CORE SAMPLE | Devpost

Inspiration

I was inspired by mining and resource management games, but I wanted to make something faster and more hands-on

The idea was to combine mining, exploration, and progression with a simple swipe mechanic, then build a management loop around gathering resources, investing them into upgrades, and using those upgrades to push deeper each run

What it does

CORE SAMPLE is a fast-paced mining and management game built around a repeating loop of harvesting, investing, upgrading, and expanding

Swipe in the direction you want to travel and your mining machine launches when you lift your thumb, with the distance based on the strength of your swipe

As you move underground, you break apart crystals and collect them as resources, while breaking through solid rock uses charge, so every run becomes a balance between pushing farther, collecting more, and knowing when to return home

Everything you bring back is used directly for progression, there is no selling screen or separate currency, the crystals in your storage are the same resources used to buy upgrades, improve your mining operation, and rebuild THE SHELL

THE SHELL is the crashed ship you arrived in, and rebuilding it becomes one of the main goals of the game, its twenty cells represent different pieces of the damaged hull, giving you a clear visual sense of growth as you invest more resources into it

The main loop is simple:

Mine resources → return home → choose what to upgrade → improve THE SHELL → go deeper → collect better resources → repeat

Each upgrade changes what you can do on the next run, letting you travel farther, stay underground longer, collect more valuable materials, and make your mining operation more efficient over time

The soundtrack also reacts to how you play, with seven synthesized voices generated live on an 88 BPM grid in A minor, moving through six arrangements before reaching a double-time FEVER state when your mining reaches its peak

How we built it

CORE SAMPLE was built without a traditional game engine or external libraries

All visuals are created with Canvas 2D, while every sound in the game, including the full soundtrack, is generated using Web Audio synthesis, with no recorded audio files included in the build

The entire game runs from one self-contained index.html file that is about 1.3 MB and 26,611 lines long, and it can run completely offline

The project was created with Claude Code across 203 documented development sessions, with each session recorded in a build log covering what was requested, what was built, what broke, and what changed along the way

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was learning to approach development differently

I was not directly writing code and was doing very little traditional visual design, instead I described the mechanics, systems, progression, and overall experience I wanted using conversational English

Rather than telling the AI how to code something, I focused on explaining how the game should feel, how the systems should work together, what was not working, and what needed to change

This made the process feel much more like working as a Producer and Game Designer than as a programmer

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am most proud of how the simple mining mechanic connects to the larger management loop

Every trip underground gives you resources that can be invested into upgrades, those upgrades make the next trip more productive, and that continued progress is reflected visually through THE SHELL

The soundtrack is another part I am especially proud of, since there are no traditional music files in the game at all

Seven synthesized voices, six arrangements, chord-aware reward sounds, and the double-time FEVER state are all generated live while you play

What we learned

I learned that plain English can work surprisingly well when building with AI, especially when the focus is on clearly explaining what the player should experience instead of how something should be coded

I also learned how important it is for management systems to connect with one another, collecting resources needs to affect upgrades, upgrades need to change future runs, and those improvements need to create visible growth for the player

Approaching the project as a Producer and Game Designer gave me the best results because I could focus on the overall experience, progression, and balance rather than the implementation itself

What's next for CORE SAMPLE

The next step is expanding the simulation and management side of the game with more choices, deeper progression, and more reasons to optimize your mining operation

The underground world already generates indefinitely, but I want deeper areas to feel more distinct, with new materials, hazards, mechanics, and problems that require different upgrades and strategies

I also want to expand THE SHELL, add a daily system with changing goals, and build out more of the story surrounding the crash and what lies deeper underground

The goal is to keep strengthening the core loop of harvesting resources, deciding where to invest them, seeing your operation grow, and using that growth to push farther each time