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[SolarLune]

Wow, what if the competitive digger got the treasure first and you had to hit him to knock the treasure out of his hands, AS WELL as escape? That would be pretty hectic. :D

[James Rossi]

Have you ever played Motherload? The games feel really similar. Motherload is not quite as polished as I recall when I first played it years back, but there is much to be learned from it.

[Ashking]

Just tried the new version and after digging into a red circle there was an explosion and now I'm stuck in the floor digging and nothing is occuring.

Maybe adding a competitive digger would increase the tension by making you have to rush and plan your trip down to the treasure before they get there. Or keeping the timer but making it a countdown before the planet explodes would also help increase the tension because you have to make it down and still have enough time to go back up before the time runs out and the planet explodes. Also like the lava suggestion people have made.

The explosion probably killed the last of your batteries.

A competitive digger? Aw man, please don't make me code AI for this game :c I agree that there needs to be some kind of tension- energy was the original idea for that, but I guess it's not working...
As I see it, these are the ways to increase tension:

• A timer
• Competition
• Growing threat

I'll have to think this over for a while.

Have you ever played Motherload? The games feel really similar. Motherload is not quite as polished as I recall when I first played it years back, but there is much to be learned from it.

I've played Motherload. It's not really an inspiration or anything for me, but maybe it's subconsciously affecting this game- after all, there's only so much you can do with digging games.

[johnki]

Here's the way I see the competitive digger thing:

It begs asking for a multiplayer mode.

Energy does add a bit of tension, but if you dig straight down, fly straight up, you average 3 bars left, and if you don't do that, there's like no way to survive without intentionally detouring a LOT to get more energy, which I get is the point, but again, if you can just dig straight down, fly straight up, why bother taking the longer route?

Not sure how a timer would fit in a way that the energy doesn't really fit right now. The energy is pretty much a replenish-able timer. Maybe gold medal runs?

Growing threat is really the only thing I can see that would really make sense out of that list.

[Ashking]

You have no idea how much I want a multiplayer mode.

Back to reality, though: my biggest obstacle is stopping the player from going straight down. I tried to stop it by making it boring digging that much, then by making it expend energy. Neither strategy worked. So I've got to make impenetrable obstacles that you have to dig around- usually spanning the width of the level with only one or two ways around. I've also got to make some hazardous, closed-off caverns- filled with what, I don't know. Basically, in a tower-climbing platformer, gravity is the obstacle keeping the player from progressing. So I've got to come up with some similar obstacles that will make you think and strategise...

[johnki]

...I tried to stop it by making it boring digging that much...

I might be missing something, but I don't quite see how. When there's nothing to explore before reaching the bottom (barring slightly more gold/energy, but realistically, the amount of time you have based on your energy to explore all that is kinda low), then digging down and straight up again is the least boring route, arguably. One way or another, at the end, you'll be trying to fly straight back up. It's the fastest way out. Digging down is just doing that in reverse.

Obstacles will go a long way in fixing that. Making it so it's not such a straight back and forth road, and making it a bit more challenging to get back up in the end. But they don't cure the feeling that there should be more to explore.

EDIT: Wait, you wanted to make it sort of like a tower-climbing platformer, only both ways? Maybe I've got an odd viewpoint then. >.>

[kinoko]

Why is it that I can't play your game through that link in the first post? It loads a start screen but it makes my entire computer laggy (I'm on a MAC OS X 10.6) and the cursor within the game screen lags by about 15 seconds and I can't click anything in the screen.
Is it just not meant to be played at the moment?

The game just sounds cool (I liked Motherload) and I wanted to help critique the gameplay like others here but for obvious reasons.... that is difficult.

[Ashking]

I have absolutely no idea why it's not working, sorry.

[eigenbom]

works fine on mac for me, with chrome

[johnki]

Windows 7 + Chrome is fine, as well.

[peanutbuttershoes]

this game would be super awesome with some zany fun mining space music and more sound effects.

so fun bro.

[Ashking]

Can you provide some examples of what 'zany fun mining space music' would be like? Youtube clips or something? I'm still trying to nail down a style for the music.
I haven't worked on this in the past few days, but I'll try to get back up to speed tomorrow. I've stripped the game down to its core, so the hunt for the sauce begins.

[johnki]

I still want the hidden temple of aliens that latch on to your craft and until you slam into a wall to knock them off, but I realize that may be asking a bit much (is it? I dunno what your overall goal is in terms of AI).

So instead, I'll offer this:

1. Ditch the energy constantly draining thing. It is less of a "pressure" and more of an annoyance that really does encourage in and out operations, rather than profit maximization.

2. Make it so that you start with a relatively high amount of debt and every time you die, you add to that debt. Make it so that you have to maximize profits to really "complete" the game.

3. Lots and lots of obstacles. Mines, left-over bombs from a past generation, volcanoes, whatever it takes. Just make it hard to maximize profits, easy to go for the minimal goal (side-note: Make it so that the starting debt is one or two steps up from the minimal goal. Not too high, but not too low either).

That's all I can think of right now. Hopefully you'll get more opinions than just mine.

[peanutbuttershoes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6RfsbkP6

this comes to mind. sam and max hit the road had some good stuff that was in my head while playing this too.

[johnki]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6RfsbkP6

this comes to mind. sam and max hit the road had some good stuff that was in my head while playing this too.

The URL contained a malformed video ID.
Sorry about that.