Hey everyone,
After a long break without a full-length update, it’s finally time to get you back up to speed on EQUIRE’s development!
Let’s start with some exciting recent events. The new teaser for EQUIRE was just released, and I’m incredibly grateful for all the positive feedback I’ve received. It’s been my most successful post so far, and I’m thrilled to see so many new people discovering the game. Comparing the original announcement trailer to the recent teaser, I think the progress from the past year really shows. Your enthusiasm and passion for this project are what keep me going—especially after a stretch where I, frustratingly, couldn’t dedicate as much time to development. So, thank you!
Now, on to what’s new in the game.
Horse Coats & Genetics
Horses now have coats! And I’d love to give you a quick look into how the system behind them works. The key to coat colors is genetics. Don’t worry, this won’t turn into a biology lecture but understanding a few basics might help you breed your favorite coat colors once the game is out.
Every horse (just like every banana, by the way) carries two copies of each gene that influence their coat pattern. These can either be identical (e.g., both genes say, "bend to the right") or different (one says "right," the other says "left"). When two horses mate, each parent randomly contributes one copy of each gene to the foal, determining its coat pattern.
First, there are genes that determine the base coat color—these are called Extension and Agouti. Depending on their versions, a horse can have a black, bay, or chestnut base. Then there are dilution genes like Champagne and Cream, which modify the base color in unique ways and can even be combined. Finally, additional genes control the size and amount of white patterning on the coat. Randomized pattern generation ensures that no two horses look exactly alike.
There are already two more unique genes in the game: the grey gene causes horses to lighten and eventually turn white with age, while the Dun gene adds primitive markings to the coat. I’ve tried to keep this system as realistic as possible, while simplifying or adapting aspects that might be confusing or that science hasn’t fully figured out yet. Not all coat colors and features are implemented yet, and there’s still tweaking to be done—but I’m really proud of the foundation I’ve built.
Lighting Improvements
In a very different corner of the game, I’ve reworked how lighting works. Previously, walls and some objects didn’t fully block outdoor sunlight, which meant areas that should have been dark were oddly shiny—and that made indoor lighting feel pointless. I’ve fixed this by reworking the logic behind walls, so now those beautiful lighting effects can finally shine (pun intended).
Building & Furniture
I’ve also added a ton of new furniture—wardrobes, shelves, tables, saddle holders, and more. On top of that, I’ve overhauled the building system for walls and floors to give you even more customization options. For example, you can now use different materials on each side of a wall.
Thank you again for all your support. I can't wait to share even more progress with you soon!

Hey there,

So, Shards of Her 0.4.4 The Tempest update is here, featuring new story content and updates to the previous ACTs. There are improvements across the entire game, including writing, visuals, and audio.

While there is still much work to be done, I wanted to release this update now as it offers an overall enhancement to the game in all aspects.

"They survived one Dawn, hoping for peace... They should have prayed the dawn never came again." - Aethra

There are new characters entering the scene, with more to come. Some characters are also leaving the scene, as the game world is quite dangerous, and lately, whispers can be heard once again.

STORY & LORE - Bits and pieces were rewritten throughout the entire game to fix some story inconsistencies or simply rewritten for better flow. New lore details have been added, both in-game and in the Characters menu. So, make sure you check it out! In some cases, certain characters will have their full backstory included in the biography on their Characters page. So far, there are two such characters; you'll discover them as you play the latest update!


VISUALS - This is an ongoing work. The Prologue scene has been improved, and where possible, the quality of the renders was enhanced or they were re-rendered. I'm striving to achieve a cinematic level with each shot and to deliver the best possible experience, both visually and story-wise. Visually and in terms of writing, the entire game will be upgraded as we progress.




UI - The Main Menu of the game has been slightly changed. The animated buttons are not final, and regarding them, please let me know if you experience any performance issues, such as menu lag or other similar problems. The Options menu is also undergoing some changes, and the Fragments menu (previously Extras) is not final at all. I have other plans for it in future updates.


As you can see, a new small menu has appeared TOGGLE PERSISTENT VALUES, this menu will be used temporarily for the next few updates. If you load your last saved game and don't receive all the unlockables in the CODEX Menu, you can use this new menu to manually set the missing items to TRUE or FALSE. Please note that these values only cover content up to the latest build, as in this version, you need to unlock everything manually through gameplay.



The MEMORIES menu has also been updated with an introduction and a new UI. Lastly, there's the new CODEX Menu. While the UI for this menu is still being worked on, we'll discuss it further below.


