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 you, our 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 And at some point the Prologue grew so outdated that updating it became a priority.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, especially for those of you who didn't take part in the closed alpha and beta tests. It's available for download on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/869760/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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