It wasn't immediately clear that the goal was to go towards the bottom of the screen -- I was waiting for some sort of portal to appear after digging that would bring me to the next level. However, once I figured that out, it was pretty fun! The music and sound effects are pretty charming, as is the animation on the player.

Do you think it might be a good idea to show the player where gems/mushrooms/pickaxes are in advance? I think mushrooms are sometimes visible, but only if they're behind a stone block... giving the player this information in advance might encourage a little more strategy. Maybe if they're within a handful of tiles or something?

Thanks for the feedback. This is my first time making any sort of music so that is good to hear :D. I had been playing on and off with making things visible but ultimately decided with it being hidden it encourages a bit more exploration instead of just going straight to the goal. If I continue work on it in the future I will definitely consider some changes though.

The game felt sort of easy, the only hard part - for me at least, was finding out what the objective was, but once I figured that out, most of the gameplay was around finding the straightest path to the bottom.

However I feel like all of the assets were super well done, the music blended well with the sound design and the character felt like it looked good without being super distracting

@sweer Thanks for the feedback!

To me going down was a bit more obvious, also since it is the main metric shown. It's cool that the last level is persistet across sessions. That is something I descoped in my game :) I really like the main menu, the "death" screen and the music. The art is really nice :) After playing a few levels I am still unsure how I can tell where and if an object appears. And it also seams like the esiest way is to just move straight down through the soft soil and avoiding the hard rocks. There are lots of power-ups but I didn't feel like I needed them. These could have been made into a more central part of the gameplay.

Pretty good. Music is catchy. I think having some idea of where to find powerups etc would make the game more interesting - as it is, I didn't bother exploring and just tried to find the quickest route down. (Maybe that's why I never got very far? lol). Also, when you dig through the rock, the first hit isn't always visible - I didn't notice it the first time and thought "maybe there's a separate pickaxe button?" The first breaking rock sprite should probably be more obvious I guess?

Great idea for a game, but I don't understand why all of the objects are hidden. Without knowing where anything is it's difficult to build a strategy against anything other than trying to dig as straight down as possible and hoping to get lucky enough to survive.

Found it quite addictive after I figured out what I was supposed to do. There is no signifiers for the affordances of the level such as "get to bottom to go to next level" or "where are the precious gems." When I first started playing, I stayed in the first screen just looking for gems, but didn't find anything except one mushroom. Increasing the drop chances of items, especially in rocks, would help increase the risk/reward system you have set up. Loved how quick it was to restart sessions and the minimal menus. Art and music were charming as well :)

I really like the art you put into it, both the end card and the title screen look pretty cool. Took me a try or two to figure out how to advance, like some other mentioned. Overall though, I think it was good.

Good fun! I loved the idea, and brilliant pixel art :)

Pretty good! Though it seems like the only real thing to do is go straight down since anything else happening is basically up to chance as you can't see anything. I also don't understand how to avoid bats so to some extent you just have to hope you don't get all the stamina knocked out of you rather than having any real agency in the matter. With a few tweaks I think it could be quite an addicting little game.

Fun game! Like other people said, it would be nice if you could see some objects, maybe if you're within a 5x5 of them or something.

Nice sprite work. Feels like there could have been a game there with some more thought and mechanics, but right now it just seems to be about finding a straight line to travel down so that you don't randomly die on each map.

Also I kept going to the middle of the screen to get the red gem that "appears there", and I have no idea how the boulders work.

nice game! I enjoyed the artwork and the music, and trying to get as deep as possible was fun. If the collectables could be seen before you get them, this could be a really in-depth strategy game.

@cavedens Mining dirt is overpowered!

Thanks everyone for all of the comments and feedback. If I continue expanding I'll definitely take the vision for objects under consideration.

@hestrateja nice score! :) Hope you had fun

Loved the graphics and music they were very cool! I was a little confused what I was supposed to be doing other than going down, I'd love to see this expanded on more. It was really fun!

TODO: review game

The conecept is pretty good, however there is not really an incentive (as far as I know) to not dig straight down. As I could finish each level by just finding the column with the least stones and spamming down. I did like the graphics and the music/audio was also pretty well done! If there would be some more strategy/incentive do explore each level it would add a lot more fun to the game.

I had fun but couldn't figure what to do at first. Audio and graphics are good. The game would be perfect with a small tutorial and a bit more animations.

Nice and simple game, but it seems to be very random. You can't predict where would be gems or something else, hence there is no strategy to play this game (except digging dirt, of course).

