BLACKSHARD news & patch notes

Today is the day! We are glad to share this first glimpse of the world of Hypnos with you. Welcome, make yourselves at home. We've been sweating bullets over this demo; showcasing a game like this is a perpetual balancing act. But Ashes, we are having a blast working on it! Sure, the segment of the game in this demo will change for the final release. Some areas are closed and some NPCs are missing, but you'll definitely enjoy exploring and interacting. The rest will come later, along with a few surprise systems. We can't wait! In the meantime, here's some information: It turns out that we won't be doing a Kickstarter after all. Why? It's just too much work, boss! We would rather focus on the project for now than spreading ourselves too thinly by attempting to run a campaign alongside it, which would inevitably be exhausting and exceed our capacity. While not as impressive as a successful Kickstarter, we have found solutions that are more reliable. We may consider Early Access further down the line, if we feel that we need more time to polish the project or if we want to include more content within the available time and budget.

What do you think? We hope that playing the demo will give you an idea of what we're preparing for you, and that you'll want to come back for more! If so, add the game to your wishlist to boost its visibility and spread the word! The Nameless City awaits.

Hi everyone, 

The GRAND REVEAL is here! We kept our promise, we cooked and now is the time to unveil our 'new' project: the dreamlike big brother of BLACKSHARD. It is called: 

HYPNOS is a first-person adventure and exploration game set within a new megastructure described in the Maze Chronicles, a Black Shard of Onyx, hidden beneath the roots of the Forest of Destiny. The Enclave is at work, supported by Redlock Studio and once again featuring the talents of ALT236 and AL9000.

“In the Dreamlands, all paths lead to the holy mountain of Kadath, where the gods dwell.

Shadowed by the mountain is the Nameless City, built on the ruins of those who came before. There, Choron, a vagabond burdened by his past, searches for a faceless boy who haunts his dreams. To find the boy and unravel the threads of his own destiny, Choron must solve the city's mysteries, face the Monarchs who rule the far reaches of the world and cross the veils that separate ignorance from truth.”

This time, you play as a man named Choron, an Other on his quest to the edges of Dream. Those who have not played BLACKSHARD need not worry, as you will be transported to a new world, allowing you to grasp the entire plot. 

However, walkers of the Labyrinth will recognise the signs, concepts, some characters and intertwined patterns. After all, some of you are already walking the Path of the Eternal Return.

Enough of this mysterious talk! Here's the Steam page for you to discover: 

HYPNOS STEAM PAGE

More images, videos and trailers will be added over time, so stay tuned. Above all: if you're hyped, add the game to your WISHLIST! This is the best thing you can do right now to support the project, and that shall help us reach two major milestones at the same time.  

- A playable demo for the Nextfest on 23 February 2026!

and 

- A Kickstarter Campaign.

Well well, let's talk a bit about it. HYPNOS will be released on PC and consoles (PS5 and Xbox) in 2026. I'm not announcing the exact date because we're saving that card for later, but know that it will be... before summer. 

Why launch a Kickstarter? Simply to secure the budget we need to finish the game in good conditions, to finance some great partners in press relationships and influencers, the console porting, etc., without having to eat rocks on our side. It won't be a crazy goal, but it will make a big difference. In a few days, we'll open the page so that those who wish to support us that way can subscribe, but the Kickstarter campagn itself won't start until the beginning of the NextFest, so we can throw all our energy into the battle for visibility. 

I already successfully ran a Kickstarter with Redlock Studio for Shattered almost 10 years ago. I was young and naive, and it wasn't easy, but I now know the ropes and what can and cannot be achieved! The main advantage is that we're talking about a campaign at the end of the project rather than at the beginning, which fundamentally changes the approach. Basically, you won't have to wait long to receive all your rewards.

I won't say any more for now because it will be the subject of future news, but from the beginning we have played the card of transparency and closeness with our community. We will be just as responsive and involved with HYPNOS as we were with BLACKSHARD, and this new stage will allow us to continue with these stories, these interconnected worlds and... The rest. 

The Chronicles of the Labyrinth are being written with you, and the Labyrinth itself will never stop growing.

ON THAT NOTE : What about BLACKSHARD?

Well, consoles porting is on the way! Also PS5/Xbox, with a great partner. No release date yet, but it is also coming this year, before the release of HYPNOS. And as you may know, we will return to the Labyrinthe soon enough.

On the matter of HYPNOS, I will answer your questions here as usual, while we wait for the next step, and will post a first comment below with the mention "KICKSTARTER ENJOYER" Feel free to like it if you think at the moment that you might be following us on this part of the adventure! 

Enjoy your first glimpse, see you soon for more information, and of course, not too long from now for the DEMO!

Until then, take care.

Hi everyone! Merry Christmas, happy holidays and a happy New Year to you all! It's a little late, but I've heard that we have until the end of the month.

