Hi

Im planning a game in the style of the old "Lost dutchmans mine". You are a miner/prospector in the wild west.

You can pan for gold in rivers, need to buy supplies, mules, food etc. You sell ore in towns and explore the map.

You keep track of hunger, thirst, sleep and health (as well as items and animals)

The main income is from shaft mining (not entierly realistic for a single guy, but hey it's fun!)

You find good locations on the map to start mining by

• chance
• using a dowser rod
• getting tips
• buying maps.

Your mining shafts remain on the map so you can return to them later.

Now for the mechanics of mining itself. Screen below is from "pocket mine 2": Im thinking a vertical tile-based mining "minigame" may suit my idea for this game.

• You drain your pickaxes, time and your own energy resource depending on material (harder material is thougher)
• There can be cave ins if you dig to aggressivly without adding supports.
• You drain your torches/lamps
• You can use dynamite to faster excavate (but costly and risky)
• You can get hurt from accidents
• You may need to attach ropes to climb back up again or risk being trapped in your mine!
• You find ore of various types and quality (copper, silver, gold and maybe more). 
• Your carrying capacity is limited and you need to travel back to towns and trading posts to resupply and sell stuff.

What would you add? What to avoid? The feeling im going for is a mix of adventure game and survival sim. Tools can have different quality, you can run into rattle snakes, robbers, and hostile indians. You need to sleep in safe places etc.

Noone?

Particularily dangers and challanges in the mine would be good. I dont want to add fantastical stuff like monsters attacking you down in the mine, but otherwise its hard to come up with stuff...

Maybe something semi-real like angry moles or something

Otherwise the risk of collapse is all, on top of having to juggle resources like ropes, tools and your own energy.

Maybe you can hit underground water pockets that can flood the mine? Mostly set in Arizona-like scenario with dry terrain so not a super solution but i might move the setting. It needs to be wild west but can maybe be the rockies in utah or idaho.

Honestly, I think you've got the basics. I was also thinking of mentioning water as a hazard and pointing to an old flash game called "Go to Hell". And another thought being to have the player need to haul whatever is mined back to the surface (if not back to town as well) which could be a reason to build a network of mine carts.

But I'm not sure whether these things fit well with your notion of having a mix of survival and adventure.

6 hours ago, suliman said:

I dont want to add fantastical stuff like monsters attacking you down in the mine, but otherwise its hard to come up with stuff...

There isn't that much.

Possibly different resources, but, as the player is going to sell them anyway they could only be different in how-hard-to-find and price.

I think you may have something with pockets of dangerous materials. I can think of gas pockets that explode if dynamite is used on them, or if you break into one and the gas reaches your torches. Perhaps having some sort of residue building up after mining certain ores leaving toxic clouds behind that suffocate you and/or slowly drain your health as you traverse them, forcing you to purchase face masks, or even drain out the gases and sell them as waste or cheap fuel. A short look through the Wikipedia article on coal mining provides a fantastic amount of dangers to mining as a whole, I suggest you take to reading articles on real-life mining even if they aren't about shaft-mining; after all, creative liberty is a thing.

Unless you're avoiding the much over-used California gold rush of 1849, there are tons of actual towns/stories you could use for inspiration and EVERY kind of environment up in those hills.  Flooding, freezing temps, temps over 100degF, rattle-snakes(HUGE), BEARS(all sizes), big 8 to 10inch long centipedes, some scorpions, the place is a smorgasbord of possible hazards today, can't imagine what it was like in the 1800s..   I spent a year or so prospecting some of the old gold-rush areas a few years back, it's incredible.  Even today though, the biggest hazard to cross the path of a miner, another miner.  Fiercely territorial, more-so than the bears, and way more guns...   I like your concept so far, sounds great!!

Edit: I forgot to mention volcanoes...  They got those too! 

Love the idea bro, Definitely a great platform to launch yourself from and it sounds like a very good size project for a single, but capable developer
How much experience have you got?

On 1/23/2019 at 8:03 AM, suliman said:

Hi

Im planning a game in the style of the old "Lost dutchmans mine". You are a miner/prospector in the wild west.

You can pan for gold in rivers, need to buy supplies, mules, food etc. You sell ore in towns and explore the map.

You keep track of hunger, thirst, sleep and health (as well as items and animals)

The main income is from shaft mining (not entierly realistic for a single guy, but hey it's fun!)

You find good locations on the map to start mining by

• chance
• using a dowser rod
• getting tips
• buying maps.

Your mining shafts remain on the map so you can return to them later.

Now for the mechanics of mining itself. Screen below is from "pocket mine 2": Im thinking a vertical tile-based mining "minigame" may suit my idea for this game.

• You drain your pickaxes, time and your own energy resource depending on material (harder material is thougher)
• There can be cave ins if you dig to aggressivly without adding supports.
• You drain your torches/lamps
• You can use dynamite to faster excavate (but costly and risky)
• You can get hurt from accidents
• You may need to attach ropes to climb back up again or risk being trapped in your mine!
• You find ore of various types and quality (copper, silver, gold and maybe more). 
• Your carrying capacity is limited and you need to travel back to towns and trading posts to resupply and sell stuff.

What would you add? What to avoid? The feeling im going for is a mix of adventure game and survival sim. Tools can have different quality, you can run into rattle snakes, robbers, and hostile indians. You need to sleep in safe places etc.

Good idea, definitely has potential. Some things that just popped in my head while reading through this a second time:

1. The miner could starts as a novice or some other measure/rank of his/her level of skill and experience.
2. The more ores, and the better quality ones, they mine and sell, the more their rank would increase.
3. Higher ranks would come with increased carrying capacity, slower drain of axes, time, energy resources, etc.
4. Also with higher ranks you can buy/make better axes and whatever else tools there might be in the game.
5. At lower ranks there may be certain terrains/materials you can't mine, but at higher ones you would be able to.
6. Better terrains and materials would yield better ores.
7. Perhaps under certain conditions, such as reaching a certain point in the game or a certain rank, you can recruit another miner from nearby towns to help you mine.