Mining mini-game criticism and feedback

[Nate]

Hey all,

I'm currently developing a virtual pet site, and today decided to revisit one of the games I started a while back (but never finished). I scrapped the old code and re-wrote from the ground up in the last few hours.

The idea behind the game is that you are "Mining" for treasure, so I've created the terrain generation when you first open it, followed by the ability to "hammer" and "chisel" into the rock. If you have ever played the "underground" mining in Pokemon Gen 4, then you will know what this is based from.

For now, it is simply 4 layers of brown that get darker the more tougher it is, however before release I'll likely add images for the tiles instead.

The player has 2 tools at their disposal, but I've coded it so that it could have more in the future - maybe a drill for the hard rock, or a brush for the light rock.

I'm thinking there could be an "energy" bar that depletes each time you hit, and the game is over once the energy bar is empty. The Hammer reveals more and digs deeper into the rock, however would use more energy than the chisel, which doesnt dig as deep. The player would need to decide which would be better to use.

At the moment there is no "win" scenario, however I'm going to have it show a greyscale version of reward items that get revealed, and if the player manages to reveal the entire item before their energy is depleted, the item switches out into it's coloured version to imply "you have found this". The player can then continue looking for other items before their energy is all gone.

I've recorded a minute video of it so far to demonstrate the mechanics of it, I was wondering if anyone had any better ideas or suggestions?

PS. Sorry for the bad quality.. YouTube doesn't like this video because I haven't ran it through Adobe Premier before uploading.
 

 

 

 

[Tmra]

I think you could either go one of two ways with this. You could add in an energy bar or something equivalent like turns/uses, or you could make the minigame into a 'daily' activity. Which means there wouldn't necessarily be a usage limit it's just players would do it until they receive an item (maybe from X available) and it could only be done once a day.

I do agree that more tools would be better / interesting. Maybe linking the type of tools to whatever can be found. And maybe with the hammer being brute force, if used on a lower terrain (not deep) the possibility of the player receiving junk/scrap. As if the hammer damaged whatever they had initially found (also promoting more dialogue or something).

I have no complaint with the mechanics of the game. I like the concept, in terms of terrain formation, yeah, it may be better to have set tiles but for now as placeholder images it still brings the point across.

Edit; alternatively you could make the game into some kind of event like digging for clues (or a hidden URL) to receive a certain reward.

Edited May 19, 2017 by Tmra

[Nate]

Hi @Tmra

I read your post when you first posted it and took some time to consider your input, and wanted to share what route I've decided to go down and been working towards coding today:

- The area takes place in an abandoned Quarry where there is plenty of places to dig. There is an NPC where you can get a free random tool per day (on the rare occasion he may give you 2), however you may also purchase as many tools from him as you like using Gold (the onsite currency).
- You have a "Tool Belt" which starts of with 2 slots which you must fill before you can dig. Tool belt can be upgraded to support more tools later on.
- Once you click to "Let's Dig!", you are shown 3 potential "rock patches" and you can decide which once you want to dig.
- Each wall has a "Damage Threshold" of 100%, the different tools add different values onto that threshold.
- Digging reveals Pearls, Gems, Rubies, Gold Treasure, Trinkets etc. Each item discovered takes up one slot in the user's bucket.

Each "dig" ends when one of these 2 criteria are met:
- The user's bucket is full or
- The damage threshold reaches 100%.

When a dig is over, there is a 50% chance once of the tools you have used will be broken. Any loot items in your bucket are then added to your backpack, and you are free to dig again if your toolbelt has at least 2 tools in it.

Tools list:

- Wooden Bucket - Can store up to 2 pieces of Loot while digging. Can be used 5 times before breaking.
- Plastic Bucket - Can store up to 4 pieces of Loot while digging. Can be used 10 times before breaking.
- Steel Bucket - Can store up to 6 pieces of Loot while digging. Can be used 20 times before breaking.

- Brush - This will only remove layer 1 in a criss-cross pattern, however only adds 1% to the Damage each use.
- Hammer - This can smash through many layers of rock, but adds 8% to the damage
- Chisel - This can knock through all levels of rock, but is very concentrated and doesnt do a large Area of Effect. Adds 3% damage.

Tools I'm considering adding:
- Trowel - Removes 1 layer of rock regardless of level in a diamond shape. Adds 4% damage.
- Shovel - Removes a 3x3 square of all layers, but adds 12% onto the damage.
- Pickaxe - Removes a small diamond shape form all layers, but adds 10% onto the damage.
- Surveyor - Electrical Device that scans the rock and shows marks where items can be found. Can only be used once per dig, and doubles all damage % from other tools for this dig.
 

 

As for the loot items you get from digging, I've set them up to have specific rarities, so for example, a single Diamond wont appear in anyone's digging patch until collectively all players have mined 50 Rubies, etc. This isnt something the players will be conscious of, however by doing this method it ensures we can force different loot items to be rarer than others etc.

 

As for loot usage, there will be another NPC which will accept them in exchange for Rare items, for example you might trade in 50 x Rubies for a Ruby Sword, or 150 Golden Cups for an Avatar Item etc.


The reason I've gone down this route, is because it makes it a little more interesting, and tools, buckets and loot items can then all be traded amongst players themselves.

[Digital]

I love the idea and concept you have gone with @Nate!

[Nate]

4 hours ago, Digital said:

I love the idea and concept you have gone with @Nate!

Thanks man, really appreciate it :-)

ill maybe post another video later this week to show it in action haha :-)

[Tmra]

@Nate

I really love the further development and approach you have taken to the idea.

My only question is regarding;

On 5/20/2017 at 1:24 AM, Nate said:

a single Diamond wont appear in anyone's digging patch until collectively all players have mined 50 Rubies, etc

What constitutes 'all' players? Do you mean site-wide or just from a multiplayer perspective (I.e groups of eight, or something), and if it is assorted into groups - how is that generated. I'm just wondering if inactive players will have a certain imbalance to the ability of finding rare items.

Overall, love the further development and looking forward to a possible future video!

 

Edited May 23, 2017 by Tmra

[Nate]

Hey @Tmra ,

Yeah by all players I meant it as a collective total. When 50 rubies have been mined (regardless of the number of users involved - it could be all by one person!), that is when 1 diamond will randomly spawn for a random user that is playing

[Tmra]

Thank you for the clarification @Nate I really like this idea.

[Nate]

So thought I would post up a sneak peek at the Map Image I have put together in photoshop for the Quarry... 

Obviously I'm kidding - this isnt the final image. I've thrown this together as a placeholder until I find someone who can replace it haha, and thought it was worth sharing

The Quarry/Mining feature is coming along really nicely, hopefully I'll get another preview up this week

 

[Bedfire]

This is great, I really dig the direction you went with this.

[Nate]

1 hour ago, Bedfire said:

This is great, I really dig the direction you went with this.

Haha I see what you did there!

 

and thanks :-)