system planned, but implementing it is a very complex task, so it won’t be coming any time soon. Nevertheless, there is already a need for some option to cook meat acquired from hunting - that’s why we’ve added a small placeholder system, which will allow roasting it. To do it, you will need to find a campfire or an oven, start a fire, and cook raw meat through the context menu. Simple, fast, filling.



With the addition of a new village (we’ll tell you more about it in the next devlog), the necessity of expanding the map became rather apparent. As a result, the map is now almost twice as large. Every village is also surrounded with its own dungeons, which are repopulated with enemies after a certain amount of time.




The amount of available equipment has been increased with the addition of new, regular gear, as well as some special, unique items. Unique items can only be acquired in a single copy and are often gained in a very specific way - during certain encounters or as a rare drop after killing an appropriate miniboss. These are not legendary items, so they don’t have any unique properties, but they are generally better than the alternatives of the same level. All preset characters also start the game with two unique items, unobtainable in any other way.




During the closed beta, many players complained that inventory space is too limited and is too fast to get cluttered with gold. We’ve fixed this problem with the addition of purses - special containers, which can only hold crowns. A purse only takes up two inventory spaces, while being able to hold up to 2000 coins, saving lots of space.

Backpacks are equipped in the cloak slot, adding 12 extra spaces, which increases your inventory capacity by almost 25%. Why just 12 spaces? Because that’s the exact amount of space taken up by a backpack if you put it in your inventory. We wanted to avoid the situations when players fill their inventories with many backpacks to maximize their inventory capacity. In our game the small inventory size is vital for balance and is an important tactical element, meant to encourage players to plan and optimize their equipment.

We don’t plan to add item stacks, as they interfere with the sense of size for each individual item. However, we plan to add more bag types for different items, such as tubes for storing scrolls, alchemy pouches for potions and ingredients and so on.


Geomancy is the most unique magic school in the game at the moment. However, it had many problems: it was fairly independent from gear, and it could become an absolute weapon from level one if used correctly.

Our task was to fix it without affecting other well-loved abilities. As a result, Runic Boulder, the cornerstone of the skill tree, was the only ability which got significantly rebalanced. Its problems included overly strong bonuses, lack of cooldowns, and no adverse effects of using the spell. These factors resulted in preventive boulder spam before each battle instead of placing boulders tactically.



To fix this, we’ve rebalanced the effect of Runic Empowerment, making it less versatile. We’ve also added a small 2 turns cooldown between raising boulders, as well as introduced energy cost for maintaining them. Each boulder now drains 2 energy points per turn. If your character’s energy runs out, the summoned boulders crumble. On top of this, boulders crumble if the caster loses sight of them, so it’s no longer possible to lure enemies into rooms with pre-casted boulders.


Little QoL-improvement. Now you don't need to re-cast boulders to get rid of them.

Some other geomancy spells also had their numbers tweaked: for instance, stone spikes and stone armor durations have been reduced. To compensate for that, energy costs for all geomancy spells are lower as well - it’s now possible to create more complicated spell combinations without running out of energy. Thanks to these combined changes, geomancy now feels way more tactical, while still being very powerful in skilled hands, remaining just as fun to use as before.

That’s all for now. Until next time!

====================

Also you can follow us on:

• Our Steam Creator page
  
• Discord
  
• Twitter
  
• Facebook

Hello everyone!

In today’s devlog, we’d like to share some details about the character selection system.
As some of you may not know, Verren isn’t the main character of our game. He only comes under your control in the Prologue. In the main game, however, he is an employer and a mentor figure to your character.



We plan to introduce an option to create your own mercenary, but at the moment the game lacks systems necessary for implementing a fully working character generator. Instead, we added an option to choose from four preset characters. Each of them has their own appearance, portrait, starting inventory, starting attributes, some special dialogue options and also a unique perk, unavailable to other characters.

An important thing about preset characters is that they have affinities, governing which skills are initially unlocked. For instance, Jorgrim is good with melee weapons and can start leveling swords, axes and maces from the get go. But to learn starting skills of the pyromancy and geomancy trees, he’ll have to find a corresponding treatise first.

