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I'd just like to announce the Alpha/Demo version of my new game coming out some time before December! Here's the story from the beginning...

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Episode 1 : Dig Deep

Dig is a freelance space miner who travels out to asteroid systems to mine for rare ores; Long gone are the days of using a pick - their ships are now equipped with refined lasers that can search and recover ores from the comfort of space.

After a routine mission; Dig jumps into his hyper-sleep chamber and sets a course for home! During the trip the ship encounters a large asteroid field; the ship's auto pilot tries it's best to navigate the field but is unsuccessful and the ship is hit; To make matters worse the ship's computer fails to log the incident and continues it's plotted course while precious fuel begins leaking into the voids of space!

As the fuel reserves approach empty the ship's safety systems kick in and start searching the nearby star systems for planets that may contain fuel; Luckily a planet is found and a new course is plotted towards the planet!

The ship initiates the emergency wake up procedure to awake dig from his hyper-sleep but unfortunately he's awoken too quickly and looses his memory. The ship crash lands on the planet while Dig scrambles to his feet with no idea who or where he is! During the crash the ship is badly damaged with a simple message flashing on the ships' terminal: "Find Oil";

From here on you take Dig on his adventure towards the oil deep beneath the planet's surface through earthquakes, floods, lava flows and the dangerous critters that live below!

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You can play the free demo over at: http://dig.widgisoft.co.uk/
The alpha version doesn't do much extra yet but I wanted to get the payment system up and running now so I can avoid distracting myself from the game later! Remember this is an alpha so constructive criticism is welcome :-D

Here's a shot of the real time lighting system that I've been working on; Just got to add in flickering torches and I think it'll start looking a bit different to Miner dig deep! :-P
(http://dig.widgisoft.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Screen-shot-2010-10-11-at-23.13.50.png)

Thanks,
Chris

Might I ask who you are?

Also please post within this thread: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=45.0 before advertising on this forum again.

Ooops; my bad - As you can see from the time stamp on the post it was getting rather late! I must have missed it; Anyway - I'll go over and post my introduction in the thread you mentioned at some point before the end of the weekend until then my name is Chris; I hail from Barnsley (Originally from Sheffield) in the UK; I work full time as a "software developer" (iPhone, .NET, php, c++,as3) at an e-learning company in Sheffield; I've started my own company and am looking to take on software development on my own in the form of contracting and either selling services or creating games! (I'd much prefer the later but we'll see how it goes first :-p).

I've been programming/scripting since I was 12; I started a little too young trying to learn C for the Net Yaroze (PSOne) and ended up spending a much longer time playing with Multimedia fusion instead writing scripting engines and tile engines to avoid the limits of the click tools; I then moved into C/C++ for a few years playing with various things but not really moving forward and then all of a sudden in the last couple of years or so a light bulb popped into my head and I started learning as3 and getting into online games - Having seen how easy it is to play; No download, no installation, no updates I couldn't believe I'd stayed away for so long! I see things like Minecraft and the amount of fame Noch gets and want a slice of the action! hehe.

Anyway; I'll post more details later hopefully the above makes me a little less of a stranger for the time being!

I also just noticed there's a feedback forum; I'll remember to post there next time (unless it's possible to move this thread?)

Many thanks,
Chris

Currently a carbon copy of Miner Dig Deep on XBLIG.  I enjoy Miner Dig Deep, and so this is not bad (Though it feels a bit slower).  I didn't end up playing far but I'm curious how it differentiates itself from Mine Dig Deep.  I couldn't get below 50m, because I couldn't recharge my lamp, but I didn't see anything at that point.  There is a fine line between copying and inspiration, and this one currently feels like copying until it has something to make it different from Miner Dig Deep.  (even the interface looks the same)

The reason I didn't end up playing far is that I felt it moved very slow.  I found a silver ore very early on (musta been layer 2 or 3) and it took me 20 or so hits to break it.  I also found Moving while digging to be somewhat difficult as I always seemed to get one extra hit in and had to wait for the animation after clearing each block.  The pacing and control could use tightening.