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Shards of Order News

Objectives, Waves & A New Class??

[p][/p][h2]Hello everyone \\(>◇[/h2][p]This week has been pretty hectic with all the holidays and stuff, but we’ve still got a lot to show you. Right now we’re focusing on making systems that support our games RPG elements, with significant changes to the battles and map. Take a look![/p][p][/p][h2]Battle Objectives[/h2][p]We’re currently working on a way to make the battles more varied, so it isn't always about murdering everything on the screen. Some of the battles will now require you to survive a certain amount of time, others will require you to protect an NPC or kill a certain enemy before it runs away.
[/p][p]More will be added as time goes on but, we’re planning for these objectives to have impact on the actual RPG elements, with real consequence on the map. This should further bridge the gap between combat and the map, increasing the immersion of the game.[/p][p][/p][h2]Enemy Waves[/h2][p]As an addition to the objectives, the battles will now feature a wave system. This means that as time progresses, more and more enemies can keep appearing. This allows our designers to create some really interesting battle scenarios.[/p][p][/p][p]Here's an example (the animations are a bit janky for now, but ay… they work):[/p][p]
[/p][p]Don’t mind the dangling… cloth on some of the enemies, actually do mind it because we’re keeping it in. Don't make too much fun of it though, we don't want to make the artist sad.[/p][p][/p][h2]Map Improvements[/h2][p]We’ve also been tinkering around with the core design of the map, we’ve come to a couple of conclusions, partially following your feedback.

We need easier backtracking, moving around bigger dungeons takes too much time, the same popups kept showing up each time you visited a node. As we expand our RPG-ness these travel times would only begin to grow and grow, leading to frustration. The answer was clear: we need more than a single interaction type with map areas. For example each NPC or point of interest on a certain map node should have their own interaction icon, these will be able to move around the map, changing the shape and the story of the map in real time.[/p][p]
Here’s how it’s looking so far:[/p][p][/p][p]We’re still experimenting with the visuals and overall presentation, so the looks might change in the future. We want the map to be as immersive as possible without sacrificing readability, and causing frustration.[/p][p][/p][h2]New Class[/h2][p]This is just a quick sneak peak to leave you guessing and on your toes, the class's look and design is basically determined but we’re still experimenting so we’re gonna create a whole dedicated post to showcase its abilities when we’re 100% happy with it. And so here it is![/p][p]
[/p][p]Tell us your best guesses as to what this class does and its theme under this post or on our discord -> here, and sorry for keeping you on edge like that :P[/p][p][/p][h2]Q&A[/h2][p]We've received a couple of questions from yall, so I'll try my best to answer them right now. [/p][p]Q:I really enjoyed the soundtrack in your game! May I ask if you’re planning to release the tracks on Spotify or other music platforms once the game is fully released? Thank you in advance for your time and for creating such wonderful music and such an amazing game!”.

Thank YOU for the amazing compliments, our music is sourced from different artists, and believe us or not, some of the music that we’re most happy with has been out on youtube for almost a decade.

They’re made by an artist called Dzivia, and the tracks featured in our game are:[/p]
  • [p]Postaci (Shadows) [/p]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
  • [p]IMPERIVM [/p]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
  • [p]Vataha (The Pack) [/p]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]As for the remaining tracks. We will consider it :D.
[/p][p]Q: “This game looks to be shaping up really well. I must ask you, please think about regional pricing with care. My country (Brazil) , like many others, has very weak local currencies now. If the pricing feels wrong (like, say, Monster Train 2 here) and the full game is packed with the same quality the Demo has, it's a day 1 purchase to me.”.[/p][p][/p][p]We will try to push this as much as possible, our country (Poland) is notorious for having some of the highest game prices in the world when adjusted for local currency, so it's something that we take personally. But in the end this decision is not ours to make.[/p][p][/p][h2]Wrap up[/h2][p]Sorry for the 1 day delay, but the dumbass that writes these posts forgot about the national holiday, and I can say that because he's me. Anyways… we’ll see you next monday.[/p][p][/p][p]Stay safe!
Fardust team[/p][p][/p][p]Q&A form:[/p][p]https://forms.gle/RjVhs3oSfyjRQtrH9[/p][p][/p][p]Catch us on our socials:[/p][p]TikTok[/p][p]Blue Sky[/p][p]Discord[/p][p]x.com[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]
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Crits, Burning Cards & More…

