Review of/feedback for demo

[Monkius]

This game reminds me of ye olde mining games on the internet, circa 2005. Utopian Mining and Motherload [sic] mainly.

I like that you can't damage your rig from falling or lose a resource if your cargo is full like in Motherload. What was good about Motherload though, is that you could sell (or drop) individual items from your inventory, instead of selling them all at once. This would be helpful for the "$10k payday" quest in this game, which I only managed to complete on my second pass through the game.

The control layout and UI are fairly intuitive and explained succinctly. However:

- Being able to click and hold would be nice for "extend pipe down" vs. spam clicking 76 times.

- Shop items could use descriptions - "bomb" is pretty self-evident, but could still specify area cleared. Also, I dunno what the booster is boosting, exactly.

- Perhaps "F" shouldn't be shared by both "interact" and "use power-up," or power-ups should be disabled above-ground. I have accidentally used a handful of cheaper/found power-ups I don't care that much about above-ground, but it would be worse if I used something that was expensive.

But yeah, in spite of these minor gripes, I have played the demo for 3.2 hours so far. I will definitely snap this one up on launch day, especially if you stick to the price of 2.99

Great work, homie(s).

[Delayed Victory]

Hey Monkius! Thank you for taking the time to give me your feedback. I can totally understand where you're coming from with your feedback, so this is very valuable! The game is indeed heavily inspired by Motherload. I loved that game as a kid and figured I'd make my own digging game :)

There's indeed no way to fail or die in Mining Mechs. My idea is that this makes it a more relaxing and chill experience which is just focused on satisfyingly digging (with friends). However, this also means the only challenge of the game is in the path you dig and how to get to certain resources. It also means that the only reason to go back up would be because your inventory is full. If you could drop stuff you could simply keep dropping everything and dig down endlessly, which breaks the gameplay loop. If you want to keep digging - you'll have to upgrade your inventory instead.

To complete the 10k payday quest you need to think carefully if you want to pick up the lower value resources (and the worthless trash like boots and gloves) that will fill up your inventory. This also makes the 10k payday quest a challenge. I think it would take out the fun if I can just keep a treasure chest in my inventory and sell the rest until I find another one, and complete the quest that way. Also - in the full game when you reach the valuable resources at the lower depths and your inventory is level 4, you'll be able to get it more easily.

Regarding your other points:
-Totally agreed, spam clicking pipes is indeed not fun. If you hold shift while buying pipes you'll actually buy 5 at a time, but this is not explained so you couldn't have known. I will make sure to mention this somewhere in the UI for the full game.

-Shop item names are indeed vague. Since there's only 6 I had hoped people would just buy or find them and figure it out - which I though would be fun. Most people tend not to read descriptions or tutorials anyways. It's valuable feedback to hear that this wasn't fun for you though. I'll see what I can do to improve this!

-Great point, absolutely agree. I'll do exactly as you suggested and lock the item use above the surface.

I'm really amazed and flattered you played this demo for 3.2 hours! The full game will cost even less than 2.99 since there will be a launch discount too. Don't forget to wishlist the game to be notified of the release on October 27th :)

Thanks again for playing and for the feedback!

[Monkius]

What I did for $10K Payday the first time around was:
- mine all of the expensive resources
- discover the boss guy had quests
- maxed inventory size on most expensive rig
- tried to collect the most expensive remaining ones (mostly silvers)
- still failed the quest

So, it's not really to do with thinking carefully. It wasn't obvious enough that I could go to the boss guy for quests (or it was obvious enough and I just forgot again while haplessly digging around underground.) I acknowledge that in the full game, you'll be able to find $10K worth of stuff just naturally, further down; so in that respect my point is completely moot. It might make the demo less frustrating for normies, though (especially if you plan on leaving the demo there to entice potential buyers, post-Next Fest...) Also, I don't care about being able to drop stuff, I just mentioned it parenthetically because one can do it in Motherload.

And yup, already wishlisted!

[Delayed Victory]

Good points. During playtesting I also noticed people forgot about the quest-man, that's why I put him right inbetween the dump and the buyer.

I'm going to add an exclamation mark over his head whenever he has a new quest available. This way you can't miss it!

I was also thinking about adding his face as an icon next to your money or below your coordinates, so you can always click on him to view the active quests. Perhaps having that icon on screen will remind people.

Again thanks for the feedback. I'll see if I can remove the quest from the demo or make some changes for that one to be less frustrating! :)

[Monkius]

Those both sound like good ideas

No problemo for the feedback; I hope people help me when I make my first game, as well.

[Shamiah]

I think being able to click the quest guy's face to get active quests would be great. That way you know what quests you are doing. The exclamation mark would also be a good addition.

Not sure how many quests are in the game but more is better. Not sure if there is a story but you can add quests to tell it. Plus more quests give goals that can help give you something to do besides mining.

