Total Miner

Total Miner Forge Forge

Cover art
Developer(s) Studio Forge
Publisher(s) Studio Forge
Distributor(s) Xbox 360, Steam
Platform(s) Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Steam (software)
Release date(s) June 24th 2011
Genre(s) Action, adventure
Mode(s) Single-player, split screen/online multiplayer

Total Miner is a 2011 Xbox Live Indie Game developed and published by Craig Martin, founder of Studio Forge Ltd (previously Greenstone Games). It is a block-building sandbox-style game similar to Minecraft[1][2] and Miner Dig Deep. It has been confirmed the game will be released on both PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam

Gameplay

Gameplay of Total Miner consists of placing and mining blocks.[3] The game consists of several distinct game modes: Creative, in which the user has unlimited block resources, Dig Deep mode in which the objective is to reach the bottom of the generated world finding blueprints to craft items with the limited resources available, and Survival mode, a new and incomplete game mode in which the player's objective is to survive the onslaught of hostile mobs with limited resources. In Dig Deep mode and Survival, the ground also contains cave systems with spiders, mobs and hidden treasures throughout. These caves may also collapse.[3]

The player also has the ability to craft resources and put them together to create various other blocks, tools, or weapons. However, there are also stores from which blocks, tools, and weapons can be purchased. To buy these, the player uses gold pieces, which can be earned from the mining and selling of blocks, or tools, or from treasure chests in caves.[3]

In the third update (version 1.5), the game added online multiplayer support and customization of the terrain generation. The next major update, version 1.8, added an incomplete Survival mode in which there is a day/night cycle, beds that can be used to sleep through night or day, and two additional hostile mobs. The update also added HD texture pack support, seasonal changes, copy/paste, photos, the ability to ghost other players and lots of new items such as proximity mines, ambient sound blocks, one way glass, rares and half blocks.[4] The version 2.0 update added player skills, survival mode improvements, powered circuits, scripts and more.[5] The current version (2.1) includes a major audio system overhaul, and added a global skills high score table, lots more script commands, animated liquid physics, weather (hail, rain, fog), a HUD compass and more. The proximity mines were replaced with proximity detectors.[6]

Reception

To a comment on "Wait… Another Minecraft Clone?" opening that Total Miner was plagiarized from Minecraft, author Briley Kenney responded that "unless the developers copy the actual programming code" it is not considered plagiarism. However Kenney did give a fairly positive review on it, stating that this is one of the best Minecraft clones on the Xbox Live Marketplace.[7]

In contrast, Bill from video gaming-focused blog ExtraGuy stated in his review that Total Miner is "essentially just Minecraft".[8]

Total Miner has been commercially successful on Xbox Live Indie Games; in May 2012, Total Miner became the best-selling game on XBLIG with over 800,000 paid downloads sold, surpassing another Minecraft-inspired game on the service, FortressCraft, by 50,000 downloads.[9] However, it lost this distinction when it was announced that another Minecraft-inspired game on XBLIG, CastleMiner Z, reached sales of at least 900,000 paid downloads on August 15, 2012.[10] Total Miner has since gone on to sell over 1.2 million copies.

Total Miner developer Craig Martin announced in September 2014 that Total Miner would be coming to PlayStation 4.[11] Following that in November 2014, he announced that he would be developing a Windows version of the game and submitting it to Steam Greenlight.The game has since then passed greenlight, although the exact release date is unknown.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "BFF Report Episode 80: Minecraft-Inspired Games". 2011-09-02. Retrieved 7 September 2011. Minecraft-inspired titles available on Xbox LIVE Indie Games. He tries out CastleMiner, FortressCraft and Total Miner. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  2. ↑ "BFF Report - Episode 80 - Minecraft Inspired Games". Retrieved 7 September 2011. voxel-based sandbox, or "Minecraft inspired,"
  3. 1 2 3 "About - Total Miner: Forge". Total Miner. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
  4. ↑ Craig Martin (2013-04-16). "1.8 features". Retrieved 2013-04-16.
  5. ↑ Craig Martin (2014-02-12). "2.0 features". Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  6. ↑ Craig Martin (2014-10-15). "2.1 - Next Update". Retrieved 2014-10-19.
  7. ↑ Kenney, Briley (30 June 2011). "Wait... Another Minecraft Clone?". The Happy Gamer. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  8. ↑ Bill (1 August 2011). "Total Miner review: Not crafty enough". ExtraGuy. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  9. ↑ Priestman, Chris (2012-05-04). "Place Your Bets: 'FortressCraft' Sells 750k, 'Total Miner' Surpasses 800k". Indie Game Magazine. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  10. ↑ Hinkle, David (August 18, 2012). "CastleMiner Z crests 900,000 sales, becomes fastest-selling XBLIG". Joystiq. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
  11. 1 2 Craig Martin (26 September 2014). "TM on PS4". Total Miner Forums. Retrieved 26 September 2014.

External links

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