This $5 Steam game about digging a hole has consumed my life

digitaltrends.com:

Over the weekend, I went out to a bar for a friend’s surprise birthday party. When I greeted him, he told me that the event had interrupted his other plans for the evening: digging a hole. He went on to tell me about a new $5 Steam game calledA Game About Digging a Hole, in which players dig a hole. I could not tell if he was joking or if this was a real thing that existed. I laughed it off and went on with the night.

Days later, I was so focused on my Steam Deck screen that I missed my subway stop and showed up late to a movie screening.

A Game About Digging a Hole is one of those games whose appeal is nearly impossible to describe. It’s in the same niche tent as Powerwash Simulator, taking a mundane premise and turning it into something hypnotic. I don’t even know if it’s something I should be formally recommending, as it’s best discovered by accident and bought on a curious whim. Just pretend I’m relaying everything I’m about to write to you in the back corner of a bar between drinks.

If you can read the game’s title, you have most of the premise down. Some fast story setup tells me that my character has bought a new house for dirt cheap, and it came with a bonus: There’s treasure buried in the backyard. With a battery-powered trowel in hand, I begin digging into a small patch of grass outside. My holes are shallow at first, only deep enough to uncover stones. I can take those rocks to my computer and sell them, netting me cash that can be used to upgrade my gear. I can get a bigger shovel, increase my inventory, get a bigger battery, and eventually pick up a jetpack. Cash can also be spent to top off my battery (which explodes when it hits zero) and health, as well as buy TNT and lamps — useful tools once I get deeper.

• This Steam hack has saved me a ton of money on PC games
• Valve has made sharing games on Steam easier than ever
• This $3 horror game is the creepiest thing you can buy on Steam right now

What quickly emerges is a