This has the foundation to be a great game, and I am commenting because I feel like it is worth giving feedback because I want this to succeed, but with the first 90 minutes under my belt, it started to already feel tedious.
Things I appreciated: not dying if I misclicked the dig instead of the flag. I did that a lot.
The numbers were not quite visible enough on certain tiles, especially the grass, when they are the same color. (The menu options help, but I would def change the default 4 color to be unalike 1) It’s mostly the fat font rather than the colors.
The upgrades don’t really feel like they do anything except for the dig out completed numbers one and inventory expansion.
I found maybe 2 jars with the first archeologist upgrade and the contents are worth 10 bucks when you paid hundreds. I then upgraded it to max, and I’ve found maybe 7 jars with max 80 dollars of value between them. There should be a complete rebalance there. (Finding exactly one rail in a jar is just silly. It’s worth 1 gold.)
I never got to the point of where I felt like building tracks because if I die none of it carries over. I did eventually buy them to try them, and having them drop in your path where you walk would be an easier way of deploying them.
I would appreciate a single use defusing kit to remove one mine, so I could clear paths.
It is not immediately obvious how to unlock chests and I assume if I fail I die, so I didn’t bother because I would rather keep my progress. I’m not sure if pickaxe hardness lets you break them because a later chest simply opened. If it was, the upgrade was again not worth the gold to get it.
There’s not enough visible environmental goals, environmental variation, and “random encounters”. I found the tiny house biome, I found the exit, I found some mining gates, I found water, but you maybe only find one per 45 minutes of play and that’s too infrequent. Examples would be:
Differently-colored blocks you can’t dig through unless you have an upgrade,
Dungeons of impassible blocks with an open side so you have to approach from the right direction,
Funny mine clumps and shapes. Meaningful mine shapes like arrows pointing to hidden goodies or an X marks the spot.
Other miners’ railroad segments that are usable.
high density of mine areas indicated by different colored soil with high rewards vs low density of mines area which are mostly good for establishing tunnel networks.
Cursed areas where mine numbers are question marks with a core that must be destroyed to reveal the numbers - maybe requiring a purchasable candle to reveal the numbers in a small radius to search for it.
Other miners maybe and more silly notes.
Treasure maps that mark an x on the overworld where loot is.
Incentive to visit biomes so upgrades are unlocked with the right materials as opposed to everything is money.
A save from death upgrade would change the dynamic so I would be a lot more invested in building out a world. You just have to make it expensive enough to hurt. Drop the price of the upgrades, and sock it to the player if they want mine safety.
Edit: adding that my two high scores were 13770 and 9700ish, so I did quite a bit of exploring.