There are a lot of things I love about sandbox games. Terraria gives you gear progression and big milestone boss fights. Astroneer invites you to explore space in search of that precious resource you’re missing. Minecraft is a playground for creativity. But A Game About Digging A Hole boils the genre down to the part I truly love most – carving my way through acres of land. It’s soothing, satisfying, and simple. Built by one developer in their spare time, the new indie game is already proving a winner on Steam.
A Game About Digging A Hole tells you exactly what it’s about, and it doesn’t mess around. You start out in your back garden, shovel in hand. You dig. At first, a glimpse of dirt. Then, a hole starts to form. It begs the question: how deep could you go? This is the true essence, the beating heart, of the best sandbox games. Coming in at just $5, this is a budget-friendly way to satisfy your digging desires.
Of course, there’s a little more to discover. Perhaps you’ll stumble across some valuable resources, or even a cash stash long buried underground. That gives you the ability to improve your equipment – more slots for your inventory, a lamp to better see what you’re doing as you dig deeper, an increasingly stronger jet pack to get you back out of the hole you’ve dug yourself into.
Your shovel becomes a drill, and you start to make serious progress. Now it feels like that real Astroneer brand of terraforming, shaping the very earth to your whim. If that’s not enough, perhaps you’ll even splash out on some dynamite to really speed things along. Who knows what you’ll find if you keep going? There’s only one way to find out.
Made by Ben, the artist behind Cyberwave’s upcoming survival game Solarpunk, during a two-week vacation, A Game About Digging A Hole has already reached a concurrent Steam player count of more than 4,600 active users – quite the impressive feat for something of its scale. As it closes in on 1,000 user reviews, 91% of them are positive. “We’ve been amazed by how well the game is being received,” Cyberwave says, “Memes, clips, and comments show: you love digging holes.”
A Game About Digging A Hole is out now on Steam, priced at $4.99 / £4.29. You can take a closer look at it right here if the ground calls out to you.
Are you more of a fan of going up? The best building games are where you’ll want to be. For plenty more hidden gems you might have missed, browse our picks of the best indie games on PC in 2025.
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