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:
(minor update) fixed discord invite link button.
about 4 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 4 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 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.
over 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!!
over 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!
