‘Hollowspire’ Steadily Builds a Jolly, Efficient Mining Crew

Hollowspire sees you continually upgrading your miners and mining abilities so you can dig for resources faster and faster.

This is one of those games that I told myself I would try out to see if I wanted to write about it only to find an hour had passed. Having it be very simple to get into certainly helped with initially dragging me in. You just have to click on the blocks of sand and rock to chip away at them with your pickaxe. Do enough damage and the rock gets broken down and you make a few bucks (and pick up some resources depending on the type of block you mined). You can then re-invest the funds you make into improving your damage, adding multipliers, or saving your poor mouse buttons by giving yourself an auto-attack.

Mining is too lonely an experience to do all by yourself, though, so why not bring in a few buddies? You can spend your funds on calling in more miners and upgrading them as well. These cute little buddies will meander around the map and help you dig, increasing the speed with which you cut through each level of the mine while just looking really cute as they wobble around. You can also craft them some new hats, shoes, and pickaxes to make them move faster and be able to do more damage to the blocks. Watching the little goofballs fly around as you work adds a lot to the fun of the game, and I found myself unconsciously digging paths to find them if they ever moved out of sight. The only drag is that they don’t seem to function properly in the browser version of the game, so don’t expect much work from them unless you download the game.

Hollowspire is a straightforward yet charming experience that I happily sunk a bunch of time into on a quiet night where I just wanted to detach and unwind. Something about cute miners, making numbers get bigger, and seeing earth get dug up just made for a delightful game.

Hollowspire is available now (for free) on itch.io.

About The Author

Joel Couture

Joel has been covering indie games for various sites including IndieGames.com, Siliconera, Gamasutra, Warp Door, CG Magazine, and more over the past seven years, and has written book-length studies on Undertale and P.T.. Joel is constantly on the lookout for digital experiences that push the boundaries of what games can be, and seeks to delve into the creative process, meanings, and emotion labor that goes into the work of artists worldwide.