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Screenshot 1
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Screenshot 2
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Screenshot 3
Inspiration
I already had an online multiplayer game called Meow Playground, and watching how people actually used it was the whole idea. They weren't there to compete. They'd hang around, dig, and spend ages dressing up their cats.
So I wanted to make something small that was only that. No multiplayer, no other players, nothing to keep up with. An idle game fit it exactly, and I already had the art.
What it does
Cat Diggers is a cozy idle miner. You run a crew of mining cats, upgrade them, unlock abilities, and let them keep working while your phone is in your pocket. Come back later and collect what they pulled up.
The twist is that the cosmetics are something you dig up. You find them down there, then dress your cats in them, so the crew ends up looking like yours and nobody else's.
There's one purchase, $4.99, for VIP status. Normally a 2x earnings boost means watching an ad for a temporary bump. VIP doubles your earnings permanently, with no ads involved.
How I built it
Cat Diggers was a browser game first. All the 2D art is hand drawn, the cats, the cave and every cosmetic. No AI used for any of it.
Capacitor turned the project into a real Android app, which worked out great.
Purchases run through RevenueCat.
Challenges I ran into
The numbers. An idle game is really just an economy, and getting the upgrade curve right was the part I kept coming back to.
Make upgrades too cheap and you hit the ceiling in one evening, and then there's no reason to open the app again. Too expensive and it stops feeling like a reward and starts feeling like a wall. It also has to work for two different playstyles at once, whether that's someone checking in a few times a day or someone who forgets about it for a week and comes back.
What I learned
Mostly how RevenueCat works, since this was my first time using it.
What's next
Push notifications, so the cats can tell you when they've hit something good. And more challenges for people who want a longer goal list.
Built With
- javascript
- pixi.js
- spine
