Designed by Julien Charbonnier and published by Mangrove Games, DIG is a card drawing push your luck game. Players are digging underground galleries to unearth metals and jewels that can be used to hire recruits to open more mining galleries and companions to help tackle thieves and creatures that can wreck your dig and steal your treasure. The game is a race to be the first to collect 10 purple gems.
DIG uses its pixel art to good effect in this appealing game. Although there is quite an array of different cards with a plethora of different effects, game play is actually quite simple, making this an enjoyable family game.
The large majority of push your luck games use dice. Because DIG uses a draw deck, players have a chance to consciously or subconsciously play the odds: they can calculate the increased likelihood of particular cards coming up based on the cards that have already been drawn. The rulebook lists the number of copies of each card type, although it would have been helpful if this information were also included on the player aid.
The version shown here is the first edition, which wasn’t blessed with the clearest of rulebooks, but if you’re quick there’s still a couple of days left to back the second edition of DIG which is on Kickstarter right now. As part of the Kickstarter, the rulebook has been updated, and the second edition of the game introduces a DIG Dragon expansion, offering the chance of more treasure for those adventurers willing to risk waking the sleeping dragon.