[p][/p][p]Hello everyone (❁´◡`❁)[/p][p] New week, new updates. Demo is now a thing of the past, code is nice and cleaned up, and now, we’re back in business putting out features like there’s no tomorrow. This week we’ve got some actual content to talk about. Starting with:[/p][p][/p][p]Le~ crit[/p][p][/p][p]So, we decided that we wanna give the players some occasional and sudden surges of dopamine, as well as add a chance to get out of some tough situations, you should’ve never gotten yourself into with pure luck. Therefore we decided that the best way to do that will be adding critical strikes. Some pieces of equipment will have a base crit chance, that will be upgradable via character skill nodes, and special cards. This will exist not only as an additional thing you can do, but also a way you can build your entire deck around. This should give some of you gambling enjoyers a chance (pun intended) to find their playstyle. [/p][p][/p][p]We’re looking for ways to make the crit look extra JUICY by implementing various things, like custom animations, exclusive vfx, time stop and different damage number. Here’s an example result of how that's going:

No Crit: Crit:[/p][p][/p][p]We’re really looking forward to what builds we’ll be able to cook up with this feature, share your thoughts with us![/p][p][/p][p]Burning Cards[/p][p][/p][p]Some of the enemies in the new dungeon will be able to set our characters ablaze, this will cause the characters actions to cost them health. This also causes the cards to appear “on fire” while on players hand, here’s how that looks:
[/p][p][/p][p]Its straight fire🔥🔥🔥, The vfx under the character is subject to change, but we’re very happy with how the effect looks on the cards.[/p][p][/p][p]This and other mechanics should add a breath of fresh air to the overall experience of the new dungeon.[/p][p][/p][p]New analytics[/p][p]So, after our last analytics post, we went and analysed some more data from our demo playtest (some of the people on our team are real data freaks). Here’s the things they compiled for us to enjoy.

The First Shrike Fight
The first Shrike battle was attempted 3771 times, and 3153 of those attempts were successful, the rest of them either lost (232) or rage quit the game (386). This is kinda surprising to us, we’re gonna have to make the objective of the battle more clear to try to make sure that no player misses our intention with it.

Legionnaire Fight[/p][p]538 of all players decided to take on the Legionnaire with only soldier in their team, only 1 person managed to win the fight, though we have no idea how he did it. What an absolute madlad.
[/p][p]The Final Shrike Fight
Out of 1902 people that ran the Shrike fight, 271 of them lost, causing them to start over, 31 of them ragequit, and never finished the fight :(.[/p][p][/p][p]Most popular character upgrades[/p][p]Here’s who upgrades most people chose on each of the characters while leveling up:[/p][p]
Soldier:
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  • [p]Judge Card[/p]
  • [p]Executioner Upgrade[/p]
  • [p]Shielder[/p]
  • [p]Impact[/p]
  • [p]Overhead Slam[/p]
[p]Seems that people liked to play the Soldier a bit more defensively, a fair choice, BUT RAGE, WE NEED MORE ANGER! [/p][p][/p][p]Scholar:[/p]
  • [p]WoundCurse Upgrade[/p]
  • [p]Drawer[/p]
  • [p]Fireball[/p]
  • [p]Heal[/p]
  • [p]Weakening[/p]
[p]Fireball wasn't very popular, but it was the strongest card in the game, it could deal some massive, massive damage. Playing the mage as a support and deck manager is also a really good way to play.[/p][p][/p][p]Exile:[/p]
  • [p]Barrage Upgrade[/p]
  • [p]Expose[/p]
  • [p]Healing Rain[/p]
  • [p]Load Upgrade[/p]
  • [p]Sharpened Arrows[/p]
[p]We like to see that, people choosing to upgrade barrage means they understood the value in reloading and topping up your quiver. [/p][p][/p][p]New skill tree visuals
[/p][p]We thought that the skill tree UI looked a little outdated so we gave it some attention and refreshed it:
[/p][p][/p][p]The Black Wing Legion

We’ve also decided to give you a sneak peak into the visuals of a new enemy faction, The black wing legion:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
Wrap up
Another challenging week of work ahead of us, await new updates, follow us on our socials and stay safe. Until then, we’ll see you next week. [/p][p][/p][p]Cheers,
Fardust team

PS.: The next update will be posted on Tuesday (11.11.2025), due to holidays 🙇‍♂️ [/p][p][/p][p]Q&A form:[/p][p]https://forms.gle/RjVhs3oSfyjRQtrH9
[/p][p]Catch us on our socials:[/p][p]TikTok (yes we have a TikTok now)[/p][p]Blue Sky[/p][p]Discord[/p][p]x.com[/p][p][/p][p]
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Analytics and feedback

