Diamond Mine (game)
This article is about the 2000 web browser game. For the Bejeweled 3 game mode, see Diamond Mine. For the badge, see Diamond, Mine.
Diamond Mine is a tile match-3 game developed by PopCap Games, and the first game to be developed by the studio under their current name. It is the original title for the video game Bejeweled and is the first playable version of the game. It was released for browsers originally in November 2000.[1]
The core game mechanic of Diamond Mine involves matching three or more gems in a row to score points.
Diamond Mine was released in two different variations online for web browsers: a version of the game that ran on the Java platform, and a version that ran on Adobe Flash Player. The Flash version of the game was developed by GameRival.
Overview
Diamond Mine is a match-3 game that involves matching three or more gems horizontally or vertically. Clearing four or more gems at once award bonus points. When gems disappear, gems fall from above, possibly creating cascades.
The Java version of the game features three modes, labelled under skill levels.
Skill Level 1
Skill Level 1 is the default and is considered to be the "easy/practice" mode of the game, Matching gems will fill up the bonus bar at the bottom of the screen. When it is filled up completely, a Bonus effect occurs, where multiple gems are cleared at once, awarding bonus points. The game ends when no moves are possible. This skill level becomes the Normal mode in Bejeweled.
Skill Level 2 and 3
Skill Level 2 and 3 are timed versions of the game. The bonus bar starts at half, and slowly decreases. A skull icon is seen at the left side of the Bonus bar. The bonus bar extends when matches are made. When the bonus bar is completely filled, the Bonus effect occurs, and the Bonus bar restarts at half. If the bonus bar depletes completely, the game ends. Skill Level 2 is the easy version, where the bar depletes slowly, while it depletes faster in Skill Level 3. These skill levels become the Time Trial mode in Bejeweled.
The Flash version of Diamond Mine simply features a Skill Level 1 game mode with a five minute time limit.
Development
Development on Diamond Mine began after Sexy Action Cool rebranded to PopCap Games, with the team wanting to make a game that was "simple, web-based, and made in Java". Diamond Mine was mainly based on Colors Game, a game that involves matching three or more colored boxes, but lacked unique visuals, animation or sound. The development team disliked the presentation but liked the gameplay, which led them to improve on the game.
The team decided to give the playing pieces (which were originally squares) unique looks to give them personality, and make the game accessible for colorblind people. The team decided on what objects would be used as the playing pieces. Fruits were considered at one point, but was rejected since many fruits "looked too round". Gems were considered as well, but was rejected after not being able to find interesting variations of gemstones on the internet. Jason Kapalka decided to use simple geometric shapes, but found them to be "boring", until he doodled ideas for playing pieces, a few of them which involved transforming the geometrical shapes to give them a "gem-like appearence", which led to gems being used in the final product.
Originally, the game was planned to release without any timed modes, but a time limit feature was added to give the game "an arcade-like feel". Around the time the game was almost finished, a difficulty level without the time limit was added in-game as the default starting level, which was intended to act as a tutorial.[2]
Release
Diamond Mine was released on the Java platform for web browsers in November 2000.[1] Several alternate variants, which promote Bejeweled Deluxe after a game ends were created following the release of Bejeweled Deluxe.
Trivia
- The game is named after Diamond Mine, a song by the Canadian rock band Blue Rodeo.[2]
- According to Jason Kapalka, the timed modes (Skill Level 2 and 3) were added to make the game challenging, and were about to be the only modes in the game.
- The untimed mode (Skill Level 1) was added as a tutorial mode at the last minute, which resulted many players becoming familiar with the untimed Skill Level 1.[3]
- The BONUS sound effect sounds nearly identical to the power-up sound effect from the Super Mario Bros. series.
- The original gem textures from this game would appear again in Bejeweled 2 (through a secret code) and Chuzzle's BeChuzzed game mode.
- The Bejeweled 3 game mode Diamond Mine is named after this game.
- The Legendary Gem artifact found in the game mode resembles the original Blue Gem sprite from this game.
Gallery
Game Logo
Game logo (Flash version)
The gems as they appear in the Java version.
The gems as they appear in the Flash version.
Screenshot of the Java Version
Screenshot of the Flash version
References
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- Bejeweled (series)
- Video games
- Games