A scorching summer has descended upon the Dark World!

From now until July 11th, Stone Story RPG will be running a 2x Loot Event. Complete runs by defeating the current endgame boss to earn this extra loot (which also includes 2x Lost Item drops).

For further clarification on Lost Item drop rates, please follow the link here.



Never played Stone Story before? Now’s your chance! For the duration of the Steam Summer Sale, Stone Story RPG will be on sale for a 20% discount.

If you want to try out the game beforehand, check out the demo on our store page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/603390/Stone_Story_RPG/


Since our last post, we’ve made quite a lot of headway in development. Not only have we implemented quests, we’ve also added several quality of life improvements and further fleshed out Stonescript, Stone Story’s in-game scripting language. The creative possibilities have continued to expand and become more robust; we can’t wait to see how you play!

We are currently in the polishing and bug-fixing phase for both technical and content features. Quest implementation has brought up some interesting challenges; for every 1 issue we address, 8 more pop up! The team has been dutifully plugging away at cleanup to ensure that your playtime will be as smooth as possible.

Take a look below at some of the things we’ve got planned for the Quest Update:
















We’re nearing the end of the tunnel and everything’s starting to come together. We’ve got an exciting launch schedule planned that the team is hard at work on. Expect more announcements in the near future!

As always, we can’t thank you enough for all of your continued support. Every single person, new and old, that has picked up Stone Story has been invaluable to the development process. Special thanks go out to our Discord community members, who have been tirelessly workshopping scripts, sharing strategies, and breathing new life into the ASCII art medium!

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and join the official Stone Story RPG Discord server if you haven’t already done so:

-SSRPG Team

The beta branch has been updated with a massive patch, v2.98, leading up to v3.0.

See the release notes for v2.98 here:
https://stonestoryrpg.com/releasenotes/beta.html

If you're not on the beta branch, you can switch by following instructions here:
https://stonestoryrpg.com/faq.html#Technical%20Help

But, if you'd rather wait for the full release, no sweat! We're working hard to bring forth these changes (and many more). Once a launch date for 3.0 is locked we will make an announcement.

Minor update introducing three scripts created by the community, plus other improvements.

- New minigame: Burger Rush by Fyda.
import Games/BurgerRush

- New cosmetic: Headphones by link2_thepast.
import Cosmetics/Hats/Headphones

- New cosmetic: quips by Superfulous J.
import Cosmetics/quips

Improvements
- Added an extra boost slot for the final upgrade of Lost items.
- type() now supports arrays and returns "array".

Bugs
- Fixed a bug where the Mind Stone's main script did not have a "this" reference to itself.
- Fixed bug where the player would look to the left when being pushed by Hrimnir.

Spring has sprung upon the Dark World!

From now until March 15th, Stone Story RPG will be running a 2x Loot Event. Complete runs in the Mushroom Forest to earn this extra loot (which also includes 2x Lost Item drops).






As we near the end of work on the Quest System, we thought this would be a good opportunity to check in with all of you about the state of SSRPG's development. The Spring Event is a perfect example of what we hope to continue with future additions to the game.

Automated and procedural events with shorter durations are key to the longevity of Stone Story RPG. They take advantage of the incremental nature of gameplay to vary up challenges and reward players accordingly, all with minimal input from our end once they're setup. After the Quest Update pushes out, we aim to line up several planned events that work in concert with automated ones to fill in the gaps.

Eventually, these events will work in tandem with a vastly expanded Stonescript to give greater dimensionality to the game, even as we begin to "sunset" development on SSRPG.


Work continues on the Quest System and we're very nearly done with polish and refinement.

We have 15 fully fleshed out quests for you to embark on after the Quest Update goes live. You'll span the breadth of the Dark World as you try to infiltrate Acropolis, forge powerful alliances, and even assist underpaid and overworked skeletons with unionizing.



In addition to content creation and polish, under-the-hood development has taken a considerable amount of time. Henry, our narrative designer, has cooked up fun adventures we can't wait to share with you, while our systems designers Gene and Michael have been hard at work balancing the gameplay and further fleshing out the scripting functionality to support a wider array of features and mechanics.

The ultimate objective of this in-depth work is to support user-generated content (e.g. mods and custom quests). For example, players can now flip sprites horizontally in Stonescript, which gives you greater control over how a scene will visually play out.

There is plenty more functionality to dig into that we know you'll all put to good use.

---

Thank you for your continued patience and support of the game. From the very beginning, Stone Story RPG has striven to remain true to its identity of an ASCII-animated incremental game. Our flexible development cycle ensures that we have the bandwidth to build around this original vision with the care and attention it deserves.

The work that we do will sustain the health of the game in the long term. Idle games can be thought of as "lifestyle games", providing its players with content over the course of days, weeks, and even months at a time.

It may seem like slow going now, but what game worth making isn’t?

-SSRPG Team

Happy Holidays from the SSRPG team!

As we look back on this year, we also look at the progress that Stone Story has made. When we first launched into Early Access, we had a vision for what we wanted the game to truly be. With your support, we've taken great strides towards achieving that ambitious goal.

