What a great twist on Minesweeper! I just wish there was a casual mode that didn't involve the clock for more than score bonus. That way, I would never play Minesweeper again, I'd just play this.
Reviews for "Treasure Sweeper"
funstorm responds:
Thanks man. Feedback has been pretty mixed so it's nice to hear somebody liked it! A relaxed mode does sound like it could have been a great addition.
I thought this was a pretty neat twist on minesweeper.
The good:
The multiple layer thing
Knowing how many treasures are left
Having more than one life (could be optional for an additional challenge
The bad:
Didn't like being timed
Initially confusing despite tutorial
Only 3 maps, quickly over
Digging wrong square wasted both in-game time and IRL time. Why not just have -score?
2x powerup is gone almost immediately.
I'd love to see a randomized map mode, or an even harder map with several layer areas. Larger maps couldn't hurt.
funstorm responds:
Thanks! Good suggestions and fair criticisms. I really wish I had had more time to add more content.
This is a nice game. The graphics are decent and the sound effects are nice as well. The gameplay is definitely was inspired by Minesweeper (a game at which I was pretty good once), but you added your own ideas (digging up treasures, instead of flagging mines). So Minesweeper only acts as an inspiration to this game.
The gameplay itself is pretty simple. Click to walk, press Space to dig. But a good game doesn't need to be overly complex (just think about Tetris, for example). Often it's the more simple games that are the most enjoyable. Treasure Sweeper is an enjoyable game and it's simple controls make it a good game to waste some time with it, like during the lunch break or when you have nothing else to do at the moment.
{ Review Request Club }
funstorm responds:
Glad you got some fun out of it. Thanks for the review!
Enjoyable game with a good foundation to improve on. I do like the twist on the minesweeper formula as well as the graphical style, but once you go through the three maps, there's not much left to it.
More set maps would be nice for a sequel, as well as the untimed casual mode using randomly generated maps or maps generated based on parameters set by the user (map size, number of treasures, etc) would be a huge boost to the longevity of the game. On an untimed mode though, considering the challenge is based on penalizing you for digging in the wrong spots and taking damage from traps, it would be easy for people to game the system and just dig all around a clue until they find it. You may want to consider a way to avoid that, like dig three incorrect spots in a row and you lose.
funstorm responds:
Not having more time to add more content is my biggest regret. Thanks for the feedback, I'll take it into account in my future projects!
The game seemed to be pretty enjoyable. Only thing that bothered me was less time and more treasure to dig as I progressed into the game. At least you can find clocks that help boost the time limit giving a little extra time to finding all the treasure.
As far as graphics go I like the old video game style look given to it. The only time it didn't look that way was when the statistics screen came up at the end of the level showing how much profit you had made from treasure found, lives remaining, and time remaining. The biggest money giver was usually the time left over which made finding clocks a lot funner to do.
One thing that I didn't like about the game play was when I had a numbered tile a "?" right next to it. Mostly since from time to time I would begin to dig it and it would show red on where I was digging meaning there was no treasure. I think it would have been nice to be able to cancel a dig meaning you don't have to dig up whatever may be there, whether it be a broken vase, Minecraft block, or some sock looking items. It would help save a bit of time during game play.
The background things such as the whales, octopus, and fish made the game seem relaxing.
The music was actually pretty nice and looped perfectly since you never notice when it restarts. Sounds a bit like a polka loop of sorts. Care to tell me what the name of the song is being used?
Overall, aside from wishing I could stop digging as soon as I see red in the little bar, the game is great.
Review Request Club
funstorm responds:
Thanks for the detailed review!
If you could stop digging right away, there would be no consequence to digging in the wrong spot. But you're not the only one who has mentioned it, so I still think you're on to something. Perhaps there is a less annoying way I could have penalized players for digging in the wrong spot. Hmm...
The ingame music is: http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?keywords=itty+bitty
Our audio superstar turned it into a looping segment.