CastleMiner Z

CastleMiner Z, defined as an Action & Adventure game and developed by Digital DNA, was released on November 9, 2011 on the Microsoft Indie Marketplaceand currently sits at the #1 Indie Game on the entire marketplace with more than 1,000,000 downloads and 34,711 ratings, with an average rating of 5 stars[1]. Both the trial and full game are avaliable on the CastleMiner Z Xbox page for 80 [2] ($1 USD) (although the trial is free) and have a download size of 31.31 MB. It is the successor to another hit indie game (also developed by DigitalDNA) CastleMiner.

Rating

Because of the large amount of Indie games, the ESRB does not rate them individually. Instead, they are based on user ratings. CastleMiner Z has been rated as such:

• 2/3 - Violence
• 0/3 - Sex
• 2/3 - Mature Content

Features

• 1 Player Offline
• Dolby Digital

Gamemodes

• Survival- Simple Survival, the undead and dragons try to attack you, you try to survive
• Endurance- Your goal is to survive while trying to make it to a certain distance away from your spawn
• Dragon Endrurance- Like Endurance except the only enemies are dragons (must be unlocked by killing the undead dragon in endurance)
• Creative- Infinite blocks with or without enemies (must be unlocked by promo code)

Online Features

• 2-8 Player Online Cooperative Multiplayer

Xbox Live Indie Game Description

The Xbox Live page describes it by saying:

[3] Travel with your Avatar with your friends in a huge spanning and ever-changing world while defending yourself from the zombie horde. Mine the world for resources, to craft the weapons that you will need to survive. Find out why CastleMiner Z was picked as the best of 2011. [4]

