Dig-N-Rig

Here at Citizen Game, we’re mighty fond of a bargain. But how do you know if a cheap or even free game is worth your valuable time? After all, you could be out walrus wrestling, or reading poetry to molluscs, or whatever it is important people do these days now that we no longer have an economy.

Luckily, our time is worth almost nothing at all, so we’ve plumbed the depths of the Intertubes to bring you our latest feature — Freebie Friday!

This week, we’re looking at Dig-N-Rig from DigiPen.

The DigiPen Institute of Technology has a good track record for crafting some of the finest creative minds in the games industry today. DigiPen alumni have worked for a variety of companies and development studios on many high-profile projects. Some of the highest profile titles DigiPen’s graduates have contributed to are: The Orange Box (Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal) (Valve), Halo 3 (Bungie), Guild Wars: Eye of the North (ArenaNet) and Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (Gas-Powered Games). They are an education establishment held in high regard.

Dig-N-Rigs is parts Dig-Dug (Intellivision), Dropzone (Atari 2600) and Terraria but with mining simulation that combines resource management with creative building mechanics.

 

Controlling the “World’s most advanced robot” your tasked with digging all the way to the centre of the earth.  As you plummet into the depths of the earth’s core you will be mining and collecting minerals to purchase better equipment from the mining corporations’ lab.  However the points where you can mine minerals and the point where minerals can be turned into a tradable commodity are some distance apart.  This means you need to construct a series of conveyors belts and vertical scoopers to transport the minerals back to your base.

The game is a mix of keyboard controls and mouse clicks. Controlling ‘Diggit’ you are using the WASD keys, where this is conventional it can be a little inaccurate when attempting to dig along the diagonals but moments of required accuracy are few and far between.  After all your primary objective is to strip mine the earth.  While laying conveyors belts and vertical scooper is all mouse controlled.

Stylistically the game is a glorious trip back in time, its part ASCII characters but all 8-bit style.  Topping the whole retro stylings off perfectly is the Commodore 64 SID chip sound effects and music.

For free you can’t go wrong.  Check it out.