This is my first Steam development update for Diggems. I am currently working toward the first public demo, and I want to start by showing what happens to everything you bring home from the mine.
The Forge has grown beyond making pickaxes. Recipes can now turn the gems, wood, ingots, materials, and gold you collect into swords, backpacks, dynamite, refined materials, and new mining tools.
Each item has a practical use. Pickaxe reach determines how many gems one swing can hit, backpacks provide more inventory space, swords help deal with enemies, and stronger dynamite covers a larger area.
Items you keep do not have to disappear into a menu. Gems, materials, equipment, recipes, eggs, and treasure can be placed directly in the Storage Room as 3D objects. They stay where you leave them until you decide to use them.
As you continue mining and forging, the room gradually becomes a visible collection of everything you have brought home.
These systems are now part of the main loop: mine for materials, bring them home, decide what to keep, and forge equipment for the next trip.
Not everything in the mine is there to be collected. Bats and other enemies can interrupt a mining trip, while goblins can knock items out of your backpack, grab the loot, and run for the exit.
Swords give you a dedicated way to fight back. The Golem requires a different approach: break the gems protecting its body before your attacks can deal full damage.
Together, these systems form the growing loop around each trip: mine for materials, bring them home, decide what to keep, forge useful equipment, and protect the haul from anything trying to take it.
I will share other parts of the game in future updates as the demo develops. Thank you for following Diggems.