Game Flow: UnderMine (Early Access)

UnderMine is an action roguelike game, with gameplay somewhat comparable to Enter the Gungeon, which has already been reviewed in this blog. UnderMine was recently made available through Early Access, so it is still an unfinished product. However, it already shows many signs of a game that promotes flow.

Challenge and Skill. UnderMine features multiple forms of progression that alter the game’s level of challenge. There are currently three different areas that the player progresses through, each one with stronger enemies than the last. There are also static upgrades that the player can unlock that apply to all future runs, making the player better equipped to progress in the mine. This poses the potential problem of parts of the game becoming too easy once the player has unlocked a certain amount of upgrades. However, UnderMine also includes the option for the player to skip to deeper areas once they have been reached for the first time. This means that players for whom the first area is no longer challenging can go right to an area that does provide an appropriate level of challenge, keeping that player constantly in a state of balance between challenge and skill.

Goals. The ultimate goal of the player in UnderMine is to progress through the mine and defeat the bosses dwelling there. Two smaller goals that help the player reach the larger goal are clearing each individual floor and obtaining permanent upgrades.

The goal of clearing the current floor is facilitated by the minimap, which shows which rooms on the floor have already been visited, as well as all possible options for which room to enter next. Among the various minimap symbols, there is one that clearly shows the entrance to the next floor. Individual floors are small enough that the goal of finishing the current one is fairly proximal. An even more proximal sub-goal towards clearing a floor is clearing an individual room if it has enemies. Each room fits on the screen in its entirety all at once, so the tasks of spotting enemies and navigating the room are always readily achievable.

The goal of obtaining upgrades is not as obviously proximal, but it is very clear. In the hub before entering the mine, the player can browse all available upgrades and see the amount of gold or thorium necessary to purchase them. Obtaining these forms of currency is done in the mine, where sources of gold or thorium are fairly obvious. Thorium is more uncommon, so the player is not always guaranteed to obtain any on a given run. This makes obtaining thorium a goal that the player cannot specifically pursue, since its appearance is based on random chance alone. Gold is very common, however, so if the player wishes to obtain more of it, they need only enter the mine and they will find plenty of it soon enough on each run.

Feedback. UnderMine is currently in Early Access, but the game still provides feedback on a large portion of player actions and outcomes. Only a few days after it became available through Early Access, an update was released which included several improvements to the game’s feedback, especially regarding player statistics and item descriptions. When the game first became available, there was no way to check specific numbers relating to the player’s swing damage, throw damage, bomb power, etc. There was also no way to check what a potion does after picking it up. Now there is a journal menu that can be opened at any time to check most of the player’s stats, as well as review descriptions of potions, relics, blessings, and curses that the player currently possesses. In the journal menu, the player can also check descriptions of enemies they have encountered, as well as potions, relics, blessings, and curses that they have either obtained or have the option of unlocking in the hub. This journal allows the player to know the effects of the items they have collected in order to potentially change the way they are playing accordingly. However, most potions and relics that increase the player’s stats such as swing damage do not give exact numbers in their descriptions. This feedback would help the player gauge exactly how effective a particular item is. Additionally, there is still no indication in the journal or elsewhere of the exact values relating to the player’s swing speed, throwing range, or healing effectiveness, all of which can be upgraded in the hub or with items.

Regarding the actual gameplay once the player enters the mine, there are many ways UnderMine gives good, immediate feedback to the player, and some areas that could use improvement. The minimap has already been mentioned as featuring many different symbols to indicate what a room contains. Most of these make it very clear that a certain room contains the entrance to the next floor, a shop, or treasure of some kind. However, the symbol for treasure rooms is a treasure chest, but rooms marked with that symbol instead contain a relic that is out in the open rather than in a chest. Some rooms have no enemies and instead contain a chest, but they are not marked with any symbol on the minimap. An expanded set of symbols to mark the contents of rooms would help the player know what they’re getting into, as well as remember which room had what in it if they need to return.

Combat in UnderMine provides good feedback on the actions of the player and enemies. It is clear when an enemy or the player takes damage, and the exact amount of damage dealt is displayed on the hit. Enemies will also flash red briefly before attacking, letting the player know that an attack is coming in time to jump out of the way. Once the player has obtained a certain upgrade, they become able to see the health bar of the last enemy they damaged. This health bar, however, is in the bottom right corner of the screen, far away from where the action is happening. Displaying health bars directly over the enemy would make it easier for the player to check how close to defeating an enemy they are without taking their attention away from the fight.

When exploring the mine, the player can hit deposits of gold with their pickaxe to release several chunks of gold. When these chunks of gold hit the ground, slime enemies called pilfers begin appearing to try to steal the gold and run away. If the specific chunk of gold that a pilfer was going after is collected by the player, an exclamation point will appear over that pilfer’s head and it will turn around and leave without pursing a different chunk. This lets the player know that they no longer need to worry about that particular pilfer stealing any gold. This is useful feedback, and it could be made more useful if some visual effect remained after the brief exclamation point shows up. A way to always be able to distinguish which pilfers still pose a threat would help the player defend the gold.

Finally, there are several other small things that the player can encounter in the mine, with varying degrees of informative feedback. First, there are often hidden passageways that must be uncovered with explosive force. If an explosion goes off in the room, even if it is not on the portion of wall where the hidden passageway is, any such hidden passageways in that room will give off sparkling glimmers to indicate their presence. This gives the player a way to check for secret rooms without needing to blow up every wall in every room. Second, there can sometimes appear a very rare enemy that gives large amounts of gold and thorium if the player attacks it. This enemy will only stay in the room for a short period of time before running, so it is important that the player notice it as quickly as possible. When the player enters a room with one of these enemies in it, the music will change to clearly indicate its presence. Finally, there are a number of different ground surfaces and other objects present in many rooms, such as water, oil, spike traps, pressure plates, and spinning blades. Some of these should be fairly obviously dangerous to the player, but there is no way other than trial and error for the player to know what they do and how they interact with certain other mechanics. There is a bestiary for monsters and an index of items, but there is currently no list of environmental effects and objects. Such an index would allow the player to better navigate the game.

Improvements. The main improvements to be made to the current version of UnderMine are primarily regarding its feedback. The journal should list swing speed, throw distance, and healing effectiveness, and potions, relics, blessings, and curses should list exact values associated with their effects. Displaying these numbers when the player picks one up would make this feedback even more immediate. Minimap symbols should be added and changed to better indicate exactly what each room contains. In particular, blessing shrines, food, and small staircases should appear on the minimap to help players remember their locations if they need to backtrack to them. In combat, the enemy health bar should be made more visible, and displaying the health of all enemies in the room at once could also be helpful. When collecting gold, large amounts of pilfers can make things cluttered, so adding some lingering visual effect to indicate which ones have lost interest would make the player’s defense of their gold easier. Finally, the addition of environmental effects and objects to the journal would allow players to have full information about what they will encounter in the mine. If future versions of the game include a tutorial, those environmental effects and objects should definitely be included in it.

Conclusion. UnderMine allows for players of varying levels of skill to find an appropriate challenge fairly easily. Goals are very clear and mostly proximal with the exception of thorium upgrades, which can still be achieved in the same way as gold upgrades, namely through simply doing runs through the mine. Feedback is a mixed bag, with some aspects of the game providing very good and immediate feedback while others provide little or none. However, the basic mechanics of the game are covered well, allowing the player to know what’s going on during the majority of gameplay. UnderMine is still in Early Access, so many improvements will likely be made. In its current form, however, it still does a good job of allowing players to enter a state of flow.