Below the Stone

Below the Stone is a punishing pixel-art roguelike where players control a dwarf on a quest to reach the deepest depths of a procedurally generated underground world. Each descent offers new adventures through dozens of unique biomes filled with creatures, treasures, and resources to discover. Players mine precious resources to progress their dwarf, complete custom cave missions, and safely store extra loot in the Dwarven Kingdom between runs. Inspired by classic games with modern twists, it features full character customization and the high-stakes roguelike experience where death means losing everything carried on that expedition.

Below the Stone: A Dwarven Roguelike Carved From Ambition and Community

In the vast, ever-expanding caverns of the indie game landscape, few titles embody the spirit of passionate, community-driven development quite like Below the Stone. This pixel-art roguelike from Strollart Studios is more than just a game about digging holes; it is a testament to a developer’s journey from hobbyist tinkering to a published vision, a love letter to dwarven lore, and a solid, if still-forming, foundation for what could become a genre staple. This review delves deep into the bedrock of its creation, its mechanics, and its potential legacy.

Introduction: The Allure of the Deep

What drives us downward? Is it the promise of glittering treasure, the thrill of the unknown, or the simple, primal satisfaction of striking stone? Below the Stone taps into this fundamental curiosity, inviting players to don the boots of a dwarf and embark on a perilous, procedurally generated descent. Released into Steam Early Access in November 2023, the game arrives at a time when roguelikes and mining simulators are plentiful, yet it carves out its own niche with a charming aesthetic and a punishing but fair core loop. Its thesis is simple yet compelling: risk everything for progress, and let the community help shape the journey. This is not just a game; it’s an ongoing expedition, one forged in the fires of Kickstarter campaigns and publisher persistence.

Development History & Context: From Lawnmowers to Legend

The story of Below the Stone is inextricably linked to the story of its creator, Mike Strollart of Hammonton, South Jersey. As detailed in a PhillyVoice profile, Strollart’s path began not with grand ambitions, but with playful experimentation in tools like GameMaker during his middle school years. This hobbyist spirit evolved through the mid-2010s with a series of what he calls “half-finished” projects, including the gloriously absurd Lawnmower Simulator: Time to Mow Down the Lawn—a game featuring rocket-launching lawn equipment. These proto-projects were the ancestral forge where the visual style and core concepts of Below the Stone were first hammered out.

By 2019, the vision had crystallized around a dwarven theme, inspired by Strollart’s fondness for the race in World of Warcraft. The team launched a Kickstarter, which, while not meeting its initial $10,000 goal, proved a transformative moment. As Strollart noted, the backing of complete strangers was a powerful validation that moved the project beyond a friends-and-family endeavor. A second, more successful campaign in 2021 raised over $40,000, a sum that inevitably attracted the attention of publishers.

Here, the narrative takes an amusing turn. Strollart admitted to initially viewing all publishers as “blood-sucking vampires,” blocking them outright. It took the persistent outreach of Scott Miller, founder of Apogee Entertainment (a legend behind titles like Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein 3D), to break through this barrier. Miller’s proven track record and humble approach won over Strollart, leading to a publishing deal that provided the resources and industry expertise needed to polish and launch the game. This partnership between a small, passionate South Jersey team and a veteran publisher is a modern indie development story in microcosm.

The game was built using the Unity engine, a popular choice for indie developers due to its accessibility, and launched into Early Access on November 17, 2023, a date confirmed after a Q4 2023 window was announced earlier that summer. This Early Access model is crucial to understanding the game; it is a framework upon which content is still being built, with player feedback from its nearly 1,800-strong Discord community directly influencing updates.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: Lore Forged in the Dark

At its current Early Access stage, Below the Stone is a game more concerned with environmental storytelling than a linear narrative. The plot, as noted by MoviesGamesAndTech, is essentially non-existent beyond the initial setup: your dwarf arrives at a kingdom and is immediately tasked with a tutorial mission to rescue the Blacksmith, a key NPC. After this initiation, you are set loose as one of the kingdom’s many miners, with your story being written run-by-run, death-by-death.

The narrative weight, therefore, is intended to be carried by the world itself and its inhabitants. The official description promises the discovery of “the lore of dwarves, the treasures they die for, and the secrets they rarely speak of.” This is achieved through the planned inclusion of 10-12 “mainline characters” that players can rescue from the depths, such as elven witches, dragon-slayers, and necromancers. Each rescue expands the central Dwarven Kingdom hub, theoretically adding new services, dialogue, and context to the underground world.

Thematically, the game leans heavily into classic dwarven tropes: grit, determination, greed, and the solemn honor of a dangerous profession. The central theme is risk versus reward, perfectly encapsulated by the game’s core tenet: “If you die, you lose everything you brought with you!” This isn’t just a mechanic; it’s a narrative device that reinforces the dwarf’s life as one of calculated peril. Every decision to push deeper or turn back is a small story in itself. The themes of community and rebuilding are also present, as successful runs allow you to contribute resources to upgrade the kingdom and its vendors, making each death a setback but not a full erasure of progress.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: The Core Loop of Risk and Reward

Below the Stone synthesizes mechanics from several beloved genres into a cohesive, albeit currently lean, package. The gameplay is a cycle of preparation, expedition, and extraction.

The Core Loop: In the safe haven of the Dwarven Kingdom, players can access the Bank (for storing precious resources safely), the Blacksmith (for crafting new gear from mined ores), and other vendors. Here, players select 1-3 missions for their descent—objectives like “kill 10 slimes” or “mine 5 tin ore.” You then choose what gear and items to risk taking with you.

