(For the best viewing experience, please read the original copy of this post on Shatteredpixel.com)
Hey Rat Punchers, Happy New Year!
As always, I like to write a blog post at the start of the year to recap, summarize my current plans for Shattered, and share what my main priorities are for the coming year. This post starts with a year in review, and then lists the major changes and additions that I have planned for Shattered Pixel Dungeon in 2026 and beyond!
I've written one of these posts every year since 2019, you can take a look at the previous ones here: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019.
2025 in Review
I released 4 updates and one big patch in 2025, which covered 2/6 of last year's items, started on one more, and covered about 1.5 major updates worth of things that that weren't on the 2025 list:
- v3.0 released in February, with Shattered's second new hero: The Cleric!
- v3.1 released in June, reworking the Warrior plus making various smaller improvements.
- v3.2 released in August, overhauling thrown weapons to work based on 'sets'.
- v3.2.4 released in September, modernizing how Shattered displays on phones.
- v3.3 released in November, with a WIP tester area for the new quest and smaller additions.
Last year I said I covered 70% (3.5/5) of what I wanted to. For this year, I think it's reasonable to say I covered 2.5/6 major updates worth of items that were on the 2025 list, plus 1.5 items that weren't on there initially, giving us 4/6 items, or 67%.
2025 also featured quite a few visual improvements by (as always) Aleksandar Komitov! His work this year resulted in a complete overhaul to the game's title graphics and substantial improvements to the older hero splash arts. It's quite heartening to me that most of the screenshots I shared a year and a half ago showing Shattered's visual progression have already become outdated.
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New title and splash art. You can select each image to zoom, new on right, old on left.
I know many of you might be asking about new pixel art as well (which I also talked about a year and a half ago), I'm going to cover that a bit later in this blog.
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Lastly, on the business side of things Shattered has had another great year, passing 200k total units sold a couple of months ago! While there's likely no more huge growth in store for Shattered, it's very encouraging that it continues to do just a little bit better year over year. |
Plans for 2026
Here are the major pieces of content I'm considering for Shattered Pixel Dungeon in 2026, sorted roughly based on the order of priority. Just like with previous years it's unlikely that I'll manage all of this in 2026, and new things may also pop up and shift priorities around a bit.
City Quest |
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It's taken longer than I would like (though I did expect it would), but my most immediate plan for 2026 is to implement and release a new quest for the city. This will include more incremental improvements to the tester area in v3.3 patches, and then a major update afterward with the quest itself! |
New Items |
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The recent item additions in v3.3.0 have made me realize that I've gone quite a long while without adding new items to the game in a bunch of categories. I don't expect any one update will focus on these new items entirely, but I would like to put a bit of an emphasis on adding a few new items to the game over the course of the year. |
Hero Lore |
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Now that all six of the game's heroes are released, there's finally opportunity to start fleshing out the game's characters and greater lore a bit! This lore could include backstories in hero select, journals written by the heroes from their perspectives, or documents that describe interactions and conversations between the heroes. |
Better Armor Variety |
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I'm quite happy with the changes I made to thrown weapons in v3.2, despite them not being in my initial 2025 plans. It's gotten me thinking about doing an overhaul to armors as a class of item as well. It would be really nice to have more variety of armor, even if adding more types doesn't actually change up gameplay much. |
More Subclasses & Talents (pt.1) |
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While I don't currently have plans for more heroes, I do think there's room to expand the current six further. In particular I have some early ideas for a 3rd subclass and more base class talents in tiers 1 to 3. This would almost certainely release over multiple updates, with each focusing on 1 or 2 heroes at a time. |
What About New Pixel Art?
I want to make progress on better in-game pixel art this year as well! I'm not going to put it down as a 2026 goal though, as progress isn't just determined by me. This is something I initially gave a big teaser on about a year and a half ago, so I want to explain what's caused the slowdown.
Back in mid 2024 I was expecting that progress on new art would continue at a steady pace and it could start appearing in updates in 2025. Unfortunately for various reasons both of the artists I was working with are no longer able to dedicate time to the project. Combine that with me dragging my feet on looking for new artists, and suddenly a bunch of time has passed with little progress.
There was some new WIP art created in late 2025/early 2025 though, which you can see below. I've also got a promising lead for a new artist who should be able to start work in the coming month, and if that doesn't work out I plan to actively seek out new artists ASAP. While I can't make any guarantees, if you're a pixel artist and would like to express interest in doing commission work on Shattered Pixel Dungeon feel free to reach out. One way or another I really hope that improved pixel art can start to appear in the game in 2026!
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New WIP pixel art for seeds & potions, scrolls & misc items, and some enemies. You can select each image to zoom, new below and old above. These are still WIP, so feel free to send me feedback on any of these!
Longer Term Plans
And here are other major pieces of content I'd like to add to Shattered that I'm definitely not going to have time for in 2026. Think of these as possible longer term ideas or 'stretch goals'. The earlier an item is on this list the more clearly defined my idea is for it, and the more likely I am to do it in future years.
Halls Quest |
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While I don't want to make the game overly long, a bit more gameplay at the tail end of the game is sorely needed to give players a bit more time with finished builds and time to make use of armor abilities. I have a few ideas for interesting quests that could test an endgame character. |
3rd Caves Quest and Better Shops |
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In previous posts like this I've talked about both a 3rd caves quest variant and also expansions to the game's shops. Neither of those ideas are gone, but I have de-prioritized them in favour of other content. In particular I still think new more specialized shops could work very well if executed properly. |
Endless Mode |
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Some form of endless mode is a very common request. This partly ties in to the last region of the game being the shortest, but also there's just a desire for players to see how far they can get with strong character builds. I have a few loose ideas for how endless might work, but want to focus on other things like new quests first. |
More Dungeon Variety |
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In earlier years I've talked about alternate dungeon paths. I've been reconsidering that, due to time commitment and because some alt path ideas have now been used elsewhere, like quest sub-floors. I still think new environments, enemies, etc. are a good idea, but I'm now considering them as new elements within the existing regions. |
Something New? |
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Lastly, you might have noticed that the lists on these posts have been slowly shrinking over the years. Eventually everything here will be cleared, and it'll be time for something new! This is still a ways off though, and I have no current plans for what form this may take, it could be more ideas for Shattered, or something else entirely. |
…and those are my plans for 2026 and beyond! As always, thank you so much for sticking with me on this journey, and for all the support that has let me continue working on this game for over 11 years now!
If you'd like more frequent incremental updates on Shattered's development, you can:
- Subscribe to the Shattered Pixel Newsletter
- Follow me on Mastodon
- Follow me on Bluesky
You can discuss this Blog Post here on the Steam Community, or on the Pixel Dungeon Lemmy Community.