We've spent the past few months ironing out the Quest System, which we'll give a quick update on after a very important announcement: L O O T.


The Dark World has become an icy wonderland underneath the chill of the Winter Moonstice. Until January 5th, get Stone Story RPG and the original soundtrack for 20% off![[/u]



https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/15414/Stone_Story_RPG__Original_Soundtrack_Bundle/

Brave the cold and make your way towards Hrímnir's Hoard: For the duration of the Winter Sale, Icy Ridge will drop 2x loot! EDIT: Owing to a miscommunication, the loot event actually ended on January 2nd. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused!

(As part of the Winter Event, Hrímnir will drop two treasures. Delta Treasures dropped from Hrímnir have double the chance of dropping Lost Items. For a full breakdown on how Lost Items in Delta Treasures work, please read this forum post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/603390/discussions/0/4227150602803257910/)

Small Updates to Stone Story RPG

Though work continues on the Quest System, we've continued to build on Stonescript and round out the language with more functions:

• time.year, time.month, time.day, time.hour, time.minute and time.second
  
• player.name
  
• Added pitch modulation to "play" command.

We've also looked over all the fantastic submissions we got for StoneJam 3 and included some of our favorite creations! These scripts will be included in-game, and you can use them via the "import" function in Stonescript.

Wavy Scarf by electronic and Deaymon.

import Cosmetics/WavyScarf

StoneBoxman by Okamiroy

import Games/StoneBoxman

Bear by XX

import Cosmetics/Bear

Border Clock by Agerak

var clock = new ui/BorderClock
clock.Show()

If you have not yet looked into Stone Story RPG's current modding capabilities, we recommend reading the into guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2003221477

State of the Quest System

Work on the Quest System has progressed at a steady pace and we continue to get ever closer to release. We've got 15 unique adventures that we're excited to share!



The Quest System update will be far more than just the quests themselves. It was important that we developed the Quest System entirely within the framework of Stonescript, as we wanted to give our players the same tools to create adventures of their own.

With Stonescript, players will have access to a minimalistic toolkit that streamlines the process and ensures ease of use for creating and sharing user-generated content. Development work has been and will continue to be centered around gradually adding features that work for the Quest System and open up future options for modding, including a sprite loader system, color picker, midi creator, and more. When we launch the Quest System, the included quests will be more than added content: they will serve as working examples of what YOU can create.

We developed quests with the decision to take a more holistic approach. The sprite loader system is a great example, as we've recently added that functionality into Stonescript for development purposes. For example, the scene below is indistinguishable from regular game content, even though it's all done in Stonescript with the new animation system.



Of course, we wouldn't have had this flexibility without the help of all our Early Access players. Your continued support and feedback is invaluable towards making Stone Story RPG be the best version of itself.

We can't wait to see what 2021 has in store for us!

-SSRPG Team

Happy Fall, everyone!

As many of you may already know, Stone Story RPG has been in development for over six years. What started as a solo project by Gabriel "standardcombo" Santos has since grown into an ambitious award-winning game that explores the unique spaces of incremental gameplay and ASCII animation.

It's been a long journey to this point, and we're still not done! We've got plenty more in store for the game and we can't thank our players enough for helping us every step of the way.

That's why we're calling on you to nominate us for the "Labor of Love" award in the 2020 Steam Awards. We hope that you'll show the game the same support you've given it all these years.

And if you haven't yet picked the game up, now's your chance! For the Autumn Sale, Stone Story RPG will be 20% off, so grab it and embark on your ASCII-animated adventure.

-SSRPG Team

Thank you once again to everyone who participated in StoneJam 3! Our players made so many cool submissions, and we’re constantly impressed at how creative our community can get with Stonescript. We received all sorts of neat creations, including cosmetics, minigames, pets, and UI tools.

We hope to see more of you join us for the next StoneJam. Until then, take a look at the fantastic work done by our community:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8lGAz7QIy4
You can download the scripts here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Uhun00tbt5J3zHDmamF1HH7uvVfGZfvY?usp=sharing

In order to make use of Stonescript in-game, you must have the Mind Stone unlocked.

Another StoneJam has come and gone, and we've received so many wonderful submissions! From cosmetics to combat scripts to UI features, players have continued to explore what is possible in StoneScript.

Join standardcombo as he goes through over a dozen unique scripts created by members of our community. (Unable to join the stream? Don’t worry! It’ll be recorded and uploaded afterwards.)



-SSRPG Team

Join the Stone Story community as we kick off November with the return of Stone Story RPG’s jam event!

Over the past few months, we’ve added a vast array of new features to Stonescript, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in Stone Story. Take part in StoneJam 3 and show off your creations!

You can find a full list of changes to Stonescript at the bottom of this announcement.

Stonescript is a scripting language built into Stone Story RPG, used for modifying the character's AI. Easy to use yet powerful, scripts can be as simple as automating potions if your health gets low or optimizing combat to super-human levels.

Stonescript can also be used to manipulate a number of in-game elements, like the UI or player cosmetics. Put your avatar in a flying mecha, give them a fancy hat, or create a dynamic healthbar!

