Hello all!
As you know, Goldmine has been removed from Steam because the communist Chinese review bombed it and complained to Valve to get it banned. It's ok, they aren't the true China - Taiwan is. Anyway, the debacle worked out better than expected. I am now taking time to rewrite it from scratch, add new features, rebalance, and re-pace the whole thing. Once I'm done it will be released on itch.io where I will continue to donate 100% of all proceeds to Ukraine. Unlike Valve's 30%, itch.io only takes 10% of developers' earnings, so more of the purchasers' money will go directly to charity!
If you want to playtest the upcoming version 2, let me know! I started a Discord channel where you'll be able to download and test the latest builds as well as provide feedback on features, pacing, etc., to help me make it more fun!
Here's an incomplete list of changes so far:
A significant rewrite of the codebase
The endgame Dragonsweeper (minesweeper) is removed and is now a standalone free game
Game menu
There is now a new game menu displayed pre-game
The menu can be accessed from the game via the Esc button (in addition to cog)
Players can now save the game
Players can now load saved games
Worker info tooltip shows crit chance and crit multiplier
Crits now show as numbers instead of expressions
Flasks are now color coded instead of just the liquid
Flasks are no longer empty when buying a worker upgrade
Buying click upgrades now has a sound effect
Buying a prestige level now includes a confirmation dialog
Buttons now slightly change appearance on click to show feedback
Overall accessibility improved
Game buttons are now tabable and keyboard accessible
Game buttons now have selection boxes
Dialog buttons are now tabbable and keyboard accessible
Dialog buttons now have selection highlights
Dialogs can now be closed with Esc key
Unused / unpopular information removed (time running)
Upgrade information is consolidated into a single button with name and price
The first underground level now needs to be bought
Cobolds need lower numbers to reach an upgrade and have high crit
Goblins, if left at the same factor of 5 number for a minute, gain another goblin, but cannot be sold
Goblins have a permanent x50 crit multiplier, but only gain 1% crit chance per level
This is a game I wrote so that I could have a bit of a distraction at work. The idea is simple, you click to mine a resource, hire workers to do the mining for you, upgrade them, unlock new levels and worker types, gain prestige levels and start over. I used to switch to it about every hour or so, distribute the gold and return back to work.
At some point a few of my coworkers noticed and asked to play too. They seemed to really enjoy it, requested new features and reported bugs. Before I knew it, a dozen people in the office were playing. (You might be tempted to tell my boss, but he was playing too and even wrote a cheat.) This was a bit unexpected, but made me realize that people outside of work might enjoy this game as well.
After a bit of searching I collaborated with an artist and a composer to help me make the game more presentable. Working on this project was fun and all of us learned a lot. What you see is the result of our efforts and we hope you enjoy it despite its flaws. Thank you!
MINIMAL SETUP
OS: Ubuntu 12.04+. Fedora 21+. Debian 8+
Processor: An Intel Pentium 4 processor or later that's SSE2 capableMemory: 500 MB RAM