[GAME] Robo Miner

Please visit http://www.reiti.net/robo-miner/blog to view recent changes and update news!

The first version of Robo Miner is out!

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yqLDpFMyKI[/video]

You all know these games where you dig down to find treasures, ores and gems? Well, here’s another one!

You are controlling a robot which digs for you. Simply tap in the direction the robot should go and he will do that - if there is a block in the way the robot will dig through it. That only works on mud-blocks - stones cannot be digged but if you dig away the mud underneath a stone block, the stone block will fall down and maybe crash you, if you are not fast enough to run away or place a support bar!

Your target is to find the ultimate gem at the bottom end of each mine. Once found, you can approach to the next, even deeper mine! On your journy you will find many different money-bringing things, like ore and gems.

To master all the challenges, you can buy upgrades for your robot. More battery, a fast drill, more storage or better sensors, to see more fields around you!

Go for the Questoin Mark Fields to find dynamite! You can blow away the stone blocks with it and build very deep shafts!

I hope you have a good time playing this game

The game is available on android market, slideme, amazon and getjar … some of them need some time to approve the upload so be patient[hr]
Current version is 1.3.9!

This game was downloaded 40.000 times after ~3 weeks!

Fun game - reminds me a lot of gem miner, but without the annoyance of having to pay for ladders and supports all the time.

One issue that did come up - I got a phone call while playing. The game wouldn’t restart, instead force closing, and my progress was all lost.

that should clearly not happen - I tried that incoming call thing very well… v1.3.9? what phone do you have? it could be that android decided to free some memory … did you get a force close error dialog?

The game got’s some reviews at amazon complaining, that it is a copy (it isnt) … i am not sure but gem miner dont had dynamite? …

would be great if you could tell me more about your error, so i can fix it in next release :wink:

It seems to happen any time I leave the app for a while then come back - the level is reset. Doesn’t have to be solely through an incoming call (although the only time it force closed was after the call).

Testing this a little this morning. I played on the train on the way to work, cleared a lot of the level, then switched back to home screen and checked emails etc coming into work. If I went straight back to the game, it was paused and still there, but if it was left 20 mins plus it seemed to reset the level.

Not sure if that’s any help. I have an HTC Desire, running CM 7.0.3.

I’d say that it looks very similar to gem miner, but plays very differently. In gem miner I was struggling to make enough just to pay for ladders and supports, whereas in this they are free, and I can spend money on decent upgrades. This is more fun.

If I had to criticise, I might say that the second level is too big. This is probably compounded by the issue that I’m having with the level resetting, but there’s no way I can get all of level 2 clear without spending about 10 hours straight playing the game, and if I leave the game and don’t come back for a while it’s reset.

You can manually save your game whenever you like (click energy bar -> save)

At the beginning, the game was saving itself when app was leaved - but as deeper the mines where as longer the saving time - so I put that out. In v1.3.9 I speeded up the save time so maybe I could reintegrate the full autosave again, I just dont want to annoy users watching the save screen everytime they come back to the top :slight_smile:

I am not quite sure, how android handles a task which is unused over such a long time - maybe it kills the task … maybe I can tell android how to handle … need to analyse this

The first mine is more like a training mine, after that each mine is 50 deeper. That’s why I putted in the “autorun” capability :slight_smile: So (if you have a straight long shaft) you can climb up and down instantly (stand on ladder and tap n hold in direction) - i am pretty sure, you knew that :slight_smile:

Yesterday I got some very cool ideas about further improvements so this game will get some features in the future - always in respect to the current gameplay, which shall stay as it is.

I didn’t realise there was a save feature by clicking the energy bar - that will definitely get a lot of use - might be good to tell people about it though, or re-implement the auto-save :slight_smile:

The only issue with no autosave is if something happens like a phone call, you could lose all data (if it goes on for a while).

