Stoneshard News

Through pain, blood and broken bones — prevail and become a legend deciding the fate of Aldor! Stoneshard is coming to Steam on November 7th for $14.99!
(price may differ depending on the region)

To accompany the announcement we’ve also made a new trailer. Take a look!
https://youtu.be/VTeNIyVCsPo

https://store.steampowered.com/app/625960/Stoneshard

Feel like you could've forgotten some aspects of these games? We're glad to help you with a quick rundown!



Stoneshard is an immersive hybrid of roguelike and RPG. In it you travel through procedurally generated world of Aldor as an opportunistic adventurer with his caravan. On your journey you will manage your own needs and those of your followers, fight relentless enemies while trying to preserve your own life and sanity. All while creating your own unique hero and shaping the fate of the whole country.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/625960/Stoneshard/



Police Stories is a top-down tactical shooter, in which you play as on-duty police officers — John Rimes and Rick Jones. Create a unique loadout out of multiple equipment choices and carefully coordinate your actions with your partner to fulfill your task. Just remember that you don't have permission to shoot on sight — less-lethal approach is preferred.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/539470/Police_Stories/

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Hello!

This devlog isn’t dedicated to some specific topic – instead we’ll tell about many things we had worked on during the last month. Some stuff has not yet been fully completed and thus is left behind the scenes, so for now let's focus on more or less complete aspects.



This seemingly small and not very important feature took us a decent amount of time and efforts – but it was crucial to make settlements more alive and believable. Previously, we used a much simplified variant of NPCs daily routine: at a certain time they just left their workplaces to go home.



Now their daily routine is much more varied and rich: for example, in Osbrook, the first village the player encounters, local artisans like to have a good drink before going to bed – so after finishing their work they close their shops and first go to the tavern, then go home.



We’ve also introduced interiors for the whole village – now you can enter any house or even barn. Most artisans will be waiting for you inside, and not on the street like before – if their craft allows working outside, of course.





Another important improvement, designed to give integrity to the game world and ease navigation. No more sudden crypts in the middle of a forest or castles completely isolated from the outside world – most of the settlements and dungeons are now automatically connected by road network. Because of this, you’ll need to actually make an effort to get lost – if you keep the road, you are guaranteed to come across something sooner or later.



Of course, some places in the world will remain isolated – so, if you decide to abandon the road and delve deeper into the wilderness, there’s a good chance you may stumble upon a mysterious hut or some uncharted cave.



In addition, we are working on adding lots of new content: encounters, new weapons and skills. It’s too early to talk about it in detail, but here’s sneak peek at some of this new stuff:



Hopefully, by the next time we'll be ready to show off one of the most exciting parts of our game: skills. So until then!

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Hello!

In this post we will continue to reveal the lore of Stoneshard. If in the past devlog we told about the different factions of Aldor humans, this will be about other races: elves, dwarves and orcs. Though they won’t be factions you can maintain relationships with in the full game (because of fewness and remoteness of the dwarves and elves, and total hostility of the orcs), they’re still an important part of our setting. It is worth recalling that elves and dwarves will also be playable races alongside with humans.

"If you stumble upon a dwarf who isn’t willing to start a fistfight right off the bat, look at him more closely. My best guess - he's probably dead for a couple of weeks."
- Jurg the Innkeeper’s favorite joke


Once the Fjall mountains were a birthplace of a prospering dwarven kingdom, famous for its skillful craftsmen and stonemasons. Dwarves carved many cities in the rocks and connected them by a network of mountain roads – truly a miracle, considering Fjall’s harsh climate and difficult terrain.

However, Fjall crumbled to dust – and the dwarves were forced to leave their mountain vaults in search of a better life on the surface. Little is known about the last days of the once great kingdom, but in the dwarven sagas one often hears the mention of the Exodus, the Extinct Flame and the Great Famine –whatever that means.

Descended from the mountains to the frozen wastelands, those who survived Exodus quickly became savages. Spacious stone passages were replaced by huts and dugouts, skillful jewels – by hides and furs, and the famous smelting halls – with bonfires and primitive furnaces. Ancestors heritage was almost completely forgotten – as well as the spirit of unity once inherent in their folk. Forced to compete in order to survive, the dwarves divided into many fiercely warring tribes. The most numerous ones are Draggar and Ska’ar.

Draggar dwarves have earned notoriety for their passion for pillage and raids – alongside with other dwarven tribes, northern Aldor suffers the most from it. But because of this, they’re also known as dauntless and ferocious warriors. Aldorean nobility gladly hires them to their service – for a decent fee, the Draggarians will fight fiercely even against their own former brethren.

