Advanced underground drill mechanics - #Devlog 2

25 Jan 2026Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

The Core Splitter Drill #Devlog 2

In the previous version of Core Splitter, there was no interactive component to the Core Splitter Drill. It was just casually drilling ang progressing. That needed to change. So I added the Underground Drill View.

Here's an early prototype version of that:

With the prototype I verified that it definitely added to the experience so I made it more advanced and added the real assets:

At this point it was was fun to look at but I quickly lost interest, there was no reason to open this screen anymore. In order to make it more interactive I introduced the Core Resonance Forge building:

A unique building where you can unlock upgrades for the Core Splitter Drill's laser:

Upgrades are purchased with Core Essence, which in turn is received by destroying tiles in the Underground Drill View.

With these upgrades the Underground Drill View is actually something that is worth watching and interacting with via the upgrades. It's has idle/incremental game elements and it ties in with the factory by producing valuable resources faster. Many different effects trigger tile destruction:

I plan to add more upgrades in the full version of the game. The full version of the game also allows you to insert speed and damage upgrades that are produced by the factory, these are needed to break through the deeper layers.

A new Core Splitter Drill

I had already ditched most of the assets from the old prototype but was hanging on to the Core Splitter Drill as it consisted of 18 variable animation frames. However it was obvious it didn't fit the theme anymore and could be improved on:

Old: