Below the Stone
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WEBSITE & PRESS KIT
https://www.strollart.com/
https://twitter.com/BelowTheStone|
- Below the Stone is a punishing pixel art roguelike about dwarves questing to reach the deepest depths. Each and every descent will lead to new adventures, where only the most determined players with many risked lives will be rewarded by the hidden world that lies Below the Stone.
- The game focuses on immersive gameplay, where simple decisions can have major rewards… or consequences! Unlike many roguelikes before, you have full control of the risks you take while in the caves, and you decide what equipment to risk bringing in order to go deeper!
- Below the Stone is developed by the dedicated team at Strollart Studio who have two decades of collective experience in game development, alongside our publisher, Apogee Entertainment. Behind franchises such as Duke Nukem, Max Payne, Prey, and Wolfenstein, Apogee Entertainment – founded by the legendary Scott Miller – are helping to bring Below the Stone to a wider audience
Dwarves will be sent below the surface to collect metal and precious gems that your kin request of you. However, you can keep any extra you gain– make a new pickaxe, a sword, some armor. Whatever increases your odds of coming back on your next trip! Store them safely at the dwarven kingdom, your hub area for crafting, storying items safely for your next expedition, and picking up new missions from your kin. But we warned! If you die Below the Stone, everything you carried on you will be lost under the surface forever.
With each descent , you can also decide whether or not you are prepared to go deeper in your journey. Each layer’s entrance will be held within a dungeon as a final challenge to see if you are capable and prepared enough to descend further. Once you go down, you will face a bevy of new biomes, creatures, resources, and environments to explore. Each layer is will contain 8-12 unique biomes that will challenge a dwarf’s resourcefulness and grit.
The Dwarven kingdom is your place for crafting, preparation, and most importantly storing loot for later expeditions. You have full control over what items you bring with you, what equipment you craft, and what items you choose to keep at home safe and sound. The only catch is if you die, you will lose all the items you took down into the caves on your dwarf – such is the cost of progress! Additionally, your stay in the dwarven kingdom will yield an ever-growing cast of allies to aid you on your adventures below the surface. For example…
A dwarf’s best friend is someone who can turn shiny things into useful tools. The Blacksmith is the reliable friend you can return home to when you’re in need of proper weaponry, armor, and equipment for your future descents. His skills will aid in crafting your newly found ores into fresh new equipment to help you on your next trip into the depths, arming yourself for the dangerous realms below…
Some characters may be encountered underground and are in need of rescue; these folk will be welcomed to the dwarven kingdom as new companions to help you on your future journeys. You may bump into anything at all, from elven witches who brew potions to legendary dragon-slayers – and even necromancers! We plan on the kingdom having at least 10 – 12 important mainline characters you will be able to save and bring back to help your future adventures. Each of them will add a unique flavor to the kingdom and your journeys downward as they give you better chances, modifiers, and even change your playstyle.
Keeping goblins from scalping that freshly trimmed beard of yours is a top priority for a dwarf – not to mention a mark on their honor to keep their hair intact – so make sure to do anything you can to increase your odds of coming back on your next trip! Brand new armor, weapons, and tools do make your missions easier, but be warned: if you die in Below The Stone, everything remains buried Below The Stone. Forever. So calculate your risks and use your resources wisely, starting with the banker – your trusted ally to make sure your items are safe when you decide not to bring certain equipment! This will let smart and experienced players plan out their future runs well ahead of time, and let you decide if this is the moment you decide to risk it all on and go deeper than you’ve ever gone before in the name of dwarven progress…
Features:
- Procedurally generated cave complexes which lead to a new adventure in every descent.
- Plans on releasing 50+ biomes to explore with unique creatures, fauna, and resources to explore.
- 5 planned layers to explore.
- Multiple dungeons on each layer to test your mettle.
- Full character customization (Your equipment determines your stats and abilities).
- A Dwarven Kingdom with many important characters to meet, save, and aid!
- Custom Cave missions for every descent.
- Roguelike experience (If you die, you lose everything you brought with you!)
- Tough, but Fair! Safely store extra loot and resources at the Dwarven Kingdom.
- An hour long+ soundtrack to immerse yourself into a fantasy spelunking experience.
- Release on all consoles (Including Nintendo Switch and PC!)
- Dwarves, blunderbusses, and fresh shiny things!
- Digging holes (diggy diggy holes)!
Game Discussion
Steam User 41
It's a cautious recommend for now. It's a great game but it's a great game because of its foundation and the trust I have in more content to come. It's pretty early alpha at this time and I highly expect that by the end of 2024, this will be a very high recommendation for me. The only thing that is really lacking is run variety (new quests, new enemies, different loot...) It's going to get there and it's going to be really really good when all of the content is there, but for now it's a good 10ish hour game.
Steam User 47
Not only a neat little extraction-game (not quite as hardcore as the likes of Zero Sievert), it's a lot of fun for those of us who like to dig around in dirty places looking for ore. It's also, as it turns out, run by a great team with a responsive lead who damn near immediately implemented several of the accessibility features I asked about in Discord.
The team is passionate and responsive and it shows in how much the game has improved and grown since we first got our hands on it; it just keeps getting better!
Steam User 28
Very nice and comfy roguelike mining game. Its kinda Terrarias itemization plus the extraction aspect from Deep Rock Galactic packaged in a Undermine look with simple but fluent combat.
The basic game loop is as follows: Go down a cave, mine some ore, open some chests and slay some mobs before you call the escape pod and defend it for a minute to escape. Or alternatively descend two levels until you end up where you started.
Everything is well polished, the soundtrack is very nice as well. The only problem is that theres not a lot of content.
The first few runs can be a bit challenging but after you successfully returned three or four times, your equipment gets strong enough to let you fly through most of what the game currently has to offer.
There is 2 layers of cave to explore and 5 levels of mining gear to aquire. This all can be done withing 10 runs adding up to 6 hours in my case. There is more secrets and non-craftable items to find but in terms of main progression thats all you get for now.
Nontheless It was a very fun 6 hours and I'm sure theres lots of very good content to come with future updates.
Steam User 6
Really fun extraction roguelite that I am having a blast exploring, I get really addicted to games like this and VS and tend to buy all of them, most are ok at best but this one stands out.. love where its at and can't wait to see where it goes!
Steam User 6
In two words - respectful alpha.
In this state the game is fully enjoyable. All that we'll get - more content.
Topdown rougelite with easy on the eye artstyle, solid gameplay foundation.
If you think about "to try or not to try" reading this, you should try, this game is the worthy one.
To devs: Guys, good luck with the development, I'm looking forward to the release and new content!
Steam User 3
Super Great game overall but I am a game dev also and they stole some of my ideas..
Like pressing keys to move, Option Menus and Pixels. Its this kinda stuff that can spark the Indie Wars of 2024.
One feature that did stand out above all others was the animated water who ever coded that shader system has to be some kinda coding god.
Steam User 8
Needs some big updates but so far I do like enough to keep coming back. I do think you should retain some of your gear on death though. Having all platinum gear and losing it all only to go back to a rusty pick is BRUTAL!