If you're in the area, please visit the Indie Showcase section of TMG this year to see us with a LIVE DEMO of Below the Stone! I'm thinking we've got a good shot at winning one of the top 3 in the Showcase this year, which will include prize money and a support contact with Screenwave Media, the same guys who work with Angry Video Game Nerd, and brought you Eagle Island Twist, Angry Video Game Nerd I & II!
We are planning on releasing this exclusive demo to all our Beta Testers following the show this year. We want to make sure people who join us at TooManyGames get a first chance to play before we release it to all our Beta Tester fans at home! Keep an eye on your emails from Backerkit sometimenext week!
Picture at PAX East 2022
We can't wait to be at the show, and give you guys an inside look at what it was like to present here in Oaks, PA! TooManyGames isn't quite as big as events like PAX, but for us East Coasters, it is a large event featuring 15,000 visitors from previous years.
Picture of Day 1 at PAX East 2022
We hope many of you guys come to see us there this year, and we will hopefully welcome hundreds of new fans to our community!
Again, thank you all for supporting us here on Kickstarter, it really is due to you that we are able to bring Below the Stone to events like this one. It reminds us that we're not just making our own dream game, we are working on a game that many others view as THEIR dream game to play too!
Thank you to all of you!~
- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone
Update: OTK Games Expo x Below the Stone
almost 2 years ago
– Wed, Jun 08, 2022 at 05:12:13 AM
Huge update for Below the Stone tomorrow evening!
Thanks to many of you whom supported our game, we are going to be featured as a part of the OTK Games Expo, hosted by Asmongold! I'll be doing a live interview with Asmon around 11:30am/12:30pm PT for anyone who plans on watching and who wants to learn some behind the scenes of Below the Stone. Make sure to take part in chat, and join us in what will be an awesome moment in Below the Stone history.
Thank you all for your support, and I hope this update sees you all well! We will be posting a larger Dev-log update soon for everyone this month -- as well as give updates on TooManyGames, which we will be attending later this month as well in Philadelphia.
See you all very soon!
- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone
(minor update) fixed discord invite link button.
almost 2 years ago
– Fri, May 13, 2022 at 12:53:38 AM
Very minEr update, hehe, get it?
We did share our new discord invite link here a long time ago, but did not update the button. So if any of you couldn't find where to get the invite, it should be easier for you now.
That's all I had for you. We want to make sure our backers have many options for keeping up with our development. Our primary social media is not Kickstarter, so it is easier for all of us to connect either on Discord or Twitter. Our Website also has a live Twitter feed as well.
Kickstarter Devlog 5: BETA DEMO AVAILABLE + PAX EAST Experience!
about 2 years ago
– Sat, Apr 30, 2022 at 03:34:33 AM
PAX East 2022 truly outdid PAX West 2021.
A huge update from the Below the Stone team! PAX, Demos to play, and more!
(4 minute read below)
It feels great to finally be back in my own bed, and show everything that has happened at PAX East 2022 in Boston this year. A lot of pictures were taken of the Below the Stone & Apogee booth, and many stories to tell -- So instead of delaying, let me show you what PAX East was like!
'Day Zero' PAX East prep
Here is the first inside look at the convention. Day 0 of PAX East was walking up to the booth space with Apogee as our publisher, and finding all booth materials dropped off. We began by setting up banners, tables, then monitors, Razor equipment and chairs. It was a ton of fun to get to take part in the process of building the booth and working with more than a dozen others with Apogee to make it happen!
The convention hall in Boston became more and more busy, cranes and ladders pushing by to build their own booths as well. Opening up dozens of Razor keyboards, mice, Razorblade laptops, Razor headsets. It felt like Groundhog Day and Christmas morning wrapped in one. Below the Stone had a great setup thanks to Apogee finding us on Kickstarter!
After many years of work, the first two developers of Below the Stone met! Myself (Mike) on the left, and Andrew on the right. We put a lot of work into making this little guy in the middle come to life, so it was great to finally come together for a big show like this in Boston! The next day would be when players and convention-goers would enter. So we had a big day ahead of us.
One last look at the city from my hotel room before the big day. I thought about everyone at home that made this happen. Many of you who are reading this are the ones who motivated us to continue our work on the game and put us in this spot. I went to bed and awaited for what was to come the next day -- new fans, media, journalists. It was a lot to think about and kept me up late.
