Delve

Arcade · plays in your browser, no download

Where it comes from

Boulder Dash, from 1984, and still the cleanest idea anyone has had about a falling rock: the earth is what holds it up, so digging is the same act as dropping. Everything hard in this game comes out of that one sentence, and nothing was added on top of it.

How to play

Dig through the earth, collect the gems you need, then reach the glowing door. It only opens once you have enough.
Use the four arrows, one square at a time. One step too many is how you die here.
Rocks are held up by the earth beneath them. Dig it away and they fall — as far as they can, so a whole column comes down at once.
Look up your column before you step. If there is a rock above you with no earth in between, it comes down on you — and the square you stand in is an empty one, so it will. A gem in the way does not save you: it lands in your hand and vanishes, and what was above it drops into its place.
A gem that falls on you lands in your hand. Only rocks crush.
You can push a rock sideways, if the square behind it is clear. Never up, never down.

What makes this one different

The rocks are held up by the earth you are digging away, so the game is a question you ask before every step: what is above me, and is there earth still holding it? Rocks fall straight down and nothing else, so what is over your head is the only thing that can reach you — and you can always see it. Every cave can be won without touching a single rock, and that is checked before it is handed to you.

▶ Play Delve