Goldsweeper by Sunblast

[raw]
made by Sunblast for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

"Brave the depths and gather as much gold as possible, but beware of the mines that lay hidden. Strike the earth!"

Information

This is a simple game inspired of Minesweeper, avoid the mines by keeping a look out for nearby numbers that appear when you dig that tells you how many mines are 1 tiles away (includes diagonal directions). Gold may be gathered by mining out gold veins or opening treasure chests (which also can be a additional life if lucky). Lastly you can build ladders to climb up.

Controls

  • Moving/Mining: W, S, A and D.
  • Build a ladder: Z.

Preview.PNG

Thank you for playing!

Ratings

Overall 981th 3.479⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1094th 3.229⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 355th 3.729⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 390th 4.021⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1110th 3.5⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 17🗳️ 28🗨️

Feedback

Elemental Zeal Game Studios
27. Apr 2021 · 15:17 UTC
Overall a cute entry. I enjoyed the take on mixing minesweeper with a mining game. Could maybe use a slightly faster pace, as navigating around makes it feel slower than something like actual minesweeper.

Well done :thumbsup:
LogFlames
02. May 2021 · 15:48 UTC
I though the movement was nice, I especially liked that you had to mine two times for each block, otherwise I would have made many many mistakes! But now you had time to stop mining before you mined the wrong block! Well done!
sacredbacon
02. May 2021 · 15:56 UTC
Cool idea, very satisfying to get to one of the zero blocks and you can just free mine until you run into digits. The point system was good and I liked the health refill when you get to a chest. Art looked good as well, Great job!
Joror
02. May 2021 · 16:16 UTC
Pretty neat minesweeper! :) Good clear gameplay. Chests popping up are nice little goals.
Dorigami
02. May 2021 · 21:01 UTC
Nice Submission! I was never good at minesweeper, but the navigation mechanic is and interesting layer to add onto it. Collecting the gold also makes for a nice incentive for navigating the map. It's fun to play but the pace is a bit to slow.
gnaro
02. May 2021 · 21:23 UTC
This is an interesting concept, good work! Also, I love the graphics on the dwarf!
Herringbone Games
03. May 2021 · 16:20 UTC
Cool take on Minesweeper. I think this game would work well with smaller levels you had to get all the treasure chests within before advancing, rather than endless game play. In my experience it was a bit too easy to just ignore any area that had any mines at all and keep going down focusing on only mining through 0 mine tiles.
bmacintosh
03. May 2021 · 16:29 UTC
Cool variation on the classic game, it successfully retained a lot of the fun of the original while adding something new. I felt strangely confused about how to think about the numbers for reasons I didn't initially understand, so I looked at Minesweeper and noticed it's because Minesweeper puts the numbers only in excavated tiles and not in unexcavated tiles. There might have been some reason you did it this way, but keeping it consistent with Minesweeper would make it easier to pick up for Minesweeper fans. I was also confused about whether blank spaces meant '0', as in Minesweeper, or whether they were just a missing rating. I was successful for a while with the 0 assumption but eventually hit a mine here, so I'm not sure. If leaving the numbers as is, it might be good to distinguish tiles that have a rating from those that do not to reduce ambiguity.

![Capture.PNG](///raw/afb/z/42188.png)
🎤 Sunblast
03. May 2021 · 16:52 UTC
@herringbone-games Yeah I agree, when testing I did feel the game was pretty dull at time, I tried adding the chests and some other small things to spice it up a bit, but it could indeed still use some more work!

@bmacintosh I agree blank spaces is a little confusing, someway to distinguish would been ideal, but I could not really think of a good way. The reason I keep the numbers on dug out tiles is so the player don't dig into a mine by accident if all numbers around it had been dug out.

Lastly, thank you all for testing and rating so far!
Tris250
03. May 2021 · 17:34 UTC
Very nice little game, a brand new and quite funny minesweeper. I regret not being able to play it with the arrow keys, as not everyone has a QWERTY keyboard (especially in French-speaking countries)
leorid
06. May 2021 · 17:10 UTC
Highscore list would be cool, or a place to post it after playing - but overall, nice game ^^
smilewood
06. May 2021 · 18:56 UTC
I think that this is a fun and interesting take on a classic. It provides another layer to minesweeper as along with figuring out where mines are you have to find a path around them. I found it surprisingly difficult to safely get enough information to determine locations. One feature that I would have wished for would be something like the flags that minesweeper has, just a visual way to remind myself that I thought a place was dangerous. Even without that quality of life this is a fun one to play, well done!
superpokeunicorn
06. May 2021 · 23:38 UTC
Pretty neat concept. I like how the gold tempts you to go down more dangerous routes, adding a little risk/reward. I do feel that the control scheme was a bit off; pressing z to place ladders is a bit awkward while using WASD. I also wonder if a grid-based movement system where you tap to move one full space would have been a better fit. Overall, an interesting game. Nice work!
Ranchoman
07. May 2021 · 04:43 UTC
Loved this. Awesome entry
s1lv3r Dr4g0n Games
07. May 2021 · 15:28 UTC
Fun entry! It sets out to do something and does it really well.

Also respect for using monogame.
sparked99
11. May 2021 · 03:00 UTC
Cool way to remix minesweeper game play. I kind of wish I could resize the window because the game window is kind of small on a 4k monitor. An overall good game with great game play, well done. :)
LDJam user 2331
11. May 2021 · 15:21 UTC
Really loved this conversion of minesweeper to some puzzle platformer- my favorite version of all the digging entries I've played so far! :D I think it would benefit a lot from having at least one extra thing to do to spice things up a bit- perhaps having a bottom, and going on progressively deeper digs where you can do something with the money in between?
piscythe
15. May 2021 · 05:42 UTC
I really like how limiting the player's movement changes the basic dynamic of Minesweeper. I played at late'o'clock my time, which probably influenced my decision to play this as a risk-management game instead of a logical deduction game. It feels like it could go on for a really long time if you stop to think everything through. Fortunately, unlike Minesweeper, there is room for error, so it's okay to take a few risks.
Hempuli
16. May 2021 · 18:20 UTC
Very cool! I like the idea a lot. The fact that the numbers are always safe spots made playing the game maybe a bit too easy; I think shrinking the level a bit but e.g. making mines possible to be on top of numbers could be an interesting thing to test! I could also see this being extended with some new tile types and such.