It's fun just digging and I agree it's relaxing. I do like the fact you can't die. Not every game has to be hard. I hated how in Motherload you died from falling. As others have said this reminds me of that game. Used to play that quite a bit.

A few suggestions:

A way to zoom out the level to see what areas you haven't dug and see the pathways. Doesn't have to show the minerals or what not. Just to see where you haven't been. I guess no knowing could be part of the game play.

Assign other cash values to trash besides $1. For example I got a Ring and I think a Watch. I thought it would be worth more money. Nope it's the same as any trash. That didn't make sense. It also means there is no reason to pick up the trash. It might be cool to give it a random amount like $1-$25 or something. Rings and watches and stuff should have $ values.

Do you have any plans to expand it after launch? Will be buying this for sure. The only negative I see is the lack of quests. I have only played about 1 hour in the demo so maybe there is lots I haven't seen yet. Good luck with the launch.

[Delayed Victory]

Thank you for playing and for your feedback Shamiah! Glad to hear you're having a good time digging around not worrying about dying :)

I've already pushed an update adding the exclamation mark on top of the quest giver. I've also put exclamation marks on the quest buttons of unread quests, so you always know which ones are new.

Good question regarding pathways. There used to be a zoom-out feature in the game but it was removed because it ruined the fun. Not knowing what's ahead is part of the fun. I've considered adding a mini map that only shows your tunnels, but I think that'd be very confusing to a lot of players as it would be a map that doesn't really show the map. Instead I chose to go with coordinates and arrows pointing towards your online friends when you press tab.

I think your question about the trash is a misunderstanding as there's no trash that looks valuable. If you've picked up a ring, that'll be jewelry worth $720. You can recognize trash by the fact that they look mostly colorless and they don't spark. If you see a bright colored sparkly resource, it'll always hold value!

Please keep in mind that the demo is intentially kept very limited. The full game will feature a map that's 10x bigger, as well as extra quests, new mechs to unlock and 75+ Steam achievements to unlock. And of course - if the game does well I'll definitely expand this even further!

[Shamiah]

Thanks for the detailed response. I must have been mistaken and I thought the trash art looked valuable. Could have sworn there was a Watch in the game.

Too bad about the zoomed out map or mini map. I do get your point about it ruining part of the fun. If the release map is x10 the size it would be even more useful. Oh well.

Happy about the achievements. They always make the game more fun for me. Trying to get all of them. I know some people don't like them but I think all Steam games should require them.

Another idea I had was to put some monsters in the mines. Then add a weapon slot to the mechs. Of course you can upgrade. Then there would be some danger in trying to get the resources. Guessing too late to add anything that complex now.

[Delayed Victory]

Perhaps if more players request a map I'll reconsider my decision. I'm not developing the game for myself after all :)

Regarding mines and monsters - this was actually an early idea but eventually I've decided to focus on making a chill and satisfying gameplay experience. Part of the chill experience is the fact that you cannot lose or die. Just dig with friends or alone and have a stress free time. Sadly Monsters don't fit this vision, so that's not in the planning right now. Definitely not a bad idea though - it's something I've explored for sure!

[Stahlfrau]

NGL, I did the 10k payday by just ignoring the end of demo message and continuing to dig down. Eventually you'll find plenty of big gemstones, more than enough to get over 10k a pop. On that note, if anyone else is curious about how deep you can get - I tapped out at 600, and the last main quest update was at 500.

[Delayed Victory]

Originally posted by done girl:

NGL, I did the 10k payday by just ignoring the end of demo message and continuing to dig down. Eventually you'll find plenty of big gemstones, more than enough to get over 10k a pop. On that note, if anyone else is curious about how deep you can get - I tapped out at 600, and the last main quest update was at 500.

If through a bug you were able to keep playing beyond the demo limit, please keep in mind that a lot of the full game content is stripped from the demo version. The full versions last main quest won't be at 500.

[Stahlfrau]

Originally posted by Delayed Victory:

Originally posted by done girl:

NGL, I did the 10k payday by just ignoring the end of demo message and continuing to dig down. Eventually you'll find plenty of big gemstones, more than enough to get over 10k a pop. On that note, if anyone else is curious about how deep you can get - I tapped out at 600, and the last main quest update was at 500.

If through a bug you were able to keep playing beyond the demo limit, please keep in mind that a lot of the full game content is stripped from the demo version. The full versions last main quest won't be at 500.

Oh, I don't doubt it. Just found it interesting to be able to have a sneak peek. Not sure how I bypassed the barrier, if there even is one. Just kept digging after getting the 100m dialogue, and noticed that I could still dig despite what the toad said about the demo being over. Maybe I stumbled onto an empty space that happened to generate at 100m, don't remember.