fathersave
fathersave (always lowercase) is a digging game heavily inspired by 2004’s Motherload, a Flash game that you can still play in-browser today despite Flash being deleted from existence. Motherload itself was the latest in a long line of digging games that stretched back to Dig Dug (and before?) and up through more modern games like the SteamWorld Dig series. In fathersave, you drive around a little drill vehicle to mine ore, then you sell the ore to buy gas and drill car upgrades so you can drill even deeper and faster.
The full game will supposedly take about two hours to get to the bottom, but I honestly could not reach it. It is TOUGH in the way that 2004 Flash games were, meant to keep you coming back for more, getting just a little better every time but never too good, too fast. It’s got the randomness of a roguelike but without upgrades that carry over — you just have to get better. (Edit: I have been informed that carry-over-able upgrades are a key quality of rogueLITES — not rogueLIKES. I’m sorry! So it is a roguelike because upgrades don’t carry over. I’ll try to do better next time.)
You can save at any point and maybe I was meant to cheese the saves a little bit more than I did in order to continue progressing well, but even once you come to grips with the controls (the Up button is your booster, and you’ll have to use it even when falling just one square if you don’t want to take damage), fuel was such a limited resource that you’ll really have to force yourself to delve deeper, slowly. Dig down, grab some ore, bring it back to sell, refuel and recharge your shields, repeat. Eventually, you’ll earn enough cash to upgrade your drill, your fuel tank, how much you can haul, and how strong your drill-mobile is, and upgrade costs range from a few hundred bucks to many thousands (a fuel refill at the beginning of the game, for comparison, is about $10).
The vehicle upgrades feel like weapons and armor in the original NES Dragon Warrior in that they make such a drastic difference, opening up access to areas you couldn’t have dreamed of reaching before obtaining them. But be careful, run out of fuel and your run is over, no matter how deep you drilled!
If you are the kind of Playdate gamer that isn’t scared by a little challenge and had fond memories of playing Flash games in school in 2004 (whatever age you were — let’s not talk about that), then getting good at fathersave will make you feel so good at games in general. It’s tough, but each new upgrade you obtain as you delve deeper into the Earth to unravel the mystery of who keeps calling you and why you’re actually digging… this is some pure, old-school gaming right here. I’m not strong enough to make it to the bottom, but you might be!
(Released August 4, 2026, on Catalog and Itch. Copy provided by developer.)