In 2012, DigitalDNA games started plans to port the game to Steam via the platform's green-lighting program. The game quickly became popular, and was, according to the Director of Programming for Xbox Live, Larry Hryb, the most-played Xbox Live Indie Game by the end of 2012. Development and release ĬastleMiner Z was released on November 9, 2011, to the Xbox Live Indie Games section of the Xbox Live Marketplace on the Xbox 360 by DigitalDNA Games. In multiplayer, players take control of their Xbox avatar and an online chat is also added allow players to communicate with each other in-game. ĬastleMiner Z's multiplayer supports up to 8 players. Around 3600 "blocks" away from spawn, an undead dragon has a chance to spawn, which acts as the final boss of the game. The dragon fires "flame bullets", which can destroy terrain and buildings built by players. After a certain amount of time has passed, a dragon will spawn. The most common enemies are zombies and skeletons, who spawn during nights. In the game, players fight enemies using guns and knives. In create mode, players are given infinite materials to build with. In endurance mode, players starts with some resources and are tasked with unlocking achievements. In survival mode, players need to gather resources themselves by mining and felling. ĬastleMiner Z is divided into three modes: survival, endurance, and create. CastleMiner Z was the best-selling game on Xbox Live Indie Games, reaching 1 million downloads in September 2012.
Critics noted how the game's cheap price of 69 pennies on Xbox 360 made the game appealing to buy for consumers however, the Steam price of $9 was criticized for being too expensive. Ĭritics called CastleMiner Z a cash grab and criticized its lack of care. Designer Thomas Steinke stated in a Gamasutra blog that doesn't see CaslteMiner Z as a clone, rather, a "creative expansion on a genre". ĬastleMiner Z has often been called a clone of Mojang's Minecraft. The game was released for the Xbox 360 in 2011 and was later ported to Steam in February 2014. The game is a sequel to 2011's CastleMiner and takes place in a block-based environment where the player has to gather resources to make weapons to kill enemies. Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 665: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).ĬastleMiner Z is a 2011 survival sandbox game developed and published by DigitalDNA Games. 2011 survival sandbox gameTemplate:SHORTDESC:2011 survival sandbox game CastleMiner Z