Stoneshard Update #58 – Prologue Progress

Back in October, Ink Stains Games announced a slight delay for their upcoming roguelike RPG Stoneshard. And according to this Kickstarter update, the team now plans to use the added development time to put together an updated version of the game’s free Prologue. The new Prologue will better represent the game in its current state, feature an improved tutorial and showcase all the recently added systems and mechanics.

Here’s more on that:

Hello everyone!

In this devlog we’ll tell you what to expect from the updated Prologue which we plan to release this year.

Since the release of the Prologue in May 2018 almost every aspect of the game has changed so much, that the current Prologue will rather confuse newcomers than introduce them to the game. Therefore we decided to put an effort into updating its systems and mechanics so that they’ll better reflect the state of the main game.

It’s worth mentioning that the Prologue will remain free and will also be included in the main game, where it will serve as a tutorial and an introduction to the story. It means that you can complete it both as a standalone version as well as a part of the main game. Your actions in the Prologue will not have any effect on your main game so don’t worry about transferring progress. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you finish the Prologue beforehand, you’ll be able to skip it in the main game and go straight to creating your character.

The Prologue’s structure will remain almost exactly the same. You’ll still find yourself in a dungeon, escape, complete a tutorial floor and then fight your way through two procedurally generated floors to challenge the final boss. We’ve also introduced quite a number of changes to the tutorial. For instance – more visible and descriptive popups, explaining game’s mechanics. We hope that it will provide a better introduction to the game.

As for game systems and mechanics, everything is now up to date with the current build of the main game. Reworked UI, relevant stats and abilities, new health and injury system, more transparent display of hunger and thirst, better dungeon generation, destructible objects and enemies opening doors – it will all be included in the updated Prologue.

Content wise there are many noticeable changes, especially for those who didn’t take part in the closed beta test. Since the release of the original Prologue we’ve added a huge number of new equipment and also changed most of the old stuff, so you’ll see lots of new items. We’ve also changed starting enemies. Now instead of vampires you’ll fight against a cult of Proselytes, boasting fresh new enemy types and abilities. Other than that, all dialogues were rewritten to better accommodate story and setting changes.

And finally, the boss fight. It’s safe to say that it has been improved the most. First of all, the Cursed Chapel was completely remade in accordance with our increased quality standards. Second, we’ve added a few tweaks to the fight with the statues. For instance half the spells is tied to one statue, while the other is to the second one. Respectively, by destroying one of the statues, you’ll prevent the Archon from casting blood bolts and puddles or stop him from summoning and healing zombies.

Third, the battle with the reborn Archon which used to be an optional secret, is now a mandatory second phase of the fight. The Archon himself was naturally changed as well, now possessing quite a few new abilities. You should be able to beat him by strategically exploiting his weaknesses. What are those? You’ll have to find out yourself.

That’s it for now. We’ll announce a date for the Prologue very soon, so stay tuned.

Until next time!