Below the Root is a 1984 video game developed for Commodore 64, IBM PC, and Apple II home computer lines.

The game is a continuation of the author Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Green Sky Trilogy, making it the fourth story in the series.

DeSharone also worked as an author as a side business, and connected with Snyder on collaborating on a video game which led to the development of Below the Root.

A character known as D'ol Falla had words given to him in a dream about a paling green light and a spirit fading away in darkness who must be sought out.

[5] The player can choose the role of either an adult or child and male or female playable character who have different abilities and skills.

These include five Green Sky inhabitants called Kindar or Erdlings: Neric, Genaa, Pomma, Charn, and Herd.

The players can also heal, use Grunspreke which influences limbs on trees to grow, and Kiniport which allows the character to move objects with their mind.

[7][8] Characters also have different levels of stamina, which effect their ability to store more rest and food energy, jump further, and carry more items.

[3] The game allows for open exploration with player letting the characters walk, run, jump, climb vines and ladders, enter and exit doorways, crawl and occasionally glide.

[9] Depending their spirit level based on the character chosen, theplayer can Pense, allowing them to read emotions or messages.

[12] This led to DeSharone to leave teaching and form Dale Disharoon Inc., a California-based development studio which creating computer games and began focusing on developing further educational games for home computers through publishers like The Learning Company and Spinnaker Software.

[13][15] DeSharone said that Snyder's contributions included writing a lot of the dialogue and the mapping of the game world.

About a year after working on the previous game, DeSharone invited Groetzinger to travel from Iowa to California and live with him at his home as they developed For Below the Root.

DeSharone created software for the C64 which could be translate Groetzinger's art directly into the computer, which would later be converted to become compatible with Apple II and IBM PCs.

[17][18] Groetzinger recalled that all three versions were released around the same time, and said that the Apple II and IBM PC ports suffered due the lack of colours available compared to the C64 computer.

Groetzinger said he was not sure of specific details, but presumed it was "probably successful" as it led to them working on similar games like Alice in Wonderland (1985).

DeSharone and Groetzinger would work on other more educational games together such as Peter Rabbit Reading and on The First Men in the Moon Math.

[26][27] GamesTM mentioned the game in their discussion of their article on the history of metroidvania in 2011, stating that Below the Root may be a little too expansive without a map to guide players, but if they persevere they would be "treated to something special.