Yes, the world is going mad, I know. I'm going to leave that aside for now, and I hope you've had a chance to rest, because weeeee haven't, but it was for a good cause. We're just a few days away from making a big announcement, which will lead to lots of discussions and exchanges with you, as well as some unscrupulous proposals and surprises of all kinds.

Thank you again for your continued support of BLACKSHARD. Your positive comments are a source of great comfort to us, as is the fact that the game continues to sell steadily.

We would like to be completely transparent with you: we have now sold over 8,100 copies, which is modest compared to other games, but very encouraging given our limited communication channels at launch, the high proportion of positive comments, and the steady increase in sales.

We will soon be able to talk more about the game and share it with as many people as possible. But until then, you are our best ambassadors! I know many of you are giving the game to your nearest and dearest to introduce them to it. You are the best. Thank you for that.

Now, let's move on to the main topic.

In a few days, as soon as Steam is ready, we will finally reveal the Enclave's latest creation: Blackshard's famous Dream Brother. We'll launch the Steam page, release the first teaser and share lots of information. More and more will be revealed over time on both the new Steam page and the Blackshard page via news updates, as usual. And on Discord, of course.

We can't wait to finally show you the result of our ongoing work, and we hope you'll want to join us on this new journey.

In the meantime, take care!

It's true — winter has arrived, at least here. The developers' cave is fuelled by passion, coffee vapours and your constant support in the form of reviews full of love, poetry and eldritch horror. We're still here, so thank you.

We haven't been slacking off, although I would have liked this update to be published sooner. However, we have to synchronise it with sales and visibility rounds, as well as combining several projects, to ensure the survival of the troops! But here we are, and that makes me happy.

What's in this update, you ask? Those who have tested the BETA branch already have a pretty good idea, but they might still be surprised.

• - Switching to Unreal 5.6 resolves the save loading crash.

• - General optimisation improvements

• - Tweaks and repairs to the environment geometry and collisions

Aaaaaaand...

• - Several new areas have been added to the Labyrinth, along with new NPCs, dialogues and lore. This includes what will be the starting point for the next DLC, the foundations of which are already in place, offering clues for things to come.

We are making good progress on Blackshard's dreamer brother. He is coming, step by step. He will have his own Steam page and will progress through the closed Alpha and Beta stages before release. We may need additional support, but this is not certain, and we will discuss it with you when the time comes. Until then, enjoy the Labyrinth once again.

It will never stop growing.

Take care.

Hi everyone! I hope you are all well at the start of autumn. The season of rain, mist, dark romanticism and hot chocolate. Actually, there's no such thing as a season for hot chocolate.

I am thrilled to announce that a great update will be released for BLACKSHARD in about 10 days. Here's what it features:

- A switch to Unreal 5.6 to stabilise the game and fix the save/load crash issue.

- A major overhaul of the game's optimisation.

- Additional stuff hidden in the depths of the Labyrinth.

Most of it is already available for testing on the Steam Beta branch. There's no need to rush if you want to enjoy it in its final form, but if you're experiencing crashes when loading saves and just want to check that everything runs smoothly with the upcoming update, feel free to test it! If you're one of those adventurers, please give us your feedback on Discord.

Until the release, take care! See you soon!

We're back!

It was far too hot here in France over the summer, and I personally struggled to keep up with work. Ideally, I would have liked to take a proper break, but that wasn't really possible. Despite this, we tried to regain some strength and made progress on several topics.

Top of the list is the console version of BLACKSHARD!

We're in talks with a new distribution partner, and we're planning a great marketing campaign to promote the game to a wider audience. I have worked with these people in the past, and I have complete trust in them. We're aiming for PlayStation and Xbox at least. Switch 2 would be ambitious, but I'm not getting ahead of myself. You'll have news soon.

Next, we're changing the Unreal version for Blackshard, which is a significant endeavour, as you can imagine. We hope this will solve the problem of crashes when loading saves, which is really frustrating. Once again, we will probably need a few volunteers to test the beta version when the time comes. People who are experiencing this problem, of course. 

All of this is progressing a bit slowly because we have another project that we must prioritise. It is sort of BLACKSHARD's 'dream brother' and it actually started much earlier.

I'll tell you more about it soon in a proper announcement.  In the meantime, here's a little enigmatic visual teaser.

This project has put the BLACKSHARD DLC on hold for two reasons:

1) We have financial constraints and other commitments to honour, and these are our priority.

2) We intend to use several features from this project to enhance the BLACKSHARD DLC.

3)I can't reveal everything, but... From a narrative point of view, it's actually a lot cooler.

Thank you once again for your support. For those experiencing technical issues, thank you for your patience. We are a small team of happy but broke people who work hard! It's thanks to you that we get to do what we love.

Take care.