| Quick Verdict: If you want to spend time digging a hole, then this is the game for you! You work on an upgrade system where you sell the things you find and buy better equipment to dig some more. It’s a simple premise, but it’s a fun way to toil away some time. |
| Game: | A Game About Digging A Hole |
| Developer(s): | Cyberwave |
| Publisher: | rokaplay Bou·tique, Drillhounds, and Rokaplay GmbH |
| Review Score: | 9 |
| Cozy Score: | 9 |
| Price: | $4.99 |
| Pros: | The name is a game title and summary all rolled into one; efficient. While the gameplay is simple, it’s done well. I didn’t run into any bugs and it’s rewarding to up the capacity of your shovel. There is a little graphic that opens up across the door to let you know if you haven’t saved in 30 minutes. |
| Cons: | Digging can be a bit tedious at first and if you have some issues with claustrophobia, you may want to skip this one. I got myself stuck in a dark hole and couldn’t figure out where I was, which was a bit distressing. Don’t forget those lamps. |
| Platforms: | Steam |
| Genres: | …digging? Simulator |
A Game About Digging A Hole is exactly what you’d expect it to be. It’s a game about digging a hole. You’ll start with basic equipment when you begin, but as you find ores and stones in your backyard, you’ll be able to sell them for money that you can use to upgrade your equipment to dig bigger holes.
A Game About Digging A Hole; short, sweet, and to the point
You play as someone who notices an advertisement about a house for sale, but it’s not the amount of bathrooms inside that hooks you into buying the property. No, it’s the promise that there is treasure buried in the backyard and wouldn’t you know it? There’s even an ‘X’ that marks the spot.
Thankfully, we don’t have to go through all the legal proceedings in acquiring the house and the game starts with us ready to get our hands – or shovel, rather – dirty. We start with the most basic equipment, which seems fair since we just bought a house. I will say, though, that your shovel comes with detection that will go off when you come close to items that aren’t regular ores.
There are two main areas to A Game About Digging A Hole, our garage and the backyard which will soon be a cavernous hole. Inside the garage is where we’ll do our upgrades, sell our ore, and save our game.
In the upgrade menu, you’ll be able to enhance your shovel, inventory, battery, and jet pack. Yup, a jetpack. In this menu, you’ll be able to purchase dynamites and lamps, refill your health, and refill your battery.
Luckily, you already own most of this stuff, but you will have to purchase the jet pack in order to upgrade it. And, as for the dynamite and lamps, those are consumed. The dynamite will make a small dent, but when I used it, I felt that it wasn’t really worth the expense early on. Later, once you have more cash flow, they may be invaluable. As for the lamp, once you put it down, you can’t pick it back up. So, be sure of where you want to place it before you do.
This is where I have to caution those who may have discomfort with feeling enclosed, especially if you get caught without a lamp. There are pockets of open air that you can dig into and I managed to get myself turned around because one pocket led to another. I spun around in place in total darkness and it felt impossible to find the exit. Always keep a lamp handy.
Where is Galadriel with a phial when you need her?
Back to our upgrades, though, the shovel will get larger and allow you to dig up a wider surface area. The inventory will have more slots to hold ores, the battery will get a longer charge, and the jet pack will have more strength, so you’ll be propelled up faster.
As you upgrade your battery, it’ll cost more to charge it and it powers both your jet pack and your shovel.
Once you start digging, you’ll find all manner of ore that all have different values. Along with that, you may find special items like a case full of money or a random key that may go to something. Just be sure to pay attention to your inventory, if you keep hitting at ore after your inventory is full, you’ll break the ore and lose it.
While I’m not going to spoil anything for you, I will say that there is more down there than just ores. You’ll have to dig for yourself to find out what mysteries lay beneath the dirt.
Admittedly, it can feel a bit tedious at first, but you don’t have to be as careful as I was. Dig straight down if you’d like. The game will tell you that if your battery falls to zero, it will explode. But, it just pops you back up at the top and you lose your ores and some health. So, you don’t have to worry about getting stuck.
Just buy back your health and jump back in. Be careful, though, as there is fall damage.
And, one last thing that I found helpful is that the doorway from your garage leading out to the backyard will have a sign pop up across it to remind you that you haven’t saved in 30 minutes if you… well, haven’t saved in 30 minutes.
That’s it, that’s A Game About Digging A Hole. If you want to play the game, grab your shovel and head on over to Steam where you can get it for $4.99. If you don’t have Dwarven blood running through your veins, then you can check out a different game we did a review on; Mika and the Witch’s Mountain.
[…] The cities are dealt with in waves of customers. In the beginning, most of your customers will prefer the smaller rooms, but after each wave, their demand for the more expensive, more wonky-shaped rooms increases. So, I had this idea that I would get rid of three single rooms in a row and install one of the rooms that takes up three spaces.I had an abundance of single rooms from trying to get things built and customers were backing up asking for this particular room shape. By this point, I had built up to floor 20 and this was floor 4 that I wanted to adjust.Unfortunately, I couldn’t demolish those rooms to slot this in, despite being told I could change out rooms by the tutorial, because those rooms were required to make other rooms function. You cannot change things that aren’t on the top level. Not without tearing all the way down from the top.I get infrastructure, but why even offer it? This game relies on sporadic building and then seems to punish you for it.It’s in early access, so they are actively making changes and listening to feedback. So, while the game is on a shaky foundation at the moment, I think there’s some serious potential here for puzzle and management game lovers.In my opinion, this game either needs more forgiving room shapes or a bit more balancing with funds. Either way, I look forward to seeing how the game progresses and I’m optimistic that, by full release, it’ll be a sturdier, more solid game.If you want to give Check Inn a try, you can get it on Steam for $11.99. Otherwise, you can check out one of our other reviews; A Game About Digging A Hole. […]