A multi-channel strategy

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Where next?

Shard Garden runs on the web and on phones. Kai's inbox fills with players asking for it on PC and on consoles.

Each new channel brings more players and more work. A multi-channel strategy decides the order, and what stays the same everywhere.

One game, many builds

The core is shared: the garden's rules, the levels, the saves on the studio's server.

Each channel adds a thin channel layer: its controls, its store and payments, its sign-in, its rating and its review rules. A bug fixed in the core is fixed on every channel.

Quick check

Which of these belongs in the channel layer, not the core?

  1. Paying through each store's own system
  2. How fast a seed grows
  3. The format of a saved level
Show the answer

Paying through each store's own system

Payments work differently in every store. How seeds grow and how levels are saved are the same game everywhere.

Pick the order with evidence

Three questions rank the next channel:

Some channels come free

Google says Google Play Games on PC lets studios "distribute your games easily across mobile, tablets, Chromebooks, and Windows PCs."

An Android game can reach PCs this way, with keyboard support added through Google's Input SDK.

Pick the next channel

channels
PC (Steam)  40% of requests  3 months of workConsole  25% of requests  9 months + approval

Which channel should Kai add next?

  1. PC, on Steam
  2. A console
  3. Both at once
Show the answer

PC, on Steam

More players ask for PC, and it costs a third of the time. The console can follow once the PC version is running.

The same game everywhere

Players talk to friends on other devices. Shard Garden gives every channel the same levels and the same events on the same day, so nobody is a season behind because of the device they own.

Quick check

Each channel should get its own version of the garden's rules.

Show the answer

False

One core keeps the game fair and the work small. Only the channel layer changes.

One player, many devices

A player with a phone and a PC wants one garden, not two.

Bolt says: Next: cross-progression.

Fact-checked 12 October 2026