AUDIO - New music has been added. I didn't have the chance to update the music in the older ACTs for this release, but that will be done in the future to enhance the experience – though not necessarily with drastically different music than before. Additionally, the narration at important points in the game is now voiced over by a dear friend, and I truly appreciate the time she dedicated to this. More characters will have voice acting in future updates; I'm currently working on that.

Now, the STEAM Page was updated with the new features and each one explained, not really necessary to write it here too, what wasn't covered in the Store Page it was in the previous DEVLogs and on this post, I hope I did not forget anything! Let's roll up with the final patch notes for this update.

SOH 0.4.4 The Tempest Update

• Engine Updated
  
• ACT IV Story Content
  
• Voice Overs for Narration
  
• Script/Dialogue/Visual Fixes (Overall)
  
• Story Fixes (Story Inconsistencies)
  
• New Animations
  
• New Achievements
  
• New Intro Screens for ACTs
  
• Game Conditions Updated
  
• Notifications for Codex Entries Added (Overall)
  
• *Persistent Data Values for Characters/Shards/Timeline & Realms
  
• Added Skip Intro Option
  
• NEW UI for Memories
  
• In-Work UI for Options
  
  PROLOGUE - Veil of Illusion
  
  
• Visual Enhancements
  
• Small Dialogue and Narration Changes
  
  ACT I - Awakening
  
  
• Visual Enhancements
  
• Dialogue Fixes & Spellchecking
  
• New Scenes Added
  
• Small UI Changes
  
• NEW Character Introduced
  
  ACT II - Echoes
  
  
• Smoothed Transitions
  
• Dialogue Fixes & Small Changes
  
• Visual Enhancements & Fixes
  
• Small Story Inconsistencies Fixes
  
• New Small Scene Added (Nakata & MC Scene)
  
  ACT III - Reckoning
  
  
• Dialogue Fixes & Small Changes
  
• Small Story Inconsistencies Fixes
  
• Smoothed Transitions
  
  *Persistent Data Values for Characters/Shards/Timeline & Realms - Due to the new persistent data update, when you load a save game from a version prior to 0.4.4, the game will attempt to unlock content in the CODEX Menu based on your previous progress. However, if you know you experienced something in an older playthrough that didn't unlock in the CODEX Menu, you can use the TOGGLE PERSISTENT VALUES option in the Main Menu to manually unlock everything up to the 0.3.6 build.
  
  NEW Codex Menu
  
  
  • CHARACTERS - Explore the lives and legends of those who shape the destiny of this world. Uncover their pasts, their powers, and explore their evolving forms.
    
  • REALMS - Explore the realms touched by both divine grace and primordial darkness. Uncover their forgotten lore, and prepare to walk their paths once more.
    
  • THE SHARDS - Delve into the mysteries of the Seven Shards, remnants of a shattered goddess. Learn their histories, their powers, and the sins they embody.
    
  • ASTROLOGY - Decipher the language of the stars. Explore the months and signs that guide the fate of this world, and discover the hidden connections between the heavens and the earth.
    
  • TIMELINE - From the whispers of creation to the clash of destinies, witness the turning points that defined a universe. Uncover the truth behind the legends, one event at a time.
  
  *New features and content will be added to the CODEX Menu in future updates (TBD/TBA).
  *FRAGMENTS Menu will go through some updates in future.
  
  
  The echoes of sorrow have been heard.
  This act of Remembrance reveals the price of the past.
  Now... the Reaper comes to collect.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Dear adventurers,

Today, we want to share a little bit about our Rock Ball mechanic, which replaces the 'sprinting' you might see in other games. Instead of running through the levels, the Golem turns into a literal Rock Ball. We've been working hard to make this transition feel as seamless as possible. 😊

Rolling around in Rock Ball form isn't just a fun way to get from point A to B, though. The animals in the world will definitely notice! Some of them might run off and act scared, as you're speeding towards them. More curious creatures might actually start rolling alongside you.



The same thing applies to the environment. Rolling through a dandelion field spreads flower seeds everywhere. Certain rockpiles and trees can also be knocked over to progress through the level. It adds a different layer of interaction to the world.

Another important part of traveling in Rock Ball form is momentum. Rolling down a big hill or slope ensures that you can reach higher speeds and easily cover great distances. We love the parts of the game that take advantage of this mechanic!

You'll be able to try the Rock Ball yourself in the demo that will be releasing later this month. We can't wait to hear what you think! 👀

— Dreamhunt Studio

v0.0.0 is available now.

While this is marked as early access on Steam, this is really a prototype to see if there is any interest in this game, so try it out and provide feedback if you can


Note: android release is available on itch.io

fixed game-breaking bugs lol

Hello Everyone!

