Pretty cool game! I played until all of the top blocks were indestructible. Having a pickaxe and a shovel to mine different blocks was a good idea, it was interesting to pick the best for each case and try to go as deep as possible. Music really helped with the mood, and the sounds were on point. Gongrats on the submission!

I really enjoyed your game and played it a lot longer than I thought I would!
It feels very polished and looks good. The music was nice and relaxing.

The one thing I didn't like was the camera movement. First of all, I had that feeling of fighting against the camera since it tried to go back to the top the whole time. And second of all, I would have loved to rotate around the blocks freely.

All in all a nice game!

Thanks for commenting @kev-the-gamedev! You can rotate around with A & D keys. :)

@keppu Yeah I got that. I would've enjoyed it more to rotate in smaller instead of 90 degree steps. But maybe this was a design decision?

@kev-the-gamedev right, I understand. It was a solution to cut some corners. This way I didn't have to deal with also rotating some other stuff like the transparent tool indicator as it all snaps into the 90-degree angle. Thanks for the feedback.

This was really cool. Great artwork and the game design was well though out. Great job overall! I can see this becoming a mobile game.

An interesting and innovative game. It felt polished and unique.

Digging report 2021-05-01

Today we mined 158 blocks and almost reached the maximum depth of this digging site. We tried to conserve the money, but couldn't quite manage to reach the end. The contractors reported facing indestructable blocks down in the depths, but our engineering staff couldn't figure out how dig through them. The engineers keep talking about something called "drills", but the local tool shop tells us shovels and pickaxes are the greatest tools ever made. I feel like they are lying, but at least they are cheap. We'll have to get more money from the headquarters and will continue mining later.

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Remember to play, comment and rate games to get coolness. Coolnes makes your game more visible to others!

If I had to describe the game in one word, it would be polish. The art, the audio, the kinesthetics and UI design are all top notch. I also like the combo-mechanic with the two block types. That being said, I think the design could have used some more work. I would have liked if you could have rotated while going down to weave in between the blocks to get all of the gold and have the player think horizontally and laterally at the same time. This would have risen the game up a bunch.

I also think that the game would probably have been a tinsy bit better if the layout wasn't fully random, but based on individually designed chunks such that you as a designer can design paths for the player to traverse. But read this as a 'this is what I'd do if I would continue to develop this into something more'-kind of comment.

Lastly, the theme is definitely in there, but the interpretation of the theme is not very creative.

Overall a great job.

Oh; and one thing I forgot to mention. I had to zoom-out the web-page in order for the game to fit on my 1600x900 screen.

This is a good idea! However, I think there could have been more to the gameplay, such as new types of blocks and tools. Nonetheless, this is incredibly polished and an interesting experience :)

Graphics are really cool feels like a mobile game. One thing that really slowed the game down though was being forced to mine everything because of the indestructible blocks. It felt boring to have to mine dirt again simply because your profitable strip mine was forced to end. Still the game looks beautiful and is a great start.

Nice game. Lava can not be destroyed?

Very nicely polished. Also nice and simple but effective game design. Looks like a game you could already put as is onto the android play store. Great job :)

The only thing that was missing for me, was some kind of goal to work toward to.

Very appealing visually. The vibrant colours make me happy ^_^ The camera was a wee bit frustrating. It very much wants to go the the top of the pile, but I very much want to see the lowest part of the pile. All-in-all this is a great ldjam entry. Well done!

Why did this only receive 4 ratings so far? You have to rate more games!

Only thing: when you open the link you have to rescale your screen. Don't know how to fix this issue, but its seems to be really common on this site.

Your game is great! It was so much fun and digging down was really satisfying. It feels really finished and whole. I think this idea is original enough to build a whole game around it. I especially can imagine it as a mobile game application. The format and the simple controls would fit.
I got a chill vibe from the game and it was really relaxing. This was only further supported by the matching graphic art style and the audio. The audio and style fitted together really nicely. Why can i not vote on audio?

Great entry and really fun to play, although a bit to monotonous after a while at the moment. Some more features could help!

Thanks for the kind words and good analysis of the game @johannimations. I took the game out of Art and Sound categories as I've used premade assets. This way it's fair for those who use original ones :)

Thanks @ghubert! The lava was kind of hurried game mechanics on my part. It cannot be destroyed currently. I needed something to challenge player to find different routes rather than digging straight down on one column. It also lets the game have a definite end as I didn't want it to break. I was thinking of adding a tool to counter lava blocks, but I ran out of time.

This is a very polished experience, and the fact that you're a solo dev makes this even more impressive! Yes you used some assets/tools, but just having assets is meaningless - you have employed them well which is important!

The proc gen design of the blocks is both a blessing and a curse - obviously its good for replayability and organic appearances, but at the same time sometimes the 'un-mineable' blocks would block off the best paths, which felt less like the players fault and more random RNG blocking treasure.

Overall I had fun, and this is a very impressive submission! Good job :D

@joedev Thanks for the thoughts. What I gather from the players, the curated semi-random level generation could be better for this game for sure. Maybe to make some small biomes, randomize rotation and then randomize some elements like rewards inside..

Great stuff. Amazing achievement for a short jam. You obviously know your tools really well. Pardon the pun. ;) Like the art style - big simple shapes, blocky. Biggest problem for me was the sensitivity of the controls. The playing space was constantly moving as you dug deeper. So, with a moving playing space (the column of earth) and the requirement being that the player must hover over specific areas to direct where the digging happens, my "cursor" was jumping around all over the place meaning I didn't feel in control. I've been trying to think how you could iron this out. Maybe it could be as simple as deemphasizing the sound effects as the cursor moves so as its not so jarring. I'm not sure. Solid effort though. Well done! :D

@tim77 Thanks for the ideas. I'll explore these at some point.

Really polished visuals! The controls were kinda awkward for me but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Nice work!

fun game, I feel it could've done with some more clear goals in general, since it's procedurally generated it would've been nice to get some sort of win state when you reach the bottom or mine X amount of blocks.
also the visuals and music were very nice and in-sync with each other, it makes for a relaxing casual game, congrats!

Great graphics and audio. Gameplay is intuitive and really good fun.
The game could do with a counter for current mined blocks, I have no idea how close I get to beating my score.
I got the treasure chest but I don't know how many coins I got from it, perhaps a numerical indicator would help, +10, etc. Maybe an expensive (10 coins) dynamite tool to get rid of the indestructible blocks would be a good idea. All minor gripes really, best game I've played so far.

High Score
Blocks mined: 187
Depth: 29