A portion of a Medium interview with Brjann Sigurgeirsson...

Geek Empire: What was the game like before you reworked it?

B.S.: It was quite strict — you had to dig down in a zigzag pattern in order to be able to get up again. We noticed how our polite testers held out for a while, but were noticeably bored after an hour or two. We decided to scrap the “dig intelligent” approach, and let people dig the way they saw fit. We also got a few “What am I supposed to do now?” reactions, which was mildly alarming, and we realized we would need milestone areas in the game — predesigned caves and friendly, non-intrusive hints at what to do next.

From the beginning, we also had heavy tutorials, and they were no fun. It could be a “this is how you use your speed boots” segment, which really intruded on the experience. Or, at the very start of the game, instructions on how to move and mine. We realized after a while that they weren’t needed — people would get it! Instead, once you got a new upgrade, we could present the player with an obstacle that could only be dealt with using the new upgrade, and give a super-tiny hint of the button combination needed to activate it.