Below the Stone - A Pixelart Caving Roguelike about Dwarves
Created by Strollart Studios
A hand-drawn pixel art roguelike about dwarves, mining, and resource gathering.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Kickstarter Devlog 4: PAX EAST here we come!
almost 4 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!
Hope you guys have a great week, and look forward to some PAX pics soon!
- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone
Thank you for reading!👋
Kickstarter Devlog 3: March update + Demo/testing phase coming soon.
about 4 years ago
– Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 02:02:57 AM
Hello again to all our depth dwellers!🥰
Story below:(3minute read)
I'm here to give another dev update for the month of March as we lead up to PAX East this coming April. We plan on seeing many of you wonderful people and dwarves there, and we're going to take lots of convention and booth pictures to post in our next update!🥰📷
If you are in the Boston area, we'd love to meet you at this next show! Other than those details, here are several updates on Below the Stone!
New, and newly complete additions!🕷️🕸️
Spooder den biome is now fully prepared for implementation in the PAX demo!
A few of you in the previous comments and on our discord suggested the purple 'skull' spider from the previous Kickstarter update should get its own biome, so we'll be working on concepts for the new area very soon! This biome featured here and now is going to have many hazards of its own, including the webs/nests which will contain trapped monsters, baby spiders, and a chance at some very precious loot left behind!
You'll need to be dexterous, as these spiders will shoot webs to make you their next wrapped up prey!🕷️🕸️
Spooder den slice
Here is a very early look at the new NPC portraits we'll be doing for all NPCs -- starting with the Expedition leader, whose ready to introduce a new explorer to the underground world. He will be a critical part of the early game in teaching the ropes of Below the Stone.
forgotten*
New enemies and assets are also being prepared for the deeper descent of Below the Stone. Larger skeletons for pint-sized dwarves will surely challenge new adventurers who test the depths. 💀
The drill pod which delivers dwarves to and from the underground.
Below is very early footage of the cave escape sequence. We're working on adding some new visual effects here (such as the drill landing, leaving a shaft of light from the surface, enemies attacking during the drill slowly arriving to the player, and general polish)
New enemies will be sneaking their way into this update as well, like this plant fella. Any good name suggestions for it? Please write us in the comments!👍
Plant enemy
Armor balancing is also an important move for us, this includes reducing needless complexity of too many armor slots. We will instead be replacing this with additional trinkets and charms you can add to your dwarf, which will have magical/buffing effects that can change the way you play.
On the inside of Below the Stone, we have reworked the animations in the game, making it easier for us to add much more complex baddies and friends the encounter in the underground. Andrew as our Lead Programmer has been working tirelessly on making this system as robust as it can be for the future of the game. 👍
Next on our plate will be consumable items like potions and food, and adding new creature AI. We not only want the environments in Below the Stone to feel unique, but each enemy's behavior as well. This also includes loot drops, and visuals (As I am not a fan of cheaply reskinned enemies like green slimes, blue slime, etc).
We hope to see many of you try out all our new changes at PAX East this year! I hear Boston is full of underground pathways, and us dwarves are fans of those! If some of you live in the area, and aren't able to make it inside the show, we'd still love to see if we can meet up somehow to thank you in person for supporting the game! ❤️ With this PAX news, we have another big announcement:
We want to use our PAX East demo experience this year to begin testing with our early supporters here on Kickstarter! So begin looking forward to that in late April & May for updates on this. We're incredibly excited to have you guys try the game, and give us your thoughts on it!
Kickstarter Rewards:🏆
With the game in the current development cycle it is in now, we plan on doing Kickstarter rewards closer to a public version of the game becoming available. This is simply so we can focus our entire energy on release, and will also make the rewards both more exciting, and refined to their best potential.
With this all said, I will continue to keep all our generous supporters updated here on the progress of rewards with pictures as we make all the early orders on what is possible.
Closing Remarks...🙌
Thank you for keeping up with Below the Stone. We love reading your comments here, and here on discord . We're continuing to put all our energy into making this the best roguelike of its year, and for our fans alike. We truly thank you from the bottom of our hearts in helping make this game a reality.
Join here if you had not received your Kickstarter role yet!
We have an awesome active community, and we want you to continue to be a part of it!
I hope all of you have a great week, and keep on digging it, depth dwellers!
- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone
Kickstarter Devlog 2: Preparing for PAX Demo!!
about 4 years ago
– Sat, Feb 05, 2022 at 10:48:19 AM
Mini Devlog -- PAX East.
Hello again!
I want to continue updating everyone here monthly on the goings on of our Discord . We have a few things we are still working hard on before we show them, but in the meantime we also have some art assets worth showing!
Deep Swamp biome
The entire team is readying up for the eventual date of PAX East, the first big gaming convention of 2022, and with it will come a lot of new surprises! Biomes, creatures, and much to craft will be making its way to Boston this year.
I hope to see many of you there so you can play the game for yourselves and see what all the hype is about!
New Quest UI (WIP)
Every biome is meant to felt unique in Below the Stone, and with the spider biome getting the most recent focus, we have early art to show.
The Spider Den biome has been getting the most make-over recently, creating a dangerous and creepy environment where you'll need to be extra cautious of where you step!
We're still debating which spider type should get their own unique biome, the purple skull spider, the brown spider, or the black widow spider. Comment below what you think!
Some more merch has come in as rewards for our wonderful Kickstarter supporters. Shipping is planned to come as the game gets closer to a public version of the game.
Rewards are still available at this link, including a few 3D logos:
Thank you for keeping up with Below the Stone, I know it is said often, but you guys truly do keep us going and inspired to make this game. The energy we see from our fans is what gets us up in the morning as game developers! I hope you all have a wonderful end of your week!