I'm quickly getting the bad news out of the way, we sadly won't be able to hit our Q2 release date goal, so I've delayed it to Q3. But fear not, we are on track with the game itself to be feature complete by the end of the month.

One of the reasons for the delay is to give ourselves a bit of time to test/fine-tune the full game with all of its features together, (plus to implement Steam achievements and support cloud saves). The other is that I want to give enough time for reviewers to try out the game, to try and build a bit of momentum ahead of our release.

Now with this out of the way, I can show you our progress since our Steam Next Fest demo:


All of the spells in the game have been implemented. Check out some of the flashier ones:




To combat the strength of these spells, we introduced a magic resistance statistic that gives damage reduction against damaging spells and a percentage chance to miss against debuffs. Higher-tier lighter armors will be better in this regard than their heavier counterparts.




Of course, the resistance will be able to learn these spells as well, for a considerable amount of etherglow and research time investment! The order in which the resistance can research the 3 magic schools is randomized per campaign, increasing variety.


Speaking of variety, we have implemented a new regular school called rogue that focuses on a new condition called concealed.




Concealed units are only targetable by enemy units that started their turn next to them, making this a very strong defensive condition, especially against ranged foes. But it doesn't help against area of effect skills, plus the unit automatically loses it at the start of the round if inside an enemy line of sight.

This of course, means the Dark Elves have been reworked to incorporate this school, making them able to properly sneak around the battlefield! Plus, we now have enough school types to give every region on the campaign map two schools instead of one.


Invader bases are no longer immune to the resistance. It is now possible to learn how to assault these bases and take the fight to the enemy's turf. The resistance's goal in these missions is to quickly find and turn off the defense systems, then assassinate the "pilot" of these structures. Not to mention, exploring these strange structures from the inside could give a glimpse of what is happening behind the scenes.




So that's it for today's devlog! We are getting very close to finishing this project, we just need a little bit of extra time to be able to deliver in a way we intended. Hopefully, the next time you hear from us will be the announcement of our exact release date, with a new final trailer! If you have any questions, feel free to join our Discord here.

It's 1935 and Veronica Villensey is about to be separated from her husband - by a large body of water.

It's not the FIRST time she's had to be pushy to get what she wants, of course. It's not the first time she had to stop at nothing. Like every PREFECT villain (or hero?) this lady's got BACKSTORY.

We would hate for you to MISS out on LEARNING about it..?

我们正在尝试创造一种全新的游戏形式。

它有点像剧本杀，也有跑团的影子，还融合了一些派对小游戏和叙事RPG的元素。

但我们并不是单纯在制作一只缝合怪。我们希望能打造出一个从玩家真实需求出发、具备有趣玩法的全新游戏模式。

我们给它起了一个名字：聚场游戏。

它的特点很明确：联机玩、上手快、流程短、有明确的开始和结束。

玩家只需要一个下午，或者饭后的一段时间，就可以和朋友们一起完成一段完整、参与感十足、趣味横生、情节丰富的故事体验。


大家好，这里是 集墨游 的 “题墨”开发组，我是制作人老石头。我们是一个小型独立游戏研发团队，专注于打造以“多人叙事联机”为核心体验的游戏，初次见面请多关照！


我们有一条自己的创作理念：
画面吸引玩家，玩法留住玩家，音乐让玩家沉浸其中。

其中我们最重视的正是**玩法设计**。

这不仅是我们投入最多的部分，也是一切设计的出发点。这个想法也体现在我们过去制作的内容里：

在【游戏杂谈】中，我们吐槽只堆画面的传统3A游戏没有未来；

【游戏杂谈】为什么说传统3A游戏正在没落

在【好评档案馆】中，我们坚持从“玩法能位玩家带来怎样的体验”角度去推荐游戏；

【好评档案馆】中世纪佣兵团生活 Battle Brothers 战场兄弟

所以当轮到我们自己做一款游戏时，我们也想从玩法本身出发，去试着构建一种真正新鲜的体验。


2024年4月底，我们发布了第一款作品《水镜三国》的宣传片，在B站获得了一些关注。但我们注意到，留言里的提问比评价多很多。

这也不奇怪，毕竟我们在做的，是一种目前还没有明确分类的新形式，大多数玩家都还不熟悉。

所以，一件比制作游戏更重要的事就摆在了我们面前：我们需要先把“聚场游戏”的概念讲清楚。


我们经过反复思考后决定，就算我们游戏的主要内容已经完成，也不能急着上线。

因为我们担心如果一开始就有目标群体以外的玩家不小心购买了我们的游戏，带来的影响可能比想象中要严重得多。

举个例子：

| 一位仅接受绝对单人游玩的RPG玩家，可能因为我们的画风或“剧情丰富”的标签，被推荐并购买了游戏。
| 当他运行游戏后，能体验到的只能是我们为降低理解门槛设计的单人引导章节，然而三位主角的单人章节加起来都不到一小时。
| 等他准备继续玩下去时，却发现后续剧情需要多人联机才能体验。
| 他可能会感到“被误导”，甚至产生“被欺骗”的印象。
| 紧接着，他可能会变得沮丧，决定退款并在评论里留下负面评价：“老老实实做单机不好吗，非要搞什么联机。”

