KickStarter Stoneshard - open world roguelike RPG - now available on Early Access

[Tyranicon]

Harthwain

https://steamdb.info/app/625960/graphs/

 

[Tygrende]

The game is clearly being updated consistently and people talking about waiting two years as though it's a long time for this genre are being a bit impatient.

It's not impatient to expect features to be delivered on promised time and to be annoyed with endless delays. There's a subtle difference between taking long and being late.

 

[Serus]

IIRC, the dev is a small team in Russia. Game is selling very well, probably near the top for small team cRPGs. They've already made millions, so I don't think money at least is an issue right now.

I'd be much more worried if their artist gets poached.

Good quality vodka for a whole, even small, team? The bills can add fast. Not to mention luxury whores. That accidentally would explain any delays as well.

 

[Tyranicon]

IIRC, the dev is a small team in Russia. Game is selling very well, probably near the top for small team cRPGs. They've already made millions, so I don't think money at least is an issue right now.

I'd be much more worried if their artist gets poached.

Good quality vodka for a whole, even small, team? The bills can add fast. Not to mention luxury whores. That accidentally would explain any delays as well.

I think hookers and drugs are like the reason why 60% of funded kickstarters fail to deliver.

 

[The Wall]

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to get at here, you listed a bunch of games with long development schedules (okay?) and a few that were in early access (and got shat on for years until they were basically compl- wait a minute).
I'm pretty sure you could even take your own advice of "Learn patience or I dunno, get a job/bitch to fuck/job/life." and come back to the thread when the game is fully done, and it'll probably be all sunshine and rainbows with people discussing how much fun they're having.
Until then, it's "Stoneshart update.. bad!" till the morale content improves.

With nickname like that I'd check with urologist. No wonder you're so impatient if you gotta pee all the time. Pillars of Eternity's loading screens must have made you quite pissed :D

 

[The Wall]

And now for my second post, cause all good things (hot elf twins, twix candy etc) come in double, here are few more teasers from game's Discord:

New teasers

*

*it seems warpig is in the game. Congratulations on digital immortality, mate!

 

[Haba]

IIRC, the dev is a small team in Russia. Game is selling very well, probably near the top for small team cRPGs. They've already made millions, so I don't think money at least is an issue right now.

I'd be much more worried if their artist gets poached.

Good quality vodka for a whole, even small, team? The bills can add fast. Not to mention luxury whores. That accidentally would explain any delays as well.

Team in Russia.

Money in ...?

Yup. You can bet there is a lot of fun in that equation. Fun that spends the money without any of the devs wetting their dicks or their throats.

 

[Brickfrog]

And now for my second post, cause all good things (hot elf twins, twix candy etc) come in double, here are few more teasers from game's Discord:

New teasers

*

*it seems warpig is in the game. Congratulations on digital immortality, mate!

Wow those waves look fantastic

 

[The Wall]

More PixelArt for PixelArt God

 

[Theodora]

After spending some time on this, I'm amazed by the engine and its potential (I believe it's some custom version of GameMaker Studio?). Especially when combined with the stellar pixel art.

Why does a 'pixel art' game doing so well bother you if you also think the assets are fantastic?

Agreed though, there's a ton of potential in its basic components, especially now that they've fixed the whole thing with being able to save/quit at a whim.

The power curve to this game doesn't feel at all right. You can kill 7 experienced bandits in a fight but one elk will somehow murder you. It's a wonder humans became a power at all in this world where deer could probably stop three knights dead. Hell lure one into a dungeon and it would probably clear it for you.

Yeah, they need to fix that so you can actually play it as a roguelike, rather than just an RPG with a very punishing permadeath option (which one assumes is how it's meant to be played in the first place).

It's probably good to remember that actual rogue likes have very long development cycles. Caves of qud has been in early access since like 2015. One day Stone Shard will have filled out skill trees, enemy factions, fishing, alchemy, divine worship, etc etc and itl be pretty good.

Bingo, most good modern roguelikes released early / bare bones and turned into something great over time.