One last early-arrival look at the booth while it was empty. We were optimistic about what was to come, but nervous for new people to try the game. Although what came both relieved us and surprised us.
Each PAX has a media hour where early press comes in to test the games, and we already had our seats filled! Andrew can be seen in the video taking notes while people played. From here things only continue to get busier!
As the week end on it got busier and busier. Saturday being the busiest day, where we had a line roughly 1 hour 20 minutes long (due to it being a 30 minute demo with 3 seats). So we needed to start giving people at the back of the line cards for the game in case they didn't get a chance to play there at the show.
A picture of me with Dan Muñoz -- great interview!
We had many interviews (Including this one with Albert with Microsoft!) Below the Stone was given a great amount of coverage at the show, and as PAX EAST closes, we'll see many for start to trickle out.
Pax East was an amazing experience, from having part of the team meet up for the first time, to the interviews, to seeing and thank many of you who supported us there at the show! We hope to see you again next year and also at PAX West this year!
DEMO IS NOW AVAILABLE!
For those who supported out Beta Tester level here on Kickstarter, please check your emails! We just posted the Below the Stone PAX East demo for you to play at home!
I wanted to send this earlier, but we needed to make adjustments to fix the experience for people at home compared to what the event experience was (Such as a demo timer). I cannot wait to see what screenshots you take!
I make sure to write it in every update, but it should be said again and again -- Thank you so much for supporting us, as I have said before it was due to many of you supporting us that we decided to continue working on this project, and you are the reason for making this happen!
Thank you and enjoy the demo! Please feel free to comment here on Kickstarter, as I am going to be writing directly here a lot more often now -- and show us some of your screenshots as well on our Discord and Twitter!
- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone
Kickstarter Devlog 4: PAX EAST here we come!
about 2 years ago
– Wed, Apr 20, 2022 at 05:01:14 PM
A mighty hello to all our Depth Dwellers!⛏️
Story below:(3minute read)
I wanted to write an update before our travel into Boston this week. A lot has happened over the course of the last month, and the entire team and myself are extremely excited to show what we are bringing to the convention this year!
New additions~💎⛏️
To begin this update, I want to show some of the art of the project before getting into the inside details of big system changes and improvements we have made. The foreman has gotten a fresh coat of paint, taking on a new form as a much more experienced older figure at the kingdom, with a sense of humor for sending our young dwarves into the mines while he gets to stay back home where it's safe.
Old foreman (left) compared to New foreman (right)
animation (wip)
New portraits for characters in game.
(Left to right -- Foreman/mission giver, Potion maker, Blacksmith, Head explorer)
We made huge improvement to enemies with basic pathfinding. Below is an image and video showing how enemies pathfind around wall tiles. Due to the game being procedurally generated, and dynamic, this was an extra hurdle for us to make sur we got right.
With this new pathfinding comes new enemies to face below the stone as well. Below are examples of the new slime enemy, which divides when killed. We also have a creature we are currently calling a "pogger", which are floating jellyfish-like creatures which births from a larger pogger that uses them to defend itself. Any name suggestions? Make sure to comment below!
In these videos you can also see the new health bar which we added, being a row of hearts instead of a green bar. Tell us what you think, or if you noticed it!
New mining particles give the game a more polished look. Since the game is 60% mining, 40% exploring, and 10% dwarf, we want to make sure it looks and feels the best it can be.
Consumables (including beers for buffs) have been added to the game to keep yourself healed and safe while traveling under the surface. This is going to expand into many more consumables in the future to help buff yourself during your spelunking trips.
Dungeons are being iterated upon, and getting improvements. Including loot, enemies, and soon in the future random room generation of their own, much like the caves themselves. In the end dungeons are one of our most important features as they will be your access point to both bosses, and deeper cave layers of the game to find even more valuable resources.
PAX EAST!👪
PAX East is happening in less than 3 days, and we're going to be bringing the Below the Stone demo there for hundreds of people to play again this year. I'm hoping to write an update during or after PAX to show the whole adventure!
If you are in the Boston area for PAX East, please stop on by our booth, & join the discord (We'll be posting updates from Boston on there on a special event channel) to see the changes we're about to show here!
