The Old Below
Teaser Trailer
See What Waits Below
Our first look at the world of The Old Below. Best experienced with sound.
Key Art
Something vast and ancient sleeps beneath the ruins of a buried world, and it has not noticed you yet.
Development Progress
Watch The Old Below Take Shape
Two episodes so far. The first is the playable descent: grid combat, first-person corridors, and the shop, all in placeholder art. The second is the story behind the world, and why so much of it was written before the game.
Watch the DevlogFollow the Descent
Get The Old Below updates and playtest news.
Grid combat, mercenaries, bloodlines, and the districts of the buried world as they are built, plus playtest invitations.
A World Torn in Two
There was an age when evil owned the world. Not a single tyrant, and not a passing war, but a slow and total dominion. The dark seeped into the soil, the stone, and the blood of the living, until the whole of the land answered to it. To those who endured it, there seemed to be no end, and no escape.
So one archmage attempted the impossible. In a single world-breaking working, now remembered as the Raising, he tore the living skin of the world upward, lifting the land and the goodly folk upon it into the open sky, and leaving the evil and everything it had corrupted in the dark below. Where there had been one world, now there were two: a new realm above, and the old one buried beneath it.
The Raising is still recent, and its wounds are raw. Those carried upward found their new world broken and all but empty, and they are struggling even now to rebuild it from almost nothing, raising the first homes, and then the first towns, from bare and broken ground. But the spell was not perfect. In its chaos, not everyone rose. Countless people were left behind. They were not wicked, merely unlucky, or not quite pure enough for the magic to claim them. They are alive still, trapped in the world below and scattered among the things that mean them harm.
And the old world endures with them. Its streets, its vaults, and its temples remain almost exactly as they stood on the day the sky was torn away: intact, lightless, and crawling with the evil that was sentenced to stay. Already the world above has begun to look down, and to send its bold and its desperate into that dark. They go to bring their lost people home, to reclaim what the old world swallowed, and to test themselves against the worst place that has ever been. They call it by the plainest name there is, for it is the old world, and it lies below.
The Old Below.
"The Old Below remembers everyone who enters.
Not all of them come back. None of them come back unchanged."
Why Descend Into the Dark?
Every delver who climbs down into the Old Below is chasing one of three things
Rescue the Forsaken
Not everyone left behind is lost. Survivors still cling to life in the dark, and some can be brought home if you reach them in time. A few may even change your fledgling town forever.
Reclaim the Lost
The old world swallowed everything: gold and heirlooms, forbidden knowledge, and relics of a power the world above can no longer make. It all waits still, in the vaults and the rubble, for someone bold enough to carry it back up.
Prove Your Mettle
Some descend for the only reward that cannot be spent: to walk into the worst place that has ever existed, face what was sentenced to remain there, and climb back into the light to tell of it.
How a Run Works
Four steps, over and over, and never quite the same way twice
Step 1
Assemble & Descend
Hire your mercenaries, weigh their demands, and lead a party down into a chosen district of the buried world.
Step 2
Fight on the Grid
Turn-based, tactical grid combat where positioning, line of sight, and a well-timed flank matter more than raw numbers.
Step 3
Reclaim & Rescue
Pull survivors from the dark, carry out the gold and relics the old world swallowed, and climb back to the surface if you can.
Step 4
Build Your Legacy
Spend your haul on a growing town, retire veterans to pass their traits down the bloodline, and ready the next descent.
What Makes It Different
Planned features for launch and beyond
Tactical Grid Combat
Every encounter plays out on a unique grid shaped by the dungeon itself. Tight corridors punish recklessness, while wide chambers reward careful positioning. Flanking, backstabs, friendly-fire risk in narrow passages, and line of sight that decides who can hit whom.
Meaningful Permadeath
Death has weight here. Characters who fall in combat carry the scars, both physical and emotional. Accumulate too many, and permadeath looms on the horizon. Retire your characters gracefully, or push your luck until the dungeon takes them.
The Mercenary System
Mercenaries hire on a flat rate or a cut of the loot. Stiff one on a payout and they may walk out mid-run. Veterans who trust you charge less.
A World That Breathes
A hidden clock tracks your progress. NPCs age and are replaced by family members. The town you build over dozens of runs looks nothing like anyone else's. The dungeons scattered across the world map hold secrets that only careful explorers will ever find.
Bloodline Legacy
When your hero is gone, the story doesn't end. It transforms. Retire veterans to pass traits to the next generation. Merge bloodlines to create unique new characters who inherit a mix of their ancestors' strengths. Your lineage is your living history.
A Story Told in Seasons
The Old Below is a game, and it is also a story that will release in parts. Each part is a season, and three seasons of material are already planned. The story was written before the game: the villains who define each season, the events that will turn a run sideways, and the revelations buried deep enough that most delvers will never dig them out. We already know how it ends. You will find out on the way down.
The Districts Below
The old world's districts remain below, preserved as they were the day the sky was torn away. Each one tells its own story, and plays a different way.
Residential District
The Sunken Warrens
Maze-like corridors, cramped rooms, improvised traps. Former residents turned hostile. Rescue missions for survivors who may become invaluable to your town, or may not. High-volume loot. Tight and unforgiving.
Commerce District
The Merchant Quarter
Wide corridors, vault rooms, locked doors protecting wealth that no longer has an owner. Constructs and animated guardians still patrol their ancient posts. Sophisticated traps. Mid-to-high value loot. An underground economy still operating in the dark.
Religious & Civic District
The Temple District
High ceilings, mosaic floors, altars that still hum with something ancient and wrong. Undead clergy on eternal patrol. Holy and anti-holy ground that changes the rules of engagement. The deepest lore lives here.
The Noble Quarter comes later. The deeper you go, the worse it gets.
Co-op Is Coming
We've architected The Old Below from day one to support multiplayer. Post-launch, players will be able to meet at dungeon entrances, each bringing their own uniquely evolved town, their own bloodlines, and their own hard-won mercs. Two delving parties, one dungeon, one shared risk.
It ships when the netcode is ready.
Common Questions
Platforms, permadeath, and multiplayer
Does The Old Below need an internet connection?+
Not decided yet. It may end up offline-first like our other games, or it may need to stay online more often where fair play or multiplayer are involved. Whatever we land on, we will say so clearly before you ever have to guess.
Will there be multiplayer?+
Co-op is coming after launch, and the architecture for it is already built. Players will meet at dungeon entrances, bringing their own uniquely evolved towns and lineages. The netcode ships when it is right.
What kind of game is The Old Below?+
A tactical, turn-based dungeon crawler RPG. You lead a party through grid-based combat, manage a roster of hired mercenaries, and build a town and bloodlines over many runs.
Does it really have permadeath?+
Yes, and it means something. Fallen characters carry scars, and death can be permanent. But you can also retire veterans gracefully so they pass their traits to the next generation.
Is there multiplayer?+
Co-op is planned for after launch. The game is already architected to support it, so players will eventually meet at dungeon entrances with their own towns, bloodlines, and mercs.
What platforms will it be on?+
Steam (PC).
When does The Old Below come out?+
The Old Below is a playable prototype. The opening story, a shop, first-person exploration, and turn-based grid combat are all running with placeholder art. Join the Foundry above for playtest invitations and launch news.
Follow the Descent
Get The Old Below updates and playtest news.
Grid combat, mercenaries, bloodlines, and the districts of the buried world as they are built, plus playtest invitations.
Descend With Us
The Old Below is a playable prototype and the dungeon keeps growing. Follow the devlog and send ideas while it does.