对于我们这样一个专注联机体验的小型团队来说，这种误解一旦在早期出现，可能会对直接对项目生存造成致命影响。

因此，我们只能把节奏放慢一点，先向大家说明白我们在做什么，再请大家来玩。

综上，我们决定采取“先介绍，再发布”的策略。

在正式上线前，我们也会发布专为介绍核心玩法制作的体验Demo，供感兴趣的玩家先行试玩。


为了回应大家的问题，我们准备推出一个【开发杂谈】系列，用开发日志或视频的方式，向大家介绍聚场游戏到底是什么、怎么玩、适合谁、怎么设计的。

接下来我们会推出五期内容：

什么是“聚场游戏”？
“聚场游戏”适合哪些玩家？
为什么我们坚持做联机？
如何降低游玩门槛？
“聚场游戏”如何定价？


等到以上五期内容都更新完之后，我们相信大家会对聚场游戏的玩法结构、适合人群、开发理念和定价逻辑有更清晰的认识。

而那时，也差不多就是我们的首款作品——《集墨聚场：水镜三国》正式上线的时候了。

我们非常期待那一天的到来，也衷心感谢每一位愿意花时间了解我们、支持我们理念的朋友。

大家的关注和反馈，是我们不断前行、继续打磨内容的最大动力！

📌 下期预告：
《【开发杂谈】第1期：什么是“聚场游戏”？》——敬请期待！

Instructions to access this test branch are at the end of this post.

Hello,

We're back with a new update for the TEST BRANCH! We've changed all the medallions so builds are much more intuitive and impactful, PLUS we've improved lots of aspects of the parkour/traversal, especially that sticky/magnetic feeling (all this is coming to the main game soon).

Basically, playing is gonna feel better for both traversal and combat!


PLEASE NOTE: As this is a test branch, there will be some over and underpowered things, some bugs, and the game might crash. Please consider this before playing (but this update IS awesome).

What we're changing

So! There are two main changes in this test branch update:

1. Complete overhaul of medallions, making 'builds' much more intuitive, impactful, and improving their synergies with weapons
   
2. Big 'gamefeel' improvements - reduced 'magnetic/sticky' feeling, improved vault, smoother ledge/platform grab, longer lasting Vayu's Breath, and improved animations

We've also added 3 new tools, reworked the 'looters' a bit and optimised loading screens & general performance!

Medallions

There are no more super-specific criteria like 'when energy is over 80%, increase critical damage by 20%'. Effects are more straightforward and easy to understand how they will, or won't, fit in your build.

You should feel the effect of each medallion straight away as you advance through your run, with their effects getting magnified as you pick up others, if you pick the right ones. So basically your choices will be more difficult, will matter more, and will feel more satisfying!

Here's a quick breakdown of how the new medallions are grouped, in their 4 levels of rarity - basic, rare, legendary and legendary (corrupted).


Basic

Bonuses focused on flat stat improvements. These are split in pairs (right & left), each medallion will give a bonus on its own, but having both parts equipped will boost the bonus of each.

So this is stuff like increase weapon damage, increase Vayu's Breath accumulation rate, increase gold gains - 'basic' upgrades that will still make a noticeable difference as soon as you pick them up.


Rare

Medallions which give additional effects to your attacks and movements - stuff you can create specific builds around.

Upgrades like critical hits stun nearby enemies, attacks have a chance to burn enemies, or reduce damage taken by the amount of gold you have.

You'll want to pick these up with certain weapons or medallions to really make good use of their properties.


Legendary

Medallions you just WANT to find each time - the 'God Run' medallions.

Think of things like block the next attack you receive (recharges), grant 1 Seal of Zurvan (revive to 50% health if you die), dashing triggers Vayu's Breath.


Legendary (Corrupted)

Trade-off upgrades which can create a very powerful combination with another medallion (or even on their own!), but will punish you if you're not careful.

For example, increase damage dealt but also damage received, have a chance to block damage but all healing is reduced, increase critical damage but reduce base damage.


Overall

Just from the examples above, you can probably see that it is much easier to figure out where medallions will create synergies with other medallions and with specific weapons.

