I feel bad voting this down, since (going by the author's response to another review) it accomplishes everything it sets out to do--it's a simple game where you dig blocks, with a joke about crypto. In a sense, you could call this an interactive art exhibit. It has a message of sorts, and relays it to the viewer through its mechanics. And so, it functions as intended.
However, as a reviewer I try to use my reviews as recommendations to new players. So I have to answer the question of "Is this worth playing?"
In this case, I feel like the answer is no. Since all materials use the same grainy noise texture with different colors, it's rather difficult to use this as a canvas for building. The rarity of most variants-which is very point of the game-makes this even harder. And so, we're really just left with a big ol' pile of brown to dig into. The simple activity of digging is so engrained in Minetest that you can do it in pretty much any game if that's what you're after, so so Mining Game doesn't really bring anything to the table.
Media is subjective, but I think the most engaging way for a piece to deliver a message is by drawing in and engaging the viewer, then capitalizing on that engagement to say something. This game doesn't really do that, and doesn't really offer anything else either.
I feel bad voting this down, since (going by the author's response to another review) it accomplishes everything it sets out to do--it's a simple game where you dig blocks, with a joke about crypto. In a sense, you could call this an interactive art exhibit. It has a message of sorts, and relays it to the viewer through its mechanics. And so, it functions as intended.
However, as a reviewer I try to use my reviews as recommendations to new players. So I have to answer the question of "Is this worth playing?"
In this case, I feel like the answer is no. Since all materials use the same grainy noise texture with different colors, it's rather difficult to use this as a canvas for building. The rarity of most variants-which is very point of the game-makes this even harder. And so, we're really just left with a big ol' pile of brown to dig into. The simple activity of digging is so engrained in Minetest that you can do it in pretty much any game if that's what you're after, so so Mining Game doesn't really bring anything to the table.
Media is subjective, but I think the most engaging way for a piece to deliver a message is by drawing in and engaging the viewer, then capitalizing on that engagement to say something. This game doesn't really do that, and doesn't really offer anything else either.