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Hello everyone (●'◡'●)[/p][p]Hope you had a great weekend, but it's time to get back on the grind. This week, we’ve compiled some data from our analytics and the feedback that y'all so kindly shared with us. We've even included some of your personalised replies because they are too funny not to share with the world.[/p][p]
Overall statistics
The most impressive statistic is that 2700 people played our demo, and a whopping 45.7%! finished it. This is a really good sign that the game draws the players in and keeps them engaged. It was so shocking to us that we had to go back and double-check the analytics code to see if it was working as intended.
[/p][p]Out of the 2700 people, 115 of you filled out our feedback survey 92.2% had positive thoughts about the demo, 7.8% had mixed feelings, and 0% thought of it negatively 💘.[/p][p][/p][p]Combat was the aspect of the game y’all liked the most, but the results were very close to each other, with art style and story following close behind. Cards and items were amongst the least favorite options, but again, they also got their piece of the pie and had many fans.

What you didn’t like[/p][p]It seems that the map needs to be worked on, it takes too much time to move around and it's boring and too linear. The map being linear was our intended choice; it kept the demo short and simple. Don't worry about it too much though, there will be some girth added to the quests and story, with sidequests, choices with real outcomes and other fun stuff.

Healing was another big problem for you; it seems that the game didn’t provide enough healing options, and you tended to keep your healing bells rather than use them to avoid wasting them. This is a controversial topic, naturally all of us want to keep the health bars full at all times, have 50 stacks of shields, and avoid taking any damage whenever possible, but this leads to boring fights, which often focus on minimizing what you lose over ending the fight in a quick and flashy style. We kinda want to keep it that way, this is meant to be an unforgiving place where wounds, pain, and a constant fear of death are something you have on the back of your mind at all times.

Tell us your thoughts on this, we’re really curious what you consider the correct amount of healing.

Other statistics[/p]
  • [p]The least understandable mechanics were the enemy cooldown, and the mage's mana.[/p]
  • [p]Most people enjoyed the cooldown mechanics the most, with enjoying all of the mechanics and their synergies following closely after.[/p]
  • [p]The least likable mechanic was deckbuilding[/p]
  • [p]The most liked hero was the Exile, with Mage in second, and Warrior in last.[/p]
  • [p]35% of you thought the game should last more than 20hrs with, 32% thinking it should last 15-20 hrs.[/p]
  • [p]69% (nice) thought the game should cost between 10$ - 20$[/p]
  • [p]On a scale of 1-5, only 2% thought that the game was too hard, while 7% thought it was too easy; ratings of 2-4 are pretty well balanced with slight variation towards the game being hard.[/p]
[p][/p][p]Funny replies
The skelly guy from the ending doesn't have a good reputation.[/p][p]Q: What made you stop playing?[/p][p]A: The final boss (big uber skele dude with sword in back) killed me in one fell swoop!
A: I CANNOT STOP PLAYING !!![/p][p]A: THE FUCKING LAST BOSS !
[/p][p]Ah yes, the warrior enjoyers are being warrior enjoyers.
Q: Which aspect(s) of the game should we expand the most in the full release?
A: More rage (raaaaaaaaaaargh)
[/p][p]Such a mystery with this one, what did they mean? Is this some kind of secret code? We shall never find out…[/p][p]Q: What aspect(s) of the game did you enjoy the least?[/p][p]A: enigma
[/p][p]Thank you Jan, you shall be remembered. Q: Any additional comments or suggestions?[/p][p]A: Cheers and well done from your German neighbors, Jan
[/p][p]Some of you even tried to apply for an internship, a very very nice try, while we cannot accept your offers, we understand that layoffs suck. Good luck in your job hunting ventures o7.[/p][p][/p][p]Stuff we’re working on
We’re doing a lot of things, but this post is already too long, so we’ll just show you some art we’ve cooked up. We’ll touch on this more next week.
[/p][p]New cool arena (The doors are animated!)[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
Visuals of one of our new dungeons.[/p][p]

Q&A

Someone asked - “Does your health increase when you level up in the full game? In the demo it didn't, made me feel quite weak still honestly. In most rpgs you gain more health on level up.”
[/p][p]Totally! You will be able to increase your HP by allocating skill points in nodes that increase particular statistics. Additionally, you will be able to bolster your defenses with armor and defensive cards.[/p][p][/p][p]Wrap up
Thank you, everyone, for sharing your feedback. It’s been a blast reading through your replies. Hope you have an amazing week and we’ll see you next Monday. [/p][p][/p][p]Cheers,
Fardust team[/p][p][/p][p]Q&A form:[/p][p]https://forms.gle/RjVhs3oSfyjRQtrH9[/p][p][/p][p]Catch us on our socials:[/p][p]TikTok (yes we have a TikTok now)[/p][p]Blue Sky[/p][p]Discord[/p][p]x.com[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]
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Conclusion of Steam Next Fest

[p][/p][p]Hello everyone ~(^w^)ノ

First of all, in the name of us over at Fardust, I wanted to thank everyone who played the demo, wishlisted the game or simply enjoyed watching others play it. It really hyped us and gave us a much needed boost of energy. Seeing all the reviews and thoughtful feedback made us realize that we have something special on our hands, something that y’all clearly find valuable. And so, we’ve heard you, loud and clear, we’re gonna go do everything in our power to make this game what it deserves to be. We will probably lose a few hairs doing so, but we believe that it’s gonna be worth it in the end.