Facebook

• CastleMiner Z
• DigitalDNA Games

YouTube Channel

• CastleMiner Z

Twitter

• CastleMiner Z
• DigitalDNA Games

Version History

Version	Date of Addition	Additions Summary
v1.5.2	December 3, 2012	Technical Changes Performance improvements
v1.5.1	November 17, 2012	Bug Fixes Fixed issues relating to low frame rates.
v1.5	November 8, 2012	Additions Added Metor crash biome, they start appearing randomly after about distance 300. Added new blocks Space Rock and Space Goo, used to make Sci-Fi tools and weapons Added new “Alien” Enemy which will defend Space Goo. Added new Laser weapons, laser weapons remove some blocks when shoot. Added explosives TNT,C4 can be set off by hitting or pressing B, also shooting. Added grenades, grenades can be ”cooked” by holding right trigger. Added RPG Launcher. Added Dragon killing AA rocket which locks on dragons. Added “Explosive Powder” needed to make explosive items, dropped by dragons. Dragons are now MUCH harder to kill Demons are much harder to kill and will now start to spawn above ground, if you have been to hell. Technical Changes Completely reworked Sound Engine, sounds are now more realistic outdoors and in caves. Changed Spark Effect Bug Fixes Reduced Memory Load to prevent Out of Memory errors and allow for new content.
v1.4.5	August 2, 2012	Additions Max players has been increased from 4 to 8. Framerate has been nearly doubled. Load times have been cut in half. Added some detailed descriptions to the menus. Added a code for Avatar Laser Wars 2, CMZ users will get a full weapon unlock in Avatar Laser Wars 2. Bug Fixes Fixed the "Out Of Memory" bug (supposedly). Fixed the problem with invisible Avatars. "Bind Pose" bug has been fixed.
v1.44	Needs reference	Additions Weapon zoom increased slightly (except for pistol and shotgun). Erase and Optimize Storage feature added. CastleMiner Z price reduced from 240 MS points to 80 MS points.
v1.4.1	Needs reference	Additions Promo codes reset (replaced with new ones). Bug Fixes Fixed Join Session errors for Creative game modes.
v1.4	Needs reference	Additions Demon Teleporter and Locator Smoother transition between items in inventory. Music added for each biome. Creative Mode (requires promo code from original CastleMiner). Assault Rifle promo code replaced with Creative Mode promo code (users who already used their assault rifle promo code will still have it). New Bugs ​Join Session errors for Creative game mode.
v1.3	January 5, 2012	Additions Dragon Endurance New Bugs The game is prone to corrupting save files. Corrupted save files will likely cause the world to either not load properly or to load and update extremely slowly.
v1.2.1	December 20, 2011	Additions Doors Shotgun now has a more condensed spread. Balanced knives. Made them slower and less durable. Removed crosshairs on shouldered weapons. Removed building indicator when not applicable For example, when too close to a block to build on it, the yellow glow will disappear. Decreased mining particles. More Skeletons underground. Bug Fixes Fixed duplicating bugs. Fixed crash when bringing up an empty inventory. Fixed "nullReference" crash when attempting to join a network game. Fixed incorrect dragon kill messages. New Bugs There are no new bugs as of this update.
v1.2	December 15, 2011	Additions Dragons Ores have been slightly distributed. Zombie drops are more generous. Added difficulty setting for Survival. Bug Fixes Torch bug fixed. Fixed many "Out of Memory" crash. Fixed bug when splitting items in a crate. Fixed bug when zooming in with weapons.
v1.1	November 17, 2011	Additions Crates as a usable storage item. Can use the [5] to "activate" and "deactivate" items. Monsters now have visible shadows that obey both scale and direction. You can now split stacks by pressing in on the [6]. With an odd stack, you will always get the smaller half. Player inventory now saves in multiplayer as well as singleplayer. Transition music and day counter now appears in all game modes. Decreased drop rates on Zombies Zombies now drop wood. Awards are only counted when achieved in Endurance mode. Joining another's game who is playing on a different version is now disabled. Day counter resets whenever your entire party dies in Endurance. Improved render performance. Improved monster lighting and detail. Hell is much harder than previous versions. Bug Fixes Compasses now operate correctly in others' hands. Snow and Ice can now be mined. Survival is now difficult again. Iron is less common than v1.01, but still more than v1.0. The coding for redeeming the Assault Rifle now works correctly. The invincible gray Zombies can now be killed. Removed purple flash when game starts up. Item duplicating bug fixed. Pickaxe sounds can no longer be heard from any distance. New Bugs When splitting items in a crate, game could crash, auto-heal, and some items could be lost. Odd behavior when zooming in with [weapons.
v1.01	November 10, 2011	Additions On-screen damage indicator Inventory now saves in both Survival and Free Build. When pressing the [7] to bring up the menu in singleplayer, the game will now pause. Lightning only lights up the sky instead of the whole screen. Now, both the [8] and [9] can be used to place blocks. Crafting list now shows all recipes, even if multiple steps are required. Clicking on a component takes you to the recipe to make it. Pick-ups now stay around longer. Added awards screen where you can check the status of your awards. Changed weapons] and knives' damage values. Made all weapons stronger. Lower memory use to improve performance and fix "Out of Memory" crash. Copper, iron, and gold ores slightly more common. Bug Fixes Torches show up when you reload a world. Blocks won't be placed unless a block is highlighted. Iron Pickaxes will now give diamonds when mining diamond ore. Fixed bug where some items could not be seen in the crafting list. Removed "No Fall Mode" to prevent being stuck while running from Zombies. Fixed bug where walls could not be mined with gold pickaxes. Fixed bug where you could repair an item by giving it to another player in multiplayer. No Zombies will spawn in Free Build. Fixed bug where different tiered guns did not appear different. New Bugs Survival is significantly easier. No zombies will spawn during the day. Assault Rifle code was mixed up with ammo coding. This caused players who entered the code to spawn with an excess of ammunition, instead of an Assault Rifle.
v1.01	November 3, 2011	CastleMiner Z is first released in the Xbox 360 Indie Marketplace for 240[10] or $3.00 (USD).