Below the Stone has quietly been carving out a name for itself as one of the more punishing and rewarding extraction roguelikes on PC, tasking players with leading dwarves ever deeper underground in runs where death comes at a heavy cost.
With its recent combat update shaking up how gear, weapons, and playstyles work, and the game now on the road to full release, we recently sat down with game director Mike Strollart to talk combat, Below the Stone’s Early Access journey, and the possibility of future console ports.
We’re also hosting a competition where you could win one of two codes for the game for just a couple of minutes of your time! Be sure not to miss out, as the deadline for this one is next Monday!
RL: First of all, for anybody unfamiliar, what is Below the Stone?
MS: For me or for the fans? Haha. Below the Stone has been a huge journey for me, but for the players, it’s an extraction roguelike about dwarves going on a quest to the deepest depths, a place where each and every descent will be a new adventure with procedurally generated terrain, making every descent a new adventure- but be careful! For if you die below the stone, all of your gear and equipment will be lost!
RL: With such a brutal penalty for dying, how are players handling Below the Stone’s risk-reward system, and did you worry it might put newcomers off?
MS: We have a bank system that lets players choose what gear to bring down, as well as ways to recover your gear at the kingdom. We also plan on adding a way for your failed run’s body to spawn in the caves, letting you re-obtain some of your gear.
RL: The recent Combat Update introduced features like weapon alt-attacks and armour set bonuses. How have these changes impacted the way combat feels overall?
MS: Oh, it’s been a huge request for players to be able to mix-match their playstyles. A lot of players, reasonably, said they wanted more to the armor of the game than just “you gain more resistance”, they wanted special effects and traits that the gear gives you. I think we did it in a smart way, and the combat update introduces about 1/3rd of what we have planned. This is a “dip of the toe” into the content we’re planning for this.
RL: With the update, the game has just left Alpha on Steam. What does it feel like to reach this milestone? And what are you working on next?
MS: 1.0 full release is next! We’re excited, and we KNOW fans are asking “what’s next?”, asking for more content, asking for deeper content to get lost in. The entire development cycle of Below the Stone was meant to lead to this moment. We’ve been adding features in their newly-born forms, reading feedback, while we start work on the next big feature.
It takes a couple months to add some of these new big features we’ve done, like a quest system, the new combat, etc…. but once it’s added, it makes our lives as developers a lot easier to “multiple” that content, and we’ve been saving that for 1.0’s full release. We want 1.0 to feel like “WOW, it almost feels like a new game!”
RL: What kind of support have you had from Apogee, and what has the publisher-developer relationship been like for you?
MS: We’ve worked with Apogee in a way where each side focuses on our unique roles. They manage the publishing side, and we handle Below the Stone’s development and creative side. They trust what we’re doing creatively at Strollart. The recent combat trailer was done by Kyle “Blessious” at Apogee. We’ll record the footage, send it his way, share whatever major features we want to highlight, and he’ll put it in video form.
RL: You recently mentioned that Below the Stone is expected to launch in Summer 2026. What changes or updates can players expect between now and release?
MS: Expect to see what we have now, but multiplied by **a lot**. More biomes, more quests, the lore and story of the game to be finalized, and redo a lot of the visuals. We want this to feel like a shock to people’s systems when they play what they see now on Steam v.s. what it will be like when you play this summer.
RL: The game is on PC right now, but can you see it coming to consoles in the future?
MS: It’s on Steam, GOG, and Epic right now for anyone on PC! As for the consoles…We’re looking forward to hearing how much fans want to see this.
Now to save you scrolling back up for that link, head this way for the Steam page for Below the Stone.
