Many years ago, I was obsessed with a game called Diggers on the Acorn Archimedes. It’s was a slow paced mining game, sort of a bit like if you gave Lemmings some digging tools and got them to find gemstones below the earth in increasingly deep mineshafts. Since then, I’ve always gravitated towards games that scratch a similar itch – Miner Dig Deep, SteamWorld Dig, Mr Driller, Dig Dig Dino, and so on.
Diggin is like a hyperactive mix of these, in the guise of (yet another) incremental collecty numbers-go-up game. Your miner starts with rubbish tools, can barely dig down a handful of layers before running out of drill fuel, and nets almost no money from his gains. Naturally, you invest the money (and as time goes on, other resources) into filling a skill tree and getting better at digging (diggin?). Better equipment = more money = better equipment. The magic gameplay loop of the incremental game genre.
I’m sure you can guess how this plays out, so I’ll skip to the end. Eventually, the screen becomes a blur of tools, powers, explosions, items and detritus as you go as deep as you can go, revealing… well, a spoiler which requires some specifics to deal with and then you complete the game.
Satisfying, over the top, but very simple – Diggin is great.