We intend to expand this system at the same time as working on the character generator. According to our plans, some heroes will have access to unique content, which can’t be discovered when playing as other characters. For now this type of content is represented with unique starting equipment. For example, Arna starts the game with a family cuirass and sword, which can’t be obtained in any other way. We also plan to expand the character selection as we add more skill trees.

Some may ask: but what about classes? How do they fit into this system? Yes, at first we did consider adding classes, but as the development went on, it became quite clear that it would be completely redundant. Class abilities came in conflict with our vision for character development, and they weren’t really working with all possible archetypes, forcing you to play in a very specific manner. We wanted to avoid that. Class abilities also turned out to be fairly generic and boring when compared to common skill trees. As a result it was decided to transfer the best ideas into the existing skill trees and get rid of the rest.

Now let us present you with the backstories and affinities for each character:




Affinity: Axes, Swords, Maces, Shields
Unique trait: Berserker Frenzy (increased Weapon Damage and Crit Efficiency for 10 turns after every kill)

Bio:

Not so long ago people of Aldor would shake in their boots the moment someone mentioned Tyr the One-eyed, a legendary leader of Fjall brigands. Tyr's band was infamous for their audacious raids on the northern border - even well armed troops of the local lords suffered defeat after defeat from these ferocious dwarfs. Jorgrim was one of them, the best warrior in the band, he hadn't lost a single battle in his life.

Yet as time went by, the One-eyed's brutality towards captured settlements became too unsettling even for his own underlings. Jorgrim was the one who despised unnecessary cruelty the most: he always held a belief that violence against the weak and defenseless is unworthy of a true warrior.

It's unknown when Tyr crossed the final line, but eventually Jorgrim's patience ran short and the brigand leader's scalp found its place in the dwarf's long list of trophies. Left without guidance, the band fell apart: some dwarfs returned to Fjall, while others, including Jorgrim, decided to go south and try their luck as mercenaries.




Affinity: Swords, Maces, Shields, Greatswords
Unique trait: Vow of the Feat (every enemy within your vision range decreases Cooldowns Duration and Abilities Energy Cost)

Bio:

Few noble houses of Aldor can boast history as impressive as of the House of der Vyrne. By law, the title of a knight can only be passed down to a man, so it's not hard to imagine the chagrin of Arna's father, when after years of fruitless attempts his long awaited heir turned out to be a girl.

To save his house, Arna's father decided to invoke an ancient custom of the northern foothills: Arna was to be raised as a boy. Her entire childhood and youth were dedicated to rigorous training and serving as a page to one of the noble families. When she reached adulthood, Arna was knighted. Over multiple tournaments, she managed to earn herself a reputation as a skilled warrior.

Unfortunately Arna never had a knack for the most important skill to an aldorian noble - scheming. Soon after her father's death, Arna lost her fief, her title and her inheritance - the House of der Vyrne ceased to exist. Shaken by these events, Arna gave an oath to redeem herself by a heroic deed and embarked on an endless journey into the lands of Aldor.




Affinity: Ranged Combat, Axes, Maces, Daggers
Unique trait: Sharp Eye (every tile between you and your enemy increases Crit Chance)
Bio:

Dirwin spent most of his life in loyal service to the late king, relentlessly patrolling the hunting grounds of his Majesty. He had great aim, knew the forest as the back of his hand and very few poachers, orcs and monsters survived their encounter with the royal ranger. Over his years of service, Dirwin eradicated countless dangers lurking in the woods, making one notch after another on his bow.

After King Etbert's death, the Royal Rangers disobeyed the Council's orders and refused to participate in the fratricidal war. As a punishment, the unit was disbanded, so Dirwin took his weapons and headed back into the woods.

During the war he continued to do what he always did: fulfill contracts and bounties, hunt dangerous monsters and help peasants. Common folks rightfully consider him their stalwart protector.




Affinity: Staves, Daggers, Geomancy, Pyromancy
Unique trait: Arcane Lore (each learned spell increases Magic Power)
Bio:

Since ancient times there is a strong belief in Aldor, that women and magic don't go well together and can only bode ill. Lectors of the Academy fully shared this prejudice, rarely eager to accept women for magic training. However, Jonna's talent for magic was so great, that they decided to make an exception.

After completing her training with flying colors, Jonna became a court sorceress to one of the aldorian nobles. Unfortunately her lord had a rather foul temper, something Jonna wouldn't put up with. One morning servants discovered their master's body burned to a crisp. The sorceress' sudden escape didn't leave much room for interpretation.