Ska’ar dwarves are more peaceful. They spend most of their lives on the high seas, tracking down all sorts of sea monsters and leviathans. Gathered meat and blubber is enough to survive even the longest winters, and skins and bones are used to make surprisingly durable weapons – some Ska’ar masters wares can compete even with their steel counterparts.

In Aldor dwarves could be met, but very rarely – small communities of dwarven folk can be found only in several northern settlements. These villages are also a common meeting points for Fjall traders and hirelings, who often stop by to exchange pillaged loot for human materials and supplies.

"You better be eating that damn soup, Bertie, or else I'm calling the orcs!"
- Unknown peasant mother


In ancient times the entire territory of Aldor was densely covered with a thicket. For centuries people conquered forest lands inch by inch for their settlements, fields and pastures. However, there were those who resisted the new ways, sparing neither themselves nor the newcomers. These tribes, known as the Forest Folk, were numerous once, but now only three of them remained - and one of them is the orcs.

Orcs are the most powerful, hardy and mysterious inhabitants of the Aldorean woods. If you ask any peasant whom he fears the most, the answer most likely will be “orcs”. Common folk, forest patrols and unruly children - everyone fears the orcs alike due to their unfathomable mysticism, disgusting rituals and inhuman cruelty.

Perhaps they would not have caused such terror, if at least it was known what makes them tick and what gods do they worship. However, it remains a complete mystery, and their actions seem to be absolutely devoid of any logic, moved only by meaningless violence – which makes them even more frightening.

Though orcs remained a serious threat to the people of Aldor for many years, they did not show themselves too actively. Devastating raids and forays happened from time to time, but rather rarely – most of the time orcs seemed to be unwilling to leave their native forests. However, everything changed in the last year, when a certain shaman managed to unite orcish tribes and declare the Sacred Warpath. Aldor, completely devastated by civil war, had troubles organizing resistance during the first months of the incursion, so orcs managed to won back over the centuries of persecution, laying waste to many peaceful settlements.

In six months the orc advance was finally stopped. But as long as the grandees of the Council and the Magistrate vied with each other in bragging about their merits in saving Aldor from orcs, the border guards are preparing for the worst: as the soldiers say, “it’s not us who stopped them; they just stopped attacking.” Who knows – perhaps after this sudden respite, Aldor will have to face an even more ferocious onslaught. There’re rumors of some weird, chaotic piles of branches, animal bones and human bodies found in the forests all across Aldor – so orcs must be really getting ready for something...

"Damn, I’m dying to see those pointy-eared bastards finally invading our good ol’ Aldor. Would be a bloody good reason to hang all those hagglers…"
- Some Brynn citizen expressing famous southern hospitality toward local elven merchants


If the traveler thinks of setting off in the direction of the rising sun, crossing the mountains, and then the eastern steppes and deserts, sooner or later he will find himself in the Jacinth Kingdoms – the great elven empire, occupying endless expanses.

Few people have visited Aldor – however, those very few who can boast of such an adventure, tell of many small kingdoms and principalities united under the rule of a single despot. Desert oasis cities, quaint temples-fortresses far to the east, and even steppe elves nomadic caravans – Jacinth is manifold.

Thanks to the undivided power over the most of the known world, Jacinth managed to accumulate untold riches - some of which he lets on for further expansion. Some princes became elven vassals voluntarily; some were bribed by generous gifts. The fate of the most stubborn was unenviable – so far no one has been able to hold back the might of a thousand elven armies.

Recently, as the peace in Aldor is becoming more and more fragile, Jacinth is apparently very willing to do anything to us this moment of weakness to get the local lands in its sphere of influence. Elven mounted scouts are more and more often being spotted on the borders, and elven goods have recently flooded the markets – which is unusual at the very least for a war-torn country. Evil tongues claim there’re reasons behind this – as they say, the Magistrate nobles are ready to do anything to enlist the elven support to win the civil war.

In Aldor itself elves are not uncommon, especially in large cities, where they are often make successful merchants, jewelers or mercenaries. The largest diaspora resides in Brynn, where one can found an entire elvish quarter. Those elves who reside in Aldor are very similar to humans in terms of culture, but they are still treated with suspicion and open hostility – which is greatly facilitated by the spreading rumors of their Jacinth collaboration.

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Hello!

While more large-scale features are still under development, we’ve decided to start a series of posts dedicated to the Stoneshard setting to finally share some bits of lore with our community.

