I'm sorry
.... I just can't fully understand why this game got front paged.
Sorry for being a critic, but here are some key issues to think about for the next game you will design.
1. While the huge map gives you a TON of exploration potential, you may want to ask yourself: Is all this space needed? I only got so far to see silver veins, but the way I played this game: Half the entire map will be easily gone to waste.
2. And all of that leads to the second issue I had: The frame rate. Hell, I could probably COUNT the FPS with my own head, and it's at around 10 frames per second. The game lacks the fluidity that other games have. A FPS of 10 would be okay for a game with a slow pace, but I seriously hope the memory-hogging size of the map isn't slowing down my gameplay. I don't think there's anything else that can explain how my CPU works very hard to run this game.
3. Your sprites are not done right. I'll be honest: I don't have anything against 2D graphics. In fact, I LIKE raster graphics. The sprites could have been better by changing one of two things:
First, is to make it look more professional if you don't want to shrink anything. I see how you use a limited number of colors. However, sprites of this size goes well with gradients, not a small palette of limited colors.
Second, is to go with a much more authentic retro feel. If you want to keep using a small palette (with a limited number of colors), then the other way is to make it smaller, like a retro game that would have smaller sprites. Then, you would want to scale the sprites by a factor of two so the size of pixels are much bigger, adding a more authentic retro feel.
It also does not go well with the animations that feel... slow. Not fluid.
4. As for the gameplay, I've found it a little boring... personally.
First issue: Before teleporters become a sound investment, what I end up doing is go through the same passages that I've dug.. over and over and over again. I could dig somewhere else, but that would bean digging up coal that is not even worth my time when I could be drilling for silver veins instead. This adds a ton of redundancy that makes this game less pleasant.
Second issue: This may overlap with my second point, but drilling takes a long time. It's a little painful to have to drill into worthless dirt without seeing any veins.
Third issue: This might not be an issue for some, but the gameplay (at least in the beginning) is mindless. It's like a game of connect-the-dots. I obviously want to take the shortest path to whatever valuables I can find. There isn't much more to that.
5. So how could this game with potential be improved? I noticed how others mentioned motherload, so I checked that out to see what motherload did right. The animations were fluid, there were not just hard rock to get in the way but also many pockets of air to make it more interesting to plan the path you want to take to mine the most minerals. It can also reset the field do drastically reduce redundancy.
The game could have used some more variety. That would have done wonders.
Sorry for giving a much lower score than others, but I personally don't feel this game was executed all that well.