Very interesting idea! Quite unique for the jam. The one this is I found it frustrating to navigate my own messy mine haha but maybe that's my fault? Also I don't know if it's a good idea to have the player lose all money upon death because they've probably dug deep by then but then and won't have access to ladders. Perhaps I am missing something but how is the theme tied in exactly?
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Thank you for playing! The messy mine paths are definitely part of the challenge. The ladders were an attempt to facilitate getting back up but they are not very intuitive to use.
The plan was for the player to die somewhere down there, immediately go back down to the same spot (collecting your previous money) and try to get back up for tools (even if it cost you multiple tries to get back up). You can pickup the money the deceased miner had so in my mind both the tunnels you dig and the money you collect can be used by future miners, making death ("losing") actually a viable way of exploring the mines.
There were some more features that would reinforce the theme for once you got to the bottom of the mine but time ran out :)