Keep on Mining! news & patch notes

For the last few months, I've been working hard on the sequel to Keep on Mining! I did mention a while ago that I was considering making a sequel, and after a lot of planning and brainstorming on whether to keep expanding KOM! with updates/DLC's or go all in on a sequel, I landed on a sequel.

The sequel keeps the core gameplay loop from KOM!, but adds a LOT more content. The biggest addition (as you can probably tell from the name) is more worlds (levels). The skill tree is larger, meaning more upgrades. There are more pickaxes, and now you can both craft and upgrade them. There are also more artifacts, featuring four rarity tiers, plus even more cool stuff!

The price and release date aren’t decided yet, but keep an eye out for a future announcement! 🙂

Check out the store page and give it a wishlist!

Remember to Keep on Mining!

I am happy to announce that Keep on Mining! is out on both iOS and Android!

I decided to price the game at 4$, but the price will most likely vary based on where you live. The game does not contain any ads or Inn app purchases.

iOS

ANDROID

I am happy to announce this bundle with the newly released incremental game, Rock Crusher!

You can get it here:

KEEP ON MINING X ROCK CRUSHER

100K copies sold!

First I have to say that the last few weeks have been nuts. The game has sold over 100K copies and it is currently sitting at 93% positive reviews. The game's success exceeded my expectations by a crazy amount so I want to thank everyone for your support!

Whats next for Keep on Mining?

There is a lot to talk about but let's start with the upcoming mobile port. I am currently working on getting the game out on mobile, both iOS and Android. It will most likely be priced the same on mobile as on steam. (Give or take 5$ based on where you live. The game will not be free as I very much dislike ads and IAP and I will most likely always stick to the "buy the game, you get the game and that's it" business model)

Now what about updates? There have been a lot of suggestions/feedback on things to add to the game and a lot of it is really good. But as the game currently stands, it is a short and sweet experience and I very much want it to stay that way. The plan from the very beginning was always to have this game be short quality experience that can be beaten relatively quickly and I am going to stick with that.

Buuut... a sequel, maybe?

As I mentioned, there has been a lot of good suggestions & feedback from players and I myself have a lot of ideas. And since I think this gameplay loop is really fun, perhaps a sequel is in order? Nothing is decided yet, but if I end up making a sequel, it will most likely be a much longer game. Still a short game relative to other incremental games, but I'm thinking somewhere between a 10-20 hours long game.

What would the potential sequel add, keep and change from the original?: It will keep the same gameplay loop (hover rocks, pickaxes mines rocks, collect ores, upgrade, and go back to mining). The talent system will most likely be reworked but I still want to keep talent upgrades. The Mine will either be re worked or expanded. The Anvil will most likely stay the same but perhaps you can both craft and upgrade pickaxes? (similar to the cursor system in Treasure Chest Clicker) I'm also thinking the sequel would have levels. Keep on Mining! only has 1 level with the green tiles. I'm thinking the sequel will have a snow level, desert level and other cool unique levels. And of course the sequel will have a lot more upgrades, pickaxes and artifacts to collect.

Leave your thought of this below! I'd love hear what you guys think and I would also like to hear some more ideas.

Trading cards!

The community items are now released! You can collect a total of 7 different trading cards.

Again, I want to thank all of you for making Keep on Mining! such a huge success!

First let me just say that I feel your frustration, I have released plenty of incremental games in the past and never had to delay any of them past their original release date, so as you can guess, no one is more frustrated than me.

Although I have not heard anything new from steam, I wanted to post this announcement so that I can answer some questions from you guys and talk a little about the potential reason for the long review time.

First, some questions and comments from you guys:

-What is the game price?: It will be 5$ USD with a 15% release discount. Also look out for the bundles once it's released, perhaps you can get it even cheaper if you own some of my other games.

-Day 1 quality of life patch please: There have been a few content creators who have played my game, and based on their YT video/live stream, there has been some feedback from the viewers. 4 days ago I released a patch that added a plus icon on every skill tree upgrade, this shows up if the player can afford that specific upgrade. Now there is no need to hover over every single upgrade to check which ones you can afford. I also fixed some minor bugs such as the pickaxe stats would display worse stats on a newly crafted pickaxe compared to the previous pickaxe. I also improved some talent cards and The Mine.

-might just be because the 'steam sales' inside the game: So there is an upgrade in the game named "Steam Sale" with a cartoony Gaben face icon and some people have speculated that this is the reason for the delay. I don't think so. Gaben is known for being very cool about stuff like this (unless it's in bad taste) and I also have a steam sale upgrade in my first ever made game, Coin Flipper. If this was the issue, then they would get back to me just like they have done in the past when there has been an issue with any of my previous games.

-Dont think the Dev is being honest. major red flags: I want the game released more than anyone.

Now let's talk a little about the potential reason for the long review time.

I've done some research and it seems like I'm not the only one with this problem. Blue Archive was released on July 4 but with the original release date of June 24. VILE: Exhumed has been in the review process for over a month.

I've also heard that steam has been forced to change their review policies by payment processors. There's the changes with NSFW games, apparently a lot of them are being removed. There was just a big steam sale and the steam automation fest. They also have been working on a lot of stuff such as being able to see the wishlist count update every hour rather than once per day.

This is all speculation, so at the end of the day all we can do is wait. I don't want to trash steam, I love steam. I just want to release it.

Again, thank you guys for your patience.

The original release date and time was July 16, 12:00PM CEST time. But there seems to be issues on steams end.

Currently the game is still in the review process. I sent the game in for review on July 3, which is almost 2 weeks ago. Usually it takes between 3 and 5 days for steam to do the review process and with all my other games, that is how long it took. But Keep on Mining! is taking longer.

I've sent in some help requests regarding this, so that might help.

I will release it as soon as the game has been review and accepted.

Sorry about this!