The art is so absurdly good by the standards of the genre

I'd be pretty surprised if on full release it didn't become the go-to game for introducing new people to traditional roguelikes.

 

[Tyranicon]

After spending some time on this, I'm amazed by the engine and its potential (I believe it's some custom version of GameMaker Studio?). Especially when combined with the stellar pixel art.

Why does a 'pixel art' game doing so well bother you if you also think the assets are fantastic?

Oh don't get me wrong, I love pixel art and I've released games with pixel art. I'm saying it's awesome artsyle is part of the reason why it's so popular.

I'm also not bothered by Stoneshard's success as much as I'm bothered that other RPGs with less-stellar art don't get as much attention.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I'll never get bored of ascii, pixel, or vector art.

 

[HeyCheckOutHowHardICanPee]

No wonder you're so impatient if you gotta pee all the time.

It's not about the quantity, but the quality, volume and pressure, thank you very much.

I'm saying it's awesome artsyle is part of the reason why it's so popular.

Stoneshard has many many many reasons why it made such a big splash in the pond, ranging from eyecandy art to a very solid demo in the form of a prologue and everything in-between.
Think of it really hard, how many of said other "hardcore" RPGs have actual demos?

 

[Darth Canoli]

Stoneshard has many many many reasons why it made such a big splash in the pond, ranging from eyecandy art to a very solid demo in the form of a prologue and everything in-between.
Think of it really hard, how many of said other "hardcore" RPGs have actual demos?

If it's a RPG, it's a jrpg because the quests are as linear as in your average jrpg.
The demo was alright, besides the micro backpack, problem is, the rest of the game is way weaker than the demo, so far.

As for the demos, real hardcore RPG with demos are legion, because it was expected, back in the days.
Even the more "recent" Wizardry 8 and KotC provided demos and they're still available.

 

[Harthwain]

If it's a RPG, it's a jrpg because the quests are as linear as in your average jrpg.

There is something in the campaign description about "making decisions with long-lasting consequences". I do wonder how much it (if at all) will be tied with the open world and economy. Perhaps whatever you decide will impact the world, therefore impacting you in return?

The demo was alright, besides the micro backpack, problem is, the rest of the game is way weaker than the demo, so far.

The demo was very focused. The main game has a lot of extra parts, many of which are very ambitious.

 

[Theodora]

I'll never get bored of ascii, pixel, or vector art.

Having to use one's imagination will always beat poorly stylised or generic art.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/625960/view/3108051214310824350

Hotfix 0.7.0.27 - Important Announcement

Hello everyone!

We’re sorry to announce that due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine we won’t be able to stick to the intended release schedule. Some of the key members of our team are Ukrainian citizens and are either already caught in the war zone or might soon find themselves there. Hopefully, the war will not last long, and we’ll be able to proceed with developing the game as planned.

Thank you for understanding.

CHANGELOG

- Added special map icons to locations with save points.
- Added sleeping spots to Distant Homestead and certain other Points of Interest.

- Tweaked and updated every unique Point of Interest. All doors in these locations can now be interacted with. Some changes won't take effect until you start a new game.

- Fixed the softlock affecting some dialogues.
- Fixed NPCs endlessly giving out items.
- Added unique rumors to most Brynn NPCs.
- Increased dungeon doors’ durability.
- Increased snakes’ spawn rate in some locations.
- Fixed some Achievements not working as intended (for instance, the unique items your character starts with and the items from the Supporter Pack no longer count towards “That belongs in a museum”).
- Fixed “Wetness” not working as intended when the character enters deep water.
- Fixed scouted locations missing their global map descriptions.
- The horse at the brewery no longer respawns after death.
- Corpses that can’t be harvested by “Skinning” are no longer highlighted by it.

 

[Fedora Master]

How very convenient for them.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/625960/view/3108051214310824350

Hotfix 0.7.0.27 - Important Announcement

Hello everyone!

