Hello! In this unscheduled post we would like to address some problems found on the Prologue, and explain thoroughly their causes and possible solutions. Below I list the most frequent complaints we’ve received lately, and how we’re already working on improvements.

1. Settings are absent

Releasing the Prologue without an option menu was definitely not our best decision, to put it mildly, but we simply didn’t have enough time to implement it. This issue was already listed amongst the first in our To-do list; good news is we plan to roll out the “Settings Update” next week. Here’s a screenshot to show you we’re already working on it very hard.

2. Lack of fullscreen option and other resolutions support

When choosing the art style, we decided we wanted to make a 100% pixel perfect game. In brief, this means that every pixel of in-game sprites (including interfaces) must correspond to one pixel of the user’s display. This greatly complicates developing interfaces: different resolutions assume different amounts of free space, which makes the addition of each new resolution variant a rather complex and time-consuming task. Since we are going to rework many core game-systems based on your feedback (which means inevitable UI change), working on other resolutions is simply pointless at the current moment: any minor edit will require us to manually edit dozens of other versions of this resolution. So we are forced to postpone it for the future – until we’ll have the final iteration of GUI. For now, if you don’t mind playing the Prologue pixel perfect just press Alt + Enter to enter the system’s fullscreen mode.

3. Clumsy controls and loot interaction

Current controls were designed by our beloved Ahruz We won’t argue there: at the moment they’re plain clunky and counterintuitive – the natural result of not holding mass playtests and the game growing bigger and bigger than it was initially planned. When you play your own game for two years, you get used to even the most uncomfortable control scheme. However, mass feedback complaining about this issue showed us that the situation really needs to be changed, and we will do our best to improve the current controls scheme (starting with the introduction of customized settings - see point 1 above).

4. Lots of brutal RNG: game relies on luck and loot drops way too much.

Flip the coin to win. Keep in mind that the Prologue is just a general taste of some basic game mechanics, an introduction to the lore and a general feel of what the game will be, but it’s not the final game. We plan to significantly revamp current system of attributes, making it more transparent to players and less random. We plan to do this shortly, right after the end of the crowdfunding campaign, and within a few months we will present you to the changes and improvements made on your constructive feedback. As game designer, I myself don’t really like the current RNG situation as well, so we will try to reduce the reliance on RNG to a more reasonable, yet interesting level. Now to the “luck factor” problem: this issue is just a Prologue’s exclusive problem, and it’s caused by the story and tutorial exposition, since Verren begins to explore the dungeon without having anything at all. But in the main game, the gameplay cycle of the dungeon crawling will be completely different: aside character creation and customization your characters will also have an opportunity to prepare their inventory and skills in advance, amongst many other mechanics, which will significantly diminish the role of random loot drops.

5. No saves upon exiting the game. No checkpoints.

His ward magic disrupted our save system. Well, not really. There’s a very good reason behind this. If you have read our Kickstarter, our Steam page, or some of our Devlogs, you probably remember that we are going to introduce a global open world into the game at some point. This means that the open world needs to be included to the core code of the save system as well. Right now, the global map is at a very early stage of development, so it is impossible for us to take into account all of its variables in advance, just for the Prologue. As soon as we finish working on the global map, we will immediately start implementing the save system. Checkpoints are somewhat more complicated, as they’re conflicting with our initial game design philosophy. We want our game to follow the spirit of classical roguelikes, and permadeath is an integral part of it. However, it seems many people would like to have their progress saved at least while they’re just learning how to play the game. We will discuss this issue within our team and, perhaps, we will introduce a mode with checkpoints into the game, in order to make it more accessible to the less hardcore player. Ironman permadeath mode will still persist, though – its how our game is meant to be played.

6. “Weird” ranged combat, movement and bugs, dumb AI, etc.

Working hard just like Darrel. The ranged combat is still at a very early stage of development – we implemented it not so long ago and have not yet improved it ever since. Many of its planned features are just absent at the moment in the Prologue: for example, there are no missile trajectories, no aiming, reloading mechanics, and many other planned features. In fact, ranged combat currently works like a melee attack with an increased range, but of course we will definitely change this when we finish working on more high-priority tasks. The movement/turns/tiles grid-systems will also be completely reworked after the Kickstarter campaign, and we’re also updating our engine to a new version (GMS 2). This should probably solve most of the bugs and problems associated with these aspects of the game. Also, we plan to make environmental objects destructible, and teach mobs to interact with them. This will make situations with impassable rooms, mobs spawned “locked” between the furniture, etc. much less common. ===== As always, we appreciate very much your support and constructive feedback: from the beginning we wanted to have you trying out the game as we build on your suggestions. And if you have not yet done so, we’d like to invite you to check out our social media pages and other useful links:

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Creative Contest on Reddit: Design Your Boss Thanks for your support, and stay tuned! Best wishes, Stoneshard Team