It’s been a long time since Minesweeper came bundled with Windows. While the original will always be a classic, perhaps someone felt the grid-clicker was feeling a little dated. Perhaps it’s long past time someone updated Minesweeper as a first-person shooter.
Mine Shaft by Krzyhau does exactly that, replacing Minesweeper’s flat grid with a Minecraft-style series of caverns, clogged up by those nerve-wracking numbered grey blocks. You know the drill. Click a bomb, and you’re out.
With that one change, Minesweeper suddenly becomes a terrifying navigational challenge. It’s not enough just to avoid clicking bombs—you have to try and carve a path through an explosive labyrinth. It also makes it much harder to keep track of where potential traps might lie, urging a more methodical approach. Dive right in, and you’ll quickly find yourself losing track of how deep the bombs might lie.
The short game was created as part of last weekend’s Ludum Dare 48 game jam. If the developer’s name sounds familiar, it’s because Krzyhau is also the architect behind those utterly cursed Portal 2 chambers. Fortunately, Mine Shaft isn’t quite as absurd as those broken maps.
Mine Shaft is free to play in your browser over on Itch.