This will give you more choice in how to shape each run and make builds feel more powerful.

Control improvements

You'll really need to play to feel the difference of all this, but here's the description of everything we've changed!


Vault (dodge)

• Adjusted its detection distance and trajectory
  
• New animation

Ledge and one way platform grab

• Smoother movement
  
• Can interrupt the movement quicker with a dash, attack or jump

Vayu's Breath (speed boost)

• Lasts longer than before
  
• More actions add to its gauge - water slide and jumps off the back wall

Global

• Reduced the 'magnetic' feeling - stuff like sticking to poles and walls when you don't want to
  
• In case you missed it, input lag was reduced in a previous update

We're very curious how you find these changes so please do give us your feedback!

New tools

We've also added 3 new tools:

• Blowgun - fires 3 darts
  
• Fire Vial - drops fire in a zone around you
  
• Corrupted Orb - several orbs orbit around you
  
• On top of that we’ve also reworked how the Saw works. Now it drops a Saw Trap that goes back and forth. Be careful, it still hurts you.

Let us know how they feel too!

Optimization

• Loadings should now be way smoother and shorter, avoiding spikes.
  
• Overall performances should be better too.
  
• Screen resolutions are now unlocked! The list available in the option is now based on the resolutions supported by your monitor.

Looter rework

• Blood Altar is now a “gambling machine” where you pay with your max health to get items. Each time you use it repeatedly, the more chances you have to get great loot!
  
• Medallion Altar is also a “gambling machine”, but you pay with gold. And of course, the more you use it, the more chances you have to get great loot.
  
• Boss Looters have been removed.
  
• The “Weapon Looter” has been moved to the beginning of each biome and is now more of a “Start Looter” giving you lots of gold, lots of Soul Cinders, max health or a Medallion Slot.
  
• Astara is back at improving weapons, up to 2 times, against gold.
  
• Shops loot have been adjusted too.

The overall balancing has been tweaked to follow all these modifications. Again, your feedback is more than welcome on these changes.

And that's everything!

How to access the test branch and where to leave feedback

FIRST: BACKUP YOUR SAVE DATA

We recommend to do this just in case the worst happens. So to backup your save file, go to where you have your Steam folder installed, then follow this path:

Steam folder -> userdata folder -> your user id folder (if you have multiple steam accounts you'll need to find the right one) -> 2717880 folder -> remote folder -> copy the file called 'global' and stick it somewhere safe on your computer.


Mine looks like this, but your user id folder with have a different number of course!


If you still want to get stuck in, here's what to do:

Go to The Rogue Prince of Persia in your Steam Library -> click on the gear icon on the far right.



Click on Properties and a pop-up box will appear.



Click on Betas.



Opposite where it says 'Beta Participation', click on the dropdown menu where it says 'None' and select 'publictestversion'.

Update the game and you're good to go!

To change back to the standard game, just go back into the betas section, click on the same dropdown menu (it will now say publictestversion) then select 'None' and update the game.

To leave feedback you can go to the Suggestions/Feedback forum here on Steam, better yet go to our Discord, and go to 'The Rogue - Test Branch' section.


We'll be back soon, and here are the known bugs!

• Potential crash on Give Up. Especially in Aquaduct, even when dying, any information about that one will be welcome!
  
• Can get stuck after interacting with the same Medallion Altar too many times (~5).
  
• Some medallions might not work: Corrupted Tonic, Corrupted Sharpener
  
• A FPS drop can occur at the beginning of the biomes around the looters.
  
• Astara is missing her SFX.
  
• Medallion Altar SFX aren’t synced properly.
  
• Soul Cinders HUD icon has a little artefact at the top.
  
• Mithra’s Justice keeps coming back in Paachi’s Workshop even after unlocking it already.
  
• Interact prompt is partially hidden by foreground in Oasis

Thanks,
Matt & the EE team

Discord
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Facebook
Youtube

• Fixed blur effect
  
• Fixed fishing activity for spanish players
  
• Improved game performances
  
• Fixed a crash when trying to pass through the Direpit mine after cleaning it
  
• Fixed the “Unprincipled” challenge in the “Crime and Chaos” path -> encounter with animal groups counted as a win battle for the challenge

• Fixed an issue with weapons and armours that could be duplicated

• Fixed a crash during one of the Beast battle (the one in the Tomb)
  
• Fixed AI behavior during the final battle
  
• Fixed new sepulchre code

• Fixed Glögg and Akvavit recipe that couldn’t be learned anymore

• Fixed Kjerti map

• Fixed the Elite Tracker faction added in the “Tavern’s Open!” DLC. It shouldn’t have been added