If it wasn't for the war breaking out, Jonna would have likely been caught and burned at the stake, but in the chaos of the Strife she managed to elude the chase by joining a mercenary band.

------------

Just Jonna picking some field herbs.
That’s all for now. Until next time!

Also you can follow us on:

• Our Steam Creator page
  
• Discord
  
• Twitter
  
• Facebook

Hello!

We're glad to inform that Stoneshard: Prologue is now available on Linux. Recommended OC is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64bit. Other distributives may work as well, but they weren't tested.

It is important to note that depending on your version of Ubuntu additional dependencies may need to be installed to play the game. These dependencies are:


You may need to install these packages otherwise the game won't run.

Also, we hotfixed being able to move and fight during cutscenes and possibility to kill Archon with bow during the first phase.

Take care!

Hello!

We are glad to present you our last patch – both this year and before the release of the main game. There is not much time left before Early Access launch, therefore we again return to the development of the main game. Right now most frequent bugs and major grievances seem to be fixed, so enjoy the updated version and Happy New Year!

• Fixed Waterskin not decreasing Intoxication when used.
  
• Fixed Torture Tools dropping herbs when searched.
  
• Fixed Deadly Trick not exchanging places when Blood Golem if it’s killed with this skill.
  
• Fixed arrows visually stucking in the doorways.
  
• “Rapid Restoration” potion buff now also restores a set amount of health each turn, thus becoming actually usable in battles.
  
• Fixed environmental objects not displaying their names in the events log.
  
• Fixed “Keeping Distance” skill not always triggering an attack.
  
• Fixed extensive weapon buff stacking.
  
• Fixed a possibility to overlap exploding Blood Golem with some other object.
  
• Fixed Archon not using his Backwards Dash skill.
  
• Lots of typos, misspellings and mistakes fixed.
  
• Fixed weapon crit effects and damage special effects not considering corresponding resistances.
  
• Outcast no longer speaks lines. He is an unintelligent monster after all.

• New visual effect for completing actives tasks.
  
• Various minor visual fixes.

• Abilities now automatically unlock when you load. No need to read treatises every new try.
  
• Mobs no longer spawn near floor transitions.
  
• Some skills and stat hovers were edited for better readability.

• Tweaked item drops formula to provide more gradual and just loot distribution. You’re more likely to find better items on the second floor now.
  
• Items rarity was rebalanced so you may encounter some new items during your runs right now.
  
• Rebalanced Maces and Greatswords damage.
  
• Containers had their HP rebalanced. Barrels and Crates have less health, while large containers have more.
  
• Destroyed non-searched containers now properly drop loot as well.
  
• Food drops a bit rarer now, as previous drops were way too abundant.
  
• Randomized loot on the mercenary’s corpse a little. Increased pool of his possible weapons.
  
• Decreased Archon’s Life Drain and Energy Drain attributes (33% > 13%).
  
• Decreased duration of Curses applied by Unholy Damage special effect.
  
• Increased duration of Confusion applied by Psionic Damage special effect.
  
• Staves: Hail of Blows strikes now deal -60% damage instead of -50% damage
  
• Shields: Reduced default Block Chance (60% > 50%) and duration (3 > 2) of the Raise Shield skill. Tweaked Shield Bash and Breakthrough damage formulas.

• Fixed scrolls causing crashes when opening chests
  
• Fixed “Keeping Distance” skill causing character to attack doors if used in a doorway
  
• Fixed Potion of Purification removing injuries
  
• Increased Bad Trip chance for Stardust
  
• Increased starting weapons damage by 1 point
  
• Many minor visual fixes
  
• Fixed Fortitude increased by Vitality and not Willpower
  
• Nerfed Proselyte Outcast a little
  
• Fixed Sponge causing Sleep for 15 turns instead of 10
  
• Decreased noise caused by most character’s actions
  
• Added missing Piercing Resistance for doors
  
• Several text improvements

• Fixed heavy helmets Vision penalty causing Archon to "disappear" during the boss fight
  
• Fixed dual weapons strikes reducing skill cooldowns
  
• Fixed permanent inability to use skills after switching floors while being silenced
  
• Fixed Phantom Bats skill not working properly