A Game About Digging A Hole, developed by DoubleBee, ported by Mi’pu’mi Games GmbH, and published by rokaplay, is a minimalist exploration game built around a single idea: digging straight down in search of hidden treasure in your backyard. Check our A Game About Digging A Hole review!
Dig deep, sell what you find, update your equiptment to continue your journey further and further. With every spadeful you dig, you get closer to the truth. There’s no rush, no rules – just you and the adventure underground.
Premise and Progression
The game opens with a surprisingly grounded setup. While walking down the sidewalk, you notice a board advertising a house for sale, complete with the promise of buried treasure hidden in its backyard. You buy the house, grab a shovel, and begin digging at a pirate-like X conveniently marking the spot for you.
As you dig deeper, you uncover rocks and ores of increasing rarity. These materials can be sold from a computer in your backyard shed, with prices varying by ore type. This collecting-and-selling loop is your primary source of income, but it is notably slow during the first 15 to 30 minutes. Early progression feels deliberately restrained, asking for patience before the systems begin to open up.
Core Gameplay Loop
Digging itself is straightforward. Holding the R2 button uses your equipped shovel, which runs on battery power. In the early stages, your digging sessions are short, as energy drains quickly and most materials you find are used simply to keep your shovel operational. This makes the opening stretch feel basic and limited until you can afford meaningful upgrades.
As you invest in better equipment, the loop gradually improves. Each upgrade provides a small but noticeable benefit, and over time, you naturally learn which upgrades to prioritize depending on your preferred playstyle. While no single upgrade radically transforms the experience, their combined effect makes deeper exploration more manageable and rewarding.
One odd design choice on PlayStation 5 is the control scheme. Jumping is mapped to the L2 button on the DualSense controller, while all the face buttons go unused. It works, and you do manage to get the hang of things, but it feels unconventional and slightly counterintuitive on a console controller.
Exploration and Pacing
Exploration is where the game is at its most engaging. Digging deeper and using your radar to uncover new points of interest creates a genuine sense of curiosity. Discovering something unexpected beneath the surface remains exciting, even if those surprises are usually small, such as crates containing modest amounts of money.
That said, the overall pacing may not appeal to everyone. Between discoveries, you will spend long stretches shoveling dirt, returning to the shed to sell ore and recharge, then heading back into the hole to repeat the process. These quiet, repetitive segments are the backbone of the experience, and players who enjoy meditative loops will likely appreciate them more than those seeking constant novelty.
Technical Performance on PlayStation 5
Unfortunately, technical issues significantly affect the experience on PlayStation 5. A particularly frustrating bug prevents you from purchasing health, as the option is permanently non-selectable. This issue persists from the beginning to the end of the game, including in Achievement Mode. As a result, fall damage becomes a constant threat once you start exploring deeper areas.
Performance issues further compound the problem. The game frequently experiences slowdown or brief freeze frames that occur seemingly at random. These interruptions are more than cosmetic. In some cases, the game freezes while you are descending, then resumes with your character already dead at the bottom of the hole. When combined with the health bug, these moments can feel especially unfair.
Presentation and Technology
The game runs on the Unreal Engine and features a very minimal presentation. There is no background soundtrack, leaving you alone with the ambient sounds of digging and movement. While this reinforces the solitary tone, the lack of music also makes performance hiccups more noticeable.
Frequent slowdowns are disappointing, given that both the engine and the PlayStation 5 hardware should be more than capable of running this game. However, from a development perspective, the save system is impressive. Every shovel action is preserved, meaning that reloading a save reproduces the exact hole you previously dug. This level of persistence likely places a heavy technical load on the game, even if it does not fully excuse the performance issues.
Trophies
The trophy list consists of four Bronze trophies, four Silver trophies, and two Gold trophies for you to work on. This, unfortunately, means there’s no Platinum trophy. As a trophy hunter, this is a disappointing setup. During a normal playthrough, you will not unlock any trophies at all, which can easily feel like a bug at first.
Trophies only become available after completing the game once and unlocking Achievement Mode, a form of New Game+. On the positive side, the game carries your stats across runs, allowing you to work toward trophy requirements over time rather than starting from scratch. Even so, locking trophies behind a full completion is a design choice that will frustrate many completion-focused players.
In case you need some help, here’s a handy A Game About Digging A Hole Trophy Guide to help you in your adventure – although I recommend playing this game once without using a guide.
Conclusion
A Game About Digging A Hole succeeds at making digging feel quietly satisfying, and the gradual sense of discovery beneath the surface is genuinely enjoyable. The upgrade system gradually improves the loop while respecting different playstyles, and the persistent world design is technically impressive.
Despite its simplicity, the resulting experience felt better than the sum of its parts. That said, persistent bugs and frequent performance issues on PlayStation 5 hold the game back from reaching its full potential. While the experience remains engaging for patient players, these problems make it harder to recommend to every gamer. A Game About Digging A Hole is out on PlayStation 5 with a low price of only $4.99.
Disclaimer
This A Game About Digging A Hole review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by rokaplay.
