Mining Merchant

A solid mining and crafting game. Eventually you can start automation and then it is mostly mining and selling jewelry with some shop updates, Lots of biomes to discover, a decent story.

It feels like this is just an average story with some repetitive gameplay.

This game is like it's two games, and one of those games I would strongly recommend against. Let me explain that. First off, the mining game is great. I enjoy mining, I like the drilling, the exploring, the getting gems and ores and if I could just stop there. That'd be great. But there's another stage to this... You have to smelt the ores, turn them into jewellery and sell them in a mish mash of awful minigames and then a boring shopping experience that really could've just been automated. You even have drones, let me put the drones to work. In actuality what the drones do, is give you a buff... They don't mine, they don't sell things... They just float around you. I have a few reasons to recommend this game. 1: The main characters Uncle is called Barry, as is mine. This is a silly reason, though it did give me and my mother a lot of laughs, especially when it was implied he drinks a lot. (As does mine) and keeps a messy house (As does mine) 2: The mining and upgrading and levelling systems are all a blast, I really did enjoy digging and drilling. It's just the shop and craft I hate. If only I could put Uncle Barry to work. He doesn't do anything all day. (Unlike mine, who works 9-5) 3: The interactions with characters aren't terrible. I actually enjoyed a lot of the dialogue. Which I didn't expect to do. The character creation also isn't terrible. But it does reset when you exit game, so if you're like me and want to change your characters outfit every day, remember what they look like, you're going to have to fix their appearance a lot. But there is a heavy caveat to this game. The crafting and selling experience is terrible. It's slow, it's clunky. It takes time away from what you really want to do, which is mining things. I want to dig and save octopuses, not be bored in a shop waiting to make money while 10 customers walk past the only thing I have on sale to look at empty display cases. Oh good, there's a sale on, that means more customers but lower profits... WHY WOULD I WANT THIS? WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT THIS?! I like the game, I do... and I've been far too negative lately, so I wanted to be positive. But it sucks that the first positive review I do in ages has to come with such a heavy caveat. Because oh my god... the shop sucks. It's just terrible and you have to do it. Which is really disappointing from an otherwise phenomenal game. It is possible you won't mind the shop as much. I'd say you should get this game and try it for yourself, you'll find out very quick if the shop isn't for you. It does start you off in the shop as well, before you can get to the mining. Personally. I will be playing more of this, not just for the rest of the achievements I want. But because I do enjoy the gameplay. It has a few issues and feels a bit clunky at times. Especially the way the story plays out and how it gatekeeps certain things. I strongly recommend you upgrade your inventory capacity first, because going back up to the surface repeatedly can waste a lot of your time. The game gatekeeps how much you can mine each day by having a skip full of dirt and you're only allowed to fill it and then you have to leave.... But why am I taking mud to the surface? Why can't I just dump the mud somewhere and continue grabbing LITERAL EMERALDS, RUBIES, AMETHYSTS, SAPPHIRES AND DIAMONDS?! Oh look, you've dug too much mud today... Guess you have to leave the mine that's completely full of gems and ores.... Why? So it's a bit silly, and does railroad you into having to go back to the shop, which I guess if it didn't do that you never would because ew, who would want to? But I feel like the game should make the gameplay more fun, instead of trying to make you do the bits you don't want to do. Shop automation would've gone a LONG way. That said... Ultimately I had fun with this one and will play it again. Thanks for reading, or skipping to the end. Whether or not you agree with me, I hope you have a lovely day. <3

nice and cozy

If you love playing the other mining games this dev has put out so far, you should definitely buy this game. If you love playing incremental games, especially ones with some shop management, you should definitely give this game a try. If you love cozy and/or mining games in general, and are looking for a new game to wind down and turn your brain off for a bit, you should definitely give this game a try. Personally, I checked all the boxes above so I got the game, completed it, and can say that I wholly enjoyed the experience.

Pacing just didn't feel as good as the other games from this dev. After the initial novelty it just felt like a grind but there was still so much to go. Also a lot of long repeated animations and waiting that just didn't help in keeping me interested.

YY Very nice

This game is incredible! Reminds me of the old school flash games I used to play (MotherLode I think?) Also the game has so much content, wow!