Stoneshard – Early Access Roadmap and FAQ

In a couple of days, Ink Stains Games will be launching their roguelike RPG Stoneshard into early access, and as such, we can now check out this Steam announcement that lets us know what we can expect from the initial build, shares the game’s early access roadmap that promises new systems, features and heaps of content, and then follows that up with a helpful FAQ. The roadmap itself is presented as an image, but here are the text bits:

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.

[…]

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

• 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!