I figured out autorun this morning - great timesaver :slight_smile: Just need enough dynamite to destroy the rocks in my way and I’m golden…

there is the text “menu” beyond the energy bar … also you can use the hardware menu key :slight_smile:

You may look at a little preview video of the upcoming update (not released yet)

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn7Zi8ZuSM0[/video]

there are new blocks like granite and lava … lava explodes and in the vid you can see, that this can get very tricky to survive xD

What do you think of it? (on the vid is a lvl 40 mine)

(read the whole story on the Robo Miner Blog)

I think this is a terrible idea, purely because I have developed a bit of an addiction to Robo Miner and I need it to stop! Seriously, wonderfully compelling game even though I’m essentially just grinding through the same pattern of activity again and again. My hat is off to you sir.

Thank you for the kind words - I am very happy, that Robo Miner is a fun game. With the new fields I don’t want to spoil the easy gameplay, that’s why i put up this video and postet it over the web, to get some reactions.

To not make players frustrated in the deep mines where there is so much stone and granite, the drill will be able to drill stone at a certain level. Good idea?

Absolutely. I’ve just gotten to the point at which my attention is probably going to wane and I was thinking two things:

  • I hope an upgrade will get my drill through rock at some point
  • New tiles (other than metal types) would be interesting

Not sure about the lava quantity in your vid though. Seems a bit chaotic!

The quantity is at level 40 :wink: it is much less in the mines before, I just wanted to show a greater chain reacton. Lava will start at level 10 or something … I still have to balance that out a little. granite will start earlier.

for the ores there are currently 3 different: metalls, gems and crystals. Someone asked me to put a official ore list online, maybe i will :slight_smile:

so, concerning the drill, that will happen in the next update … for new tiles i have to be creative :slight_smile: I never thought about ppl reaching level 40 … but I know there are some players at level 39 already 8-o

I just want to let you know, that the long waited “new blocks” Update was released today!

I was very nervous about this update because there is something new and I changed very much in the code itself.

I already know of some minor bugs which I can fix very fast (hopefully) but it seems there are no big faults in the game.

I already got many new 5* comments (thank you all) from users who like the game and the update.

I will release another bugfix update tomorrow which fixes some bugs i will not raise the version for that - so maybe someone will wait to spare the 1.6 MB xD

Read more here

currently only available at google play store, the update tomorrow will be released to the other stores.

I also introduced myself in maintaining a facebook group for Robo Miner - I am very new to this kind - so I have not promoted this group yet but if you like, just search for robo miner in FB and join the group I would love to get some members xD

Greetings, Peter!

Nice update! It starts up & runs ok on my SGS II, will give it a proper try this evening.

P.S. You might want to update your signature links. They’re still pointing to market.android.com, instead of play.google.com :slight_smile:

I’ve just released the bugfix update - now every flaws should be eliminated - some of them were funny :slight_smile:

1.4.6b is the name of the fixed release :wink:

Oh cool!! Gonna check it out :stuck_out_tongue:

http://www.reiti.net/robo-miner/blog/91/update-v-1-4-7

New Version is out :wink: Some small Bugfixes and you can now choose the difficullty to play the classic Robo Miner also. I did some Memory Optimizations because some phones already reached their memory limit.

And also in this Version the temporarely closable ads are integrated

arg - unfortunately, there was a bug in the last update, so when you saved your game and loaded again the ores are gone. As long as you do NOT save AGAIN everything is fine, get the new update (1.4.8) and load your game.

If it happens, that you saved the mine with no ores … sorry … restart the mine :frowning:

(that happend because of the memory optimizations … they optimized the ores away xD)

I am happy to announce, that because many people were asking for a PC Version of Robo Miner, I have submitted it to Steam Greenlight, so I would highly appreciate if you give me a vote

Steam Greenlight :: Robo Miner

Because of the used Framework, Robo Miner will already run on PC and it needs only some tweaks to be fully playable with the keyboard (which is nicer than using the mouse) and get rid of some android specific parts

So, if you liked Robo Miner (or still like it) - give it a vote

Nice Job! Way to go cross platform as well :).