Terminal Based Block Mining Simulation Game

2023-12-04 - By Robert Elder

This article is the first public announcement of a video game that I've decided to start working on. I've also set up a kickstarter for anyone who finds this game idea as interesting as I do:

The basic premise behind the game is to move around an infinite procedurally generated universe mining blocks of iron ore. The game is played entirely in the terminal with a top-down view. The game provides a 2D top-down view of one slice of the world, but the world itself is actually 3D. The graphics in the game are entirely provided by emoji characters to keep things simple. Here is a screenshot that shows an example of the gameplay:

The idea of building an indie video game like this from scratch is kind of a crazy one, especially when there are already a zillion other low-quality 'indie' games out there. Having said that, I haven't been able to stop thinking about this idea for the last few years, so I've decided to give it a shot and iterate on this idea as a side project over a long-term basis. In particular, the part that interests me the most is the large number number of ways that such a simple game engine/model would be iterated upon without too much time/effort.

I could talk more about the grandiose ideas I have to extend this game, but I'll refrain from doing so until I have something further to demo. For now, this first basic iteration of the game will give me a lot of useful feedback that I can incorporate into the next phase of development and marketing of the game.

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