- Highly enjoyable and addictive gameplay loop
- Deep and satisfying progression system
- Grindy and linear upgrade system
- Inconsistent pacing and repetitiveness
- Overpriced for the content provided
- Misleading 'Idler' tag, requires active play
Emotions
Players felt satisfied by the game's good value for its price, often citing its affordability and the entertainment it provided. The smooth, rewarding progression, vast talent trees, and meaningful, powerful upgrades contributed significantly to this feeling, making the gameplay loop addictive and enjoyable.
Enjoyment stemmed from the game's simple yet addictive loop, decent progression, and overall fun gameplay. Players appreciated the game's straightforward nature, finding it to be a great time-waster with a well-designed skill tree and upgrades that required some thought.
Disappointment arose from the game's perceived short length, repetitive levels, and a feeling that it overstayed its welcome with perfunctory later stages. Players also noted a lack of challenge, inconsistent pacing, an abrupt ending, and a gameplay style that was too active for an idle game, leading to a sense of unfulfilled potential.
Players experienced excitement due to the game's highly engaging and addictive nature, often leading them to play non-stop until completion. The massive skill tree, strategic depth, and overall game quality also contributed to a strong sense of anticipation for the full game.
Joy was primarily driven by an overwhelmingly positive overall game experience, with players expressing strong affection for the game from beginning to end. The game's ability to deliver 'dopamine hits' and provide extended periods of engaging play also contributed to this emotion.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 88% · Negative 12%. Score: 12 / 100
Positives:
- Players overwhelmingly find the game to be a highly enjoyable, addictive, and well-made incremental experience. Many highlight its simple yet satisfying loop, good value for money, and ability to provide several hours of engaging gameplay without overstaying its welcome. The game successfully captures the essence of a good idle/clicker game, leading to extended play sessions.
- The game features a vast and deep skill/upgrade tree where each upgrade feels meaningful and powerful, contributing to a smooth and satisfying progression curve. Players appreciate that progression doesn't slow down significantly, especially in the mid to late game, and that there's always something new to unlock. The visual and sound design effectively reinforce this sense of continuous growth.
- The game allows for a relaxed playstyle where helpers can manage tasks, and it avoids gating player success, making for a less frustrating experience.
- Some players found the initial grind rewarding, as it made the later acceleration of progress feel more earned and satisfying.
- The game offers good replayability through its prestige system, which allows players to redefine their improvement strategies with each restart.
Negatives:
- The upgrade system is criticized for being linear, lacking variety, and requiring excessive grinding. Players find the cost of upgrades too high, leading to frustrating progression where they either struggle significantly or become overpowered too quickly, with old currencies becoming obsolete.
- Players feel the game's pacing is inconsistent, with some parts being too slow and grindy, while others progress too quickly or become too easy. This leads to a repetitive and unrewarding experience, making the game feel either too long or too short depending on the stage.
- Many players believe the game is overpriced for the content and length it offers. They suggest a significantly lower price point, indicating that the current cost does not align with the perceived value of the gameplay experience.
- Despite being tagged as an 'Idler,' the game requires too much active attention and involvement, contradicting player expectations for a passive idle game. This mismatch in genre expectation contributes to dissatisfaction.
- The mechanic of manually switching preferred skins and backgrounds for multipliers is annoying and not clearly explained. Players were confused by the temporary point boosts and felt they could have played more optimally with better information.
Gameplay:
- The core gameplay loop involves players operating a rock-crushing machine on an alien planet. It's an incremental grinding simulator where the main goal is continuous expansion and resource accumulation, rather than a narrative story.
- The game includes visual customization options with multiple unlockable skins for the miner, drill, and backgrounds. A key mechanic involves a 'preferred' skin and background that changes every five minutes, offering a significant income multiplier if players actively switch to match it.
- The game balances active and passive play. While passive assistants can automate rock crushing, pushing to new depths or maintaining optimal progression often requires manual input. Players are kept actively involved, as the game isn't entirely AFK, requiring manual restarts of levels.
- Player feedback suggests the game offers a relatively short core gameplay experience, potentially around 6 hours for completionists to finish the main skill tree. However, achieving all milestones, like breaking 50,000 rocks, can extend playtime significantly beyond the main progression.
- The game utilizes a simple, functional, and legible 2D art style with a fixed side-view camera. The visual design prioritizes clarity, effectively showcasing rocks, the crusher, and increasing numbers, with minimalist animations.
Performance:
- The native Linux build of the game performed well on a specific desktop setup running Ubuntu 25.10. This indicates good compatibility and performance for some Linux users.
Recommendations:
- The majority of players recommend this game, especially those who enjoy incremental games. They find it entertaining and worth the price, highlighting its blend of tactile control, strategic progress, and simple aesthetics.
- A small portion of players do not recommend the game, suggesting there are better alternatives in the genre or that it's not worth replaying. This sentiment is based on limited feedback.
Miscellaneous:
- Players generally found the game's length to be appropriate for its price, with most able to complete or 100% the game within 3-7 hours. This suggests a satisfying, albeit not overly long, experience for many.
- There's a desire for more late-game content, specifically an expansion or refinement of the skill tree. Players suggest an infinite upgrade path to maintain progression interest after the main skill tree is completed.
- Some players expressed a general appreciation for the game's genre (idler games) and a desire to support solo developers. This indicates a positive sentiment towards the game's style and its creator.
- Players are looking forward to future updates, particularly hoping for the addition of new special crushers. This indicates a positive outlook on the game's potential for continued development.
- A few players mentioned being introduced to the game by 'Sterakdary' or 'Sterak', indicating the influence of specific content creators on their discovery of the game.
