In The Roots Of The Mountain
A 2D pixel-art mining game: a lone dwarf digs through procedural caves for ore, upgrades a pickaxe in town and swings across chasms on a grappling hook.
Links go to the official store or developer page. Last verified Nov 3, 2026.
Where to play
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- View on SteamSteamReleased$8.99
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Desktop · Steam
About In The Roots Of The Mountain
In The Roots Of The Mountain is a 2D pixel-art mining adventure. You play a lone dwarf miner in Mearel, a dwarven kingdom deep under a mountain, digging down into a procedurally generated cave system carved by cellular automata, so every world is different. There are eleven ores to mine, from coal, iron and copper to orichalcum, cobalt, xenonite and texinite, which you sell or spend at the shopkeeper in a central town on upgrades to pickaxe power, mining speed and light; a compass always points back to town. A physics-based grappling hook swings you across chasms, and each world is kept with its mined tiles, inventory and upgrades across several save slots. The store text promises relaxing play without permadeath stress; in a news post two weeks before launch the developer said enemies were being added, a flying skull that shoots fireballs and a cave slime, along with a battle axe to fight them, and a patch a week after launch fixed enemies getting stuck on walls. The developer's Steam AI disclosure says the music and the majority of the code were made by AI, naming Grok for the code and Sonauto for the music. A paid game on Steam for Windows, released 1 Jun 2026. English only.
Screenshots and art
In The Roots Of The Mountain key art · Steam store artwork
How it was built
Partially verifiedThe developer's Steam AI disclosure says the music and the majority of the code were made by AI, and credits the code to Grok (xAI's AI assistant) and the music to Sonauto. It does not say how Grok was used or which parts of the code were written by hand. The art is not mentioned in the disclosure.
Not described beyond the two-line Steam disclosure: the majority of the code was made by AI (Grok) and the music by Sonauto. The developer's news posts describe adding enemies and a battle axe before launch and a first patch for sound effects, animations and enemy pathing.
- Engine / framework
- Not disclosed
- Languages
- Not disclosed
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“The music and majority of the code was make by AI. Code by Grok Music by Sonauto”Verification notes: The AI claim rests on the developer-written AI disclosure on the game's Steam page (re-read on 4 Nov 2026), quoted as written: "The music and majority of the code was make by AI. Code by Grok Music by Sonauto". Grok has no tool entry in this database, so the tool is recorded as undisclosed and Grok is named in the usage text. The enemies and battle axe come from the developer's Steam news posts (16 May and 8 Jun 2026); the store description does not mention them. Release date, price, Windows only and English (interface and full audio) from the Steam store API. The store page showed no user reviews on 4 Nov 2026, so no review figures are recorded. "Enemy AI" in the patch notes refers to enemy behaviour code; no AI content generated during play is described.
Development history
The developer says enemies are being added, so far a fireball-shooting flying skull and a cave slime, plus a starting battle axe, and asks players for enemy ideas.
DeveloperSteam (CaljDev)Released on Steam for Windows at US$8.99.
OfficialSteamPatch 1 fixes sound effects, animations and enemies getting stuck on walls, and adds sounds for being hit and healing.
DeveloperSteam (CaljDev)
Game performance
Each figure measures something different — concurrent players, owners, downloads and sales are never interchangeable and are never added together. Labels show where each number comes from.
Steam
US$8.99 on the Steam store API (US region) on 4 Nov 2026. Windows only.
Not publicly available: Concurrent players, Steam reviews, Positive Steam reviews, Estimated owners, Copies sold, Gross revenue.
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Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| In The Roots Of The Mountain on Steam (store page incl. AI Generated Content Disclosure) Steam | Store page | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| I have decided to add enemies. Steam (CaljDev) | Devlog | May 16, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Patch 1 Steam (CaljDev) | Devlog | Jun 8, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