The descent plunges you into a procedurally generated, multi-biome cave system. The gameplay immediately becomes a mix of:
* Mining: Using your pickaxe to harvest ores (Tin, Iron, Lead, etc.) and gems from walls. Progression is gated, as better metals require better pickaxes to mine.
* Combat: Fending off enemies like bats, slimes, kobolds, and skeletons using a variety of weapons including swords, axes, crossbows, and even blunderbusses.
* Exploration: Uncovering hidden pathways, secret bases, and different biomes, each with unique resources and threats.

Upon completing at least one mission, you can call for extraction. This triggers a defensive sequence where you must survive waves of enemies until a drill arrives—a clear nod to games like Risk of Rain or Deep Rock Galactic.

Roguelike Systems: Death is punishing. If you fall in the depths, you lose every item in your inventory. However, the game employs two key anti-frustration features praised by ClutchPoints:
1. The Bank: Any resources you store between runs are permanent. This ensures a bad death doesn’t completely reset your progress.
2. The Shop: Gold earned from completed missions is kept between runs and can be used to purchase basic gear, providing a lifeline if your bank is empty.

Crafting & Progression: The crafting system is straightforward. Mined ores are smelted into bars at a forge, which are then used at the Blacksmith to craft weapons, armor, and tools of increasing power. Gems can be socketed into equipment for stat boosts and even merged to create more powerful versions. Character progression is entirely equipment-based; your dwarf’s stats and abilities are determined by what they wear and carry.

Flaws and Potential: Reviews note the current gameplay can feel repetitive and the content somewhat sparse, with an estimated 6-8 hours to see most of what’s available. The mission structure is also cited as an area for potential expansion, with hopes for more complex, multi-layered objectives. These are acknowledged shortcomings of the Early Access state, and the developers have a roadmap that includes features like a potential co-op mode and more biomes.

World-Building, Art & Sound: A Pixelated Depths

Below the Stone’s world is built through a consistent and effective audio-visual direction.

Visuals & Art Direction: The game employs a pixel-art aesthetic that is both charming and functional. The diagonal-down perspective provides a clear view of the action and environments. The visuals are praised for their grim lighting and claustrophobic feel, effectively conveying the dank, dangerous atmosphere of the underground. The 25+ planned biomes aim to provide visual variety, ensuring that each run has a distinct look. The animation is described as smooth, and the enemy sprites are well-defined and full of character.

Sound Design: The audio is a significant highlight. The game features an “hour-long+ soundtrack” that is consistently described as atmospheric, daunting, and immersive, perfectly complementing the fantasy spelunking theme. The sound effects are “loud and aggressive,” selling the impact of mining and combat. The notable absence is any form of spoken dialogue, which some reviewers felt was a missed opportunity to further bring the cast of NPCs to life.

World-Building: The world-building is environmental and systemic. The different biomes aren’t just visual backdrops; they contain unique resources and enemies, encouraging strategic exploration. The Dwarven Kingdom hub is designed to feel like a growing, living home base that expands as you rescue more characters, making your successes tangible beyond your inventory.

Reception & Legacy: A Foundation Waiting to Be Built Upon

As an Early Access title, Below the Stone‘s critical reception is still forming. At the time of writing, it lacks Metacritic or major critic scores, but player and preview impressions have been largely positive, with a focus on its potential.

Early reviews, such as the 7.5/10 from ClutchPoints, commend the “satisfying” core loop and solid foundation but rightly point out the need for more content and depth. The game has found a niche audience, having sold nearly 20,000 digital copies according to Strollart, and its Discord community remains actively engaged in providing feedback.

Its legacy, for now, is one of potential and process. It stands as an example of a successful Kickstarter-to-Early Access journey and a case study in how a small developer can partner with an established publisher without sacrificing its vision. In the gaming landscape, it sits alongside titles like Deep Rock Galactic (and its survivor-like spinoff, which Strollart himself recommends), Terraria, and other mining-focused roguelikes, aiming to distill the addictive loop of resource gathering and perilous extraction into a 2D, pixel-art format.

The true test of its legacy will come with its full release, planned for late 2025 or early 2026. Its ambition to expand to PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch will place it before a much wider audience. If the developers can successfully expand the biome count, deepen the narrative elements with the promised NPCs, and add more variety to the missions and end-game, Below the Stone could be remembered not just as a good game, but as a defining dwarven adventure of its era.

Conclusion: A Gem in the Rough

Below the Stone is a compelling, well-crafted Early Access title that understands its core strengths: a satisfying risk-reward loop, a charming aesthetic, and a community-focused development philosophy. It is, by its own admission, not yet complete. The lack of a strong narrative and the current repetition in missions hold it back from greatness today.

However, to review it solely on its present state would be to miss the point. This is a game in active development, one being carved and polished in real-time with the help of its players. The foundation is exceptionally strong—the mining and combat feel good, the art and sound design are superb, and the core premise is endlessly appealing.

Verdict: Below the Stone is a highly promising roguelike with the potential to become a standout title in the genre. For players eager to support a developer’s journey and contribute to a game’s evolution, it represents a fantastic opportunity. For those seeking a complete, content-rich experience immediately, it may be best to wait for the full release. Regardless, Strollart Studios has struck a rich vein of potential; now, the work begins to mine it into a legendary treasure.