How to start playing

The game needs Steam: through it the server learns who you are. Nothing has to be bought – Steam will show you as playing “Spacewar”, Steam’s free test application that the sign-in goes through for now.

1. Download the launcher: AstralShards.zip – a small archive; the game itself is downloaded on the first start.
2. Unpack the AstralShards folder anywhere except Program Files (for example to C:\Games).
3. Run Start.bat. The first time the launcher downloads the whole game (about 1 GB) and puts an Astral Shards shortcut on the desktop.
4. Start Steam and sign in.
5. From then on start the game with the shortcut and press Enter the World in the main menu.

Updates

On every start the launcher checks with the server and fetches only what changed: a change to one land is tens of megabytes, not the whole game. The list of files is signed with the developer’s key, so nobody can swap the game on the way. If the update server cannot be reached, the launcher simply starts what is already there.

If something is wrong

• “Could not connect to the server” – make sure Steam is running and you are signed in.
• The game asks for a DLL – the launcher installs Visual C++ itself; if that failed, run Redist\vc_redist.x64.exe from the game folder.
• Windows asks about a file from the internet – “More info” → “Run anyway”.