Since the start of development, the game’s lore changed several times, until we come to the variant suiting everyone. If at first we planned to show a rather typical high-fantasy sword-and-sorcery world, we distanced from this initial concept the more and more as the development went on. Maybe some of remember something about the Last King, an undead army and other things – at the moment everything from the list was either scrapped or completely reworked.

As a result, we came to a rather mundane medieval world, where the influence of the magical and otherworldly is rather small, and Aldor is a small once-kingdom, stuck in a civil war between three rivalling factions. In the game you’ll have to constantly balance between them, because gaining allies in one particular faction will always mean making some enemies in the other ones.



The Council is a group of the most influential Aldor feudals, united around the Regent-Queen and her young son Verne – allegedly the legal heir.

Inora, King Etbert's last wife, married him several months before his untimely death. This marriage was a complete surprise for the whole court - even the nosiest gossipers were surprised by the news. The sudden death of the monarch, soon to follow, became the basis for the rumor that Inora had killed her husband – and her son Verne, born after the Etbert’s death, doesn’t have even a single drop of royal blood in his veins.

Nevertheless, there were plenty of people who believed the Queen. Thanks to her natural cunning and diplomacy, she managed to find many influential allies among nobles – who formed the Council later.

The backbone of the Council consists of two seemingly opposing groups. The first is the Etbert’s old guard – the loyalists who held important posts during his reign. They see Verne as the legitimate successor of the dynasty, which they faithfully served all their lives. The second group consists of those who fell into disgrace during the King Etbert’s rule. For them supporting Inora is a reliable way to regain lost influence and reintegrate into the court life.

However, all of them pursue the common goal: to put down the insurrection and destroy the rebels; restore the crown’s power throughout Aldor; and raise Queen to the throne.



The Great Magistrate is a union of city councils, rebellious aristocrats, as well as artisan and merchant guilds – all fighting for their independence from the royal court.

The roots of Great Magistrate formation lie in the long-standing conflict of King Etbert and the city of Brynn. Having come to power, Etbert deprived Brynn of its free city status. This autocratic move earned him enemies among Brynn’s influential families. And all these years they only waited for the right moment to restore trampled justice.

After the king died and the Inora laid claims to the throne, the Brynn’s city council unanimously voted to quit Aldor, if it would be ruled by an impostor. Surely, the burghers were somewhat deceitful – they weren’t going to tolerate any more power over themselves, and Verne’s unclear origin was just a good excuse. Many neighboring settlements, tired of feudal oppression, followed their example. This union was called the Great Magistrate – since any decisions are discussed by representatives of all the member settlements.

Thanks to the rich treasury and the wide use of mercenaries, the Magistrate fought with the Council on an equal footing, not yielding even an inch of its land. The obtained status quo was finally consolidated after the outbreak of the Crimson Plague – frightened by the unprecedented illness, the parties declared a truce to curb the epidemic.

Taking advantage of the resulting respite, the Magistrate only grew in power, rebuilding everything destroyed by war and sending ambassadors abroad. By the way, this gives the Council another significant reason to call Magistrate followers traitors – as they say, the Magistrate’s ties with Jacinth elves are much closer than is required for commerce.



The Gray Army is a folk uprising that has taken on an enormous scale recently. The composition of the Gray Army is quite dissimilar – the majority are peasants and artisans, but there are other groups as well: former brigands, clerics-in-doubt, broke feudal lords and Magistrate or Council armies deserters.

For several years, the common people meekly endured all the war: they fought under the banners of the Council and the Magistrate, paid wartime taxes, watched lawlessness and violence, suffered from hunger and disease, and died – by thousands. However, the longer the war went on, the louder the grumbling became.

These moods were skillfully used by Nir – a man of unknown origin, and therefore even more mysterious and frightening. A former monk; runaway slave; criminal on the run; feudal lord, who lost his mind after losing his title – there are so many rumors regarding his possible past, the safest bet is not to believe any of them.

The philosophy of the movement is quite confusing and controversial – mainly because only Nir himself grasps it fully. The rest only has to interpret the scattered fragments of his statements – the so-called Words. The Gray Army considers immoderation and incontinence in all its manifestations to be the most important cause of all evil. Nir believes that the ability to find and keep a fine line is paramount, and only in this way people can protect themselves from corruption.

Due to the multiplicity and desperate courage, the Gray Army managed to occupy numerous territories, having won several settlements from the Council and the Magistrate. Now the Army is looking forward to the end of the truce – to finally finish off all those who deny their dogmas.

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That's all for today. Stay tuned for the next update about some game mechanics in two weeks!


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