The Shadowed Rune : Important Update on the Development of The Shadowed Rune

Important Update on the Development of The Shadowed Rune

First of all, we want to thank everyone who has purchased the game, tried it, and provided feedback to help improve it. Unfortunately, it has not reached the minimum sales target and has remained stuck with very low sales for months despite multiple updates.

The Shadowed Rune is my first game on Steam, and I care deeply about it, so I am not going to give up or abandon it. For the past month, a graphic designer has been working on improving the game’s art to give it more coherence and a more defined visual style.

I have also identified a retention issue. Despite the game offering more than 20 hours of content, no one has unlocked everything (not even the Dinosaur T-Rex) , which makes it discouraging to continue working on the current version when very few people are actually playing it.

For this reason, I have made the difficult decision to restart development of the project, focusing on several improvements:

• Overall graphical improvement of the game, including environments, objects, etc.
• Better animated characters with a more « handcrafted » visual style.
• More variety of spells and attack types, so that elements truly feel different.
• A completely new progression system in the Tower that will allow you to control from the very beginning what challenges you will face, ensuring that no two runs are ever the same. You will be able to control the biome of each floor, but your enemies will also learn from you and try to make things harder.
• Enemies with more varied attacks and behaviors.
• 4-player co-op (5 players in Dungeon Master mode).
• Gameplay changes, with a completely new health and mana system, more focused on creating combinations and enjoying action and exploration.
• A new camp management system that will allow you to expand it and organize each area as you wish.
• The game will also shift towards a more Roguelite progression system, becoming an Action-Adventure game with RPG and Roguelike elements, rewarding replayability to unlock new content and become more powerful. Players seeking a more roguelike experience will have special modes that test their skill, but the main goal is to make the game more accessible in early runs and gradually unlock higher difficulty levels.

All these changes will take time, so I will not set an exact date. The goal is to release the best possible version of ‘The Shadowed Rune’. I want to take my time to polish every detail as much as possible, without rushing but without stopping.

In a few months, a new Closed Beta will open, and I will continue publishing new development diaries, showcasing changes and improvements.

What will happen in the meantime? The current version will remain playable, but it will not receive updates for a while. When version 1.0 is released, save files will be reset, as they will not be compatible with the new version. However, achievements will be kept, and players who purchased the game during Early Access will be rewarded.

I will conclude this announcement by noting that the game has received a permanent price reduction to reach more players and continue gathering feedback in preparation for the new version.

Thank you very much for your support!