- The Fest is over, but the adventure continues! - 7 September 2026
Greetings explorers, The Survival Crafting Fest has come to an end, and with it, our Playtest is now officially closed to new participants.A huge thank you to everyone who joined us during the Fest, and especially to all the new explorers who spent time on the island, reported their findings and shared their feedback and experiences with us! Your feedback is incredibly valuable to us, so if you played the game and haven't done so already, please share your feedback through our questionnaire: https://gf.link/UARFeedbackFrequently Asked QuestionsCan I still play now that the Playtest is over? Yes! If you received access during the Fest, you can continue exploring the island, as we plan to keep the current build available for a little while longer.I didn't get access this time. Will there be another chance? Absolutely! Under a Rock is constantly being updated, and we're planning to have mo…
- Join the Playtest during the Survival Crafting Fest! - 31 August 2026
Greetings, explorers! We're excited to announce that Under a Rock is taking part in the Survival Crafting Fest, starting today, August 31st! As part of the Fest, something we've been looking forward to is finally happening: an Under a Rock Closed Playtest is opening its doors! During the Survival Crafting Fest, if you’re selected to take part in the Playtest, you'll have the opportunity to jump into the game, explore the island for yourself, and get a first taste of what we've been working on. Spots will be limited, but we’ll gradually open up more as the Playtest continues! How to join the Playtest The process is pretty easy: You'll just need to click the "Request Access" button that will be available on our store page during the Survival Crafting Fest. There are no special requirements to apply; everyone interested is welcome to request access. As mentioned above, please keep in mind…
- Dev Blog #5: Alpha Test Showcase - Building - 6 July 2026
Greetings, explorers! We’re currently in the first stage of our closed Alpha test with a small group of players, and we’d like to share a quick update with you! The first wave of Alpha access was granted to community members who have been active and supported us over the years. As we progress through the different stages of the Alpha and additional spots become available, we’ll gradually invite more people to join. If you’d like to be informed about future playtests, please make sure to Follow Under a Rock and keep an eye on our Steam page for all recent news and announcements. Now that things are heating up, if you’d like to stay up to date with the absolute latest news, chat directly with the developers, and see what other Alpha-testers have been up to, then the Under a Rock Discord, home to over 8,000 Dodos, is the place to be. Right now, the testers are putting their focus into expl…
- Dev Blog #4: Creature Taming and Companions - 27 May 2026
Greetings explorers! Today we’re excited to share a closer look at one of the most important parts of Under a Rock that will be crucial to your survival on the island: tamed creatures and companions. Whether you’re traversing lush forests, exploring dark caves, or just trying to survive another chaotic day, the creatures you’ll encounter and befriend will play a big role in your journey. Check out our latest video: QUICK SUMMARY You can Tame wild creatures by offering them their favourite item and then bring them to your base where they will produce resources for you and require upkeep to keep being loyal and productive. In order to obtain a Companion, you would need to incubate a creature from an egg. Companions are your most loyal partners: you can ride them into combat, and they grow stronger by being part of your journey. The Art of Taming Taming is built around learning, experiment…
- We hit an incredible milestone: 400,000 wishlists! - 28 March 2026
An incredible milestone has been reached: 400,000 dodos have wishlisted us on Steam! We are beyond grateful for all the love and support from each and every one of you, it truly means the world to us. Your excitement keeps us motivated every day, and we're hard at work crafting something special for you!We can't wait to share more about our development progress soon, stay tuned! A big hug to all, The Under a Rock Team
- Dev Blog #3: What we’ve been working on lately - 28 January 2026
Greetings explorers! It’s been a while since our last update, so we wanted to check in and share that development is progressing nicely. Many systems and features are now taking root, while we continue growing and nurturing ones already in place. This includes a wide range of core systems, including building and research, combat, animations, procedural world generation, and more. With that being said, we would like to give you a bit of insight into the current state of some of those systems, and a taste of what’s in store moving forward. Take a peek at our latest video: Procedural World and Epics We’ve continued polishing and expanding how worlds are procedurally generated, adding more variety and overall structure to them. New epics were added across the world, including more corruption-based epics, making exploration feel more distinct as you travelWe’ve done a lot of additional work…
- Fight to Survive - First Look at Combat - 11 July 2025
The community has spoken and our next showcase is here: Combat. The world’s full of surprises - and not all of them are friendly. Survival won’t come easy - you'll need to master the art of combat.Here is a glimpse of the battles that lie ahead:Want to participate in the next community voting? Join our discord, follow us on social media and be a part of the next voting! Follow us on: X Instagram Facebook YouTube Join our discord: discord.gg/underarock
- A look at Building! - 27 May 2025
The community voted - so here is a look at how building looks like in game! Featuring the new UI, a sneak peak at how gathering will look and more: Want to participate in the next community voting? Be sure to join our discord and follow us on social media and be a part of the next community voting! Follow us on: X Instagram Facebook YouTube Join our discord: discord.gg/underarock
- Dev Blog #2: Ways to get around in Under a Rock - 19 December 2023
