New game: Energy Excavation

My entry in this year's Confounding Calendar is officially out: Energy Excavation.

I'm honored to have it featured both in Draknek's Thinky Third Thursday and Bart Bonte's bontegames blog. Bontegames is probably the closest vibe I've gotten to Jayisgames of yore (especially since he's been around long enough that some of his games showed up there), so it's especially cool to see it there.

Some mildly spoilery design thoughts below the jump:

There's a Zelda inspiration in my previous Calendar entries, but the diagonal digging mechanic in this one comes from Lode Runner. The limited energy mechanic and dug ground never regenerating were my attempts to put a thinkier twist on it... as well as adding something for the secret mechanic which also comes from that series.

I consider these sort of a "series" with some common design themes: the side view with gravity and ladders, having a core mechanic other than block pushing, some sort of secret... I know people like these, but I'm also a little worried about running out of ideas that work with it. (ending this series at four also makes sense for thematic reasons) Maybe I'll try something different in the future?