I didn't understand the objective at first. The first time I just ran out of stamina instantly.

I agree with other comments that it's a little random, sometimes you can just go straight down, I didn't see much contrast between "normal" rocks and special ones, and I still don't understand what should happen when it tiles spawn a bat or a skull.

But after understanding the objective, the game is quite fun. I would only make the objetices a little more clear, and make the special rocks a bit more visible so I can plan before going down.

As a lot of commenter, I didn't understand the objective. And to be honest, I still don't. I understand the mechanic to retrieve some stamina, by hiting the bottom of the map, and, I can see that there is an highscore system for the level you arrived, and the number of gem you could retrieve, but, if this is the only objective, wouldn't be better to make the gem more visible ? To trigger the greed of the player ?

Either way, even if I didn't quite understand the objective, the game triggered my lust for getting a HighScore, and I played it without having any less fun. The music are really cool, and I loved the graphics. So, High Five, your game was really entertaining.

I played it for surprisingly long time, so I think once it 'clicks' you might have an addictive game on your hands. Nice entry, I enjoyed it.

Simple and addictive game play. The pixel and audio fits the game design very well.


Argh, this dwarf be delving deep. Or so I thought but I see that my hi score got smoked.

Good job completing a submission for the compo. I was really enjoying this game and got the hang of it pretty quick. I had to reboot into Windows to play the executable. So it'd be nice if there were a web version. I understand it's a Game Maker subscription issue.

Also I wasn't sure what the bats were doing. Do they take away stamina.

Again great job for a compo submission that was submitted early.

Core gameplay and art is great. Wish there was more of a reason to explore and pick up items.

@jeffez yeah I'm going to add an interation when I have time where you can see the power ups and gems and see if people have more fun with it that way to plan a more strategic route. It felt to easy for me when I could do that so I made them hidden but as everyone knows devs tend to think things are easier then they are. Thanks for the feedback!

@droiddare @justuspan Glad you guys had a great time :) I love to hear that

@johnsensei Thanks for the kind words. Glad you had fun! Yeah unfortunately its a big price point to get webGL exports for GMS. Maybe if I ever upgrade from 1.4 I'll consider getting the export. So I tried to get the bats hit everytime you touched them but they only hit if they walk onto you. I didnt have the time spend fixing that error so if you hit them its fine... if they hit you its ouch stamina :D

@snesgaard Thanks for the feedback! Im going to make the power ups visible as per comments

At first it was hard to understand why i'm losing, but finally i got a lot of fun!

I admit I had difficulty understanding the game at first, but after dying a few times it became quite fun. The art is very well done and its impressive that you managed to add sound and music (for a compo entry). Well done

This was fun, i really had fun, the stamina mechanic is simple yet easy to understand, the game loop is also nice and simple, godd job!

really nicely executed little game! one thing is that i found myself at a bit of a loss sometimes when i would die with >20 stamina by digging through a single dirt block. thought that is only supposed to cost 6? beyond that, the game felt pretty rng-heavy, with some runs having me die within the first few blocks. made it difficulkt to develop a sense of mastery over the game mechanics. overall though awesome job!

This could be a really good game, if the mushrooms and gems weren't hidden behind the rocks. The game could've had some strategic depth that way: decide the best route to pick up most of the stuff and get to the next level; but the way the game is right now, it's very much hit or miss.

Didn't realise the goal was to get to the bottom at first so I kept dying. Once I realised that it's quite fun. I felt that the bats were a bit random.

I have just played another game with a similar concept and I want to repeat here that it suits well on mobile with their swipes. Other than that, I think all part of the game complete each other well. My only complain is the bat because it appears from nowhere and hurts me. Others may say that the game is easy, but I don't think it is an issue as the time of the jam is limited and you may not have some time to balance the game. Nice game!

loved it !

I played a few tries but still not get the idea how to manage the stamina and find gems. I like the idea of mining and going on deeper levels.

@yaroslav-kravtsov sorry you had a hard time understanding what was going on. In the LD version all the gems are hidden and the Stamina is used per dig or if you hit a trap or bat you lose stamina as well. Hope that helps. Thanks for playing

I liked the concept of mining and searching for hidden items. Unfortunately it seems like the best strategy is to just to dig straight down and maybe avoid the odd rock if you are low on stamina (I was able to get to level 53 with 85 gems just by mashing "S"). Still though, I liked the music and art, and I thought it was cool how the game stored your high score. I think this game could be improved by adding extra block types for additional challenge, and by adding some way to see where the items are.

