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I’m so grateful to Thorium Entertainment for agreeing to do this UnderMine 2 interview. Roguelites are one of my favourite genres, and UnderMine is one of my favourite roguelites, so I was thrilled to have this opportunity. UnderMine is a real-time combat roguelite where you venture into a dungeon known as the UnderMine. There, you must defeat enemies, gain relics and blessings, and try to earn as much gold and thorium as you can to purchase future upgrades. This game is so much fun, and can keep you entertained for hours on end. I usually prefer turn-based roguelites, but UnderMine is special.

When I heard that they were making a sequel, I was thrilled, and I knew I had to learn more. Huge thank you to Kyle Hilliard for helping to set everything up for this UnderMine 2 interview. Answers come from Creative Director Clint Tasker, and Tech Director Derek Johnson. The concept art provided was created by the game’s artist Courtland Winslow.

The Questions

Without further ado, let’s get into the interview! I conducted this as an email interview, which allowed them to answer in their own time. Each answer says who responded, and the answers are a mixture of responses from Derek and Clint. The answers are written exactly as I received them, except for a couple of minor typos which I’ve fixed on my end. Any hyperlinks added have been done so by me, not them. I wanted to ask a range of questions to not only learn more about the upcoming game, but to learn more about the inspirations behind its creation.

I was super excited to see that there would be a co-op mode. Can you tell us more about that? Is it local co-op only, or are there online options too? And how does that work with splitting gold/ relics? Does each player get their own, or is there a shared pool that affects both players?

Clint Tasker: It is local co-op only for now, but it will work with Steam’s Remote Play Together option. We’ve worked closely with Valve to optimize the experience. At the same time, we understand many players would like true, online co-op which is outside of our scope for now. Hopefully, in the future we can add this to the experience.

New to UnderMine 2, players now choose from two relics in every relic room, so in co-op each player decides which one they would like. Co-op partners split relics, blessings, and curses, and share resources like gold, keys, and bombs.

Just from watching the trailer, there are some really exciting developments that are brand new for UnderMine 2, which new features do you think players will have the most fun with?

Clint Tasker: Co-op is a big one, but there are many, many new features. One very important one is the addition of new playable characters. The peasant was the only character available in UnderMine. This time around they are joined by many other characters with their own abilities, upgrades, and items.

Another big addition are Arcana, which are relics that can be cast for mana (or other resources.) We struggled in UnderMine to make items that could always interact with melee and ranged attacks, but now we have two buttons we can use for all kinds of magic effects. Whether that’s firing a basic fireball or dropping meteors on bosses. New characters and Arcana opens up new design opportunities to make runs feel dramatically different from one another.

When developing UnderMine 2, what considerations did you take to make sure that the game would be a true sequel, rather than just a more fleshed out version of the first game?

Clint Tasker: There are a lot of things we were pleased with in the first game and we wanted to keep those intact, but at the same time we saw major opportunities for improvement and have not been shy about making major changes.

Adding big features like co-op, playable characters, and Arcana is one thing, but we have also overhauled how meta-progression works and added a lot of new content.

Fans of the first game will see a lot of familiar items and enemies, but many of them have been changed to work better in the new UnderMine 2 environment. We have built a whole new stats system that drives the scaling of most items. There is a lot more interaction between the items this time, and it is going to lead to a lot of surprise and delight, because if it sounds fun and broken, it is probably possible.

Which beloved characters and monsters from the first game will be returning for the sequel? Also, is it set in the same time/ place?

Clint Tasker: UnderMine 2 is set several years after the events of the first game, but beloved characters like Wayland, Camilla, and Beltrame return in addition to new characters. The location is still the UnderMine. Players will see new environments in addition to old favorites (which have been entirely overhauled visually).

Many enemies return as well, but they have new tricks and quirks and can also be charmed by the player. Every single enemy in the game can be turned friendly and they will fight for or buff the player.

Were there any items/ relics/ blessings that you’ve had to omit from the sequel due to balancing reasons? If so, can you tell us more about the specifics?

Clint Tasker: There are some items that won’t return because we didn’t think they were interesting enough. Some items that are returning mostly unchanged, and some items are returning with very different effects.

Some relics work better as Arcana such as Heavy Boots. You can now activate Heavy Boots to do a stomp attack, but there is some new functionality. Heavy Boots give the player an armor point and activating the stop shakes loose that armor point and drops an armor shard to replace it. This lets the player cycle through losing and gaining armor which powers all kinds of armor builds that rely on losing armor to activate their effects.

Will the gameplay be the same in single player vs co-op mode, or are there more enemies/ tougher enemies/ different relics etc for the latter?

Clint Tasker: Co-op is the same experience as single player. Players can drop in and out midrun and the game will dynamically scale itself based on how many players are present. The only difference is enemies are tougher in co-op because the overall power of two players is higher than one.

All of the items work in both co-op and single player, but there are some items that have additional benefits if there is another player. For example, some items affect “Allies” which will affect the other player and any followers they may have.

I liked the difficulty of the first game, I felt it was balanced just right, but I was wondering if there would be any difficulty options for the sequel so that players can make it easier/ harder for themselves?

Clint Tasker:  We have many plans to add additional difficulty to the end game, but in an interesting way. In UnderMine we had optional Hexes the player could apply that would alter the game to make it harder. We intend to bring Hexes back, but integrate them more officially into the end game to promote their use.

