I came in with the mindset of, oh great a game about digging around for big numbers. Looked at the control schemes, hooray for controller support, but didn't feel like parsing it without any actual game context, so off to start 'er up we went. I crushed myself and exploded myself a number of times testing out the controls. Input immediately on restart and exited through the door we start directly on top of, to then select continue which makes sense as a try again option, to then be told hey buddy $0 isn't enough money, you suck, you lose. Back to title screen. We gotta sit through the intro cutscene again... Hilariously I did that like two more times I think. Finally we are back in the game and we can move before we accidentally exit again like an idiot. Digging horizontally leads to a death I don't fully understand yet, so down we go. Okay, so we can dig down and a tiny bit to the side to find some worthless garbage. Oh hey this worthless garbage is taking up a lot of space in my newly found grid-based inventory. I believe I got crushed to death with ~$30 worth of trash in my pockets. I opened up the ratings page and started thinking about how I might approach rating each category. Somewhere a second wind came about to try playing again. Peeking at the controls more I noticed, mapped to a button that doesn't even exist on a Game Boy, is an action so darn important to the gameplay. Finally I had completed the tutorial.
I like the short timer. It gives a nice sense of urgency and tension to digging around. The cheap junk that lures the player to dig around at shallow depths seems like a despicable distraction, but maybe I noticed some of the smaller stuff can stack? I suppose that can add up and become significant. Some of the items having visual effects was a bit jarring at first, but seem like an interesting trade-off for expensive finds. Being able to pickup beams at first seems like a generous design, but presents such a high tension decision.
I think I got to $80 at most. Had fun during and after play. Great work, keep it up!