Crystal Miner

OVERVIEW

The Project

Crystal Miner revolves around a compact mining-progression loop. The player enters the mine, excavates terrain to collect resources, manages limited pickaxe durability, and spends gathered materials on upgrades before returning to the mining cycle.

SYSTEM HIGHLIGHTS

Core Systems

A selection of core gameplay systems highlighted through media and code.

TECHNICAL PRESENTATION

Gameplay + Code

01 — MovementClick-based movement used to navigate the mining area and position the player before excavation.

The mouse-only branch resolves horizontal direction toward the clicked destination and stops within a configurable arrival tolerance. This is a branch from MovePlayer; collision checks and fixed-step displacement follow it.

Movement

Click-based navigation used to position the player throughout the mining area.

CONTRIBUTION: Implemented the project's basic click-based movement loop.

CLICK-BASED MOVEMENTPROJECT SOURCE / Assets/Scripts/Player/PlayerMovement.cs / C#

case Manager_KeyBindingManager.ControlScheme.MouseOnly:    if (isMoving)    {        float horizontalDistance = targetPosition.x - transform.position.x;        if (Mathf.Abs(horizontalDistance) <= destinationTolerance)        {            isMoving = false;        }        else        {            moveDirection = horizontalDistance > 0f ? Vector2.right : Vector2.left;        }    }    break;

ARCHITECTURE

System Map

Mining and progression loop

The verified gameplay flow connects player navigation, excavation, traversable-space adjustment, resource gain, and equipment progression. Pickaxe durability constrains digging within the loop.

Player Input
- Flows to: Navigation
Navigation
- Flows to: Digging
Digging
- Flows to: Sprite Mask
- Flows to: Pickaxe Durability (Constraint)
Sprite Mask
- Flows to: Area Adjustment
Area Adjustment
- Flows to: Resource Gain
Resource Gain
- Flows to: Upgrade System
Upgrade System
- Flows to: Improved Equipment
Improved Equipment
- Flows to: Return to Mining
Return to Mining
- Flows to: Navigation
Pickaxe Durability

SCOPE

Responsibilities

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS

Implemented the click-based movement and excavation interaction flow.
Connected movement, excavation, resource gain, and upgrades into the playable mining loop.

TERRAIN & TRAVERSAL

Used Sprite Masks to visually remove sections of terrain during digging.
Implemented progressive collider reduction and repositioning as excavation advanced, making newly excavated space traversable.

PROGRESSION

Built the upgrade flow used to spend gathered resources on gameplay improvements.

DEVELOPMENT NOTES

Development Process

01
CORE LOOP
The prototype was structured around a repeatable loop: navigate, excavate, gather resources, improve equipment, and return to mining.
02
EXCAVATION PROTOTYPE
Sprite Masks created the visible digging effect without rebuilding the terrain artwork itself.
03
TRAVERSABLE SPACE
Rather than reconstructing a collider for every excavated shape, the blocking collider was progressively reduced in width and shifted slightly away from the player as digging advanced. This delivered the intended traversal result with a simpler implementation.
04
PROGRESSION
The mining loop was connected to an upgrade system so gathered resources could feed back into further gameplay progression.

SELECTED MEDIA