Stone Miner

 

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

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Today the steam-rollers are loaded up with: Stone Miner

Today I have a fast and quick blog for you. Today is a very simple game where you control a steam-roller and have to chop away rocks. There is no title screen as this game sends you straight into the game. You have to clear away most of the level to get 3 stars. The further away the stones are from the dock, the harder it is to break the rock. Overall, this game is very chill and relaxing.

Once your cart is full you have to drive back and sell the stones. You use these coins to upgrade the vehicle to be stronger or faster. If you want you could potentially upgrade everything with out actually playing the game by watching videos. I wouldn't recommend doing this as this game is so easy. At some points on the map you will find a mine cart that you can load up and it sells for you but you must use emeralds to buy it or watch a video. As you progress you unlock more buildings. A pet shop allows you to buy and upgrade pets that give you some buffs. These pets use emeralds to upgrade as well. Lastly is a factory which I have not open up yet.

There are about 20 some maps right now. You can work to get 3 stars and these will be used later on. There are rarely some events as well that show up, currently is halloween and it has a time-limit of how long you can play in the levels to earn pumpkins. (No screenshots for this event, sorry.)

Now you may be wondering what all these stars do; They allow you to buy buildings on your own personal island. You can then earn emeralds that are used to buy cosmetics for your vehicle. These are a premium currency but it's nice to see its farmable. Oh and you can choose a color for your building after you place it. You can only change the color of the last building placed though.

Lastly, a quick shot of the shop. Daily you get 3 free emeralds for just playing. This game is very generous for being a F2P with microtransactions. This is a nice game that removes a lot of the toxicity around this genre of game.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This is a nice and relaxing game where there is no pressure at all. Once you get everything completed in the main game it looks like the events are pushovers. This is a great F2P game that you can easily play anytime you have a few minutes. It can be played offline but progress doesn't save properly.

Story:

 0 of 5 cogs.

Your story is on another island.

Amount of ads:

 many

The one downside is the number of ads you see or have to view. There is a banner ad on the bottom of the screen that displays all the time. You have many optional ads you can watch and sometimes you get a forced video ad during certain parts of the game. Other than that, the ads are fairly tame compared to most games like this. It is chill about trying to force you to spend money and it is refreshing to see that.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

Yup, the videos for this game is straightforward and no clickbait here. 

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are very simplistic and only flat colored 3d objects. Some of the cosmetics are better looking than other games in this genra.

Gameplay:

 4 of 5 cogs.

A simple game that anyone can easily play and complete. This game is relaxing to play at any pace.

Free play:

💯%

No need to throw your hard earned cogs around for this one. The game is very generous to you and you can earn everything in a fairly short time of play.

Fun factor:

🏭 contstuctful.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

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Zen Idle

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Today I bring you the chill game: Zen Idle

I've played a few games from Kongregate. This company usually makes in-depth games with great art and interesting game mechanics, yet this is the first hyper-casual game I've seen from them.

The objective of this game is to cram many balls into the room and squash them. The balls spawn at different times and they fall down to gates that add multipliers to the ball's value.

At the top of the screen is the money that you collect along with premium blue diamonds.

As your total spent on upgrades grows, you gain extra perks once you level. They are temporary between resets.

This is the screen to upgrade your balls. You can decrease spawn time or raise the ball's value. As you gain more wealth you can unlock better balls.

The second tab holds all the level upgrades. As you buy new areas, the red gates turn blue and give you a money boost for passing them. (See the last picture to see the gates.)

The third tab is special perk cards. These give you permanent boosts as you use premium currency to unlock them. You get 10 diamonds daily or can sometimes watch videos.

The fourth tab just gives you some extra and temporary boosts.

Lastly, is an example of the gate. Not much to say here.

Overall:

 3 of 5 cogs.

This is a very chill game. Not much is here to keep you playing for too long.

Story:

 🚫 None. 

There is zero story in this game.

Amount of ads:

There are only optional ads you can watch for temporary boosts.

Advertised as seen:

💯 %

Every ad I've seen for this game has been truthful. They do not hide anything.

Graphics:

 1 or 5 cogs.

Come on. Flat colored shapes. All the graphics look like they were made by a kid. This is very disappointing as Kongregate has higher quality games than this.

Audio:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This is the first mobile game with memorable chill music. It sadly loops too quickly and becomes very repetitive. I would love to hear more tracks like this one.

Gameplay:

2 of 5 cogs.

Not much here. Tap on balls that get stuck and get money. There isn't much interaction here.

Free play:

💯 %

You do not have to pay any money at all to play this game.

Fun factor:

😐 average.

Not too much going for this hyper-casual game. It's fun to try for a time, but I lost interest rapidly.

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