Your feedback matters
[/p][p]We’ve got an immense amount of ideas, partially thanks to your feedback, and due to that we’ve decided to try and include you in the development process as much as possible. Every Monday, from now until the full release of the game, we’re gonna be regularly updating you on the current development process, upcoming ideas, cool art as well as listening to your thoughts on certain subjects. (And talking them over)

The future

The full development length and the release date for Shards of Order has not yet been determined. We’re still working out the numbers and seeing what makes sense. We’ve considered releasing the game in early access, however none of that is set in stone yet, but as soon as we know more, we’re gonna inform you via our socials.
[/p][p]But! Not to leave you empty-handed, please enjoy a tiny bit of sneak peeks from the upcoming content (everything is subject to change, but we believe we’re getting there!):
[/p][p]Blackwing Legion is gathering up the Lost and locking them up in their cells. For what purpose? You will find out in Act 1 of the full game.[/p][p][/p][p]Yep, the big guy will use the boat as a shield AND a weapon. You can break that boat and force him to attack with his fists. The little guy is inreasing its damage with every hit received, so make sure to save those heavy hits of a Soldier for this one.[/p][p][/p][p]And a bit more of what the game’s full release will bring, featuring the map of the second act, a new type of enemies, and a unique mini-boss![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
If you have any more questions about the game or about the team please ask them here -> [/p][p]https://forms.gle/RjVhs3oSfyjRQtrH9, we’ll try our best to answer all of them in our weekly updates.

See you next week
Fardust

Catch us on our socials:[/p][p]Blue Sky[/p][p]Discord[/p][p]x.com[/p][p][/p][p]

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Shards of Order demo is now live!

[p][/p][h2]Welcome![/h2][p][/p][p]The Steam Next Fest has just begun, and that means the demo version of Shards of Order is now available![/p][p]But what is Shards of Order about, you ask? Watch the trailer if you want to grasp the vibe:[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]The game is a dark fantasy RPG that features card-based combat, utilizing a unique time counter mechanic instead of traditional turns and mana points. [/p][p][/p][h3]It’s a full-fledged RPG, not a roguelike deckbuilder.[/h3][p][/p][p]Expect a dark fantasy RPG with card-based combat, set in a decaying world where reality itself is unraveling. The ancient Laws that once bound life, death, and time have been shattered, leaving behind a place where memory fades, identity fractures, and even the dead refuse to stay buried. Uncover the story of a grim, shattered world by exploring its hidden corners and shaping its fate.[/p][p][/p][p]Complete your team of heroes, each with unique abilities, personal arcs, and customizable equipment, combining their strengths to survive on your journey. Developing each of the characters also expands your pool of cards, granting new deckbuilding opportunities.[/p][p][/p][p]Battle with a dynamic time-based system where every move shifts the flow of combat, and explore decaying regions filled with secrets, deadly enemies, and epic bosses. Restore shattered Laws to reshape the world; each choice carries weight, as restoring it will impact the rules of the game.[/p][p][/p][p]In a land where memory fades and the dead refuse to rest, every decision leaves a mark. There is no order—only what you are strong enough to bring back.[/p][p][/p][p]Note that in this demo, you will only experience a small bit of content and the general scope that is planned for the full game. At the same time, the general gameplay loop and formula are similar to what will be in the final version.[/p][p][/p][p]And speaking of the final version, we have a lot more coming to Shards of Order! Take a look at the sneak peeks of what the game’s full release will bring, featuring the map of the second act, a new type of enemies, and a unique mini-boss![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]That’s it for today! We wish you an enjoyable and successful journey through the world of Shards of Order. We’d love to hear your thoughts about the game, so we encourage you to provide feedback! Also, we encourage you to join our Discord to stay in touch and talk about the game with us & other players: [/p][p]https://discord.gg/X6WNQUUJnx[/p][p][/p][p]
[/p][p]Cheers,[/p][p]Awaken Realms / Fardust[/p][p]
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