Legends of Aria

Shards Online is a game that in its understated way is going to change the way MMOs are developed by bringing the community to bear in a way that has never been done before. Citadel Studios is committed to creating something different and unique that places the powers of creation into the hands of the people who love MMOs so they can provide experiences to players who are oftentimes disappointed by the genre these days.

The Shards Online newsletter has been published that gives a big shout out to participants in Pre-alpha 2, most especially to community run server admins. The event has led to the creation of a pair of round tables with developers to help provide support and to demonstrate how to run and mod a live server.

Citadel Studios Project Lead Derek Brinkmann has announced that the pre-alpha 2 client for Shards Online has launched. Folks are asked to check their email for an invitation to download the server and the toolkit. During the pre-alpha 2 phase, alpha backers who contributed at the $200 mark will be able to mod and host their own servers. This is a milestone event with servers being hosted by non-Citadel personnel.

Backers of Shards Online will have a chance to dive into the latest build when servers come up at 6:00 pm Eastern / 3:00 pm Pacific on Thursday, July 9th. Servers will remain open "until the end of the day Friday", though an exact time has not been revealed.

The Shards Online team will be running a special pre-alpha event on Saturday, June 6th. Called the "Graveyard Hunt", and as can be surmised from the title, the event will take place in a cemetary. Check out the teaser trailer below to see where all the action will take place.

Project Lead Derek Brinkmann has sent out May's backer update, this time focusing on the new Celador map, the Catacombs dungeon, and even player run servers. It looks like things are moving along pretty darn well for the indie MMO, so take a look at Derek's update below.

The Shards Online team recently hosted a community round table. Check out this highlights video to find out about the main topics of discussion.

The latest Shards Online newsletter has arrived with some very welcome news for fans: The Celador Shard will be ready for players on May 9th! The team has put in extra hours to get Celador ready for players and that hard work has paid off.

The latest Shards Online newsletter has been published. In it, the team asks all current testers to check the dashboard to find out more about the "break our shard" event. The dev team is looking to cram as many players as possible onto a single shard to stress test the system.

The Shards Online page has been updated with a new calendar that lays out a couple months of events for players and fans to check out. Among the events are developer round-table discussions and several play tests.

Since their successful Kickstarter last year, Citadel Studios’ Shards Online has largely gone dark in terms of PR and outreach. Contrary to other KS games with multi-million dollar budgets, they’ve been focused more on making the game that adding pledges, because their staff and budget dictate as much. I caught up with Citadel’s Derek Brinkman to chat about the state of Shards and their plans for Alpha and Beta this year.

The Shards Online team has been busy working away to get the game up to snuff and ready for alpha testing. Part of the process involves keeping the community involved. The team has announced that the round table discussions will resume on February 7th.

The Shards Online team has some important information to share with fans and backers as the funding campaign draws to a close. Interested parties can view a live stream hosted by the Shards team, and much more.

A Day in the Life of a Blacksmith

Thanks to everyone for helping us make our campaign a success. It was a blast!