Hey everyone! Based on the recent announcement trailer, we thought it would be a great idea to cover a few of the traversal methods you saw, as well as the ones we haven’t shown yet. While exploring the vibrant biomes of Under a Rock, you need to be able to think on your feet. Like when you first see a creature, even if they’re absolutely adorable, you need to be ready to react—whether that ends with you giving them a hug or, the more likely option, running for your life. While running is a quintessential part of getting around in any survival game, there may be times where going on foot just isn’t the best or even the preferred approach, and that’s where the variety of travel mechanics come into play. Now let’s take a peek at those methods: While some of these mechanics will be available to you as soon as you wash up on the beach, some will require you to craft items or tame creatures.…
- Announcement Trailer, PC Gaming Show & Xbox Fanfest Live Stream, Publisher - 30 November 2023
The 30th of November has arrived, which means the time has come for us to share with you all what we teased a few weeks ago on social media. And that is our official announcement trailer! We had the honor to showcase it for the first time during the PC Gaming Show and at the Xbox Comi-Con Brazil Showcase, and we feel incredibly happy they invited us to be part of the show. In case you missed the trailer, or you want to rewatch it, you can check out our official trailer - it includes some additional gameplay footage - here: Trailer Creation It took a lot of hard work and several late-night brainstorming sessions from us dodos for this trailer to come to life, and we could not be happier with the result! We would like to share with you some of the early stages of our creative process in the form of concept art that was created and used for the story board: Publisher We are also super exci…
- Dev Blog #1: Creatures and Base Building - 13 October 2023
Before we dive in, we wanted to take a moment to thank everyone in our growing community for the massive support you’ve given us so far. Whether this is your first time learning about our game or you’ve been with us from the start, your support is so greatly appreciated, and it continues to provide us, along with ample amounts of coffee, with the fuel we need to push through those challenging moments that come with developing a game. So, again, thank you very much! With that said, if you’ve been around since we first showcased our game back in 2022, you’ll know that a lot has happened since then. It’s now been over a year, and we figured it was time to start providing you with some regular updates about the game’s development, not only to keep everyone aware of what’s going on, but also so we can give you a taste of what’s to come. Starting off with a recap of information that you may o…
- Under A Rock Start Screen - 22 August 2023
They say a picture can tell a thousand words. But what about a start screen? Check out what our start screen looks like and keep your eyes peeled...you might discover a rogue Dodo running around. The music was composed by the very talented composer Noï Ortiz-Perez!
- FAQ - 21 July 2023
Studio & Development Who is making this game? We are a small indie game studio, Nordic Trolls, consisting of five people. What is Under a Rock? Under a Rock is a procedural open-world survival game. Explore your own mysterious and colourful island populated by exotic creatures, oversized wildlife and curious natives, as a 19th century stranded explorer. Which engine does Under a Rock run on? Unreal Engine 5 About the Game When will the game be released? Currently, we do not have a set release date, but once we do, we will announce it accordingly. How much will the game cost? This is still to be determined, but you can expect a reduced price while the game is in Early Access. On which systems will Under a Rock be available? We are currently planning on releasing Under a Rock on PC - both on Windows and Linux -, and consoles. How many players can play at the same time? Can I play the game…
- Procedural Caves - 3 September 2022
They come in all shapes and sizes, from small to gargantuan, with the latter being a whole biome by itself. Creatures inhabit them, and they rarely like to share the space, nor the precious resources found within. Kick them out, claim the space and build your own base within, there are no limits. Caves seamlessly integrate into the procedural environment, meaning there are no loading screens to break your immersion. Get your Under a Rock news faster by joining our Discord! We are active at answering questions and interacting with our amazing player community. Always! https://discord.gg/underarock
- Fan Art - 28 August 2022
@Krystine_art created our first piece of fan art and we absolutely love it. It's based on the default feminine player avatar that we have been showing off everywhere. More of Krystine's amazing charcoal works can be found by following her Twitter handle.
- Video Reveal - Tier 1 Construction - 3 July 2022
Hello everyone! We recently made a new video, showing off some of the Tier 1 construction elements you will be able to play around with when building your first base. What you see is all built using in-game tools only. It took us a while, to be honest, cause it turned out to be quite a large base and it was just fun building it. Time was forgotten, the video was made, here it is:
- Tier 1 Construction - 25 June 2022
Using Unreal Engine 5 and the core technology, nanite, is a blessing. Not only does it allow for faster production due to not having to spend time on reducing polys to optimize for rendering. It also allows us to provide an unprecedented level of detail for the building blocks, not to mention the distance at which you can see your base. No more inside of the base showing before walls are rendered, no more not seeing parts of your base even though you are only a short distance away. Each construction piece is in the range of 300,000 - 1,000,000 polys. The ropes have individual threads, not normal maps. Lighting is powered by Lumen, and it updates beautifully at run-time as you add or remove construction pieces. You will be able to build exceptionally large constructions with minimum to zero impact on performance. We know this because we have already tested it extensively. This screenshot…
- Come join our Discord! - 22 June 2022
Hi everyone! We have a Discord channel. It's where we usually share things first, like new screenshots and other tidbits from the ongoing development. There you can interact with us more freely or just follow whatever is going on. Hope to see you there! Discord: https://discord.gg/underarock
- Wallpaper Give Away - 16 June 2022
We think it is a great idea to share a few wallpapers, all beautifully rendered in 4k. Previews of the wallpapers can be seen below, and the high resolution files can be downloaded from IndieDB. Enjoy! ːsteamhappyː Download from IndieDB
- Procedural World Teaser - 13 June 2022
Hello everyone! This is the first video footage of our procedural world in action, and we are super excited for the opportunity to show it to you all.
