Fossil Sweeper - minesweeper meets palaeontology (was Bonesweeper)

cheeseness · February 7, 2024, 10:42pm

Hi hi! My name’s Cheese, and I’m currently making a Minesweeper-inspired puzzle game called Fossil Sweeper, where instead of being about boring stuff like unexploded ordinances, it’s about finding the most exciting buried treasure, DINOSAURS!

I stream weekly on Twitch for “Fossil Friday” and also release monthly dev log videos. Here’s the most recent one (which is a bit bigger than usual, sumarising the 2nd year of development):

At the time of writing, I’ve been working on this larger version of the project for about 2 years, following releasing a little prototype that explored the basic premise.

My current short pitch is “Like Minesweeper, but you’re digging up fossils, and you get to build skeletons out of the stuff you find,” and structurally, the project is a Minesweeper-style game wrapped in layers of metaprogression, each with their own distinct gameplay:

Dig phase yields fossil chunks and possible misc fossils
Assembly phase lets you build fossil chunks into skeletons and reveals misc fossil contents
Museum phase lets you showcase your skeletons and misc fossils
Research phase lets you “spend” spare fossils on additional museum rooms, customisation options, abilities, etc.

All of these game loops are present in the game, and I’m currently focused on fleshing out the museum phase to a point where I feel comfortable moving from my quick-and-dirty first pass to a more-thought-out final implementation.

I’m making Fossil Sweeper with the support of a small recoupable grant from Screen Tasmania, a local State funding body mostly focused on film, but expanding into supporting game development. To help demistify the process and share what I’ve learned, I did a three part stream where I talked about my grant application, going over my pitch doc, preliminary budget, and navigating the feedback process.

Last, but not least, I’m not making Fossil Sweeper on my own - I’m working with composer Peter Silk (who collaborated with me on some of my previous Godot games, Hive Time, Bat Egg, and Supply Chain), and sound designer Jasmine Serrano (who is also working with me on In The Snowy Winter’s Wake).

I’m looking forward to sharing more with the community as I progress!

cheeseness · February 7, 2024, 10:52pm

Since doing the dev log in the first post, I’ve taken a little break from museum stuff to lay some groundwork on some bits and pieces that help increase the amount of variation in the game.

I’ve re-implemented skeleton size variation (weighted for adults, but also allowing for less-common itty-bitty-saurs). This was present in my first pass on the Assembly phase, but I’d temporarily taken it out while integrating it with the rest of the game. The skeletons and poses here are still placeholder, of course

I’ve also finally gotten around to implementing non-square dig sites, which a) help make digs feel a bit less “samey,” and b) give a point of difference from traditional Minesweeper that’s less subtle and easier to convey than stuff like the excavation mechanic, limited-use special abilities, mistakes not giving an immediate game over, etc…

Organic-shaped Dig sites don’t have as big an impact on the feel of playing as those other things, but for prospective players who haven’t yet gotten interested enough to invest time in thinking through the gameplay implications, this will hopefully act as a superficial hook and increase the chances of a “Oh, maybe it is different from Minesweeper” type thought.

cheeseness · February 26, 2024, 4:15am

Little later than I aim for, but I’ve got another dev log video up!

This one goes into detail on how I’m generating non-square dig sites, which as I mentioned earlier adds some really valuable variation to the game (it was fun to put this visualisation thing in the game for testers to poke around with if they want).

cheeseness · March 19, 2024, 1:05am

Time for another Fossil Sweeper progress update video. A short one this time, looking at a new dig gameplay option, assembly fixes, and museum editing interface work!

I think I’ve settled on a near isometric (it’s not orthographic since I can’t animate a camera from perspective to orthographic) interface for the museum editing mode, and I’ve added a new dig gameplay option that allows for much faster play.
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cheeseness · April 25, 2024, 5:37am

April video is here! Another short one, but with some significant milestones!

We’ve gotten the last Dig biome music track in (there’s a clip in the video), which at the time I recorded it, I thought was the last track that the game needed, but I later checked some notes and found that we had one more left. I’m feeling like that last track isn’t necessary, but we’ll see how Peter (the game’s composer) is feeling.

I also finally wrapped up an implementation for wall and ceiling placement, and got that out into test builds.

I’m really looking forward to moving onto other aspects of the game. Next up is giving more attention to the presentation of dig biomes, which is something I’ve been looking forward to for a while.

Renfri · May 4, 2024, 6:53am

It’s looking amazing. The map phase reminds me of x-com but for palaeontology. I feel like minesweeper is a solid choice for the dig phase, and while I’ve never really played a lot of minesweeper, the addition of everything else adds enough to make it interesting to people like me who wouldn’t normally be interested in minesweeper. The assembly phase looks downright fun.

Does the Museum Phase have any impact on gameplay? While the museum has an amazing amount of customization, it seems to function only as a gallery of achievements. Would be interesting if adding more exhibits increased public interest which in turn unlocked some unique benefit. E.g. special requests from other museums to conduct joint projects or something else unique that added something unique back to other game modes.

cheeseness · May 4, 2024, 7:47am

Thanks for your kind words!

The intention with the Museum phase is that it’s primarily a customiseable trophy case that players can walk around, and also an opportunity for me to surface real-world information on palaeontology and extinct animals (if you’ve played Hive Time, and recall the Beepedia’s “true bee facts,” the informational displays in the museum will serve the same purpose, citing and directing players toward real-world research, etc.).

I’m keen for the Museum phase to manifest as a place for reflection, leaving it to players to set their own meta-goals for what they’d like to populate it with/how they’d like to present things rather than having gameplay systems driving that.

I’ve got some plans for how interacting with other museums/palaeontologists will be presented in the game, but that’s going to primarily be constrained to the Map phase.

I can definitely imagine a compelling museum-flavoured management sim (it’s a great idea, and would love to play one!), but I think that would be best as its own game.

cheeseness · June 2, 2024, 8:21am

It’s been a super busy month with other projects (a game I was doing contract work on came out a couple of days ago \o/). I still found time to do a little more museum work though.

cheeseness · June 30, 2024, 1:49pm

Another busier-than-I’d-like month, but I managed to make some headway of Dig environment backgrounds and am starting to feel like I’m picking up some momentum again. I think heightmaps are going to give me the best/most efficient results here (and initial impressions from outside the period this video covers are looking pretty good!)

cheeseness · July 26, 2024, 7:18am

Time for another devlog! In this video, I’m joined by Fossil Sweeper’s composer Peter Silk to talk about effort and thought that went into the game’s wonderful soundtrack.

My development attention has mostly gone into Dig phase environment backgrounds. You can spot a couple of those in the video, but to highlight how things are progressing here’s a comparison with a screenshot from June.

cheeseness · August 27, 2024, 3:48am

Very late mid-month Fossil Sweeper progress update video. Still got a ways to go, dig sites are now really feeling like they’re taking place out in the world.

I’ve enjoyed reworking my grass models. I’ve been really surprised at how much more “like grass” I’ve been able to get my original texture by adding a few more polygons.