Falling through the air (as opposed to digging) can cause avalanches. The farther you fall, the higher the cave-in likelihood. Also, it seems like the more horizontal digging you do, whether to reach gems or chests or whatever, the greater the risk. It's still somewhat ambiguous, though. Glad to hear some well-respected TA members are enjoying this! And love the above comparison to Terraria from slamraman.
So I've been playing for about an hour and my main suggestion for an update would be to give the money you collect a greater use than just a high score. Like maybe a portion of the money you collect could persist across attempts and there could a little dwarven shopkeeper at the surface where you could purchase gear for your descent. Also wish you could jump, but that would probably change the whole game Haven't gotten that deep yet, but are there weapons or equipment you can find to kill and defend against monsters, besides simply falling onto them?
Yeah, I wish there was some more persistent stuff. I like the shopkeeper at the surface idea. And you can kill them with your shovel, if you just swipe towards the monster like it's a block and hit it with your shovel, you'll kill it. There are a couple pickups. I've found 4, but only used 3. There are crates containing some of the cooler pick ups that cost money to open. I think it'd be cool if you could upgrade your boots (movement speed), shovel (damage, "attack" rate, and range), helmet (protects you from above), and backpack (increases money earned from each ore). I think those features would make it more fun, but would probably ruin the retro feel and required planning and skill.
The mummies (the game code calls them Spectres) obviously can't be touched when they're embedded in the ground, but become solid when they're in the air. When they're solid you can kill them just like any other monster: fall on their heads, or move into them when both you and they are walking on the ground. The tricky bit is getting close enough to them to hit them when they turn solid, but not so close that they turn solid on top of you, killing you. An advanced strategy is to find or dig an open area of at least 2-high spaceenough space for them to turn solid inbut dig a 1-high space that you can hide in. When the spectre comes close, if it's too close for comfort, hide in the 1-high space and it will float right past (because it's too tall to turn solid in a 1-high space). Then when it turns back and lands on the more open space, run out and "dig" it.
Great ideas, JCho133, and thanks! We're definitely planning more upgrades of boots, maybe a shield, maybe a golden shovel—that sort of thing. That should add more variety as well as equipping players to be able to survive and thrive even deeper than they are now (the best depth on the leaderboards, last I checked, was in the 700s). Quite a few people have mentioned wanting more persistent features in the game, like a shop at the top. I think that would change the feel of the game in unexpected ways, though. Part of the fun now is the immediacy and simplicity of it. You start at the top, you dig as low as you can, you die, you start over. ̇We actually put shops into the game for a while but it just slowed it down and made it oddly less fun. That said, we have considered adding one of two things (what do you think about these?): 1. THE ELEVATOR: Once you dig down past—say—200 meters, you earn an elevator that appears at the top of the world on subsequent games. Move into the elevator and it will instantly skip you down to the 200 meter mark. Later if you can reach, say, 500 meters, the elevator upgrades to take you to that lower point. The motivation behind this feature is that the elevator would keep the game interesting for more experienced players by allowing them to move instantly down to the harder areas if they want to. Presumably there'd be some trade-off here with treasure. Maybe you'd get a free $20,000 for skipping. Or maybe not? Anyway it's an idea, so put on your game designer cap and tell us what you think. 2. CONTINUE: Another approach is that when you die a CONTINUE? prompt appears. As an in-app purchase you can buy packs of continues: say, $.99 for 5 continues. If you have a continue, you can tap "Yes" to keep playing from your current depth. The goal here, again, is to give advanced players the chance to dig deeper if they like. What do you think of those ideas?
not just because I'm tight, Jeff, but continues would spoil the 'purity' of it. I think it's a fantastic high scorer simple game that actually has a lot of gameplay depth underneath the surface of the game. It would also mean that people could pay-to-win which again, even if it doesn't happen, would put me off it in principle. Don't forget Metalcasket's question above though on the Android port.
I really hope you don't add continues. One of the reasons I was drawn to this was because it was IAP-free, just pure arcade-y fun. slamraman expressed the same concerns I'd have if you added that kind of IAP element I like the elevator idea a lot
Maybe have a "hardcore mode" (the current mode with no upgrades nor continues) and a "casual mode" (or another better name) with upgrades and continues so you can get people to keep paying. Have separate leaderboards for each mode. Otherwise, the other suggestions sounds good.
Yeah revive nag timers really ruin games. Just is a sign a game will go freemium. A hardcore mode would be awesome though!
I believe mine elevators would be good for experienced achievers, but IAPs?! That's just chasing gold... and you're likely to have a cave-in right here on the forums! Don't...do...it...!
Really loving this game. Other people have said of maybe adding an in-game shop, maybe the money you collect while playing is the actual money you earn for the shop? (This has probably been mentioned before) Please don't add a second life while playing. Also a way to compare scores would be nice (gamecenter?)
Wait a minute...the app description leads one to believe there are leaderboards. Can anyone clear this up?
Yep, thanks, just read the full TA review and it stated this as well...also convinced me to drop the two buck for the game