This is a super simple and fun little game. I love the visuals and the music is good. So overall a good compo game. Well done.

That was strangely addicting! I found myself thinking "Okay, c'mon Dwarf, just once more into the breech!" It's a very nice compo!

Graphics is pleasant and the tileset is clear. I really liked the music track, it definitely gave power to my dwarf. If I had one suggestion for improvement, it would be to decrease the role of luck. Right now - especially at the beginning where your dig strength is poor - your fate depends very much on luck. Your stamina allows you to dig practically only in a straight line down. So, if you manage to randomly chose where you start well - you live and advance, if you chose poorly - you find nothing or die. Maybe some higher starting stamina or some dwarven magic that would allow you to detect an approximate direction of treasure/danger like once per level.

Anyway, really impressive piece of solo work! Here is my most valiant effort:


I loved the enviroment and the art of the Game. It has a lot of replayability and a silky music.
Congrats!!

@baconinvader @fabula-rasa Thanks for the feedback! I actually released a newer version that adds a bit more strategy to your choices to prevent the randomness and spamming of down.

@jk5000 @phantom49 I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback!

Very simple, which made it quite addicting, the only issue i had was there was no way to predict where the bats would be. Which made it kinda disappointing when i made it very far and got jumped by a bat. But good submission!

cool game but I don't see the point in the cobblestones falling from above because they only do it in the middle

@arthur-mairs Yeah the bats move about and it makes it a bit unpredictable because you can only see them line of sight. Thanks for the feedback.

@lisichka So the rock in the middle is just a visual. It doesnt hurt you. The actual falling rock icons (skull and crossbones) are where you get hurt. The rock falling is just a visual indicator that you hit one. Hope you had fun other then that confusion. Thanks for playing

Really liked the graphics! Nice job

Man, if I didn't just have the worst possible luck on stream yesterday :)
Great job on the visuals, I hope I can someday get past the 4th floor ;)

It took me a bit to understand what was the goal of the first level. And then same goes for the bat. I suppose they just add to your fatigue. The graphics is cute and the music and sound effects are nice. It would have really helped to have some sort of tutorials as you progressed in the mines.

The art is so awesome. overall the whole game is a very nice concept. Would be mega happy if here comes more of by means of updates. i keep the game in the eye. :)

Nice digging game! After a few tries, I was able to make it down 16 levels and collect 15 gems. I was a little confused as first, since I didn't know if I should move to the growing gem to collect it, but it seems like gems are automatically collected. Maybe having stamina slowly recover over time would help prevent getting "stuck".

Nice game. I liked the graphics, especially the few animations. The music was nice too. It was a bit too simple though, at some point I could just press "down" in repeat and it just worked. But well done overall.

Nice! This is a well-rounded entry with good music, sound, art, and a kind of nicely "crunchy" feeling to the digging. It made gameplay fast and enjoyable.

I managed to get 18 gems, although I pushed my luck a bit at the end and got killed unnecessarily.

At first I thought I was supposed to dig rocks and didn't get any gems for a while. Once I realized gems are also in dirt, I pretty much stuck to dirt and dove down as deep as a I could. My strategy on each level was the same: dig to the bottom the shortest dirt-only path so that I could escape in one turn whenever my stamina got low, and then dig horizontally along the bottom row.

The experience was good but it felt a little too random; I would have appreciated if something about each new screen caused me to change up my strats, like if I could see that some areas were high-reward that I want to get to, or high-risk of bats/caveins etc.

Nice job with your entry!

A good base, but not much depth to the exploration.

I understand and agree with not having things be immediately visible, but being entirely invisible makes them kind of moot as a game mechanic, the optimal strategy seems to just be dig to the bottom and then exhaust the rest of your stamina along the bottom row to maximize dug area. Strategizing around the most stamina-efficient path to reach the bottom is a fun little puzzle though, I would have liked to see more depth to it.

The music works well, manages to set the right mood, and the art of the little miner is just lovely, he looks so worn down by life and yet so cute.

Overall well rounded and smooth feedback on the digging.
Gameplay was enjoyable and the feedback loop well implemnted. I also like that you can decide on how far you want to take things - but sometimes it felt a bit too random to go forward with.

Overall I would love to play it again after you have iterated a bit on things that other commentators had already mentioned!