Please join the discord to keep even more up to date with the game, and also get your Kickstarter role for supporting Below the Stone!
Kickstarter Devlog 1: New team member & dev progress
over 4 years ago
– Sat, Dec 18, 2021 at 02:11:05 PM
Happy Holidays!
I've been waiting to write an update to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season before the end of the year, as well as put out our first official Kickstarter devlog here to give a summary to those who hadn't joined our Discord or Twitter following yet. (Make sure to join the Discord for your role! The new Discord is up!!!)
We have some very important news and some great progress updates to show, so without further delay, here is our first devlog!
New developer joins the Below the Stone team,
A very unique moment in Strollart's history has also taken place, with the clear demand to get Below the Stone into the hands of fans, we picked up a new helper on the development team, Primož Vovk of Emberheart Games! Some of our Apogee fans may recognize him from the remakes of Crystal Caves HD, Secret Agent HD, and most recently released - Monster Bash HD. He is also the developer for Courier of the Crypts (found on Steam), & Wizordum (In development).
Primož has been helping us quite a bit with much of the User Experience side of Below the Stone, most importantly the UI side of the game inside the Kingdom area. Those of you who saw us at PAX West this year may have known, the demo had a few quirks that needed to be ironed out, and so far many of them have been smoothed out-- which will be covered in the next section, Art & UI updates!
Art & UI updates
Following the winter theme, I decided this December to draw the Yeti enemy in Below the Stone, a rare creature which will be found deep below the surface, and where lucky dwarves will be able to spot the mystical hominid cryptid, and cousin to Bigfoot.
Yeti idle animation
Most of December however has been personally focused entirely on making end-of-year orders on merch/rewards which will be covered in the end of this update, so UI will be taking the front stage for this section!
As many at PAX West desired, the bag inventory is now full accessible at the Kingdom area! Due to a small oversight, we were not able to get the bag working in the Kingdom in time for the PAX Demo, this is due to the Inventory UI objects being separate from those of the Cave area, and we are currently in the process of unifying both UIs.
Another major focus of the UI and user experience was the bank inventory, which previously was quite bare bones, and left players with only so many slots to work with, now we plan on creating an upgradable bank system which will allow for players to continue adding more slots to keep more of your equipment and resources safe for when you descend down into the mines. Animation & sound created with the great help of Primož!
Music update
While on the subject of sound, our lead composer Karam has given us quite a bit to look forward to when exploring the many biomes of Below the Stone, including those of the 'Bioluminescent Crystals' biome, and the Spooder biome!
One of the major goals of Below the Stone is to create a unique experience on every descent, and as you explore deeper into the caves, you will find various biomes which have their own unique flavors, creatures, resources, rewards, and even music. This is why we decided to do a 1 hour soundtrack for Below the Stone.
Spooder Den is another track Karam has produced for the Spider Den biome, another unique biome which will be full of hazards to watch out for!
Rewards/merch update
A huge part of supporting this campaign was of course the many rewards we plan on giving those who support us. One of our big Stretch Goals was keychains, and I had over 200 keychains made in order to give out to everyone who donated more than 50 dollars!
I will also be ordering mugs, shirts, enamel pins, 3D printed logos, and stickers prior to the end of the year, these items will likely be shipped sometime during 2022 & 2023. Some items may take longer as a set, due to various development times and production times of the game itself and the items themselves. Rewards such as Big Boxes, Soundtracks, Physical Game Copies may take slightly longer to produce as they are reliant on the final release of Below the Stone & completion of the soundtrack.
3D printed logos half way into production
Items will likely be sent all together to help save on costs so Strollart can focus the financial resources on development, this is for full transparency of the plans I have for shipping out our rewards to all of our awesome fans.
Final notes
Wrapping this update up, I welcome you guys to ask any questions in the comments to be answered, as well as welcome everyone to join our Discord and our Twitter to keep up to date with us on the daily. I will also post our Patreon here since many have been asking for other ways to support us passed the Kickstarter.
Thank you and I hope everyone has a Happy Holidays!
- Mike @ Strollart; Below the Stone
THANK YOU! -- 90% of surveys filled - Join Discord for your Kickstarter Role!
over 4 years ago
– Tue, Nov 02, 2021 at 11:08:45 PM
Over 90% of our supporters have filled their Backerkit surveys!
(1-2 minute read) - Mike Strollart
A HUGE accomplishment by our supporters yet again. Our fans filling out these Backerkit surveys this early has helped us a lot in calculating the costs that we will use for shipping and production before the tax year ends, this assists tremendously in making the shipping easier on me since I'll be the one doing the assembly and putting together of many of these rewards. Getting 90% in less than a month is far past my expectations (not that I was expecting little!) and I can't wait to get these rewards in people's hands -- both physical and digital!
Many of you have submitted your Discord usernames in the Backerkit survey, and we will be using that to give our roles very shortly, so please remember to join our Discord!
We will be giving out the 'Kickstarter Supporter' Role on Discord --this week-- to people who join!
Development is back on track again!
Our Discord community has been thriving again, gaining more than 200 members in less than a week! We hope to boost even more as the days go on, so please remember to join to get back into the loop, as well as see live development updates in our Developer Gallery. We've also been hosting game nights too for people who'd like playing games with the developers of Below the Stone!
Remember to check your inboxes if you hadn't filled your Backerkit survey, and keep it safe out there. In the next Kickstarter update I plan on showing some more behind the scenes game development, and more important future news regarding Kickstarter rewards and prizes!