We’re sorry to announce that due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine we won’t be able to stick to the intended release schedule. Some of the key members of our team are Ukrainian citizens and are either already caught in the war zone or might soon find themselves there. Hopefully, the war will not last long, and we’ll be able to proceed with developing the game as planned.

Thank you for understanding.

CHANGELOG

- Added special map icons to locations with save points.
- Added sleeping spots to Distant Homestead and certain other Points of Interest.

- Tweaked and updated every unique Point of Interest. All doors in these locations can now be interacted with. Some changes won't take effect until you start a new game.

- Fixed the softlock affecting some dialogues.
- Fixed NPCs endlessly giving out items.
- Added unique rumors to most Brynn NPCs.
- Increased dungeon doors’ durability.
- Increased snakes’ spawn rate in some locations.
- Fixed some Achievements not working as intended (for instance, the unique items your character starts with and the items from the Supporter Pack no longer count towards “That belongs in a museum”).
- Fixed “Wetness” not working as intended when the character enters deep water.
- Fixed scouted locations missing their global map descriptions.
- The horse at the brewery no longer respawns after death.
- Corpses that can’t be harvested by “Skinning” are no longer highlighted by it.

So in short.....

CANCELLED!

 

[Jenkem]

vaporware

 

[Abu Antar]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/625960/view/3102424065187852079

Devlog: The Current State of Affairs

Hello everyone!

Today we’d like to tell you about the circumstances affecting our studio and the future development of Stoneshard. It’s been almost a month since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, and it had a rather negative impact on the lives of our team. Let’s start with the most important part.

A significant portion of our team (our game designer, one of the coders, the promo artist) are Ukrainian citizens. The war caught everyone off guard: while some managed to quickly leave the war zone, others got stuck or simply didn’t want to abandon their homes. Right now these team members are in relative safety, but there are still issues with accessing the Internet and setting up a proper work space. There also wasn’t enough time to backup everything, so we lost some assets, although it shouldn’t set the development back too much.

Other than that, there are financial problems: as many of you already know, Steam no longer makes transactions with Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarus banks. Naturally, it affected our team as well, preventing us from receiving income from Steam. At the moment, we still have enough resources, but if we don't find a solution to this issue, we won’t have enough money to continue outsourcing the specialists who’ve been helping us with the game - this might noticeably slow down the rate of updates, even if temporarily.

As for the Russian members of our team, most of them are currently busy with moving to other countries, which will require some time. However, the overall situation is more or less stable, and we most definitely won’t stop working on the game. For now everyone contributes as much as the circumstances allow, but once the most pressing issues are resolved, we’ll continue developing Stoneshard’s at the usual pace.

Now let’s talk about more distant plans. Before the war, we already began working on an interim content update that was supposed to add interiors to key buildings on the Mint Square in Brynn. After that, we wanted to implement some of the long-planned city quests, and then - to start working on the next major update, “Rags to riches”, which was meant to introduce random encounters, a functioning Caravan, tweaks to contracts and the economy, and more.


The Mint Square interim update is already partially complete, so it will be released relatively soon. The rest of the original plan will have to be readjusted - we’ll make sure to share the details and post an updated roadmap once everything is said and done. All we can say for now is that some features will likely be added in a different order and that major updates might end up divided into smaller ones.

And finally, some teasers:

In conclusion, we’d like to say that your support and sympathy are extremely important to us right now. We love and appreciate our community, and we hope that this sentiment is mutual. Stay safe!

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[The Wall]

Brand new teasers from April (delicious pixel art):

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Huh?

Spoiler

And there are penguins that say fuck this bullshit and head to their destiny to fight the gods... they are NOT named Bree. They are the Last of the Paragon Penguin Paladins in Eternal Pain. They seek to destroy the evil that has forced them into exile. No longer will they bow and be dominated..... ONWARD!

the blood of his enemies covers the fearless penguin as he marches towards the warlord's Palace in the very heart of Antarctica. Soon the Warlord's blood will drench this penguin as he howls victorious.



<in the penguins mind>