On the other side, we would like to introduce some accessibility features so players can experience the game even if they think it is too hard.

What’s your favourite new relic from UnderMine 2, and what are your favourite new combos?

Clint Tasker: We’ve actually seen so many new combos we didn’t expect, that my favorite combo will probably change tomorrow when I discover a new one.

My favorite right now is actually kind of bad, I’m not going to lie. But it’s really funny. It involves two items that existed in UnderMine: Magnetized Ore and Remote Detonator, and a new item: Fuel Injector.

Magnetized Ore now does what I initially wanted it to do which is draw things closer to your bombs using a physics gravity well. Remote Detonator is now an Arcana and is much more useful. The player can plant as many bombs as they like and activate them simultaneously with Remote Detonator. And finally, Fuel Injector lets you attack your own bombs in melee to make them larger and more powerful. 

When you put all these together you can build a swirling tornado of bombs and if you hit them enough will one-shot most bosses. It’s not as effective as it sounds, but it is as dumb.

You mentioned that UnderMine 2 will have mod support, can you elaborate on how you’re implementing that?

Derek Johnson: Users will be able to mod UnderMine 2 by installing Unity along with some custom tools and plugins we’ve developed in-house. We’re planning to ship these as a separate Steam application to make the setup process as simple as possible along with extensive documentation and examples to get modders up and running fast.

Included in this toolset is a powerful visual scripting system, meaning modders will be able to create elaborate enemy AI or item interactions without writing a line of code.

These tools are exactly the same tools we use to develop the game, so modders will be able to make anything we can make, from new relics, potions, enemies, and rooms, even bosses or playable characters if they’re feeling ambitious.

One thing that I love in games is when I can see various stats from across my runs. Will there be any kind of stat tracker in UnderMine 2, and if so, what’s included?

Clint Tasker: We are tracking a lot more stats in UnderMine 2, mostly to balance the game, so those are likely to get exposed to players at some point.

One thing I really enjoyed in the first game was finding particularly good seeds for my runs. Are there any easter eggs you’ll be including in the seed numbers for better runs in the sequel, or will it all be random? And if there are some extra good runs you’re putting in, can you give us any clues for discovering those seed numbers?

Derek Johnson: We can’t promise any seed-related easter eggs, but we have done a huge amount of work to make UnderMine 2 more “seed stable”. The randomizer is now far more accurate at generating the same layout and loot based on your seed. This should make competing against your friends in a seeded run much more fun!

I’m aware that the game is initially releasing in Early Access, how long do you envisage that it will be in Early Access before you release the full game? And when the full game is released, will it be coming to consoles at launch?

Clint Tasker: We have enormous ambition for UnderMine 2. The Early Acess release of UnderMine 2 will rival the scale of UnderMine but that’s only the beginning. We want to add a lot to it, so it will probably be in Early Acess for a while.

We have nothing to share about consoles at this time, but we like making our games available to as many people as possible.

I first discovered UnderMine through Xbox Game Pass. Are there any plans to get UnderMine 2 on the service once it’s released?

Clint Tasker: Again, nothing to share at this time, but we did have a positive experience with Game Pass and UnderMine.

I was wondering which games inspired you the most when developing UnderMine, and which have brought you the most enjoyment?

Clint Tasker: We take inspiration from a lot of games, old and new. There are contemporaries that we respect a lot like The Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, and Hades. We look to the past a lot, too. Pilfers were inspired by Dragon Quest’s slimes, the hub building was inspired by Soul Blazer, and 2D Zeldas loom large in everything we do. In a lot of ways I consider UnderMine a repeatable Zelda dungeon crawler.

The roguelite genre is one of my favourites, what are your favourite aspects of creating a roguelite game? Which facets of the genre would you like to see more of in other games? How do you envisage the future of roguelites?

Clint Tasker: I think we like working in the roguelike format because of its sandbox elements. We’re mechanics and systems-driven and in a lot of ways these games live and die through their interaction of those things. We learned a lot on UnderMine, and are really upping the ante with how things interact this time around. We can also apply strategies that exist in other genres we enjoy like autobattlers and deck builders. You would be surprised how relevant games like Hearthstone Battlegrounds and Balatro can be to an action-adventure roguelike.

I don’t have much to say about the future of the genre. I think developers are doing some very creative and exciting things in the genre. In a lot of ways we are discovering what games used to be through these modern takes. I think there is still a ton of potential and I’m sure we’ll continue seeing new takes.

Finally, I know a lot of players (myself included) are fascinated by the development process. Are there any ideas that you had early on that you had to drop, and if so, what were they, and why did you have to drop them? Also, can you share any early concept art from the sequel?

Clint Tasker: Shockingly, the plan for UnderMine 2 has changed very little since pre-production. We had a very concrete plan on how to improve the game based on player feedback and have stuck very close to it. We’re a little behind on content creation, but that’s only because our ambition is sky high.

Conclusion

What an incredible interview! I love getting to conduct interviews with game developers, as you learn so much about the process. Reading all of that has just made me even more excited for the game, and I can’t wait to play it when it releases (although I may have to wait a while to see if/ when it releases on Xbox). Once again, a huge thank you to Thorium Entertainment for providing these amazing answers. The concept art pieces have been included throughout the article, as well as official images from their press kit.

Have you played UnderMine? Which are your favourite roguelites? Join the discussion over in our Facebook community, or tweet us on Twitter!