GOLDIGGER

Outsmart the depths. Save the director's old gold and memories with your big heavy hands.

The Story

A sudden, violent landslide has completely buried the old town museum beneath tons of packed sand and rubble. Decades of history, ancient gold artifacts, and priceless cultural memories have vanished underground in seconds.

Standing outside the collapse, the old director is weeping in despair—convinced that everything he spent his life preserving is lost forever.

You step in, placing a heavy, reassuring hand on his shoulder. You do not need picks or excavators. Your hands are bigger than shovel blades, and you are going down into the dark to bring every piece of history back to the surface.

Overview

In Goldigger, you descend into the post-landslide ruins of a subterranean museum. The underground structure is a fragile mix of diggable sand deposits and solid obsidian beams that survived the collapse.

Unstable chasers and explosive hazards now prowl the buried exhibit halls. Dig strategic pathways, unearth ancient blessings, eliminate floor threats, and recover the Gate Key to unlock the exit portal before the cavern seals permanently.

Key Features

• Bare-Hand Excavation: Scoop paths through dense sand walls using your oversized hands while maneuvering around indestructible obsidian barriers.
• Adaptive Threat AI: Underground mobs track your movements dynamically. If trapped or blocked by sand walls, they will detonate charges to blow open pathways toward you.
• Museum Blessings: Unearth 7 distinct museum artifacts hidden under the debris to gain immediate passive stat boosts and tactical abilities.
• Dynamic Key System: Neutralizing the final floor threat spawns the emergency Gate Key. If left untouched for 15 seconds, it automatically relocates near the origin tile to prevent softlocks.
• Dual Difficulty Modes: Choose between Standard and Hard mode to scale hazard density, cavern layout complexity, and enemy aggressiveness.

Controls

Recoverable Artifacts

How to Play

1. Clear Paths: Scoop through soft sand deposits to navigate toward exhibits while avoiding getting cornered against unbreakable obsidian walls.
2. Outmaneuver Threats: Maintain movement to avoid chasers, or lure them into detonating wall sections to clear alternate routes.
3. Collect the Key: Defeat active floor threats to reveal the Gate Key. Pick it up before the relocation timer expires.
4. Restore the Gold: Carry the key to the exit portal to secure the floor and return the ancient relics to the director.

Credits & Team

A Note on GBJam 14

Huge thanks to the GBJam 14 Discord community! Even though we weren't able to submit in time for the official jam deadline, meeting everyone and collaborating on this project was an awesome new experience for our team. We had a blast building this game together!