If you’ve not yet explored the Mind Stone or need a refresher, check out the Stonescript tutorial we’ve written up here: https://stonestoryrpg.com/stonescript

With each new update we continue to expand what's possible with Stonescript. We want to see what YOU can create! Some of the projects that people have made with Stonescript include:

• Minigames
  
• Combat scripts
  
• Animated pets and cosmetics
  
• Custom UI elements

Collaborations between participants are more than welcome.






For StoneJam 3, all participants will receive a secret reward given out at the end of the Jam! We're also introducing an optional theme that you can use as inspiration for your projects.

Our favorite submissions will be invited to be an official addition to the game, allowing players to activate your script with a simple “import” command.

Submissions will be judged based on the following categories: Useful, Beautiful, Stability, or Epic.

StoneJam 3's Theme is: Into the Unknown

StoneJam 3 will take place from now to Monday, November 9th. You’ll have all of that time to create and submit your scripts on our Discord server.

StoneJam 3 will be hosted on our community Discord server. You'll need to have the @stonejam role, which you can get by going to the #commands channel and typing !stonejam.

Two new channels will be created for this event. Use #stonejam3-discuss for all discussion about the jam and reserve #stonejam3-submit for submitting entries.

Submission rules:

1. Inside your scripts, at the beginning of each file include:
- Name/nickname of author or multiple names if multiple authors
- Version number of the script
- Instructions on how to use it

2. Drop your script into #stonejam3-submit, along with screenshots and/or gifs of your entry in action.

3. If a single entry involves multiple interdependent scripts, put them into a zip.

4. Submit different entries separately.

5. You can submit scripts created prior to the jam, as long as the jam week is used for meaningfully improving them.

To see a full list of all possible functions, commands, and variables: https://stonestoryrpg.com/stonescript/manual.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR6QYxdGV9M
Introduction to Stonescript - This writeup gives you an overview of Stonescript's functionality, including variables, commands, and operators: https://stonestoryrpg.com/stonescript

Modding Guide - This walkthrough shows you how to import external scripts into the game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2003221477
Video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5v-NS9o4yc
Follow-along Reference: https://stonestoryrpg.com/ascii_tutorial.html

All ASCII characters currently available to use in-game: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/597668520888762388/683419636204699676/AvailableGlyphs.txt

Hex for all enchantment colors:
Cyan: #02e5ff Yellow: #ffff62 Green: #32da5a Blue: #0063ff Red: #ff2222

List of valid ?loc:
rocky, deadwood, cave, shroom, haunted, crypt, bronze, icy, temple, nagaraja
There have been several changes to Stonescript over the past few months. All new additions have been added to the Stonescript manual, but they are compiled here for ease of viewing:

• Used to organize values and objects into a single variable
  
• E.g. Headphones that generate notes (by link2_thepast) - https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/597668520888762388/769777336471388210/Headphones.txt

• Values that persist when you leave a location or turn the game off. Exists separately from your primary save, so import scripts can access storage independently.
  
• E.g. Recording goals or achievements such as High Score or Times Played.

• Numbers that represent a foe’s current state and the number of frames in the current state
  
• E.g.
  ?foe.state = 2
  what to do in state 2

• The screen's position in-game, as an index that increses when the player reaches the right-side and it slides over.
  
• E.g.
  >`0,0,Screen index = @screen.i@

• Prevents/Restores weapon loadouts from being saved or recalled with input keys.

• The number of buffs (positive effects) on the player / the foe being targeted.
  
• E.g. Can be used to trigger a loadout swap when an enemy reaches a certain number of buffs.

• A composite of information about all buffs/debuffs on the player/enemy.
  
• E.g.
  ?buffs.count > 0
  >`0,1,Player buffs = @buffs.string@

• Returns true if it's possible to activate item abilities. False otherwise.
  
• E.g.
  ?item.CanActivate()
  equip Bardiche
  activate R

• Returns the remaining cooldown time (in frames) for a given ability.
  
• E.g.
  ?foe = boss & item.GetCooldown("bardiche") <= 0
  equip bardiche
  activate R

• Takes two string parameters and returns true if they are exactly the same. Returns false otherwise. Case sensitive.
  
• E.g.
  var a = "foo"
  ?string.Equals(a, "foo")
  >The strings are equal
  :
  >They are NOT equal
  (The strings are equal in this case. string.Equals() evaluates to true)

• The total "Gear Points" of your inventory, calculated from item star levels and enchantment bonuses.
  
• E.g.
  >My gear points = @totalgp@

Have you seen Stone Story RPG and thought to yourself “How on earth does this game play?” Well, find out for yourself with the new Stone Story Demo!

Dive into a dark and mysterious world of stunning ASCII animation and unique gameplay inspired by incrementals, idles, and clickers. From combat to crafting to looting, your natural curiosity will be your greatest tool as you delve into the game and discover there's more beneath its deceptively simple surface.

Head to the game’s Steam page and download the demo:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/603390/Stone_Story_RPG/

After you’ve played through the demo, get the game for 20% off during Steam’s Halloween Sale and dive right into our 2x Loot Event!